One way to reframe our thinking about hope (and everything else we’re not sure we believe in anymore) is to focus more on asking better questions and less on finding the “right” answers. While questions themselves offer less security and control than answers, questions are also more powerful than answers, and more compelling.

In the gospels, Jesus is asked 183 questions. In all but four cases, he replies either with another question, a story, or an “answer” that’s a paradox. Not only that, but Jesus himself asks 307 questions throughout the gospels. So he is far more often found with the questions than found answering them. Why might this be? I can think of a few possible reasons…

If I could boil down my desire for our churches and communities into one word, I think it would be solidarity. Sometimes God teaches us how to build solidarity with one another by following his call for solidarity with the “other” - the wounded, oppressed, marginalized, widow, orphan, and even enemy. In the end, as we embark on a spiritual journey of solidarity with our neighbor, we will also find deeper solidarity with God, because we’re joining him in the work he’s already about and agreeing to meet him where he calls us.