Blessed Are Those Who Doubt

A Sermon Preached by

The Rev. Mike Elliott

April 11, 2010

John 20:19-29

As I hope you all know by now, I am a big fan of junk TV.  Sitcoms from the 60’s and 70’s happen to be high on my list of mighty fine TV viewing.  Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch, Donna Reed, Leave it to Beaver, you know the shows.  But one of those shows has always risen to the top for me.  Remember “Get Smart” with Don Adams?  Now that is some grade A prime TV viewing in my book.

Now think for a minute about how many catch phrases  worked their way into our language from just that one show.  There is "Sorry about that, Chief" and "Missed it by that much", and then my most favorite, "Would you believe ...?"
    

In the TV show, secret agent Maxwell Smart would always wind up trapped by the bad guy agent from KAOS and have no means of escape.  Smart would try to scare him off with some ridiculous exaggeration: "Right now, there are 50 armed police officers surrounding this place."  When his adversary doubted him, Smart would counter with: "Would you believe 20 police officers and an angry dog?"  With the crook still doubting him, Smart would finally offer: "Would you believe a troop of Girl Scouts on a cookie-sale drive?"

Would you believe is a sentiment that we find so often in Scripture.  Whether it is the faithful doubt expressed by the father of the sick boy in our call to worship or the many other skeptical people who Jesus encountered in his ministry.

Doubt is something that can so easily creep into our faith life if we are not careful.  Not so much because too much doubt can destroy our faith, but because it can too easily limit what we think our God is capable of. 

Our doubts limit God, they lock God up and try to throw away the key.  Doubt sticks God in the tomb and doesn‘t allow for the amazing act of God’s love that raised Christ from the dead on that blessed Easter morning.  Doubt leaves little room for Mary to encounter our Risen Lord in the early morning coolness of the Garden.  Doubt tries to lock our Risen Lord out of the Upper Room where the disciples cringed with fear.  How about you?  Do you ever doubt?  Do you ever think that you have died and been buried with Christ in the tomb?  That your hope is gone?  That everything around you is rotten?  That your life might as well be over for all the difference it would make? 

If you don't have these thoughts and feelings -- well -- please tell me what planet you come from because I, and lots of others would like to visit with you there.  We all try to limit God - we all lock God out of some parts of our lives - quite regularly - until some saint comes along and hits us over the head and reminds us of just who it is that we believe in, and what it is that he can and does do.  We all need to be clunked on the head sometimes to remind us that our God has not only spoken, but that our God acts as well.  We all need a patron saint of doubt to help us in our times of disbelief.   Don’t you agree?  Where is a patron saint when you need one anyway? 

     Here the word of the Lord from the Gospel of John…..

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"  After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.  The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 

Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you!  As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."  And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"

But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.  Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"  Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe."

Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we may have found our patron saint of doubt, but before we beat up Thomas too much, let’s stop and pause for a moment…

Thomas is not one of the better known disciples.  In fact, he appears only two other times in John’s Gospel and plays no role at all in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.  For John, Thomas’ role is to say those things to Jesus that we all wish we could have said.

In chapter 11 of John’s Gospel, when Jesus decides to go to see his dying friend Lazarus, Thomas responds…”Let us also go, that we may die with him."  Thomas knew that the Jewish authorities were looking to kill Jesus and Thomas wanted to be right there by his side even if it meant following Jesus into death itself.

In Chapter 14 of John’s Gospel, when Jesus is telling the disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them in his father’s mansion, Thomas says to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus then tells the disciples that he is the way the truth and the life.

Truth be known, Thomas was neither a coward nor a man of little faith.  He was keenly interested in making sure he knew the way to find Jesus even if he really didn’t understand that Jesus was talking about his own death.

            Thomas was also no coward.  He was more than willing to go to the village where Lazarus’ family lived and even to make his final stand and die with Jesus.

Thomas was by no means a marginal disciple or a coward or a man of little faith.  He was willing to stand by Jesus to the bitter end.  But he was unable to imagine that there was anything after death.  He didn’t understand Jesus’ words about the resurrection.  He was willing to follow Jesus into death itself.  But was he ready and willing and able to follow Jesus into new life?  Well, that is an entirely different story.  So is it really any wonder that he was in no position to believe the other disciples about seeing the Risen Christ.

     “Hey Thomas, we just saw Jesus, risen from the dead.  Don’t you believe us?”  Would you believe that we got a phone call?  How about an email?  A message on a carrier pigeon?  Would you believe anything at all?

     Dorothy Sayers says this about the character Thomas:
    “It is unexpected, but extraordinarily convincing, that the one absolutely unequivocal statement in the whole gospel of the Divinity of Jesus should come from Doubting Thomas. It is the only place where the word God is used ... without qualification of any kind, and in the most unambiguous form of words.... And this must be said -- not ecstatically, or with a cry of astonishment -- but with flat conviction, as of one acknowledging irrefragable evidence: '2 + 2 = 4,' 'That is the sun in the sky,' 'You are my Lord and my God!'“  (The Man Born to Be King London: Victor Collancz, 1943)”

      While we remember Thomas as the patron saint of doubters for his refusal to believe without seeing, we forget that he is the first person in Scripture to fully recognize Jesus for who he is.  Lord and God.  No other disciple made that final connection, even after encountering the Risen Christ.  But Thomas sure did. 

     In Matthew 5, we encounter the Beatitudes.  They tell us that the poor in spirit, the righteous and the peacemakers are truly blessed.  But you never…and I mean never, hear the phrase “blessed are the doubters…” do you?  Truth is, we all know that to be human means that we do and will feel our faith falter in our times of trial.  Even if we refuse to admit it, even to ourselves.  To doubt is to be human.  Most importantly, to doubt does not mean to disbelieve.  Rather, it means that we care about our faith enough to wrestle with it in honesty and sincerity. 

Sometimes we are willing to follow Christ even into death, like Thomas, but just can’t even conceive of what it means to follow Christ into life itself.  Blessed are the doubters because they shall receive what…?

“A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

Blessed are the doubters for they shall receive an invitation to reach out.  To reach out and touch the very hand of God.  Just like Thomas was offered.  And likewise, sometimes we are invited to be the hands of God for other blessed doubters.

This week I invite you to look for the times that God invites you to reach out and touch the hand of God even and especially in your times of blessed doubt.

What ways can your hands be used to show the forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ, the healing touch of the Risen Lord through the work of your hands?  What are the ways God is calling you, as a church, to build up the Kingdom here in this community?  What are the ways that Jesus wants to use the work of your hands to say to this community “reach out your hand and believe”  How does God call you to service, to mission in your community?  These are the questions that the Risen Lord asks you, as he stands before you in all of his Resurrection glory inviting you to “REACH OUT AND TOUCH” those beautiful nail pierced hands.

This week I invite you to be open and on the look-out for the many times and the many ways that God is calling you to be the hands of Christ.  Be open to the ways that Jesus invites you to “REACH OUT” by using your hands to build up and to heal others.  You see, just like Thomas, we are all called to be more than just doubters.  We are called to be patron saints for doubters as well.  So, would you believe God is calling you, even you to be God’s hands to others?  Amen.