April 8, 2018
In my final
year of seminary in Richmond, VA, I shared an apartment with my sister. One day
we had a knock at the door; a Jehovah’s Witness stopped by. I asked him in. We exchanged pleasantries. It was a nice talk until the conversation
took a turn. I told him about some
spiritual struggles I was having. He was
ready to pounce and fill my questioning mind with his version of truth, but I
wouldn't have it. I wanted to talk about
the mystery of God. I wanted to raise
difficult questions about God that no one can answer. He wouldn't even accept that there is a
mystery. He wanted to have all of the
answers. I said, "No one has all
the answers." He got agitated. He said, "Why does there have to be a
mystery about God?" We were unable
to resolve our differences.
Are we
threatened by mystery, especially mysteries of God? Does mystery or pain or suffering fill us
with uncomfortable doubt? Does doubt
lead to a loss of faith? Can people of
real faith have doubts?
Richard
Donovan was a student at a Bible college when he felt doubts about God creep
into his mind.[i] He thought his classmates looked confident
and assured in their Christianity. The
professors were so bold in talking about missions and complimentary as they
described the faith of the young students.
Donovan didn't feel comfortable in that
environment saying, "Hey, wait a minute!
I am not so sure about all of this.
I have some questions. I have
some doubts." He felt pressure to
be as positive about his relationship with God as his classmates were. So he put on a mask and acted like he
was secure in his faith. Later on he
wondered if all of his classmates had the same doubts he had but they too were
acting. Maybe, like him, they were
afraid to voice their doubts? Maybe they
were afraid of what it might mean?
The doubts
didn't go away when he went to seminary.
They increased. Questions about
the reality of God tormented him. He
made an appointment with the dean to tell him of his plan to drop out of
seminary. He said, "I can't preach
things I don't believe." The dean
said, "Go ahead. Drop out." He wasn’t mean about it. He simply told Richard to go out and
seek. If God led him back, the seminary
would accept him with open arms.
God did lead him back. He graduated, was ordained, served a full
career as an army chaplain and then as a pastor.
What if the seminary dean had jumped
down his throat? "What do you mean
you have doubts? If you doubt the Lord,
then you're not fit to be a minister.
Leave and never come back." What
then?
What does God do when we doubt?
From
1988-1998 one of the most popular tv sitcoms was Murphy Brown, a show about news reporters. In one episode, they were talking
about God and church. Murphy knew Frank,
her colleague of many years, a polished, hardened, veteran news anchor went to
church with his wife every Sunday. She
didn't understand why? She was
legitimately trying to figure the whole 'God-thing' out, so she quizzed Frank. "Why do you go to church?" "Murphy, we just go. We do it every week." She stayed on him and pecked at him until he
admitted, "Murphy, I don't know. I
don't even believe in God. I don't
believe at all. I just go to church to
feel better about myself, and it works." He looked very defeated when he
said it because he and Murphy were both struck by his own hypocrisy. He spoke the language of faith, but there was
no faith in his heart. He didn't have
doubts, he had unbelief.
The show did
not concoct a false narrative. In real
life, every Sunday in Churches around our country people play the part of being
a good Christian, but, in their hearts, they aren't truly dealing with God or wrestling
with the deep truths of the faith. They
just make sure they have a nice clothes, bring a great casserole for the pot
luck, and put their money in the plate. They've
gotten their religious fix for the week.
They can go on with their lives.
They completely miss out on the dynamic
relationship believers have with God in Jesus Christ.
The people
around Jesus were constantly confronted with the realities of God, discovering God
in new ways with each new thing Jesus did.
In the stories he told, the wisdom he shared, the miracles he worked and
the way he loved, he revealed God to them.
The most incredible sign was the resurrection. Each disciple had to figure out how to cope
the notion that Jesus, whom they followed and whom they saw die, had
risen. This man they loved but did not
understand truly was God.
The
different reactions to Jesus before and after the crucifixion and resurrection earned
the disciples nicknames. Jesus called John
and his brother James the "sons of Thunder." There were two Simons. One of them was called the Zealot because he
was a part of a militant political party.
The other Simon was renamed by Jesus.
Jesus called him Cephas which in Greek is translated Petra and means
rock. Simon Peter - Simon the rock. These nicknames, given by Jesus or by the Gospel
writers, have stuck. And the one that rolls off the tongue more easily than any
of the others, and is Doubting Thomas.
How would
you like to go through time remembered for a moment when you failed to believe? Following John's Gospel, we go with Mary
Magdalene to the tomb a couple of days after Jesus was crucified. There she discovers that it is empty. Just outside the tomb, she back bumps into a
man she believes is the gardener until he says her name. When he says, "Mary!" she
recognizes him.
Later Jesus appears to the disciples,
but Thomas is not with them. Jesus
appears, shows his nail-scarred hands, and his pierced side. Then Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on
them. Thomas misses all of this.
He gave up
his life as a Galilean fisherman to follow Jesus. He gave up everything. He was there when Jesus gave the 12 the power
to drive demons and do miracle healings.
He received that power. When
Lazarus died and everyone was weeping and mourning, it was Thomas the twin who
said, "Let us go that we may die with him." Thomas was not an anonymous disciple that
just faded into the background. He
thought about things. He listened to
what Jesus said. He was ready to throw
away life itself. He imagined Lazarus
experiencing resurrection. He believed
in Jesus and thought it was time to go and join Lazarus in death because he
believed what Jesus said.
