The Place for Doubt
 John 20: 19-31

It seems kind of odd, but every year, on the Sunday after Easter, we have the story of doubting Thomas. Doubt has been a sermon subject so many times over the years only because the theme is so terribly relevant. It is an issue that constantly rears its head as we try to explore Scripture and examine solid Christian doctrine. It’s also true as you and I try to live our lives in a very contrary world!

One week after the biggest festival celebration of our church calendar,  we deal with our Gospel Story of doubt, uncertainty and skepticism.  That seems odd, especially for those of us who grew us in an atmosphere that tried to deny the fact of doubt.  Doubt was a “no-no” for church going people. Many times, haven’t we all been told to “just have faith,” as if faith was something that you could turn on and off like a faucet.  It sounds like the story in Alice in Wonderland when the queen is speaking with Alice and she tells Alice that she is l0l years, 5 month and one day old.  Alice says, “I can’t believe that.”  And the queen says, “Can’t you?  Try again—draw a long breath and close your eyes.”  Many of us have had similar advice when something seems questionable, unbelievable or implausible.  But this doesn’t work too well today. Although many people struggle with doubt today, we can’t follow the Queen’s advice and “draw a long breath and close our eyes” because today, we are very realistic people. We question everything! We have some days when it’s easy to believe.  We also have times when questions seem to haunt us.  Is it really true?  How can we be sure?  

We need to deal with doubt because it is a fact of life and because doubt can also be dangerous.  If doubts are not confronted, they can harden into unbelief. Unbelief is lethal. And not only that, doubt does its destructive work so quietly and out of sight. It’s insidious! Sometimes we don’t even know for certain what’s happening, and a spiritual abcess is formed within us.

Our whole society at times seems to be organized to distract people from thinking very much about issues. People go from one distraction to the next to avoid dealing with the pain of doubt, and the crisis of faith which lies behind it. So many people go from twenty minutes of this, to twenty minutes of that, to twenty minutes of some other thing.  Much of the shallowness of modern life is simply because there are so many distraction that can occupy our attention. We don’t have to think about the spiritual emptiness that sometimes lies at the core.

This is why Christianity does not shy away from thinking and talking about doubts.  This is why the story of “doubting Thomas” is told in the first place.  It is significant that we are talking of doubt one week after the Resurrection Story that requires our strong faith. When John told this story, one of the things he was saying is that doubt is part of the Christian experience.  We’re not going to whitewash it. We are going to face it directly because only by facing it directly can we do something about it. A faith which does not occasionally doubt is dead. Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote “there lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.”

We don’t know a lot about Thomas before this story.  He’s mentioned only a few other times.  But he seems to have been a realist.  He seems to have been a practical pragmatic person.  He reminds me of one of my  favorite film personalities Zorba the Greek, played by Anthony Quinn, when he complained in the movie that “Some people are like grocers…..they weigh everything!” I think Thomas weighed everything. He seems to have been very cautious.  He hadn’t been with the disciples the week before.  Thomas had missed Easter. Maybe the authorities were going to follow up their assassination of Jesus by rounding up his followers.  So Thomas had thought it best to lie low for awhile and wait for things to blow over.

But now it was a week later and danger seems to have passed, so Thomas went looking for the others.  When he found them, he found that they were still grieving the loss of Jesus.  Thomas knew denial when he saw it.  In fact, the other disciples were so deep into denial that they were actually claiming that Jesus was alive and that they had seen Him!

This was more than Thomas could swallow.  His brothers need a little “therapy.”   They needed something to shake them out of their denial.  “Wise up, you guy.  Come down to earth.  We loved Him and we all miss Him, but He’s gone.!  Unless I put my finger into the nail marks and unless I put my hand into His side, I’ll not believe your story guys.   And that’s that!!

So, now, 8 days later, the disciples are together again, including Thomas and imagine his surprise when Jesus showed up.  But notice that Jesus is not angry with Thomas.  He doesn’t say, “Shame on you, Thomas, for having doubts.”  No, He says, “Come closer.   Put your finger here.  Reach out your hand.  Have faith, Thomas.”  And Thomas did.

There is much about Thomas that is right.  We call him “doubting Thomas,” but in actuality, that is not quite fair.  We could just as easily call him brave Thomas because it took courage to say the things he said.  We could just as easily call him bold Thomas because he spoke his mind.  We could call him honest Thomas because he brought his doubts into the open.  We could even call him faithful Thomas because he hung in there in spite of doubts. 

He did, however, “drop the ball” in one instance. As we said,he wasn’t with the disciples on that first Easter morning.  For some reason, he was separated from the disciples, which is to basically say that, in a very real way, he was separated from the church.  Because Thomas was separated from the church, he missed out on that first Easter, and his doubts were directly related to that separation.  But then Thomas turned right around and did something right.  He brought his doubts to the disciples, which is to say that he brought his doubts to the church which is where they belong. This is my main point!!

The church is where we can explore our doubts, and take questions seriously.  In fact, we need those questions.  We need the Thomases of this world to bring us down to earth.  We need honest questions to find truth.  We need the Thomas’s of this world to ask those questions which all of us feel from time to time, but we may be afraid to ask. 

After all, (l) if you feel you can’t be honest about your question, then you’ll keep them inside.  And pretty soon, (2) it will seem like you’re the only one with question.  (3) Then pretty soon after that, you’ll blame yourself for having those feelings or doubts.  (4)  And then, you’ll feel that you don’t belong……….You’ll leave the church.  It a scenario that has touch many a life.

But you know what? The odd truth is that sincere questions make the faith stronger.  Shakespeare said, “honest doubt is a beacon for the wise”.  Questions help to build faith, not tear it down.  I saw a poll recently that said the same thing. People were asked to name one thing that had helped to build their faith and many people said that vigorous and challenging Bible study and discussion that was questioning, searching, probing had built their faith more than anything else.

Yes, doubt can be a dangerous thing but, it’s dangerous only outside the church.  Outside the church, there is no way of dealing with doubt in a constructive say.  Outside the church, doubt grows stronger, and hardens into unbelief. No, the place for doubt is in the church.  In the church we can deal with it.   After all, the Lord is present in the church.  Here His word is proclaimed.  Here is His community of believers, the Body of Christ.  You have doubts?   Bring them to church.  There is nothing we haven’t all heard and thought before. Here we can so something about it.

We do not have the advantages the first disciples had.  We cannot walk with Jesus through the land of Palestine.  We are like the second generation of the church.  We must walk by faith and not by sight.

But, I feel, Jesus has a special word of  blessing for us in our day and our time.  Surely His words would be something like this:  “Blessed are your holy questions and your holy doubts.  Blessed is the communion of the church where faith is built from these questions and doubts.  And blessed are you, my 2lst century friends, who walk by faith and not by sight.  Blessed are you who have not seen, and yet believe!!”

“In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost”
Amen

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