SECOND EASTER 2010

11 April 2010

Deacon Carl Knapp

I like Thomas. I really like Thomas. He speaks up, and he sure isn’t politically correct. Thomas shows us that doubt and faith go together. Thomas doubted not from a lack of faith; but because he had faith. His doubt simply drove him to reaffirm the faith that was such an important part of his life. But it was a struggle.

For Thomas, the cross was what he had expected all along. When Jesus was proposing to go to Bethany, to see Lazarus; Thomas said: “Let us also go that we may die with him.” [Jn 11:16] Thomas fully expected that when Jesus went to Jerusalem the authorities would use the opportunity to seize Jesus. Thomas never lacked courage. But in so many ways Thomas was a natural pessimist. There can no doubt that Thomas loved Jesus. He loved him enough to be willing to go to Jerusalem and to die with him.

What Thomas in his pessimism had expected really happened. The Messiah had been killed, and Thomas was broken –hearted. So broken-hearted that he could not meet the eyes of the other followers. So he went away. He wanted to be alone with his grief. King George the Fifth said that one of his rules of life was: “If I have to suffer, let me be like a well bred animal, and let me go and suffer alone.”

Thomas went to face his suffering and his sorrow alone. And so it happened that when Jesus did return to the disciples, Thomas was not there. The news that Jesus had come back seemed to him unbelievable and he refused to accept it. In his pessimism he then became angry. He said he would never believe until he had seen and handled the prints of the nails in Jesus’ hands and thrust his own hand into the wounded side. Now, Thomas’ doubt had begun to smother his faith. In his aloneness, his doubt was turning him bitter.

Another week passed and then Jesus came to his followers again. Thomas was there. Maybe he was starting to come out of his grief. Maybe he had begun to realize that the place to be was not folded up within himself, but, rather, to be with the other followers. Jesus knew the very heart and being of Thomas. He repeated Thomas’ own words and then he invited Thomas to make the test that Thomas had demanded.

Thomas’ heart must have broken at this same moment that it rejoiced. All that he could say was, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

Jesus is really saying to Thomas: ‘Thomas, you’ve been looking in all the wrong places. You’ve had all kinds of doubts. But you should have kept looking and then you could have believed. Thomas, all things in life can’t be seen. Sometimes, Thomas, we have to believe when we have not seen.’

The true tragedy for Thomas was not a lack of love or faithfulness. The pity for this good man was that for days he lived in the anguish of uncertainty and doubt. He failed to have his hopes realized because he was looking in the wrong places. The disciples were all together, but he was not with them. He was alone, and thus he did not see the Risen Lord of Life.

In the on-going battle between doubt and faith, we must learn from Thomas that we can only find the answers of faith in fellowship and in community. This was the mistake that Thomas made. He withdrew from the Christian fellowship. He sought solace in loneliness rather than togetherness. We, too, miss a great deal when we separate ourselves from Christian fellowship. Things can happen to us within the fellowship of Christ’s community, which can never happen to us when we are alone.

When Jesus spoke to them and breathed the Holy Spirit upon them; they gained an understanding of what it meant to be together as fellow Christians; to seek, and to search, to console, and to grieve, to forgive and to seek forgiveness as well as to rejoice with one another. When Thomas found himself with others who were looking, waiting and praying; then he found Jesus Christ.

Doubt breeds doubt; while faith breeds faith. The fellowship of believers means that we come together with those who confess and believe so that we can share our concerns. So that we can share an understanding of what God is trying to say to us. So that, in community, we can share one another’s burdens, joys, sorrows and questions. The community of faith is the arena in which we can ask those questions that relate to our faith because this is where we gain understanding of what God’s Word says for each of us as individuals and as a community.

Our doubts should drive us to find answers. Our whole civilization has been built on doubt. It has been built on the drive of persons who were dissatisfied with the old answers, so they began to push into new frontiers of knowledge. Copernicus doubted that the sun went around the earth. Columbus doubted that the earth was flat. Robert Fulton and James Watt doubted that power and movement were limited to the strength of men, horses, and the wind. With the steam engine they egan the parade that now includes space ships.

Doubting is good when it leads us on a search for the truth and for knowledge. It was the doubting of Thomas that made him separate himself from his fellow believers. But it was also the doubting of Thomas that led him to seek the answers. That, in turn, drove him back into the fellowship of other people, and then he made his great confession of faith as he gave himself to the Risen Christ. It was important for Thomas to doubt. It was important for him to say, ‘I don’t believe it; and I won’t believe it until I see it myself.’ To be effective doubts must always lead to questioning, searching, and then answers. In our faith life, doubts should lead us to deeper faith.

And this is part of our life in Christ. We doubt, and yet we find the answers through relationships to other Christians and the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we move from doubt to renewed faith. That renewed faith causes us to seek out others; to find the Christ in others. Doubt is always linked to faith; and faith must always be linked to other people. A faith in Jesus Christ is always a proclamation and a moving out and doing as Jesus would go and do.

There is great power in the Good News, but the power has to be used.

The Great Lakes are majestic and immense. That same water, when it reaches the Niagara River becomes a raging torrent. It tumbles over Niagara Falls and it is fantastic to see. Yet when part of it is channeled into turbines it produces electricity that provides light, heat, and energy for thousands of homes, factories, and offices. The potential energy is always there, but it is useful only when the source is channeled and controlled. The power of God is still here among us. It’s like the Niagara River. When our lives are channels through which that power can move, miraculous things can happen. It means that as we struggle through doubts in our lives; our faith will drive us out to live the Good News. We are going to make an impression on others. And they, in turn, will be assured that they too can come to the place where they will receive that power and that strength so that we can together – as individuals and as a community – confess as Thomas did: ‘My Lord and my God.”