That wasn't
the plan, and it's possible that when they didn't join Lazarus in death, questions
began to creep into Thomas’ mind. He
still followed Jesus. He hung in there
until the end. But, prior to seeing the
risen Lord, confusion rose in his mind.
One of Jesus’ most famous quotes from
the Last Supper is "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me." He said this in response to a
question asked by Thomas. Jesus said,
"I am going to prepare a place for you." Thomas said, "Lord, we do not know where
you are going. How can we know the
way?" And Jesus says, "I am
the way."
After that
meal, Thomas saw his Lord dragged off in chains. In that moment, the faith of Thomas
failed. He ran off, and he was even
absent on the Sunday, two days afterward.
The rest of the disciples, except for Judas, met the resurrected Jesus
and were transformed. So, they got
together again after that, and this time, they made sure that Thomas was with
them.
Have you had
that experience where someone tells a joke, everyone laughs, and you’re the
only one who doesn’t get it?
The disciples
and Mary and Mary Magdalene were abuzz with excitement Thomas had never seen
before. In jubilation that kept saying,
"He's alive! He's alive!" Thomas was still stuck on that Friday, the
image of Jesus on the cross fixed on his mind.
He was as depressed and sad as they were happy, and he stubbornly
refused to believe their joy.
"Show me!" Thomas
demanded. "I've followed Jesus,
given up my own life to be his disciple, and I watched him die. I saw that.
That was real! Now you want me to
accept that he's alive just because you say so?"
He was
doubting Thomas. The mystery was too
much. He needed something he could see and
touch. He said, "Unless I put
my finger in the nail holes, I will not believe."
A week goes by. Everyone is hopping around happy. Thomas just wants to slap every one of
them. He wants them to wake up and
realize it's over. So, after a week,
they're all together again, and this time, Thomas is there. He's hurt, angry and disillusioned, but he
shows up. And the risen Lord shows
up.
Jesus says to
them "Peace be with you." I
imagine Thomas standing there trembling.
He felt strong in his anger a week ago.
He makes a declaration in the face of all of the others. "I won't believe until I can touch the
holes in His hands." He was logical
and defiant. No one could change his
mind. But now before Jesus, that
boldness, defiance, and strength was gone.
Jesus offered to take Thomas up on his claim. He offered his hands and invited Thomas to
touch so that Thomas would stop doubting.
Jesus had big plans for Thomas and he needed to get past this doubting.
Thomas did
not need to touch the nail-scarred hands. Being in the Lord's presence was all
he needed. Thomas made the proclamation
about Jesus that we all need to make. He
said to Jesus, "My Lord and My God."
A second time, Thomas gave himself to Jesus completely.
A
post-Biblical tradition reports that Thomas eventually traveled east - all the
way to India. There he preached the good
news about Jesus Christ and led many people to salvation. We remember him as Doubting Thomas because he
had a moment when his faith wavered.
But, he was a man Jesus strengthened.
He was man Jesus called to build the early church. He was seated on one of the 24 thrones we
read about in the book of Revelation.
Jesus asked Thomas. "Have you believed because you have seen
me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to
believe." It was a little beatitude
that he shared with Thomas and the others.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. Thomas would go on to meet a lot of
people. He had the assignment of telling
them about Jesus, and he knew they wouldn't see Jesus in the flesh as he had. Yet, he would try to tell of Jesus' love and
salvation, and he would state his belief that Jesus was present in the form of
the Holy Spirit.
We carry on
the work of Thomas today. We are a room
full of people who haven't laid eyes on the physical form of the risen
Christ. I have not seen His nail-scarred
hands. I have not physically embraced
Him. I don't believe others who here
have seen Jesus either. When we say that
Jesus is our Savior and Lord and Master and Friend and God, we are speaking in
Faith.
We are speaking of a great mystery. Sometimes doubt creeps in. But, Jesus doesn't send us away. He says, look at me. In prayer, in worship, in the Bible, and in
the deepest pars of ourselves, we look to Jesus.
Doubt born
of scrutiny and critical thought is not a sin.
Numerous things can raise doubts in us.
If you have doubts about God or questions about God or questions for
God, seek Him. In prayer, in
conversation, in worship, in research – seek Him with great intensity. Don’t give up on God.
When you come to church, don’t come as a
matter of course, out of habit, or as cultural expression. Come to church looking for God. Even if you don't believe in Him, look for
Him. Open your mind and honestly seek
Him.
Beware.
God doesn't play around. If you
are serious about getting to know Him, he'll enter your heart and rock your
world. He'll call you to new places and
He'll make you a new person in your old places.
The people around you will have to deal with the new you, like it or
not. Faith is real and it is not
something that just comes up from 11-12 on Sunday. Faith affects every area of life. Thomas knew this. He knew what was at stake. That's why he didn't just believe because his
friends, the other disciples, told him to believe. He made up his own mind. And when he was face to face with the risen
Lord, nothing could stop him from believing and loving God.
In this
place and time, we won't come face to face with the risen Lord, I don't
think. But He is here. His Holy Spirit is here. He lives in the hearts of the people of faith
who are here. His word is before us. We sing songs of worship to Him and He hears
them. Yes, Jesus is here today.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to
believe.
Do you believe? Will move from
questions and doubt into life-changing faith today?
AMEN
[i]
Richard Niell Donovan’s bio is listed here - https://www.sermonwriter.com/richard-niell-donovan/;
I have an article I have photocopied from 1996 (July-August), I don’t know the
magazine.
No comments:
Post a Comment