Vehicles of
Faith
Vehicles of
FaithSermons for the Sundays of Easter by Rev. Ken Frese, Pastor of First, Venice, CA
On most large university campuses today you will find a central gathering area, like Harvard’s Harvard Square and UC Berkeley’s Sather Gate. In these areas groups of all kinds set up tables, pass out leaflets, and propagate their message to all who come their way. The diversity in such places is truly amazing. Not far from each other you will find pro-choice advocates and pro-life advocates, Republicans and Democrats, socialists and libertarians, the Black Student Union, the Latino Student Union, the Asian Student Union, the Gay and Lesbian Student Union, orthodox Jews, conservative Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Catholics – yes, even Lutherans. Groups with widely different views on just about everything stand and sit relatively close to each other, but they seldom speak to each other. They save their energies for presumably more open-minded passersby.
Situations like these on our college campuses are not really so different from where we all live and spend our time these days, whether we are affiliated with a university or not. "Diversity" is "in", and we don’t have to go to Harvard or Berkeley to get it. It comes to us on television, radio, the internet, through the hundreds of magazines at the local newsstand, the classrooms of our elementary schools, and the minds of more and more of the people with whom we live and work.
A well-known Lutheran professor at the University of Chicago once quipped that a person can’t say anything these days without someone else saying "Oh yeah?" in response. A different kind of authority, comedian Steve Martin, said something similar: "It’s hard to believe in anything anymore. I guess I wouldn’t believe in anything if it weren’t for my lucky Astrology Mood Watch." Both of these experts were saying something very interesting. They were telling us that one of the results of the wild and crazy diversity in our world is that people have become very skeptical and have difficulty believing anything at all.
We are living at a time of such widespread and intense questioning that many of our friends and associates are in the habit of doubting just about everything – even beliefs that once were considered obvious. It seems as if ideas are almost automatically assumed to be false unless proven otherwise! In this cultural climate we Christians face new challenges as we seek to deepen our faith and share it with others. Fortunately, Jesus’ encounter with Thomas on the Sunday after Easter provides us with some great Scriptural assurance, and with keen insights on just how to go about our mission as Christians.
Thomas wasn’t the kind of person to settle for cheap and easy answers. The man who once declared that he was willing to die with Jesus didn’t simply doubt that Jesus came back to life. In his mind, the circumstances of their Master’s death and its implications for them were too shocking and disillusioning to be resolved easily – even by the other disciples’ claiming to have seen the Lord risen from the dead. This is why Thomas didn’t simply register a mild form of skepticism. He didn’t just say, "Unless I see him for myself I will not believe." With characteristic depth and boldness, Thomas went further and questioned not only the fact of Jesus’ return from death, but also whether the evil that was responsible for Jesus’ death could really have been overcome. This is the power and poignancy of Thomas’ response to the disciples’ dramatic announcement about having seen the Lord. Thomas said, "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."
Maybe others would settle for a comforting fantasy or a cozy little resuscitation, but not Thomas. He was prepared to ask the tough questions and to settle for nothing less than a true resurrection – which, of course, was what had taken place! God did in fact raise Jesus bodily, in triumph over sin, death, and the power of the devil – once and for all!
How interesting that Jesus took Thomas’ doubts seriously, even respectfully. Thomas, after all, had fled with the rest of the disciples in the hour of Jesus’ greatest need. He had reneged on his earlier bold promise to die with Jesus. Jesus might very well have pointed out a certain disingenuousness in Thomas’ doubts, as well as in the person who expressed them.
Instead, Jesus displayed infinite patience – the same patience he continually had practiced with his disciples before his death. He responded to Thomas with an understanding that was in keeping with the unforgettable words he had uttered from the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Incredibly, Jesus accommodated Thomas’ doubting. He offered Thomas the proof that he was asking for: "Put your finger here and see my hands," he said. "Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Stop doubting and believe."
The end result of Thomas’ doubts and Jesus’ response is that Thomas gave the boldest statement of belief in the whole Gospel of John. He recognized immediately what the resurrection of Jesus meant for Jesus and meant for him. He exclaimed: "My Lord and my God!" Doubt – even the deepest kind of doubt – can be a Vehicle of Faith, a bold faith. In Thomas it resulted in a faith so strong that, according to tradition, he proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus as far away as India, where he willingly submitted to a martyr’s death.
