NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!

ACTS 5:27-32 Second Sunday of Easter PSALM 150 Year C REVELATION 1:4-8 April 3, 2016 JOHN 20:19-31

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NO DOUBT ABOUT IT! (The bold is the preached portion of the sermon.)

One of my all-time favorite “progressive pop” songs is The Logical Song, made famous by the rock band Supertramp, recorded in 1978 and released the following year. This is one of those songs that I love on two levels. First, the music, composed by Rick Davies, has a great beat, always a necessary requirement for any good music. But, it is the lyrics that give me an extra special dose of meaning. Written by Roger Hodgson, the provocative, insightful, prophetic words to The Logical Song in many ways tell my personal evolutionary story, and I would safely suspect the journey for many of you as well:

“When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful, A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.

And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily, Joyfully, playfully watching me.

But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible, Logical, responsible, practical.

And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable, Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

There are times when all the world’s asleep, The questions run to deep for such a simple man.

Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned I know it sounds absurd but please tell me who I am.

Now watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical, Liberal, fanatical, criminal.

Won’t you sign up your name, we’d like to feel you’re Acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable!

At night, when all the world’s asleep, The questions run so deep . . . .

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I resemble those remarks! I grew up in a very traditional, conservative Southern Baptist Church where I was taught to never doubt my faith and to never raise questions that would reveal any internal conflict within my being. It may come as a shock to many of you, who know me as an avowed liberal, progressive Christian, but I was once an obedient soldier in the army on the other side of the theological spectrum, a zealot in the conservative/ fundamentalist movement. That probably comes as quite a surprise to those of you who know me as someone who over the last three decades has taken very public stands on social justice issues throughout my career, particularly around the ecclesial inclusion of the LGBTQ community, particularly back in the day when one of my former congregations, Virginia-Highland Church, in its pure Baptist expression, was attacked by its assumed denominational home and protector. I was as out there then as I am now. Neutral has never been an adjective that would describe any ounce of my being. Yes, I am one of those who went to a very progressive liberal arts college in the Baptist tradition, Mercer University, and then attended the flagship seminary of Southern Baptists in Louisville, Kentucky back when it was a real theological school, stretching the boundaries of academic and intellectual pursuits. It is now a joke, but to say more would be to waste all of our time together. Let’s just say that they do not acknowledge me—I am not on the mailing list—and I wish that I did not have to acknowledge them, but because of professional necessities—they have my transcripts—I must on occasion. I went to school there for six wonderful, blissful years, securing three Masters Degrees in the process, and so I cannot pretend otherwise. There are times I have to name it. One of the things we students heard preached by our professors, well-meaning all, is that the complex and yes, controversial things we were learning, were best left in the classroom, that we should not share them with a frail and fragile laity back in the churches we served. Frankly, it was a failed and flawed, a naïve way of protecting both parties! As you have experienced with me in my ministry, I have

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never believed in that premise or bought into that idea. I have always believed that spiritual growth occurs at the edges of our critical thinking, our intellectual curiosity, and not in our blind acceptance of any information, religious or otherwise, and so I have always dared to risk being open and honest, completely transparent, in all manner and matters of holy conversation. I never plan to do otherwise! One other caveat to begin this sermon this morning. I will never forget hearing wise sages instruct many a green, young wide eyed ordination candidate back in my school days. As you may know, ordination in the Baptist world takes place at the local, congregational level and so the input of the laity is implied and engrained, an essential aspect of the vetting process to ordination. Well, for many a liberal student candidate one obstacle always had to be anticipated, one hurdle leaped, one hoop that had to be jumped and that was the proverbial doctrinal question regarding the Virgin Birth. That one could trip up the best of ‘em! Some lay person would inevitably inquire, looking for an unsuspecting, unprepared, or even worse, an unworthy ordinand, a heretic in hiding, “Do you believe in the Virgin Birth?” By the way, I was asked to name the antichrist! Seriously! The virgin birth question requires a simple “yes” or “no.” It is not unlike numerous questions raised to any of our presidential candidates. But, unlike the run on verbosity adnauseum we are exposed to in the political arena, as we have been most painfully, pitifully, and pathetically reminded over these last few months there was no room for wavering or waffling on this one. I mean, have any of us ever heard a political candidate give a succinct, straight answer—Democrat, Republican, Independent, or other? So these great unwashed young wiper-snappers were coached in the finer points of nuance, of sidestepping, of using creative language, double meanings completely acceptable. They were instructed to respond in kind, “Yes, I believe in the story of the Virgin Birth!” The assumption was that most of the laity were ignorant, dumb as a stump, too slow to get the subtlety in this sinister answer, with all of the implications implied therein. Of course, we all believe in the “story” of the Virgin Birth. Only an idiot would not! It is right there in print, in black and white. But believing in the story is a

