John 20:19-31
a lab, a cathedral and a believing skeptic
April 15, 2012 – Second Sunday of Easter
Roy W. Howard
Let’s face it: Thomas gets a bad rap. Ever since someone named him Doubting Thomas he has been on the end of finger wagging against those believers who might on have a question or two or maybe even a troubling doubt that undermines their faith. The finger waggers may be right and I may have it all wrong, but I don’t think that chastising Thomas and his kin for their doubt is the only takeaway from this gospel story nor the best one. It seems to me that he is like the unlucky one at a stargazing party. While everyone has their eyes turned to the skies, you bend down to scratch a mosquito bite just as they all scream in unison, “Wow! Did you see that; amazing!” You missed it all. Thomas is like that. I call him the unlucky one.
Years ago I heard the great writer Annie Dillard ask a question that still intrigues me and seems to bear on the plight of Thomas. “What’s the difference” she asked, “between a science lab and a Cathedral?” The scientist in the lab follows questions in pursuit of the truth, experimenting, verifying and probing and seeking in the hope that the answer will appear, either the one that is expected or something else unexpected. In research, doubt is not evidence that the pursuit is wrong-headed or the answer impossible. Doubt is the essential question that drives one to press on even when the evidence is not readily apparent. I’m not a scientist but many of you are and you can verify whether this is right.
I am a pastor and a theologian, or at least a pastor who loves theology about as much as baseball. (Which is saying a lot.) I believe what connects the Cathedral – or the sanctuary – to the lab is the pursuit of truth that requires faith and is often driven, if not haunted, by doubt. The believer enters the sanctuary listening, asking questions and seeking truth. Sometimes the answers come in expected forms and other times in ways least expected. The life of faith for a believer is a pursuit of the object of faith – God – in much the same way that a scientist pursues the object of her research, which when you think about it is a form of faith. Anselm called this “faith seeking understanding.” Doubt occurs in scientific research and it occurs in discipleship – or at least hard questions. If one runs too rapidly away from those questions or resists them too reactively, it may in fact cut off prematurely a deeper understanding of the object of one’s pursuit.
In our time, I’ve noticed that militant atheists are the mirror image of militant fundamentalists. Neither is open to any doubt that their position is absolutely right. Both are rigid.
Thomas on the other hand is a disciple of Jesus. He has walked the walk with the others, committing his life to Jesus at considerable personal sacrifice more than most people. He is not a belligerent unbeliever. He is a believer bewildered by what he can’t understand; and this is not the first time. Before Jesus died, he sought to comfort his disciples by telling them that they would not alone even when he departed. “You know the way to the place where I am going.” Of all the disciples, Thomas is the only one to raise any question. Does that mean the others had no questions? Maybe, but I don’t think so. I think Thomas was the one who had the courage to ask the question that would help him know the truth. “Lord,” he says, “we don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?” That, of course, is the question that leads the greatest discovery.
This is the way questions function in the pursuit of faith. If Thomas had not asked the question, he would remain befuddled and bewildered unable to walk forward in the life of faith that Jesus put before him. This is one way that doubt and questions can function for faithful Christian believers who desire to go deeper in the pursuit of the truth. In this case, Jesus declares himself as the very Way that Thomas is wondering about, and the Life and the Truth that will guide Thomas into an uncertain future. Without the questions, the answers don’t always arrive on time or arrive at all.
In his memoir, I and God, the late Lewis Smedes said, “Sometimes I hang on to faith by my fingernails; when the dream of a new world of Jesus’ peace and love is more than two thousand years old and still shows no clear sign of coming true, anybody’s faith is bound to turn to doubt”, at least occasionally.
Yet what I find even more remarkable than Thomas’ doubt, is Jesus’ grace and mercy. First he comes to the disciples locked in fear. He neither chastises nor rebukes them for their fear. Instead he breathes his Spirit upon them and empowers them to carry on his own mission of forgiveness. This is pure grace. And he repeats this grace one week later for the one left in doubt, who bent down to tie his shoes when the star appeared.
Jesus receives Thomas’ questions with an invitation to touch him, which I take as Jesus’ invitation for Thomas to pursue his search until he discovers the One who loves him. Isn’t this the true heart of this tender Gospel story: not to shame anyone into belief by citing Thomas’ doubts but to remind us that Jesus will not forsake us even in our questioning, when our faith falters and our doubts threaten to overwhelm? The One who is risen is no longer bound by barriers of locked doors and broken hearts, faltering faith and fears of death. He comes breathing peace upon his disciples and calling them to a new vocation forgiving the sins of others in the name of the One who forgives all.
Where does Thomas search lead him? His willingness to follow his question lead him to true and abiding faith formed in the depths of doubt. He ends in faith. In the end, Thomas cries, “My Lord and my God!” He joins the other disciples in the mission of Jesus proclaiming forgiveness and freedom.
Yet, Jesus’ lovingly implies that Thomas missed out on something greater. The greater blessing is when one can live with a faith that has no security – nothing to touch, nothing to stand on – only the invisible God of love. “Do you believe because you see?” asks Jesus. “Blessed are they who do not see and yet believe.”
This Word of the Lord addressed to us who live in a post-modern, post-Christian age of technology: Blessed are they who do not see, but believe.
The Lord is risen! (He is risen, indeed.)