Thomas—The "Twin" of Doubters Today
John tells us that Thomas was also called Didymus, which means "the twin". Thomas evidently had a twin brother or sister, though the Bible never speaks of that individual. But as we look at Thomas Didymus this morning, he might well be seen as "the twin" of doubting people today. He resembles today’s doubters with the persistence and depth of his questioning.
I think that we all can take heart from Jesus’ interaction with Thomas. In the face of all of the skepticism and cynicism regarding our Christian faith – some of it even contained within our own minds – we can be confident first of all that Jesus will be patient and respectful as we deal with our doubts. We can rest assured that the Holy Spirit given to us in our Baptism – the very Spirit of Jesus himself – will "guide us into all the truth", as Jesus promised. And we are encouraged to be more confident as we respond with patience and respect to the doubts of those around us. We need to remember that the Spirit of Jesus will be at work in our testimony of faith. And we need to remember that he can use even people like you and me to help today’s doubters come to faith – maybe even as bold a faith as that of this doubting disciple about whom we always read on this Second Sunday of Easter.
Doubters into Bold Believers
Even though our century has shown unparalleled skepticism toward the Christian message, there have been wonderfully miraculous instances of some of today’s doubting Thomases being led by the Holy Spirit to a bold faith and a powerful Christian witness.
Malcolm Muggeridge was one of England’s sharpest and most acerbic intellects – a witty cynic like multitudes of highly educated Westerners. Then he shocked the urbane, atheistic circles in which he moved by declaring that he himself had become a Christian. Until his recent death – in the face of much scorn and ridicule – he wrote books, granted interviews, and gave testimony whenever he could to his belief that Jesus Christ did die for sinners such as he, did rise from the dead, and is indeed the Savior of the world.
Alexander Solzhenitzen was raised in a very different world, the officially atheistic state of the USSR. A Communist and an unbeliever throughout his early life, he miraculously became a Christian while a prisoner in the Gulag Archipelago, the concentration camps of the former Soviet Union. Still living today, Solzhenitzen, just as Muggeridge and thousands of other intellectual believers before him, shares his faith boldly and powerfully wherever he travels and speaks.
How about you and me? I’ve spoken with a fair number of adults who told me why they dropped out of church for long periods of time. Repeatedly I’ve heard statements like: "I went through Confirmation class but I was never allowed to ask my questions. I was told not to doubt, not to question God’s Word."
Maybe you are one of those whose questioning was frustrated as a youth. Or maybe you bring a fresh new package of doubts to church today – even after the bold Easter service you attended last week. Let me say to you that Jesus understands – and that we who frequently share your experience also understand.
I think that our church should occasionally change the sign out front. Instead of its saying "Visitors Welcome," every so often it should read: "Doubters Welcome." Jesus died for doubters, like Thomas, like our skeptical contemporaries, and like the doubter who speaks with our own voice in the back of our own minds.
Jesus not only died for doubters, He rose from the dead for them – for us. And now he comes through the Holy Spirit to address also all of our doubts and to lead us to deepening faith.
Even doubt can be a Vehicle for Faith. Following Thomas’ example, we may honestly and openly express both our faith and our doubts in this respectful, loving fellowship we call the Church, and we can count on our expressions of doubt to be heard with patience and understanding. And we can count on the living Spirit of Jesus to lead us into all truth!
In faith, we can touch Jesus’ body here today in the bread and wine of the Sacrament. The One who offered himself for us offers himself again to us. The faith shining through fellow Christians gathered here and throughout the world testifies again to us of our Lord’s love. In the process, he shines new rays of blessing upon our hearts and minds, and sets our hearts at rest with a deeper sense of faith and peace.
Once again on this Second Sunday of Easter we have heard a Word from the Risen One – a Word that we have heard before, and one that will be spoken to us whenever we truly want to hear it. It speaks to us with love and reassurance: "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Stop doubting and believe."
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