Andrea Steinkamp: "Questions of Faith" (Sermon for November 9, 2025)

"Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question…" - Luke 20:27-28

Friends,

Long before I was a pastor, I had a job that involved working alongside lawyers as they navigated lawsuits and prepared for depositions and trials. My role often involved drafting examination questions about the financial issues of the case, based on the reams and reams of documents we had reviewed and analyzed.

There was a very important rule when drafting these questions: never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to. It was a way of controlling the narrative and protecting our client from surprises that might hurt their case.

In this week’s gospel reading from Luke, Jesus is approached by a group of Sadducees who do just that. They ask him a question they’re sure they already know the answer to - a question they’re certain will expose the absurdity of his beliefs and humiliate him in front of the crowd.

But by the end of the interaction, after Jesus flips the script, as he so often does, pointing his audience not to the ways and understandings of the world, but rather to the mysteries of God, it is not Jesus’ beliefs that end up sounding absurd, but rather the question laid before him.

This week’s text has me wondering - what are the things I think I know that might be getting in the way of my faith? What are the things I think I know that are pointing me to despair, rather than hope, to animosity, rather than love? And what are the questions I’m afraid to ask - because I sense the answers might call me to release the illusions of control that bring such false comfort?

Will you come and wonder with me this Sunday?

With hope,
Pastor Andrea