When God asks a question, how do I answer?

The Gospel reading today comes from Luke 20:1-8.  Some bystanders asked Jesus where he got the authority to do the things he was doing.  Jesus replied by asking them a question: where did John get his authority to baptize? His listeners were unable to answer, but not because they lacked the resources to figure out the answer.  They could not reply because they could not figure out a response that would avoid diminishing their stature in the community.  If they said, God gave John that authority, then everyone would ask, why didn't you follow him? But if they said, John had no authority, then the community would hate them, even stone them.

Jesus asks us a question, perhaps several questions, every day. Do we answer honestly?

We may try to answer in a way that shows those around us how much devotion we have.  But the Old Testament reading for today, Isa. 1:10-20, shows what God thinks of those answers. There, the prophet tells us that God was sick of fancy rituals, slavishly followed. He wanted worship in the form of seeking after justice and resisting oppression, helping widows and defending the fatherless.

The New Testatment reading for today, 1 Thess. 1:1-10, teaches us that the Holy Spirit wants us to answer the questions that God puts to us by acting with conviction.  We are to turn from idols, away from our conceits and our desire for esteem, and toward God, whose coming we anticipate in Advent.