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far different prospect than believing in an actual biological/theological conundrum as a fact in history. The day was saved and the poor, dishonest, disingenuous shmuck subsequently had hands laid upon him. I say him, because in the congregations where women would have had access to ordination, such irrelevant, inane questions would have never been raised anyway. But I digress; I often do! The question reminded me of an Episcopal priest who was once arrogantly asked by an immersionist if he believed in infant baptism? His answer, “Believe in it, why I’ve seen it!” Touché! All of this is a precursor to the content that drives today’s Witness from the Gospels. For today, “Low Sunday” as it is unofficially called, is the day for doubters, scoffers, cynics and skeptics, yes, seekers all, and all of the rest of us. It is a day that honors the hard questions and the timid and bold questioners, every inquisitor who cannot take this Easter resurrection stuff, or any of the rest of it for that matter, at face value. Traditionally, we have been taught to question everything until it comes to matters of faith and then we are told to benignly believe every bit of it without any equivocation whatsoever. Just drink the Kool-Aid! Any old flavor will do! We all know that is just nonsense! In the final analysis, it never works! It will not fly with anyone who dares to engage seriously, intentionally this postmodern 21st century in which we live and move and have our being. Does not the Bible even teach us to test the spirits? Honest spiritual discipline demands that we think theologically, critically and with integrity as intellectually curious people. We must not, cannot be robots, wooden Indians, who passively sleep walk through life’s realities. No, far from it, the only viable, healthy option available to us is to intelligently, intentionally engage the complexities of life and the inconsistencies of belief and faith and the holy text that frames every bit of it. For the rest, at least on this day of doubt and wonder, class dismissed! And yet, this is indeed the season of Eastertide. Were not our minds just transfixed, mesmerized, and raptured with the joy of

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resurrection? Isn’t it just a little too soon to be asking, “Where is God?” Could that at least be a later question and not the first one out of our mouths? “Where is this risen Lord,” inquiring minds want to know? We want answers. We need reassurance. And yet, for the most part, we continue to be surrounded by the darkness that grips our world. Nothing really seems to have changed on this side of the cross and this surprising resurrection stuff. And, my hunch is that it is the same for us even as it was for those depressed and dejected disciples as they struggled to get a grip back in the day. It certainly was that way for my patron saint, the patron saint for doubters everywhere, that despondent and discouraged disciple of doubt named Thomas. You know what is sad reality, it is probably because of his doubt that those gatekeepers, the all-male guardians of orthodoxy and true teaching who selected the canon of scripture that became our Bible, made dog-gone sure that the Gospel attributed to Thomas did not make it into the chosen texts. I say sad, because scholars believe that the Gospel of Thomas actually contains the most literal of the sayings of Jesus. In other words, it should be colored by a whole lot of red letter words! You remember! Today, and next Sunday, our texts lean into questions swirling around questions about the presence of God, or the lack thereof. “Where is God?” in the midst of life’s evils and sufferings? “Where is God?” in the midst of the abyss, the dark nights of our souls? “Where is God?” B. All of the disciples were surely asking that question. They never really believed or at least accepted the idea that Jesus would be crucified. How could a loving Abba, a loving Father—how could God— ever allow that to happen? Surely, there would be a last minute reprieve. But, if Jesus could not be spared such a cruel fate, what hope could any of the rest of them possibly have? The disciples were scared, anxiety driven, frightened to the point of hysteria, afraid of their own shadow. By all accounts, they were simply being human! They felt all alone in their small universe. In their minds their world had caved, crashed around them, all but at

