Transcript
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Please be seated.”
I have to admit I don’t really like telling people what I do for a living. Apparently, I’ve gotten better. It’s been almost 10 years of practice. But at parties or, you know, the bar or neighborhood meetings or wherever I meet complete strangers, the conversation usually goes something like this.
Hey, so what do you do for a living? I work for church. Oh, really? What do you do? You know, church stuff. Oh, yeah. Like like teaching Sunday school? Not exactly. I eventually admit I am an ordained Episcopal priest and it usually comes with a shrug and a awkward laugh.
Then I’ve had three types of responses. One group of people start talking about their problems. They confess their sins. They explain why they haven’t been to church in 20 plus years. They try to excuse themselves of any judgment I might have of them, except we all know it’s their own judgment that’s making them feel guilty.
The second type is usually about the church. A lot of people have a lot of emotions about church. Sometimes it’s joy. Most of the time it’s anger and sadness. And again, maybe a little bit of that guilt coming in. This usually comes off as people yelling at me. This is the response I like the least.
But my favorite response is one of inquiry because some people actually want to talk about God and theology and the church. Whatever is going on inside of them in their life, they put it before me in forms of questions. This definitely my favorite reaction. But I suspect people who start asking me questions aren’t always happy with my answers.
You see, rather than giving answers, I often just ask them questions. Oh, you’re a pretty cool. So what do you think about insert anything from the calling epistles to revelation and the end of time or even resurrection? Sometimes rarely I answer. Sometimes I do something else.
Well, first I get excited that someone really wants to have a conversation about God and theology. As much as you might think that I spend my days talking about God and studying theology, the really reality is I do very, very little of that in my dayto-day work. So, I get excited when people want to talk about it, but it also lets me ask them questions. Often, people ask questions less because they want my answer and more because they want to figure out their own answers. like I do, a lot of people just want to talk through ideas before committing them to a belief system. And thus, when someone asks me questions about God and theology and the church, I tend to just ask them more questions right back.
Today’s gospel, we are introduced to Thomas. Poor doubting Thomas. As popular as this man is, I am surprised that today’s reading, John 20 19 through31, is the only time Thomas’s story is really told. Yes, Thomas is mentioned in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and H, but it’s really just his name listed with the list of 12 disciples. It is in John. And the poor man is best known for doubting the resurrection.
This man that we identify as Thomas was so much more doubt though. In fact, there’s even a gospel according to Thomas. And although it’s not in the Bible, it’s a really fun read full of interesting quotes from Jesus and the disciples. From today’s reading, we know a little bit more about Thomas.
He’s one of the 12 disciples. He was absent the first time Jesus appeared to the 12. He had a twin or was at least called the twin out of irony hard to tell. And he did not believe the disciples when they told him that they saw the Lord. In other words, Thomas does not have this blind faith.
Instead, he insists on seeing the mark of the nails in Jesus’s hands. He insists on feeling the mark of the nails and putting his hands in Jesus’s side. Thomas wants to know more. He doesn’t want to just be told that Jesus is alive, that Jesus is walking around and appearing in rooms where the doors are closed and locked. Although that’s completely different sermon. Instead, comments wants to discover it on his own. And that is exactly what happens.
A week later, Jesus shows up again when all 12 of the disciples are gathered, this time Thomas included. And Jesus lets Thomas touch the wounds from the nails and the wound in his side. And Jesus says, “Do not doubt, but believe.” So Thomas gets to see for himself, feel for himself the wounds on Jesus’s hand. Thus, Thomas’s doubt is resolved. And Thomas can believe in the resurrection. And Thomas’s heart and in his soul, he can finally truly believe in Jesus Christ rising from the dead.
What I find particularly interesting about this passage though is what Jesus says at the end in response to Thomas’s conversion or acceptance or whatever we want to call it. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet come to believe.” The interesting part, Jesus doesn’t reprimand Thomas for doubting. Jesus isn’t angry that Thomas wanted to see for himself. Instead, Jesus says those who do not get to see the wounds but still come to the same conclusion, those are like the extra blessed people.
In fact, Jesus doesn’t say anything about doubting the resurrection. Jesus knows it’s outrageous. A man who died on the cross, crucified in front of crowds of spectators, is back up and walking around. Jesus realizes in order to believe this, we must suspend our belief of reality and natural loss.
We must accept that the dead can rise again. We must believe that Jesus just did that, rose from the dead. We must believe in the greatest miracle ever imagined. And today, some 2,000 years after it happened, we must believe in the miracle without getting any physical proof. So it only seems natural to have a little bit of doubt and to ask questions and to seek proof of such a miracle. Honestly, as soon as you stop doubting or asking questions or seeking proof, that’s when I think we should start being worried.
Jesus doesn’t say, “Shame on you for doubting your fellow disciples or questioning my resurrection.” Instead, he commits those who have come to believe. That phrase implies that there must be a journey of exploration. We must ask questions and seek answers. And then with whatever we discover, we can return to the cross. We turn to the empty tomb and return to Jesus’s resurrection.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus isn’t telling Thomas to not ask questions. In fact, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe sounds a lot like blessed are those who ask a lot questions and did not receive answers and yet still come to believe. I don’t know if you know this, but the Episcopal Church, at least used to be criticized quite a bit for being in the head too much and not enough in the heart. We are known to be a thinking church rather than a feeling church. How we often talk about God in an empirical, scientific, practical manner.
However, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Being able to think, to ask questions, and to base our faith on reason, is a large part of what Jesus wanted. When he said, “Blessed are those who have not seen it yet come to believe.” I don’t think Jesus was recognizing those who follow the blind faith. Instead, I like to imagine Jesus was applauding us, those of us who ask questions and seek our own answers and then come to believe.
Thus, to bring my sermon to a close, I ask of you, no pun intended, keep asking, keep exploring, keep wondering, and honestly, keep doubting because when you doubt, when you ask questions, then you are fully exploring what it means to believe. When you seek answers, even if you don’t know if you’ll actually find any answers, that is what Jesus wants from all of us. Not a blind faith of simply believing, but a true to the heart, soulwrenching, raw, emotion exposing belief in a God that not only died on the cross and also rose again and walked among us and then ascended into heaven. The only way we will ever truly understand that pascal mystery is if we continue to ask questions about God in the about the church.
Paul Tillik was a German American Christian philosopher and Lutheran pastor. He wrote, “Doubt is not the opposite of faith. It is an element of faith.” To be faithful, to be full of faith, one must also have doubt.
And this church, this place here, this is the perfect place for people who have doubts and who have questions. We won’t have all the answers, but we certainly can have more questions. So, go ahead and ask as much as you want.
Amen.