Do You Ever Feel Clueless?

Do you ever feel clueless? There are certainly times that I do. For example: I am clueless doing math that goes beyond simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division (I’m doing well helping with fourth grade math but I fear for Julia’s future); I am clueless about how cars work (I put gas in and they go); I am clueless as to why anyone would want to run a marathon (I’m proud of you Dave, but why do you take such pleasure in running?).

I am also clueless about more important things in life: Why are some people able to have children and others are not? Why do some people get cancer and others don’t? Why is there so much hatred and violence in the world?

I am a pastor and some people think I should know all the answers to questions like these, but I stand in good company when it comes to cluelessness. Jesus’ disciples, his followers that he chose, were clueless and they spent years traveling with Jesus and sitting at his feet listening to his lessons. They didn’t truly understand who he was and why he had to die. They argued about who was the greatest among them. They couldn’t believe it was really him after the resurrection. And the religious leaders of the day were clueless as well. The Pharisees and Sadducees (the Jewish religious leaders) could not see Jesus as the Messiah because he didn’t do things the right way. He didn’t hang out with the right people. He didn’t follow the laws like he was supposed to (healing people on the Sabbath? Unheard of!). He didn’t look like or act like the ‘King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.’ He was homeless. He came from a poor family. He didn’t own anything. He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and not a magnificent stallion. And he died a death meant for the lowliest of the low.

The scriptures tell us that Jesus will come again. Will we be as clueless the second time around? Will we recognize him as the Messiah or will we be too caught up in our own standards of living?

This is why it is so important to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In the hymn “Open My Eyes, That I May See” we sing, ‘Open my eyes, that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me; place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free, silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see. Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine.’

We need the Holy Spirit to help open our eyes to our cluelessness, to help us see the work of God before us. When John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, went to a church meeting one evening with the attitude of ‘great, one more church meeting’, the Holy Spirit opened his eyes to God. As Will Willimon writes in This We Believe, “The Holy Spirit refused to let John Wesley’s sincere but often priggish and soulless piety get in the way of God’s making a way to John Wesley that evening at Aldersgate Street. Wesley thought he was going to a church meeting, only to be blindsided by an unexpected meeting with God. Let this be a lesson to you: If you are going to be in relationship with a living God, then don’t be surprised that often you will be surprised.”

Holy Spirit, meet us in our cluelessness, and open our eyes to God.