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John 20:19-31
a lab, a cathedral and a believing skeptic
April 15, 2012 – Second Sunday of Easter
Let’s face it: Thomas gets a bad rap. Ever since someone named him Doubting Thomas he has been on the end of finger wagging against those believers who might on have a question or two or maybe even a troubling doubt that undermines their faith. The finger waggers may be right and I may have it all wrong, but I don’t think that chastising Thomas and his kin for their doubt is the only takeaway from this gospel story nor the best one. It seems to me that he is like the unlucky one at a stargazing party. While everyone has their eyes turned to the skies, you bend down to scratch a mosquito bite just as they all scream in unison, “Wow! Did you see that; amazing!” You missed it all. Thomas is like that. I call him the unlucky one.
Years ago I heard the great writer Annie Dillard ask a question that still intrigues me and seems to bear on the plight of Thomas. “What’s the difference” she asked, “between a science lab and a Cathedral?” The scientist in the lab follows questions in pursuit of the truth, experimenting, verifying and probing and seeking in the hope that the answer will appear, either the one that is expected or something else unexpected. In research, doubt is not evidence that the pursuit is wrong-headed or the answer impossible. Doubt is the essential question that drives one to press on even when the evidence is not readily apparent. I’m not a scientist but many of you are and you can verify whether this is right.
I am a pastor and a theologian, or at least a pastor who loves theology about as much as baseball. (Which is saying a lot.) I believe what connects the Cathedral – or the sanctuary – to the lab is the pursuit of truth that requires faith and is often driven, if not haunted, by doubt. The believer enters the sanctuary listening, asking questions and seeking truth. Sometimes the answers come in expected forms and other times in ways least expected. The life of faith for a believer is a pursuit of the object of faith – God – in much the same way that a scientist pursues the object of her research, which when you think about it is a form of faith. Anselm called this “faith seeking understanding.” Doubt occurs in scientific research and it occurs in discipleship – or at least hard questions. If one runs too rapidly away from those questions or resists them too reactively, it may in fact cut off prematurely a deeper understanding of the object of one’s pursuit.
In our time, I’ve noticed that militant atheists are the mirror image of militant fundamentalists. Neither is open to any doubt that their position is absolutely right. Both are rigid.
Thomas on the other hand is a disciple of Jesus. He has walked the walk with the others, committing his life to Jesus at considerable personal sacrifice more than most people. He is not a belligerent unbeliever. He is a believer bewildered by what he can’t understand; and this is not the first time. Before Jesus died, he sought to comfort his disciples by telling them that they would not alone even when he departed. “You know the way to the place where I am going.” Of all the disciples, Thomas is the only one to raise any question. Does that mean the others had no questions? Maybe, but I don’t think so. I think Thomas was the one who had the courage to ask the question that would help him know the truth. “Lord,” he says, “we don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?” That, of course, is the question that leads the greatest discovery.
This is the way questions function in the pursuit of faith. If Thomas had not asked the question, he would remain befuddled and bewildered unable to walk forward in the life of faith that Jesus put before him. This is one way that doubt and questions can function for faithful Christian believers who desire to go deeper in the pursuit of the truth. In this case, Jesus declares himself as the very Way that Thomas is wondering about, and the Life and the Truth that will guide Thomas into an uncertain future. Without the questions, the answers don’t always arrive on time or arrive at all.
In his memoir, I and God, the late Lewis Smedes said, “Sometimes I hang on to faith by my fingernails; when the dream of a new world of Jesus’ peace and love is more than two thousand years old and still shows no clear sign of coming true, anybody’s faith is bound to turn to doubt”, at least occasionally.
Yet what I find even more remarkable than Thomas’ doubt, is Jesus’ grace and mercy. First he comes to the disciples locked in fear. He neither chastises nor rebukes them for their fear. Instead he breathes his Spirit upon them and empowers them to carry on his own mission of forgiveness. This is pure grace. And he repeats this grace one week later for the one left in doubt, who bent down to tie his shoes when the star appeared.
Jesus receives Thomas’ questions with an invitation to touch him, which I take as Jesus’ invitation for Thomas to pursue his search until he discovers the One who loves him. Isn’t this the true heart of this tender Gospel story: not to shame anyone into belief by citing Thomas’ doubts but to remind us that Jesus will not forsake us even in our questioning, when our faith falters and our doubts threaten to overwhelm? The One who is risen is no longer bound by barriers of locked doors and broken hearts, faltering faith and fears of death. He comes breathing peace upon his disciples and calling them to a new vocation forgiving the sins of others in the name of the One who forgives all.
Where does Thomas search lead him? His willingness to follow his question lead him to true and abiding faith formed in the depths of doubt. He ends in faith. In the end, Thomas cries, “My Lord and my God!” He joins the other disciples in the mission of Jesus proclaiming forgiveness and freedom.
Yet, Jesus’ lovingly implies that Thomas missed out on something greater. The greater blessing is when one can live with a faith that has no security – nothing to touch, nothing to stand on – only the invisible God of love. “Do you believe because you see?” asks Jesus. “Blessed are they who do not see and yet believe.”
This Word of the Lord addressed to us who live in a post-modern, post-Christian age of technology: Blessed are they who do not see, but believe.
The Lord is risen! (He is risen, indeed.)