If you have ever come into contact with children, you will quickly realize the amount of questions one little brain can process.   My dad was pretty good at putting up with the endless stream of information my little mind required during movies.  And that seems to be the time when my children ask the most questions; during a movie.  It gets to the point sometimes when you just have to hit pause to answer all the questions – or tell them to be quiet.  Dave Matthews has a song written from the perspective of a child.  The questions and comments of this child are hard, deep and searching.  And many times kids do come out with these questions.  Here are the words to the song.  It’s called “Mother Father”.

Mother, father please explain to me Why a world so full of mystery

A place so bitter and still so sweet So beautiful and yet so full of sad, sad…

Mother, father please explain to me Why forests march to desert speed

While snow-capped mountains melt away

What do we tell our babies, when do we say, oh

Mother, father please explain to me How a man who rocks his child to sleep

Pulls the trigger on his brother’s heart

He digs a hole right to the middle of this storm of hatred

Mother, father please explain to me How it could be so this world has come to be

A precious balance in between Such cruelty and such kindness please

Mother, father please explain to me How this world has come to be

Unequalled in her blessings, oh, I see Unbridled hatred so extreme, please tell me

Mother, father please explain to me How this world has come to be so

Twisted between time and dreams

Oh, mother, father please explain to me

Oh, what’s all this talk about? All this talk about it

Spinning down, down, down, down, down

All this talk about Endless words without Nothing’s done

Mother, father do you know Why one man’s belly overflows

Another sleeps in hungers bed Oh, we trade our world for a piece of bread

Oh Mother, father please explain to me How this rare world’s come to be

A place so full of color yet overflowing Always in black and white

Drowning in the waters of our…

Mother, father please explain to me How this world has come to be

While still blessed in all the things we see

Such a sad, sad home for you and me

Come out, and hold, Come on out you

Come on out you Come and save yourself

Come on out you Come on we’re taking the water

We’re taken the water We’re taken the water

But you know We got the freedom We got the freedom

There’s no God above And no hell below

Oh, it’s here with us It’s up to us To keep afloat

How this sweet world has come to be to keep afloat

Mother, father please explain to me How this rare world has come to be

Oh, let the blue planet Let the blue planet

Mother, father please explain to me

Mother, father please explain

Many of the questions do not warrant a pad answer.  Many of these questions actually require a lifelong discussion.  The “why” questions are the hardest, eh dads?

It was the same 2000 years ago in Israel.  When the New Testament happened and was written Israel had been under persecution and dominance for centuries.  They lived in a time when Rome dictated how to live, how to practice religion and more specifically, how to and who to pray to.  But before we go there the issue of state/prayer goes way back.  Way back.

Hundreds of years, before the times of Jesus, Israel was a nation called by God to bring the story of reconciliation to the world.  The deal went something like this:  God and Israel were a team to make this world better.  If Israel broke the covenant other countries would remind Israel of their fault.  Well, Israel forgot the promise and a nation named Babylon came to remind them.  And remind them they did.  They destroyed Israel’s main place of worship.  Killed half of the population.  Took half of that half back to Babylon, while the others remained in a broken and desolate place.

When the group arrived in Babylon, a man named Jeremiah stood up and said “This is not how things are suppose to be – we forgot the promise.  But don’t just sit around here in Babylon and do nothing – make home’s, plant gardens and pray for the Babylonian leadership.  Pray that they will be successful, fruitful and peaceful”.

Many people did not agree with him.  He believed this is what God wanted.  Jeremiah’s answer to the tough time’s they were going through was to pray.  Pray for blessings upon their oppressors.

Let’s move forward a little in time.

The more the kingdoms that overtook Israel, the more those kingdoms wanted prayer by Israel on their behalf.

Then Rome.  Rome was the “Babylon” of Jesus’ day.  Roman leadership said that “Caesar was Lord and you pray to him.”   But Israel was passionate about monotheism, about praying to the one true God and Rome was passionate about Pax Romana – Roman Peace.  Israel had such a big population in the Roman Empire that Rome allowed them to pray to their own god in order to keep peace, but it had to be on behalf of the King.  This became an issue in the first churches.  The questions, the “why’s” of Rome became something the church had to come to terms with. These churches contained many “non-Jews” whose former religion was based on emperor worship.  Do they need to pray like the Jews?  Should they pray for an authority that thinks they are deity?  Should they pray for strength to start a rebellion?  Why?  Why?  Why?  In the spirit of Jeremiah Paul writes to Timothy the following words:

1 Timothy 2 ¹I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— ²for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ³This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, ⁴who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time. ⁷And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.

Let’s paraphrase this to get the full impact.  “Rome is not really our rulers.  Jesus is.  King Jesus.  But let’s pray for Rome.  Things are not right.   King Jesus even died for Rome.  We are not zealots – let’s not rebel (remember Jeremiah), we are not Pharisees, or Sadducees and we are not the Essenes (let’s not hide), but let’s live in peace in this turmoil, but first, let’s start with prayer.”

Paul does not answer the questions of “why?”  He gives no pad answer at all.  But what he does is admit the way things are and get’s the conversation going by including God in it.  Pray.

We all can plainly see that this world is still not right.  Kids are still asking big questions about the way things are.  Dads, start with prayer.