A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter
The Rev. Patricia Gillespie
I want to see for myself: Is Jesus really alive? And just what is meant by "new life" or "imperishable inheritance"? I have always had lots of questions. (I should be wearing my Via Media shirt again today!)
I once had a Sunday School teacher who told me that it was wrong to ask questions and have doubts. So I asked yet another question: "Is God afraid of my questions and doubts?" I came to realize that God's not afraid but my teacher sure was.
Doubt is not the great enemy of faith that we sometimes think it is. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. In fact, doubt can be a friend to faith. Doubts and questions can actually help us grow as Christians just as Thomas did in today's gospel.
We sometimes think doubt is the opposite of faith because we confuse it with UNBELIEF. Doubt is not unbelief. Unbelief is a stubborn refusal or unwillingness to believe. It is saying, "I WILL NOT believe." But doubt is being confused or unsure what to believe. Doubt says, "I'm not sure what to believe."
Unbelief is closed to believing. Doubt is open to believing. Unbelief is choosing NOT to believe. Doubt is choosing WHAT to believe.
We can't avoid doubt. Everybody doubts. Everybody has questions.
All of us have times when we are confused about what we should believe. This has been true of every Christian, even the greatest ones, down through the centuries. If you read their lives, you will see how they struggled with doubts and questions.
There seems even to have been some question in the heart of Jesus when he cried out on the cross, "My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?"
We are all twins of "Doubting Thomas." He had lots of doubts and questions, and wasn't afraid to share them. And if you really look at the other disciples, you see that they too had their doubts and questions. They were just not as honest about them as Thomas was.
It's not wrong to have doubts and questions. In fact, we're in some pretty good company when we express them.
But not only does everybody have doubts, everybody also has faith. Life is not possible without faith.
Each morning we wake up in faith that we will wake up, that the world will still be here, the sun still shining. And each night we go to sleep in faith that we will make it through the night.
Without faith we would have no meaningful relationships with other people. We have to trust, to believe in others in order to have friendships. We have to have faith.
Everybody has faith. This is elementary faith, the kind of faith that we all have to have in order to live.
The Bible talks about another kind of faith, a deliberate trust and dependence on God. It is the faith that God loves us, is with us always, and leads us to want to live a life pleasing to God. This faith gives us a hunger and thirst for God, that is, a desire to get to know God better.
That's how doubts and questions can help us. If we let them, they will help us get closer to God.
So faith and doubt walk hand in hand, like twins.
Our faith is God's gift to us. Our doubt is part of being human.
Part of being human is being limited in what we can know and understand. If we knew everything about everything, we would never doubt anything! As it is, we cannot truthfully say that we know EVERYTHING about ANYTHING!
Doubt is an expression of this limitedness, of our lack of complete knowledge. We certainly do not know everything about God. Some people think they do, but God is just too much for our limited minds.
St. Augustine was walking on the beach one day. He was struggling with his own question about the doctrine of the Trinity, that is, if we say we believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, then how can we say then that we believe in just one God?
Augustine saw a little boy running to the ocean and filling up a sea shell with water, then taking it back and pouring it into a hole he had dug into the sand. "What are you doing my little man?" Augustine asked. The boy replied, "Oh, I trying to put the ocean in this hole."
Trying to understand fully God is like trying to put the ocean in a little hole in the sand. God is beyond our full comprehension. We doubt because we are limited. We don't understand everything. We don't know everything. Doubts, questions can help us. They encourage us to learn, to seek answers in prayer and study. They challenge us to grow in our understanding and knowledge. That's how doubt can help us.
Doubt is faith seeking to grow! FAITH can use DOUBT to nourish and strengthen itself.
Our doubts and questions are signs of our faith, indications that your faith really matters. Our doubts reveal how seriously we take our faith in God. Someone who doesn't care what they believe, isn't going to be bothered with doubts and questions. It is the Christian who has doubts and questions who will be stimulated to try to resolve those doubts and answer those questions. And in the process they will grow.
Don't be afraid that your doubts or questions will destroy your faith. They can only destroy a shallow, false faith. Christian faith is tough enough to withstand any doubt we may have. For two thousand years it has withstood every doubt and question hurled against it. I doubt if you can doubt anything that has not been doubted before.
So go ahead and ask: Is there really a God? Does it do any good to pray? Why should I go to church? If God is so good, then why is there so much evil in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people? What does a man who died 2000 years ago have to do with me? Are science and religion opposed to each other?
But then, what do we do with all those questions? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Write them out. Write down fully what you think and feel. Doesn't matter how they will sound or if someone will think you are a heretic that should be burned at the stake. Be honest. Write down your doubt or question.
2. Pray it out. Read it out loud to God. Seek God's help in dealing with it. You are in good company when you do so.
3. Study it out. Find books, magazines, whatever you need that address your doubt or question. Turn to the Bible. What does it say about it? Read what others have said about your doubt or question.
4. Talk it out. Attend Via Media. Or share your doubt or question with a friend, teacher, parent, minister, with someone you trust. Chances are they have struggled with the same thing and can give you the benefit of their experience.
If we let our doubts and questions lead us to writing them down, praying about them, researching them, and talking with other Christians about them, then chances are we are going to end up with a stronger faith, not a weaker one.
Don't be afraid of your doubts. Look right at them and name them. Because when you reach out to touch your doubts, you may find Christ. And, like Thomas, your doubts may bring you to believing that through believing you may have life in Jesus' name.
*This sermon is undoubtedly indebted to The Rev. Bass Mitchell.