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an end, or at least had taken a major hit as they awaited discovery, arrest, and a certain death sentence not unlike that of their master. Well, if you don’t believe that a disastrous fate would ever await your Lord, what in the world would make you ever believe in any of this resurrection nonsense? Surely, they wanted to believe, that there was one more miracle connected to this Jesus of Nazareth. But, they just couldn’t. Oh, the women had told them, but who is gullible enough to listen to a woman, much less trust anything, believe anything that I woman might have to say? The stone rolled away. The strange men in white. The missing, dare we say stolen, body. The voices. But, surely it could not be? As with most pipedreams, if it is too good to be true, then in all likelihood it is! A great life lesson we learn early on . . . or at least we hope we do! There are depths to which any soul can sink, to where even the remotest possibility of a good or positive outcome is interpreted as a mere mirage. Thomas must have thought to himself the other disciples made up a story, maybe had been drinking just a little too much vino. Jesus was dead. His body was stolen. They, whoever “they” were, did not even have the decency to let the dead rest in peace. We have a law on our books about the penalty for desecrating a deceased body. Talk about the ultimate disrespect! Now there would not even be a shrine to visit and pay homage, a pillar to the once great teacher and mentor, this magnificent Rabbi. No destination for a pilgrimage. And, just then, at the apex of their despair, Jesus magically walks through the walls for them. And, they all believed. There was rejoicing and praising God by all the disciples, all the disciples save this one named Thomas, who must have gone out to the quickie mart for some eats or smokes or what have you! Thomas! Poor Thomas! He was not with them and missed the monumental, magnificent moment. When the ten told him, he did not, could not join the grand celebration. Hey, we just had April Fool’s Day! Must be just another cruel joke in the midst of an already miserable situation. Hey guys, I’ve got it, let’s tell old Thomas that Jesus paid us a visit and has been resurrected. Ha ha ha! Hard to keep a straight face! Thomas was not amused at any of

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it. “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.” As one colleague says today in her sermon title, “Be careful what you wish for!” C. Ah Thomas, the doubting one, branded with that moniker forever, for perpetuity, for all time. Seems to me, from what I recall, the text in question says that Thomas was called “The Twin,” not “The Doubter!” Such an empiricist! If he cannot experience something with every one of his senses, if he can not verify something to be so, then it simply is not true. Or as we like to say in the South, “It ain’t so!” But that’s why I like Thomas. I admire his resolve. That is why many of us relate so well to him. For we too want the same thing, we too have the temerity, the audacity, to demand likewise. We want to see, to touch, to hear, to taste, to smell. Doubting Thomas? He is comfortingly just like us. Ironically, it is those interpreters who came after who blindly, narrowly labeled him the doubter, not those who penned the sacred scriptures! You will not find the name “Doubting Thomas” in the Bible. It is right up there with “rapture” and “Trinity!” Thomas’ response was an honest one, a sincere one, a human one. And, it was a most, perhaps the most appropriate one. And, like the squeaky wheel, like the widow who constantly beats on the judge’s door elsewhere in the Gospel narrative, Thomas gets his wish, he gets that for which he asks. Jesus appears again, mysteriously, magically, miraculously, and just like a genie out of the bottle, a Lord and master out of the tomb, grants Thomas all that he had demanded, including that one huge, ginormous request. Thomas is restored to fellowship and faithfulness. A happy ending, right? Well, not so fast! We sit here this morning in the midst of all of our doubts and fears, all that seems out of control, wacko in our world, all of the evils we constantly witness, and we think, yes, this is what we need. God needs to make a big splash, a bold appearance, go on display, a very

