Have you ever thought that it must have been easier

          to be a disciple of Jesus back in the first third of the first century?

                   If you had been among the Twelve, and the women,

                             and the others who followed Jesus-in-the-flesh?

 

The author of the first letter of Peter was writing

          to the next generation of followers,

                   and he may have been writing to us as well:

                             Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do

                                    not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribably and

                                    glorious joy…

 

We haven’t seen him in the flesh,

          but most of us would say that yes, we have seen him … with our inner eye,

                   just as we hear his call to follow with our inner ear.

 

Here we are with Thomas again.

          This story comes up every year,

                   every second Sunday of every year of the lectionary.

                             I don’t mind, because I identify strongly with Thomas.

 

I know that I’ve shared with you before

          that I consider that Thomas has gotten a bad rap through the ages.

                   “The Doubter,” so many have called him.

 

But have you noticed that Thomas doesn’t ask for anything from Jesus

          that the other disciples hadn’t gotten?

                   Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus first appeared to the others

                             after the resurrection.

                   And on that occasion he showed them his hands and his side

                             and only then, according to John, did they rejoice

                                      “because they saw the Lord.”

 

Thomas believes, also, when he sees and touches Jesus’ wounds.

          When he proclaims “My Lord and my God!”

                   he is actually saying that he has encountered

                             nothing less than the presence of God in the risen Jesus.

 

One of the reasons many call this disciple “Doubting Thomas”

          is because they assume that the more faith we have

                   the fewer questions we’ll ask.

 

But a Biblical Preaching professor, David Lose, points out that

          …the Bible offers a different picture of faith, one in which faith and doubt are woven

            much closer together than we might imagine.  Faith, after all, isn’t knowledge but instead

            “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” ((Hebrews 11:1)

 

Faith and doubt woven tightly together.

          That is my experience of faith.

                   The more I have doubted and sought answers,

                             the more deeply into the questions I have gone.

 

I’m currently reading a book by Frank Schaeffer,

          who was a fundamentalist evangelist

                   but who has grown into what I’m calling “Christian skepticism.”

 

The title of the book is Patience with God: 

          Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion {or Atheism}.

                   In the prologue to this book Schaeffer writes

                             This is a book for those of us who have faith in God the same way we

                                    might have the flu, less a choice than a state of being in spite of doubt…

                                    this book is for those of us who are stuck feeling that there is more to life

                                    than meets the eye… If an angel showed up outside my office window and

                                    explained “everything” to me, I’d simultaneously question my sanity, be

                                    scared as hell, and feel mightily relieved, because believing in invisible

                                    things is tough.  (pp.xi-xii)

 

Yes, “believing in invisible things is tough.”

          But no angel has appeared to explain everything to me, either.

                   Still, doubt is not for me the opposite of faith.

                             Doubt is instead the almost-constant companion of faith.

 

As Frederick Buechner wrote,

          Doubt is “the ants in the pants of faith.”

                   For faith is not certainty.

                             For the certainties of life we need no faith.

                                      I stand on the floor:

                                                I cannot reach the ceiling.

                                                          I don’t need faith for these things.

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. said once that

          “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

                   And the writer of Hebrews was right, faith is

                                    “… the conviction of things not seen.”

 

Say, maybe this passage from John’s Gospel, too, is about us:

          “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

                   Isn’t that you and me?

                             It’s not only about us,

                                      but about all the “cloud of witnesses”

                                                who have come to believe in Jesus as the Christ.

 

Have you seen the risen Christ?

          Have you seen Christ in the face of a loved one?

          In the smile of someone who seemingly has no reason to smile?

          In the embrace of a parent and a child?

          In the gentle touch of a nurse, ministering to a hospice patient?

         

Have you known the risen Christ in the sudden realization

          that you are loved for who you are, not for what you’ve done?

                   or in that “Aha!” moment when the Scriptures are opened to you

                             and it all makes sense,

                                      even for the brief time that moment lasts?

 

Have you sensed the presence of Christ among us

          in the glorious music of Easter morning?

                   Or in the gathering of the community around the table,

                             remembering that Jesus as the Christ was among us

                                      and feeling that Christ is truly with us in spirit

                                                as we remember him in word and in deed?

 

I have seen the risen Christ right in this building,

          in interactions verbal and non-verbal,

                   in one who intuits another’s pain and gives a hug,

                             or a smile, or a kind word;

          in the grace one shows another with whom he or she has disagreed;

                   in the way everyone pulls together when there is a need.

 

Have you seen Jesus with the eyes of faith?

          You who have not seen him with your eyeballs, yet you love him,

                   Come, let us sing a hymn together,

                             and then let us seek him in our act of communing.

 

And may all the glory belong to God.  Amen.