\u00c2\u00a0 April 15, 2009<\/p>\n
The great English Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote:\u00c2\u00a0 “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, ten in half the creeds”.\u00c2\u00a0 And yet, every time we hear this Gospel, we usually jump to the conclusion that Thomas’ faith was weak because he doubted.\u00c2\u00a0 So how can Tennyson be right?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
One thing that generally unites us Christians is our Creed.\u00c2\u00a0 No matter whether you are Presbyterian, Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, or any of most other Christian denominations, you believe in the Nicene Creed.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s because it summarizes our belief in the Trinity, Jesus’ Incarnation as true God and True Man, and the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 So, how could Tennyson possibly be right?\u00c2\u00a0 How can a doubting Thomas have more faith than people who profess the Creed?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, first of all, sometimes we just recite the Creed without really thinking about it.\u00c2\u00a0 It becomes second nature, repetitive- in other words, It looses it’s life, its meaning.\u00c2\u00a0 We can recite the Creed, but do we say Amen to it, and really mean that word?\u00c2\u00a0 Contrary to popular belief, Amen doesn’t mean “the end”.\u00c2\u00a0 No, Amen means- Yes, Absolutely. Certainly, I do believe with all my heart.\u00c2\u00a0 When you recite your Creed, is that the way you believe, with a big “Amen”?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now the Gospel we just heard is something that occurred on the first Easter Sunday.\u00c2\u00a0 Put yourselves into the scene as one of the Apostles.\u00c2\u00a0 You are huddled in fear, locked in a room, waiting for the danger to pass.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, your hero, Jesus, who had spoken so long and often about the coming Kingdom of God, and his role as the Son of God, had been snatched like a thief, treated like a common and dangerous criminal, and hung on a Cross.\u00c2\u00a0 You didn’t see any miracles when they tried and convicted your hero; when the flogged him, and led him away; and when they crucified him.\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing- but you expected miracles because you had seen the water turned to wine, blind and sick people cured, and even dead people rising from the dead.\u00c2\u00a0 So, what happened?\u00c2\u00a0 He was gone in a flash, that’s what happened, fulfilling His father’s will. And He had left them all in a state of disarray.\u00c2\u00a0 It all happened so quickly, and the crowd and authorities were so angry.\u00c2\u00a0 Could it happen to you?\u00c2\u00a0 Would it happen to you, as an apostle?\u00c2\u00a0 Would the authorities come and round up the rest of the Jesus crowd.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, Jesus was the ring leader, but there were still those other guys- the Apostles out there.\u00c2\u00a0 So- they all hid, locked in an upper room, waiting and hoping for the danger to pass.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
All that is, except for Thomas.\u00c2\u00a0 He wasn’t there.\u00c2\u00a0 Now Thomas, it seems, had the reputation of being a pessimist.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you look behind the surface, it wasn’t that he was negative, or that he didn’t love Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 It was that Thomas had vision.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me explain.\u00c2\u00a0 When Jesus said he was going to Jerusalem for the Passover, the Apostles expressed fear- they were afraid that the Jews would come after Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 And it was then that Thomas said, sarcastically, “Let us go that we may die also”.\u00c2\u00a0 Pessimistic, yes; but at the same time, Thomas is just showing that he thinks things through.\u00c2\u00a0 He tries to see and think like a chess player, making sure he sees all the moves coming, never to be surprised.\u00c2\u00a0 And he did see the whole terrible scene coming- that was true.\u00c2\u00a0 But he loved Jesus enough to follow after Him even when he expected the coming disaster.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I can relate to well to Thomas.\u00c2\u00a0 I was an engineer for 35 years before I retired and became a Deacon.\u00c2\u00a0 People used to think I was a pessimist, too.\u00c2\u00a0 But part of it was just the ability to see things coming.\u00c2\u00a0 It was that analytic mind that God gifted me with.\u00c2\u00a0 And frequently the disasters I dreaded happened too.\u00c2\u00a0 “If only others had listened”, I would think.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll bet lots of you think that way also.