RESURRECTION AND DOUBT

John 20:24-29; Luke 24:36b-48

Preached Canberra Baptist, April 30 2006

Today is Easter Sunday. Two Sundays ago was Easter Sunday and we sang up from the grave he arose and carried in flowers and turned on all the lights and celebrated in songs and chocolates and readings and were glad to see so many worshiping together. But that spirit of Easter Sunday can continue today, and every Sunday. Every Sunday can be Easter Sunday. At the Taize community in France Easter is celebrated every weekend – each Friday night the community gather around the cross and every Sunday is a celebration of resurrection. In fact every day can be an Easter day – a day we are freed from the power of death, a day where there is gratitude in our lives for the living presence of Jesus, a day when renewal and hope and joy is possible because we are people of the resurrection.

During Lent we spoke of the journey of discipleship – we asked where are our feet taking us, we were challenged to walk the road to the cross even though it was an uphill road and a dark way. But now we are journeying on bathed in the light of Christ’s resurrection.

So isn’t it interesting that as we come to the post-Easter texts in the gospels – the texts following the mightiest act of God, when Jesus has just been raised from the dead, there is doubt. The first disciples should have been filled with energy and inspiration, but instead look at some of the stories we have:

• A weeping Mary Magdalene at the tomb, who even when Jesus stands beside her and speaks to her can’t recognize her dearest friend and instead supposes him to be the gardener tending the graveyard.
• Two other disciples walking along a road to Emmaus where they encounter a stranger but only in hindsight recognize that the person they were talking and eating with was Jesus.
• The end of the gospel of John where we see a closed door and a sign hung up which says “Gone Fishing” – half a dozen of the key disciples have gone back to their old way of life, and again they don’t recognize Jesus when he comes to them.
• And the two passages we read today – a group of disciples hearing the story of Emmaus but still terrified and doubtful when Jesus comes to them there.
• And perhaps the best known story of all: the story of Doubting Thomas, refusing to believe the stories of other encounters until he had seen for himself.

What do we make of these stories and the fact that doubt, fear and disbelief seem to be so integrated into even the Easter Day texts?

DOUBT/FEAR/JOY

Before turning to the general discussion of doubt I think it is worth taking a closer look at Thomas. He’s like one of those kids you hope yours never becomes – someone who gets a reputation for one thing they said or did and can never shake it. If you were asked to describe the characters of the disciples there would probably be a fair bit of variety in your answers until it came to Thomas – almost anyone who has any inkling of the gospel would immediately describe him as a doubter. In fact the term Doubting Thomas has become part of English idiom. But even the little note in the text that says he was called “the Twin” indicates he was a character who was singled out and distinguished by a nickname so he wouldn’t be confused with other Thomas’s in the early church community. And in John’s gospel particularly, he had a couple of quite significant contributions. In chapter 11, the passage that describes the raising of Lazarus, the disciples try to dissuade Jesus from going back to Judea when he hears about Lazarus, because it is a dangerous move. People were already out to get Jesus and they felt he would be putting himself in danger’s path. But in this conversation it was Thomas who said to the others, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” It seems he was a brave man but also an honest one. A few chapters later Jesus is again speaking of his approaching death, and it is Thomas who says “Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

In John’s gospel often one of the characters is representative of the others, either to put into words what others are thinking or express some ideal truth or attitude. So rather than being a chronic “doubter”, Thomas is representing in one case an exemplary attitude to following Jesus, even to death; in another case a sense of confusion about the future, and in the third situation he becomes the spokesperson for an important issue in the early church - whether Jesus’ resurrection was physical or spiritual, and whether discipleship was possible for those who had not been present with the earthly Jesus. So his insistence on seeing and touching gave a vehicle for the description of the physical reality of Jesus, and the encounter was a context for the important statement “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe”.

But far from being a story that denies the possibility of doubt, it seems to me that Thomas’ story and all the post-resurrection stories that include questions and uncertainty and a failure to recognize are there to assure us that doubt is not a lack of faith, but an expression of it. People try to express it in different terms – “honest doubt” or “faithful doubting” are two examples – in the sense of doubt that seeks to know the truth rather than doubt that seeks to avoid the truth. I have heard several people in this church speak of the fact that the further they travel in their Christian journey the less certain they become about aspects of their faith. It even seems to be a mark of spiritual maturity and integrity to reach a point of being able to “Live the Questions” as the small group program of spiritual formation and faith exploration is named rather than “know all the answers”. Questioning and doubting is often a healthy step to a larger sense of faith and love.

And I think it really is possible to “live the questions”. Listen again to the disciples in Luke as they struggled to grasp the truth of who Jesus was – we are told “in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering”. This is a wonderful description of mixed emotions, of the ambiguity that faith often instills in us: and in a way an expression of my sense of call to ministry. In the space of a week I can have a conversation with someone about whether even I am certain God exists, then be told that a sermon I had agonized over had just the right message for someone else, then be described as an angel because I was there for someone at the right time… there is often joy – disbelief – wonder mixed up in ministry. Despite my doubts there is often affirmation from this community that I am in the right place doing the right job.

And it is interesting that as John tells the story of Thomas the fact that he wasn’t present when the rest of the disciples were met by Jesus is significant. Whatever reason is behind that there is an importance in being part of a community which together discerns the power and challenge of the resurrection.

