Doubting Thomas???

Sermon

April 15, 2012

Lynne Coates

(Lay preacher at Emmanuel)

Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 133; 1 John 1:1-2:2

In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.

As you probably know by now, I like to start my sermons with a story.

Here’s a little story about faith and the lack of it. You may have heard it before.

A very critical, negative barber never had a good thing to say about anyone or anything. A salesman came into his shop one day and told him he was going on a business trip to Rome and needed a haircut. While he was cutting the salesman’s hair, the barber asked, “What airline will you be taking and what hotel will you be staying at?”  When the salesman told him the barber criticized the airline for being undependable and the hotel for having horrible service.  “You’d be better off to stay at home,” he advised.  “But I expect to close a really big business deal and then I’m going to see the Pope.”  The barber continued, “Don’t count on seeing the Pope. He only sees important people.”  Several weeks later the salesman returned and stopped by the barber shop. “How was your trip?” asked the barber.  “It was wonderful,” the salesman said. “The airline was great, the hotel was excellent.”  “Did you see the Pope? What happened?”  The salesman said, “Oh yes! I even bent down and kissed his ring.” “No kidding. What did he say?” asked the barber?  “Well, he placed his hand on my head and said to me, “My son, where did you ever get such a lousy haircut?”

More power to someone who refuses to be discouraged from attempting something new and exciting. Faith is a couple of things, I think: It’s believing in the future. Faith is also being willing to try something as if failure is impossible. So, I ask you this question: What would you attempt to do, if you knew you could not fail?

Some may think that Thomas, in today’s gospel, was not grounded in faith, but I always thought that Thomas got a bad rap: If I were to say the names of disciples and ask you to write down the first word that comes to mind, it is unlikely you would come up with the same words. For example, if I were to mention the name of Matthew, many of you would write down the words “tax collector” but not all of you.  If I were to mention Simon Peter, some of you would write down the word "faith," but not all of you. You might say that he was stubborn and fearful at times. If I were to mention the names of James and John, some of you might write down the phrase "Sons of Thunder," but probably not all of you. But when I mention the name Thomas, there is little question about the word you would write down. It would be the word ‘doubt.’ Indeed, so closely have we associated Thomas with this word, that we have developed a phrase for someone who is always skeptical: “Doubting Thomas.”

You may be interested to know that in the first three gospels we are told absolutely nothing about Thomas beyond his name as a disciple. It is in John’s Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, and it is in John, the 11^th chapter, when he tells the other disciples that they should all go to Jerusalem with Jesus. This was a gutsy thing to say because, when Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem, the disciples thought that it would be certain death for him. Surprising that Thomas said: “Then let us go so that we may die with him.” Not the statement of a doubter or someone faint of heart. Yet we don’t remember him for that statement.

We may also fail to see that in the story today of Thomas’ doubt we have a significant statement in the gospels where the divinity of Christ is directly and unequivocally stated. When Thomas realizes that he is indeed in the presence of his Jesus, we hear his confession, “My Lord, and my God.” Not teacher. Not master. Not even Messiah. But God! It is one place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction as if Thomas is simply recognizing a fact. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words we associate with a doubter.

It is true that, after the crucifixion, Thomas has somehow separated himself from the other disciples and therefore, in his solitude, missed the first resurrection appearance. Perhaps John is suggesting to us that Christ appears most often within the community of believers that we now call the church, and when we separate ourselves from the church we take a chance of missing his presence. I think we all have our personal sense of who God is in us. And this may be our alone-with-God kind of encounter. But we also know that we need each other. We need our church community and other communities that support us. And we see God in those communities.

I have been called to be rector of the Cursillo women’s weekend that starts next Thursday. While I have been preparing for this weekend with my team, for most of a year, I have also been immersed in the worry and fear about my husband and his precarious health. I thought at one point that, had I known a year ago that he would be having these serious health issues, I would never have agreed to be rector. And yet, it is my team, as well as this church, who have supported me and loved me and given me the sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit. God always knows best, I believe, when it is not for us to know the future. That is part of what faith is.

So, what else can we learn from Thomas’s encounters with Jesus?

Jesus did not blame him for doubting. Jesus was willing to offer proof of his presence to Thomas without blaming Thomas for his apparent lack of faith. In fact, Jesus was not someone who judged and blamed others. If we are to follow his teachings and the example of his life, we too must resist the temptation to be judges of others.

I have said before in sermons that I have struggled with judging others and, at the same time, trying to make myself acceptable so that I won’t be judged. When I have been engaged in that kind of thinking, I can’t be of any service to anyone, and service to others is what Jesus called us for. Blame can also come from trying to follow a list of rules and falling short. If our religion only consists of following rules, we will begin to focus only on outward appearance rather than inward reality. I have learned, as I have become old, that outward appearance isn’t very important, my own or others’. That’s kind of a relief, actually.

We also learn from Thomas’s encounter with Jesus that Jesus said we are blessed if we do not see him and yet believe. Unlike Thomas, we too have not seen and yet believe. Thomas needed proof. Does that make him less faithful than we are? I don’t think so. Try to picture yourself as one of the disciples at the time of the Crucifixion without the perspective of Easter. Imagine how frightened and desolate they felt. Consider the group of disciples Jesus first appeared to after the Resurrection. They saw Jesus. If they had not witnessed the resurrected Jesus for themselves and had been told this apparently wild story that he had appeared after he had been killed, would they have believed it? Would you have believed it? Or would we have doubted as Thomas did?

Here is what gives us an advantage over Thomas and the other disciples: You and I do have the perspective of the Resurrection from which followed two thousand years of Christianity. Thomas and the others had no idea what Jesus’ resurrection would become.

We also learn from Thomas that when we doubt, we must pray to move beyond doubt to faith.
We all have moments when God is not real for us. I call these “desert times.” If I am intentional with prayer and spiritual discipline, I will inevitably discover what God has been trying to teach me during these dry periods.
When I was young, I would feel scared when someone expressed a lack of faith or doubt about God to me. I would think, “Maybe he’s right or maybe she’s knows something I don’t know.” Because I have come through my own dark night of the soul, as I imagine some of you have, I have faith that is still being clarified and distilled. For that, I am more grateful than for anything else in my life. Faith doesn’t come easily, as least it hasn’t been easy for me. I think faith comes from walking through struggles to find the redemption on the other side. I haven’t arrived yet! But I am still struggling, and, the good news is: I am farther down the path toward God than I was yesterday, or a year ago, or fifty years ago.

From the Acts reading today: “with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and grace was upon them all.” I would add to that Acts reading: Including Thomas. Grace was also upon Thomas. The apostles all had their moment of seeing the resurrected Jesus, and it energized them. It changed them from their dark night as fearful, faithless people to people redeemed and convicted by the Holy Spirit. This was the beginning of our church. From these humble beginnings, Christianity grew to be the largest religious body in the world. How amazing that is!

Thomas, with his doubts, is like us – human. May we also be blessed enough to have his faith. So, what would you attempt to do, if you knew you could not fail?
Amen.