\u00c2\u00a0 Likewise, Thomas doesn’t just blindly accept things on Faith, either.\u00c2\u00a0 He had to think things through to be convinced.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, maybe Thomas wasn’t with the rest of the Apostles because he was doing just that.\u00c2\u00a0 He needed to be alone, and think things through.\u00c2\u00a0 And when you think things through, one of the things that plagues you, is doubt- real doubt.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s kind of like when you decide to get married, as I think about it.\u00c2\u00a0 If you didn’t go through a period of doubt before you got married, then you didn’t think very hard about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Be honest about it- when you thought about getting married, you had to work through the doubt, didn’t you.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now I say all this because it is important to understand that there is, in fact, more belief in doubt than in half the Creeds.\u00c2\u00a0 Tennyson was right.\u00c2\u00a0 Because there is a big difference between really believing by saying “Amen” in the true sense of the word, and just reciting the Creed.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, we can’t say “Amen” to our Creed truthfully unless we work through the doubt.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, there’s a curious thing about Jesus way of dealing with people.\u00c2\u00a0 Jesus was very patient with Thomas.\u00c2\u00a0 Jesus just very lovingly asks Thomas to do what Thomas requested in his own words.\u00c2\u00a0 Contrast that with Jesus attitude about hypocrites; or when Peter admonished Jesus not to talk about dying on a Cross, or when Jesus encountered moneychangers in the Temple.\u00c2\u00a0 Jesus got angry in all three of these cases.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Jesus said that those who did not see, and believed, were blessed.\u00c2\u00a0 But, Jesus was patient with Thomas.\u00c2\u00a0 Thomas stood before Him undoubtedly waiting for the scathing words and a tongue lashing for his unbelief. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But, they never came. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Rather, Jesus was patient with Thomas, and just gave him the facts \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0And Jesus is patient with us.\u00c2\u00a0 He gives us a lifetime to put it all together; to gather the facts, and to resolve our doubts.\u00c2\u00a0 Once Thomas believed, he made the clearest statement of recognition of Jesus as God in the Gospels.\u00c2\u00a0 Without touching, as Thomas had requested, Thomas said “My Lord and My God”.\u00c2\u00a0 Thomas said “Amen” in the true sense of the word.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unlike the Apostles locked up in that room, who knew Jesus first hand, and lived the events of the First Easter, actually seeing the resurrected Christ, we have the dilemma that Thomas had.\u00c2\u00a0 We are challenged to work through our doubts, and to believe, with a great “Amen”, that Jesus did rise from the dead without seeing Him.\u00c2\u00a0 To do that, we will experience doubt- recurring doubt.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
In today’s world, there are many who try to explain away the significance of the resurrection; many who don’t really believe it happened.\u00c2\u00a0 They refuse to believe- they believe only what they can see; only what science can “prove”.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t go through a cycle of doubt and resolution, but rather, they just choose not to believe.\u00c2\u00a0 In the end, Faith is believing without seeing. \u00c2\u00a0Real faith and belief is based on the revelation of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior to us.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s saying “Amen” to all the things we believe in our Creed.\u00c2\u00a0 It is fine honed by recurring cycles of doubt, resolved by that inner voice inside of us, God validating his Presence over and over again.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
We are in the peak of the Easter season.\u00c2\u00a0 If you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that he died for you, was resurrected from the Dead, and that you will be saved, then rejoice, and say after me: Jesus Christ is risen; He is indeed!- “Amen”.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0 April 15, 2009 Second Sunday of Easter Jn 20: 19-31 Westminster Tower Dc. Larry Brockman The great English Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote:\u00c2\u00a0 “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, ten in half the creeds”.\u00c2\u00a0 And yet, every time we hear this Gospel, we usually jump to the conclusion that Thomas’ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}