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voyeuristic deity. We need a revelation of the Thomas variety. Then all of our problems with faithlessness would be solved for good, vanishing immediately. Yes, what happened with Thomas is exactly what we need, indeed the sure-fire fix, the solution for a faithless, doubting, and hurting humanity yearning for a sense of the Divine. But, no, we really do know better, do we not? That is exactly what we do not need, for we know full well that God comes into the world and into our lives in myriad ways day after day and it is we who fail to experience the evidence of Divine presence in our midst because we look in the wrong places, expecting a different manifestation. We fail to get it. B. What happened in that room with those disciples, and particularly with one seeker named Thomas, was not, is not meant to be a blue-print for the rest of us. All of us have our own path, must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling as well as with much rejoicing. In actuality, Thomas’ faith, as well as that of all of his brothers and sisters, was really no faith at all when you think about it. It demands very little, if any. To be candidly honest, this was also the case for all of those who were privy to experiencing the risen Lord in the various expressions manifest in their presence. Jesus poignantly asked the painful question, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Folks, he was talking about each and every one of us! We are called to live by faith and faith alone, and faith is never easy, never simple, never a quick fix, especially in the midst of all that derogatorily challenges our personal and corporate faith and belief, all of which is so unfortunately disturbingly transparent, clearly visible and present in our unsettling world. C. The reality, thank God, is that we do not get what the disciples got, Thomas included. The gift of Thomas is that he never gave up, he knew what he needed, what it would take to restore him to wholeness of faith. He is a role model for us of the highest caliber

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because he refuses to settle. He serves as a fabulous mentor as a seeker of truth, a searcher for a lasting faith, because he courageously names his doubt and dares to dig deeper, asking the hard questions, demanding an evidentiary hearing about all that troubles him and everything that negatively challenges his belief and his faith in God and in this Christ. But, in the final analysis what he received is not what Jesus, his Lord and master, desired for him. Neither is it what God desires for any of us. Let’s face it, the disciples had it easy; they got off easy. They saw and touched and heard. Once again, that takes no faith whatsoever. There really is no faith in that! Yes, perhaps we should give them a pass, for they had earned the privilege of sensory awareness based on their trials and tribulations with Jesus. Ironically, the challenge to us is the same one bypassed by Thomas in his required proof. We are called to believe minus any physical manifestation, any sensory awareness whatsoever. We are called to live by faith and not by sight or by any other sense, any artificial means that removes faith from us, that dares to destroy the doubt that feeds our faith. The story of Thomas’ experience is a reminder that doubt is a gracious gift, a precious commodity not to be disparaged as a worthless appendage or tossed aside as an impediment to a growing, maturing faith. We know the value of doubt in developing a lasting faith of depth and bredth. We too must find our own pathways to seeing and touching and hearing and thus believing, and therein is our ultimate challenge. Our unique destiny is to discover the many ways that God in Christ comes into the world. Our blessed belief must therefore begin within, the Christ already within you and me, already present, and then be experienced in beloved faith community and finally recognized in the wider world where a hurting humanity, a disenfranchised, marginalized humanity awaits a Christ encounter in the proverbial cups of cold water that only we can bring. And, as we all know, it is here where the proverbial rubber meets the road of having the best chance of encountering, engaging and experiencing the Holiness that longs to embrace each and every one of us. The odds of encountering Christ

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are far better outside these walls than they are in these pews. Please come back next week! Thank you! When we dare to be Christ to others, we dare to experience the resurrected Christ within and in our midst. Funny how that works, every time like a charm! The 20th chapter of John closes with the writer saying “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.” That is a bit frustrating for those of us who long for so much more. For days and weeks such as these in which we find ourselves, in the midst of ongoing worldwide challenges too numerous to name, with all of the evil and suffering contained therein, “trials and tribulations” the Bible politely calls it, we do indeed long for so much more. Yet, we know that we are called to live by faith and not by sight. In faith, we find our hope, and our hope is in God, and in faith we are reminded that God is with us. Even as we live these days, God is with us. It is simple, but far from simplistic. Christ has died. Christ has risen. God is with us. We are not alone. And that, my friends, is enough. It is always enough. Thanks be to God! In the name of the One who creates, redeems, sustains and is present in the midst of all that is. Amen and amen.

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Rev. Dr. Timothy W. Shirley

United Community Church, United Church of Christ

Sun City Center, Florida 33573

© April 3, 2016

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