LOOK AT MY HANDS AND MY FEET

We have two long banners in front of us that were made on Palm Sunday. I spoke before of the way we were thinking of the journey of faith, and the need to follow Christ even on the road to the cross. The feet symbolize that – people at different ages and stages moving forward together. And the hands are a different mark of discipleship: a symbol of the work we do as members of God’s kingdom. Foot prints and hand prints are marks of who we are, and what it means to be followers of Jesus. I thought it was interesting that the two passages we have read today both stress the marks of the crucifixion as integral to the post-resurrection Jesus. In Luke Jesus offers his hands and feet to the disciples, in John Thomas asks to see them and touch them. In both cases the demonstration of victory over death, the signs of the resurrection, are the wounds of the crucified one. “look at my hands and my feet. Put your hand in my side. Base your belief on those marks, those wounds.” It was a reminder that what he had been teaching and the way he had been living – a way that got him crucified in fact, was the way they had to continue to live as his followers.

Some commentaries make much of the person of Thomas as a modern man – someone we can relate to – someone who is like us skeptics of the 21 st century, who wants scientific proof before he can believe. But it was probably a lot less to do with proof of the bodily resurrection than in relation to dispelling preconceived ideas of who Jesus was and what his life was about. The fear and pain the disciples felt must have been part of the natural grief of untimely and cruel death, but as much to do with the fact that their hopes for a new kingdom had been crushed with that death, and their expectations were left unfulfilled. Hence the comment earlier in John 20, that “as yet they did not understand the scripture”. Hence the fervent discussions between the travelers to Emmaus, trying to make sense of their hopes in light of the scriptures and of the reports they were hearing. When Jesus showed Thomas his hands and side he was showing that their expectations needed new understanding: that it was the crucified one who was raised, it was his sacrificial way of life that was vindicated and needed to be emulated. The resurrection did not cancel out the crucifixion, but affirmed it as the means of grace and love.

Someone in our time who has followed this way of life remarkably was Mother Teresa – a woman whose vocation was to touch wounds, and see in these real flesh and blood wounds the marks of Jesus. Her life was based on faith in the resurrection, but faith in the one whose wounds can make even the poorest and vilest of humankind whole.

And so these stories tell us that resurrection and our call to mission cannot be separated. I’ve quoted another Teresa – Teresa of Avila before – but her words are totally apt again: “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.”

TOUCH AND SEE

We’ve been trying to view the resurrection in the light of a natural and healthy level of doubt, seeing that doubt can be part of faith and can become part of the path to a greater awareness and commitment. But doubt can also become a blockage, an excuse for inaction, a crippling force. There have been several times in my life either in my ministry or my relationships where I have felt so debilitated by what I don’t know that I haven’t felt able to offer anything of value. But at those times, the only way forward was to focus on what I could believe, and act on that. There are some things worth living for, and we need to commit ourselves to them, we need to get involved. Jesus’ challenge to his disciples was “touch and see”. Throw in your lot with what you do know and get on with it! Live life in the light of what you can understand, even if it is only a little, and in doing that faith will grow. Even with doubts, when we respond to the word and the challenge of Christ, we find faith and meaning.

A few weeks ago Jim and I talked about a way of concretely focusing on the Easter story in the church community. We thought we could throw out the challenge for each of you to look for the risen Jesus in your everyday experience, and spend some time in our worship in asking you to report back. In the busyness of preparing for Easter we forgot about that conversation but I remembered it as I was reading these passages and preparing for this sermon. Because in both instances Jesus was suddenly, unexpectedly, startlingly, marvelously amongst them. The surprise of God’s presence in the midst of doubt and despair is the heart of the Easter message. The first Easter after David died had a number of those surprising moments for me. It was a difficult Easter, but in unexpected times and places a word was said, or a phrase highlighted in something I read, or a touch of kindness from a friend, which brought home the fact that my grief and pain was not forgotten or ignored by God. Moments of grace. A few days ago I went to see the movie “Tsotsi” with a couple of others from the church. It was a tragic story, with a sad ending, and yet it was a parable of transformation, showing that love and commitment to another person could be a means of salvation for a life otherwise doomed to destruction.

As we stand together as a church community on this Easter day, I pray that Jesus himself will stand among us, showing us his hands and feet and challenging us to touch and see – to be his hands and feet in this world. And these steps of faith, this reaching out to embrace each other, don’t have to be devoid of doubt, but we do have to get on with it.

We are not a church that recites creeds often or expects our members to sign up to a set of statements or beliefs. In fact I came across a quotation of Alfred Lord Tennyson which may have stemmed from the fact that his father was a reluctant cleric – he said “there lives more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds”. But I have included in the order of service today a statement fashioned on the traditional creeds, but framed with the acknowledgement that we are living the questions as we seek to live our faith. Let us join in it together now.

A Creed

In spite of many unanswered questions, I believe.

I believe in the living God, the joy of the universe,

who is the pulse and purpose of all things seen and unseen,

who from the dust of earth raises up living beings to be children of eternity,

who through countless ages has provided for us many liberators

and tirelessly seeks to bring victory out of defeat and life out of decay.

I believe in Jesus the Christ, God’s true Son,

who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,

who took upon himself the healing of the human race,

who bearing the burden of our sins went to Golgotha carrying his cross,

who was betrayed, crucified, dead and buried in a borrowed tomb,

who on the third day was found to be gloriously alive,

meeting with those who trust him and serve him to the end of the world.

I believe in the Holy Spirit of God, within and among all who cherish Christ and his way,

who brings hope out of despair, love out of apathy, and joy out of sorrow,

who unceasingly regenerates and reforms the church

that it may always be the contemporary body of the risen Christ,

loving the world through prayer, word and deed.

I believe that even I am caught up in the resurgent life of Christ Jesus,

and that nothing in life or death can separate me from his love and joy.

In spite of unanswered questions, yes I believe.

Amen!