What a joy to worship in the community of faith today, a community that offers a safe and restorative place for those who doubt and question.
Below is the audio and text of the sermon “The Doubt Welcoming Community”
Sermon Preached at Trinity Church, Newport Rhode, Island
Sunday April 3 2016, The Reverend Alan Neale
“Doubters Welcome”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the “The Prince of Preachers”, was a 19th century Baptist minister in London. One day, one of his huge (!) congregation approached him and said, “Mr. Spurgeon, I am leaving this church’. When asked why, the man replied, “Well, I am looking for the perfect church”. To which Mr. Spurgeon replied, “If you find it, do not join it… you will spoil it.”
For many the quest for the elusive “perfect church” leads them to places of unquestioned authority be it in the allure of contemporary churches meeting in darkened movie theaters or the bulwark of tradition found in Roman Catholicism.
I intend no ill-will towards, disparagement of such faith communities… but they are not for me. I relish, celebrate, savor the Anglican Communion (of which we are a part). This Anglican Communion of faith is one that respects the question and the doubt, that will not demonize the one who questions nor exile the one who doubts.
Such a community we observe in the disciples huddled together for one week – a week during which all but one celebrated and rejoiced, a week during which one only was defiant in resisting faith in the Resurrection of Jesus. Consider the tensions during that week – (John 20:25) “the disciples told Thomas, ‘We have seen the Master’”. Or better translated, “They kept on telling Thomas”. Do you remember the time when the word “cancer” was said in a whisper; perhaps the blessed disciples tried to be circumspect in their telling of the story (“you know, Thomas, we [sotto voce] have seen the Lord”) – they did not want to hurt, damage, discourage Thomas but yet they could not be silent!
One week later, they are still together. Miracle of miracles, they have managed to keep Thomas within the community of faith and they have created a safe space in which Thomas feels welcomed and respected and valued.
The week had not started well for them. “Later that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house” (John 20:19-20). It was dark and shadowy, they were exhausted and confused, they were afraid and in lock-down – all these circumstances do not make faith easy but they were together and to them the Risen Jesus appeared, well to nearly all of them! We can only speculate the reason Thomas was absent. Maybe he was taking a constitutional, he needed to get “some air”; maybe he was at the local deli gathering what was necessary and practical for the holy band (Thomas was definitely known as the practical one – remember in John 14 as Jesus is expounding the mighty truths of Way, Truth and Life Thomas responds “Well, how can we know the way? Where’s the map?”).
I still hear in Thomas’s strident protestations something of the intransigent, the scoffer, the defiant and the poutish. But who among us would blame or castigate him. The band with whom he had spent three stunning, exciting, challenging years had now experienced the Lord sans Thomas. The band with whom he had laughed, cried, ate, walked and rested had seen the risen Lord sans Thomas and he was… upset.
There is even something about the man’s nickname, Didymus, that suggests a chronic, psychological, innate inability to act decisively. His name means the “Twin” indicating, perhaps, that Thomas was always debating within himself before ever he made a move; even the sound of Didymus indicates some hesitation and indecision. I am reminded of the man being interviewed who was asked, “Do you find it difficult to make a decision?”. His response, “Well yes… and no.”
So Thomas is assailed by external and internal factors, tangible and psychic forces, that propels him to the utterance of doubt and questioning but… he finds a place in the community of faith, and the community of faith finds a place for him.
There are times when it is appropriate, reasonable, judicious to depend upon the faith of others… we do it in our Nicene Creed as we move from “I believe…” to “We believe…”, we observe it in Mark 2 as the crippled man is brought to Jesus for healing by the faith of his friends… literally and figuratively.
We are not told by John whether Thomas actually, as in some gory gothic tale, touched the wounds and inserted his hand in the torn side. I believe he did not; John does not mention it and Jesus commends Thomas for “seeing and believing”.
And so Thomas cries out one of the greatest affirmations of faith in the New Testament “My Lord and My God” – recalcitrant will is bent to the Master’s will and the personal is made one with the Divine.
Blessed are those who doubt and question for their faith will be radical, dynamic and explosive.
I share with you two statements of 12 Step Programs
- Meeting makers make it
- Wait for the miracle
May we as individuals and as a community welcome the question and the doubt and in dogged membership of a faith community remain until we cry “My Master and My Lord” as often and for as long as it takes.
AMEN