Blessed are the Doubters

 John 20:19-31   Easter 2 April 4, 2024

 

Poor Thomas.

He gets a bad rap from this story.

he gets kind of a derogatory nick name –

He’s known as Doubting Thomas.

 

I mean he’s the same Thomas 

who leads the disciples

to follow Jesus to Judea to help 

an ailing Lazarus by saying,

“Let’s go also so that we can also die with him.”

which was kind of brave. But he gets called Doubting Thomas.

 

Other people have been called Doubting Thomases too

because they doubt, or they want more proof.

Doubt. We have said it as if it’s a bad thing.

 

I’ve just recently had one person outside of the church

talk to me worried that they were

going to hell because at some point in their lives they

had doubt and turned away from the church and God.

Someone had to instill that in them. Doubt is bad.

 

And sometimes we look at people with unwavering

almost naïve trust as the pinnacle of what we’re supposed to be

Which just leaves the deep thinkers out completely.

 

But haven’t we all had doubt about the story of Jesus?

Haven’t we all been there?

Even the most faithful of us have had doubt.

 

Haven’t we all wondered been suspicious, wanted more information.

Haven’t we all at one time or another wondered about

the truth of these stories, wondered about their importance?

I know I have been there. I know I have stopped myself

and gone, wait, do I really believe all this?

 

I think that is okay.

I think it’s part of a healthy, thinking, rational mind.

I think doubt is part of our growth as disciples.

 

There are lots of ways we doubt or lots of ways that I doubt anyway.

Sometimes we doubt the facts of something as they’re told

in the stories in the bible.

Like Jesus really feed 5000 people?

Did they actually count them or was that an exaggeration?

 

We doubt that things were really miracles,

or was there another explanation for them?

Like did Jesus really make food for those 5000 people with

five loaves and two fish or did other people in the crowd

share their food with each other?

 

There’s the doubt that asks

Does God really exist, did Jesus really exist?

Did people just make them up?

 

We doubt the truth of the story,

maybe Jesus was just a regular person

and we’re all just silly to be following him.

 

And then there’s another kind of deep doubt

that asks does God actually love me?

Does God love us or want to punish us?

Has God abandoned us in our time of greatest need?

 

All those doubts are normal.

I’ve cycled through all of them at one time

or another sitting in my office, writing sermons,

reading books, sitting in classes, praying for people,

moving furniture alone in the sanctuary.

 

Contrary to what we might have been told in the past.

Doubt is normal. Doubt is part of faith.

In the past, Christians, especially children,

have been scolded for voicing their doubts,

people have been excommunicated,

banned, shunned and worse.

 

But doubt is part of a of a healthy faith life.

God and Jesus can take our doubts.

They accept them, I think they even encourage them.

 

Look at this story of Thomas,

Everyone was locked inside the upper room in fear,

but Thomas was out, maybe he was going on a Kroger run,

or taking the donkey for a walk.

Whatever he was doing, he wasn’t there, cowering in fear

like the rest of them, (see I think he should be Brave Thomas),

And while he was gone, the risen Christ popped into the room.

And when the rest of them told him about it, he didn’t believe them,

and said he wouldn’t believe it unless he saw it for himself.

 

Now, Jesus didn’t scold him, or tell him he was a heathen

for not trusting everyone else.

Jesus didn’t say, well if you don’t believe, too bad for you.

Jesus responded to Thomas’s doubt and satisfied it.

Jesus made a second trip, to that upper room just for Thomas’s sake.

and said “Peace be with you” a second time just for him.

He let Thomas put his hand in his wounds,

he helped Thomas work through it.

Whatever it took for him.

 

I believe that Jesus does that for us.

Whether it takes an instant, or hours, or days, or decades.

 

The quote goes, “There is no faith without doubt”

I can’t even find exactly who said this because

so many wise people have said this, or a version of it.

Faith often begins with doubt.

Faith bounces back and forth with doubt.

Doubt can strengthen our faith.

Doubt can feed our minds, strive for learning more,

until our hearts can catch up and rest in

God’s love and forgiveness again.

 

When I first started to go back to church in my late 20’s

after many years of absence from church,

I went to an ELCA church. For the first few of weeks

during worship, I opted out of saying the apostles creed.

I would say all the rest of the liturgy, but

I thought to myself, I just don’t know if I can

commit to everything that’s said in the creed.

This went on for a while

until we were in a discussion after church

and someone mentioned the creeds,

and I said, kind of defiantly, maybe proudly,

“I don’t say the creeds, I don’t know that I believe them.”

 

And one of the pillars of the church , someone I considered

a model of the faith, laughed, “Oh, I don’t believe it all the time eithr”

Then her husband who was a seminary professor,

and one of the smartest people I had met said,

“me either” and other people were agreeing with them.

And another seminary professor, who was really

the smartest person I had met til that time, said, “I don’t.

I don’t think any one hasn’t had doubt individually,

But we believe as a community”

 

Although I didn’t fully understand what that meant then.

The conversation stuck out for me in my mind,

because so many people that I looked up to

said they had doubt, and that my doubt wasn’t

horrible, or even unique, but it was a normal

part of being in the community.

It actually helped me move ahead in my faith.

 

And now after these years, I think I understand.

The truth of Christ’s resurrection doesn’t

rely on my individual belief in it at every moment.

When I don’t believe, the rest of the community

will believe for me.

When you can’t say the creed, there are others

who will say it and hold it up for you.

When you can’t believe in God’s love for you,

other people will hold that place for you.

When your faith is shaken by life or circumstances,

other people will be here, to believe for you,

until you’re ready. Then you can hold onto the

faith for them, when they can’t believe.

 

“We doubt individually, but we believe as a community”

 

And I learned from my experience,

that doubt can move us to a deeper faith,

and it moves our community to a deeper faith.

Thomas’s doubt offered the other disciples

another chance to see and experience the risen Christ.

 

Jesus said “Blessed are those who have not

seen and have come to believe.”

 

And blessed are those also, like Thomas, who

have doubted, who question, and who want to see more.