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Easter 1
April 7, 2002
Raita Neely

All Saints Lutheran Church
April 7, 2002
Pastor Raita Neely
1Peter 1:3-9; John 20: 19 -31 Easter 1

I am glad it is the Easter season, and yet at this most joyous and hopeful time, I am also concerned and praying every day about the mid-east conflict. So many suicide bombings! The violence keeps escalating. Leaders are resorting to political rhetoric and power, instead of trying to solve the issues through peaceful means. The headlines tell us a sad story about human conflicts.

Headlines are written to get our attention and quickly explain world events. Often, we catch up on events by simply reading the headlines or watching the ticker tape news on the cable channels. In one minute you can have the world's happenings. But I realize and so do you that things are much more complex than headlines. We must always look deeper into the story to learn what is going on.

I wonder what the headlines would have been that first Easter? "Crucified Jesus Reported to be Alive" - "One Disciple Has Doubts" - "Is There Life After Death?" Certainly these are some possibilities. But let's look deeper into "One Disciple Has Doubts."

As we think about Thomas, maybe we will even change the headline to "From Doubt to Faith." Because for Thomas, out of the agony of his doubt came his faith's strongest confession:" My Lord and my God."

Yet so many remember Thomas as "the doubter." His bitter words, "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" remain etched in our memory. But that painful moment in his spiritual pilgrimage was not his stopping point. In fact, once he saw Jesus was alive, Thomas' faith was stronger for the doubt that had preceded it. The finished steel of his confession was forged in the heart of an honest man who would not glibly pretend a faith he did not have.

Let's face it. The death of Jesus put a huge question mark in front of everything all the disciples believed. Luke tells us that all the disciples dismissed the women's report of the resurrection as "an idle tale". (Lk24:11) Death had always meant the end before. Why not this time?

In many ways a little hard-nosed skepticism can be an invaluable asset in the life of faith. It keeps one from being victimized by charlatans and con artists. Cults, for example, thrive on "blind faith". But a faith that is "blind" isn't faith at all. In fact, in John's gospel, faith is the capacity to "see" God's truth in Jesus. And sometimes doubt is the darkness that precedes the dawning of a greater faith.

Some degree of doubting is probably essential if we are to take whatever faith we learned from others and make it our own. Does your faith reflect your own study of Scripture and experience of God? A living faith doesn't come straight off the rack. Always, there must be some elements of personal struggle and tailoring.

It is interesting to me, that though Thomas wore a big D on his forehead, he still had a place among the community of believers. No one said to him, "Thomas, we're tired of your raining on our parade. We're tired of your probing questions and critical spirit. Why don't you take your doubts and go somewhere else?" Instead, when the other disciples told Thomas of seeing the Lord in his absence, they invited Thomas to bring his doubts with him and take his place at the table. So the next time Jesus appeared, Thomas was there.

The worst thing any of us can do when we are struggling with doubt is to cut ourselves off from the community of faith. Had Thomas persisted in such a go-it-alone spirituality, his doubts may well have hardened into cynicism or despair. But because he kept his doubts in creative tension with the witness of the others, his doubts were but a way station in his journey of faith and not a final destination.

Unfortunately, when doubt strikes, many people do cut themselves off from their faith community at the very time they need it the most. So often this happens in the young person who is past high school age and heads for college or other learning experiences. At a time in life when our young people are challenged in their faith because they have been challenged by new teachings and new lifestyles, they are often inactive in a congregation. As a consequence, the student tends to develop intellectually and socially while his or her spiritual growth is on hold. Sadly, many young people graduate from college with their childhood faith in ruins, and with nothing better built in its place.

Some people disconnect from their congregation at a time when they face a setback, a tragedy, or are grieving. At such a time, when doubts and pain are circling their wounded faith like vultures, some find it difficult to remain active in the church. The church reminds them of assurances that seem shallow or prayers that weren't answered, at least not as they had hoped. Yet to drop out of church as such a time is to rob yourself of the very resource needed to keep doubt and despair from overwhelming your soul.

Somehow, Thomas was given the grace to be present in the community of believers when the risen Christ appeared the second time. The Lord greeted his disciples as before: "Peace be with you". Then he turned to Thomas, inviting him to touch him.

Such encouragement in the struggle to believe is a sign of our risen Lord's presence. To whatever extent possible, Jesus gives us what we need to commit ourselves to him: sometimes other believers whose vibrant faith raises the possibility of our own; other times the hint of an unseen presence weaving amid surprising circumstances we just can't quite ascribe to chance; so often it's a passage from Scripture that speaks with pointed relevance to our most pressing need. Always, Jesus is coaxing us as he coaxed Thomas to move through our doubt in the direction of faith. For while the territory of doubt is a place we all visit, it is a terrible place to live permanently.

Thomas stood there in that upper room with a quivering jaw and a broken heart. Seeing his Lord before him, he felt no need to touch. Instead, overcome with wonder and awe, he fell to his knees exclaiming, "My Lord and my God!" Thomas could believe because he saw.

We belong to a different place and time. We have neither seen the Jesus of history nor feasted our eyes upon the risen Christ. To help us, Jesus spoke words to Thomas aimed past him straight at us: "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet..believe."

Robed in those words, the living Christ comes seeking us as he came to those first disciples who were crippled by fear and doubt. He offers us the same life-giving promise: "Peace be with you". Though we cannot see Jesus as they did, he is no less real. For as be breathes his Spirit upon us, we experience the gentle calm of his peace. And in the joy of his presence, the icy grip of doubt begins to melt.

During the Korean War, the U.N. forces used a certain bridge to supply troops to the front. Unfortunately, the bridge was in an area prone to flooding and often disappeared beneath the swollen river. When this happened, the drivers learned to guide their vehicles down to the edge of the river and then nudge them ever so slowly into the water at the point where the bridge ought to be. Always it was there, and throughout the war, that bridge never failed or washed away. It was ever present to support the troops that passed across it.

So it is with the living Christ. Though not visible to our eye, he is present still the same. And every time we venture out in faith and entrust ourselves to him, we discover his power to hold us, to see us through. When we call on him, there is an answering presence. And as we walk with him, we are assured with his words, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

From the depths of Thomas's doubt sprang the highest confession in John's Gospel: "My Lord and my God!" In the end he wasn't doubting Thomas, but believing Thomas.

This morning we can thank Thomas for what he teaches us - we can trust our Lord enough to bring even our doubts him. He doesn't fear facing them, why should we?