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The Thomas In All of Us
(A sermon preached April 11, 2010 at University United
Methodist Church, East Lansing MI, by John Ross Thompson)
John 20:19-31
20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors
of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus
came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
20:20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the
disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
20:21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me,
so I send you."
20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the
Holy Spirit.
20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the
sins of any, they are retained."
20:24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them
when Jesus came.
20:25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to
them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the
mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."
20:26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with
them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said,
"Peace be with you."
20:27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out
your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."
20:28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
20:29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed
are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are
not written in this book.
20:31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his
name.
How grateful I am that Thomas was one of the apostles, and
that his story is told in the Gospel of John. Soon after the Resurrection of
Jesus, this story appears.
I believe that there is some Thomas in all of us, and
perhaps more now than there ever was. Let’s consider the doubts we have about
faith and God, knowing that some of us are profound doubters and some of us have
convinced even ourselves that we have no doubts. The elephant in the room in
Christian circles today is that many active Christians doubt the resurrection of
Jesus and other traditional Christian beliefs. A lot of us are like Thomas. In
fact, UUMC has an incredibly large number of persons who are faithful active
Christians and also openly share their doubts.
Thomas is known primarily because he was the doubter, the
one who wanted proof that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Can you blame
him? According to John’s Gospel, Jesus appeared after the resurrection to some
of his followers, but Thomas was not there.
Can you imagine seeing someone die, know he was buried, and
then have your friends tell you later that that had seen him alive? You would
wonder about their sanity, or imagine they were on some hallucinogenic drug.
A bit about Thomas. He is mentioned three times in the
Gospel of John. When Jesus wants to go to Judea when Lazarus died, the other
apostles resisted for fear of their lives. Thomas here shows faith, saying, “Let
us go with Jesus, so that we might die with him.”
At the Last Supper, when Jesus says that the disciples know
where he is going, Thomas is the one who speaks up and says that they do not
know where he is going.
But it’s after the resurrection that Thomas’ best-known
event happens. He tells the other apostles that he won’t believe Jesus is alive
until he sees the nail prints in his hands and touches the wound in this side.
This is evidence that Thomas was probably at the crucifixion, observing Jesus’
rather quick death on the cross.
According to our scripture for today, when he sees Jesus he
proclaims “My Lord and my God!” There is no specific mention that he actually
touched Jesus, but it is obvious that he believes once he has seen Jesus.
Church history tells us that he became the apostle who traveled the furthest to
tell others about Christ, as far as the Persian Gulf and India.
It’s a shame that some of us feel that we can’t share our
doubts in church. Others of us are very open in saying that we have trouble
believing parts of traditional Christian belief.
I know that our personality types make a real difference.
The New Testament tells us that faith is a gift of God, and there are some of us
who have it more than others. There are some of us for whom belief, even in
miracles, is easy. These are the trusting persons who are willing to accept
what others tell them. Unfortunately, they are also the ones who can be duped
more easily. These are persons who find it hardest to admit that they have any
doubts about faith.
On the other extreme are persons who are doubters by
nature. Some of us who are more into logic and the scientific aspects of
knowledge are the most expressive of our doubts. We want proof of everything,
perhaps even visual proof that something exists. In an increasingly secular
world, one in which we are taught that everything has an explanation, doubters
sometimes seem to be in the majority.
In between unquestioned faith and complete doubt are most
of us. We know everything cannot be explained in a logical way or proved
physically, but we also wonder about those things that cannot be proved. We
have moments of faith, and also moments of doubt.
For those of us who claim to believe all things of faith, I
remind you that God has also given us minds with which to question. Doubt is not
a sin. In fact, to explore something more thoroughly means that we take it
seriously. It is important to us. On the edges of our faith are the things
that challenge us, and to admit them and dig more into what they mean is an act
of moving toward God. Faith includes questions and exploration.
For those of us who are doubters by nature, and want proof,
including many of our young people who at times write off anything that cannot
be proved, I remind us that there always have been things which are beyond the
human mind. Even though many of them now can be explained through new
scientific knowledge, all of them will never be understood with human minds.
There is a spiritual dimension to life that is beyond the
mind. Just try to explain love to someone else and you have a window to realize
what is not understandable. God’s creation includes a dimension that can never
be dissected and analyzed as we do in scientific research.
A whole person uses both mind and spirit. A mature person
understands that both dimensions are as real as the other. A complete
understanding of who we are as humans includes biology, psychology, science and
the realm of faith.
Unlike Thomas, we cannot now stand in front of Jesus and
see him with our eyes. However, those of us who want a whole life, including
our doubts, can realize that God is with all of us, even when we do not
understand how God works.
As people of the resurrection, even for those of us who
doubt that a physical resurrection happened, we can say that Jesus is alive and
with us. We can live as people who know a living God, even though we don’t
understand everything about that God.
We can be like Thomas and still claim the title of
Christian. I believe that Christians are those who are seeking to follow Jesus,
not those who believe everything without question. We are the people who want
more, both of human knowledge and of spiritual power. Like Thomas, we can say,
“My Lord and my God!” and serve God even though we have doubts.
Jesus said to Thomas, "Have you
believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
have come to believe."
Let us also celebrate the Thomas in each of us. Like him,
let us share openly with each other what we believe and what we doubt. It will
unite us as those who together are seeking more of God.
Selwyn Hughes says: Those who doubt most, and yet
strive to overcome their doubts, turn out to be some of Christ’s strongest
disciples.
Frederick Buechner exclaimed: “Without somehow
destroying me in the process, how could God reveal Himself in a way that would
leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room
for me.
What can we gain from this study of Thomas?
First of all understand that doubt is not sin It is not sin to doubt.
If it were, Jesus would have said why are you sinning
against me, he did not say that. We all wrestle with doubt from time to time.
Unbelief and doubt are not the same
Unbelief is deliberate denial, disobedience, rebellion,
resistance, and is always condemned
Doubt is the sincere question; unbelief is the unwillingness to hear the answer
From a recent novel Cutting the Stone: “Doubt is the
first cousin of faith. In order to believe, we need to suspend our doubt.”
Honest questions are not sin.
To want better understanding of a situation is not a sin.
Be willing to ask the questions, be willing to examine things, figure out what
exactly is going on as much as you can.
There are some things that we do not understand at
first...and there are some things that we are not given to understand at all.
As the father of the sick child
in Mark’s gospel (9:24) famously cried out to Christ, ‘I believe, help my
unbelief!’ We too can pursue our faith through our unbelief, through our doubts,
through our questioning. It is better to openly and honestly confront our
misgivings than to pretend that they are not there.
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