Apr. 16, 2023

If you looked at your bulletin this morning you would have seen a notice that we have a guest preacher this morning.  However, if you look at this pulpit you see the same old preacher you had last week.

The words I want to share with you this morning were originally preached by my Grandfather Ernest Parker in April of 1985 at the two small parishes he served in rural North Carolina.  Just a week after Easter and preaching the resurrection message, my grandfather bared his soul and in doing so I know that he touched those congregations.  It is my prayer that his words touch you this morning.

I base my life on things that I can see and touch – things I know for sure.  

I can’t believe in God because I have no proof.  

All these stories about Jesus seem too miraculous, too fantastic.  I can’t believe them.  Miracles are supposed to be a proof of Jesus’s reality, but for me they just make for more questioning.

I believe - I really do – but there are some parts of faith that give me serious trouble.

I’ve heard all of these comments and maybe you’ve heard them too.  Perhaps you have said something like this yourself.  I worry that I have some of these doubts about my own faith.

In our scripture reading today, we see that Thomas has those serious doubts.  He stands among the disciples and says, “unless I have seen his hands and the print of the nails and place my fingers in the mark of the nails and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”  

You and I can identify with Thomas, can’t we?  Like Thomas, we want to know for sure.  We want to be shown. Haven’t most of us wished at one time or another that we could have Christ appear for us to show us his hands, feet, and side we who would like Jesus to talk with us. Then we could know for sure. We could be absolutely convinced. Then we could believe without doubt.

We don’t talk much about the questioning though. Doubting doesn’t feel very good. Maybe we have the sense that if we were really deep Christians, we wouldn’t have these questions. As we look around ourselves, we see people who seem to have all the answers to religion. Their faith seems to be absolute. And if we talk about our doubts or questions, we feel that our faith is inferior to theirs. Billy Graham once said that he never has serious doubts. We ask ourselves why can’t we be like that? Are we inferior Christians because we sometimes have to struggle with our faith? Sometimes we would like to just see Christ raised from the dead and in bodily form. So that we could know for sure.

This is what Thomas’s defiant cry was about. “Unless I see his hands and the print of the nails and place my finger in the mark of the nails and place my hands in his side I will not believe.” Can you hear yourself anywhere in that cry? Thomas wants sure evidence. He wants to see first-hand. Wouldn’t you and I like that experience also? This represents one of the rare times when Christ responds to a challenge for proof. The risen Christ appears to Thomas with the prints in his hands and shows his sides.  Jesus offers Thomas what he needs for his faith. Then, he offers a challenge after Thomas is satisfied. Now, come follow me. 

Thomas defiantly insists on evidence on Jesus’s resurrection. Christ gives it to him, along with the challenge to join in ministry. Tradition has it that Thomas gave the rest of his life in radical commitment to serving God. Tradition says that Thomas was the first missionary to India, and he spent the rest of his life spreading the Gospel message throughout the land. Thomas demanded to see Christ face to face before he would believe. But when he did, it turned out to mean so much more than he bargained for.

So, you and I would like to see Christ face to face but that is not going to happen to us. Christ will not appear and show us his hands and feet and side. We are not going to in a literal sense hear Christ’s voice, nor will we touch his wounds. Imagine if the Lord did appear for every doubting soul around the world. Look, see me.  See the prints.  Touch my side.  Now can you believe?  Wasn’t Thomas’s experience for all of us who have doubts? Even if even if Christ did appear for every serious doubt that a person had, some people still wouldn’t believe. For some folks it still wouldn’t be enough. 

For instance, with all the physical evidence, films and even survivors, there are still people who do not believe the Holocaust and there are some of them that it happened during their lifetime. They would not believe in Christ.

But I think that the basic point is that God asks for faith, not proof. He asked us to believe even though we haven’t seen. Jesus says to Thomas “have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen me but yet believe.” God asks for our trust as difficult as that may be sometimes.

But you and I can still see God. We can’t see God face to face, but we can still experience God. You and I don’t have the opportunity like Thomas to touch Christ’s hands, feet and side. We can’t directly talk with him and get answers to our questions. But we still have experiences that make Christ real to us. One way that we experience God in Christ is through other people. For it is the witness of other people that helps our own faith. Because we know that Thomas doubted and then saw Christ and was radically changed, we can see Christ at work in someone else’s life and be radically changed ourselves. That movement in their life affects our life and faith. 

For example, we know that after Christ’s arrest and crucifixion the disciples were disappointed, and they went off scattered in different directions. They felt betrayed because they had put their trust in Jesus, followed him and were committed to him. However, there he was hung on a cross like a common criminal. They were depressed but for some reason they all came back together. For some reason they changed from angry, lonely and despondent to radically committed Christians. Most of them gave their lives because they believed so deeply in the resurrected Christ. What caused that radical change if it was not Christ’s resurrection? The lives of those people help us in our faith today.

What about people like Martin Luther King Junior? The reason for his commitment to justice was his radical commitment to God. Doesn’t that life and faith say something to our faith? Or there is Dietrich Bonhoeffer who worked to overthrow Hitler.  Risking his own life for others because he was radically committed to Christ. 

The lives of other people help us to see God in our own life. We have examples all through the Bible and all through history. They are all around us If we look carefully. But we can also see God in our own lives. You and I can sense God with us. Have you ever felt all alone? Have you felt shut out from the rest of the world without much support?  Sometimes in those moments the presence of God is the most real. Not a dramatic grabbing of your life but a sense that you are not alone. There is a support from beyond yourself a special ability to hang on. There is a feeling of nearness. Or maybe God’s presence comes to you as a strength beyond what you could normally do.  There’s an ability to press on and to survive. 

For some people the personal experience of God is deeply moving within them. Stop rushing around long enough to listen. There is within us a sense of God’s presence.  Think about psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.” If we seek and talk with God enough, we are able to sense his presence with us as we go through our daily lives.

Doubting Thomas - I think you and I can identify with him. Almost all of us have had doubts like he did.  Thomas was the lucky one though. He got to see Christ face to face he had the chance to touch and to talk with him. Maybe if we slow down, if we open our eyes, if we unclog our ears, if we open our hearts to the Spirit, if we allow ourselves to be moved, we can experience God too. It may not be face to face but it will be firsthand and heart to heart.

Those words spoke to me this week as I read them for the first time, and I pray they have spoken to you this Sunday morning.

Please pray with me…

Lord Jesus, we come as always in thanksgiving for your sacrifice and your love for us.  Help us in our difficult times to feel that nearness to you.  In our times of doubt, remind us that you will not let go.  You are the shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the one.  For that we are ever grateful and eternally blessed.  Thank you, Jesus for Thomas.  Like Peter so many times before, we appreciate hearing one of the disciples speak words that we could imagine saying ourselves.  We pray to you this Sunday after Easter to continue to work within us and help us to open our hearts fully to let you in.  A-men.