The Right to be Wrong Part 4 “I Didn’t Know” Traditional Service Livestream

There was a point early on in my ministry when I was struggling with an issue in the congregation and sought the guidance of an older clergy mentor. I confessed to him I didn’t know what to do. He looked at me, smiled and said, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

Turns out he was right of course.

Jesus encounters a legal expert who is convinced he has all the answers. He decides to test Jesus. At first, he aces all the questions Jesus throws at him. He knows the scriptures backwards and forwards. He nails the right answer, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Even Jesus agrees. He should have left it there. But feeling emboldened, he asks Jesus one more question. “And who is my neighbor?” To which Jesus responds by telling a story about a Good Samaritan and turns his whole world upside down. By the end of the story, the Lawyer is confronted with the truth, “He just didn’t know.”

I DIDN’T KNOW

Truth is there’s a lot we don’t know. We think we do, but we don’t.

Here is a list of things most of us were taught to be true. Turns out they’re not.

•It’s not actually harmful to pick up baby birds and return them to their nests, and it will not cause their mother to reject them.

•People think penguins’ mate for life. They don’t.

•It’s not true that people only use 10% of their brains.

•Swimming within an hour of eating doesn’t lead to cramps or drowning.

•It doesn’t take seven years to digest gum. You can’t digest it at all.

•Bats are not blind.

•Sunflowers don’t track the sun across the sky.

•Chameleons don’t change their color to blend in with their surroundings.

•Carrots don’t improve your vision.

•Toads don’t give you warts.

•Toilets don’t flush in different directions in different hemispheres.

•Cracking knuckles does not causes arthritis.

Jesus encountered a man who thought he knew who his neighbor was. He was wrong. The truth is neither do we.

The hardest words to say are “I didn’t know. I was wrong.”

According to Jesus, that’s also the moment we change