Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter (Year B)
By Archdeacon Peter Crosby
Don’t be a “Doubting Thomas!” You’ve likely heard that expression. Maybe you’ve said it yourself, or had it said to you. The attitude that many of us have received about faith and doubt is that they are like oil and water; or Leafs, Habs and Sens fans; they just don’t mix; and that there is no room in faith for doubt. When doubt is demonized, even questions can become suspect; too many questions can lead to doubts!
Thomas may have been the most famous doubter; but he was far from being the only disciple with doubt. Last week, at our virtual “Day in the Wildwood,” we prayed “The Stations of the Resurrection.” In hearing again, the stories of the Risen Christ, I was struck by how many are stories of faith and doubt, both together. When the Risen Christ appears to his disciples in the Gospel of Luke, the Lord says, “Why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” And in the Gospel of Matthew, the evangelist writes that, “The 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” And yet it was to these same disciples, with both their faith and their doubt, that Jesus gave authority to make new disciples, baptize, and teach; assuring them and us, that he is with us until the end of the age.
I am convinced that doubt needs to be rehabilitated and questions welcomed and valued. The opposite of belief is often presented as atheism; in the Bible, the opposite of faith is fear. In our society today, I would suggest that the opposite of Christian faith is indifference; a blank; not on the radar screen. If something matters enough to a person to have doubts about it; or to poke at it with questions; that suggests to me that there is fire there; some passion; some interest. In fact, having big questions about the big answers in life is often essential to spiritual growth and maturity in faith. Questions and unsettling doubts can be the catalyst we need; even if it means a necessary time of feeling like we are wandering in the proverbial wilderness.
I grew up at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church in the west end of Ottawa. The words of our liturgy were imprinted on my consciousness: our God is a Holy God of power and might. But as I journeyed into adulthood, I had difficulty reconciling God’s power with all the wrong, and harm, and downright evil I was becoming aware of in the world, and in history. It was necessary for me to become unsettled and uncertain about my understanding of God, in order to “make space” for a deeper understanding, that was more life giving, and empowering to my adult faith. I had absorbed the world’s understanding of power as control, domination, coercion, and manipulation. I needed to doubt a God of this kind of power, in order to appreciate God’s authentic power of sacrificial love, in whose service is perfect freedom.
So, if you are living with questions about faith, that won’t go away; or doubts that come and go, and return; you are not alone. You are in good company. The Apostles upon which Christ built his Church, were people of both faith and doubt. The Church of the Twenty-first century needs to be a place where the Creeds are taught, and where questions are honoured. We need to be a safe place for people to explore the “big questions.”
When the Risen Christ invited Thomas to see and touch the marks of Crucifixion, “Doubting Thomas” is also “Believing Thomas.” The glorious Risen One is willing to be known in his wounded humanity, for it is in our humanity that Jesus meets us, in all our faith, and in all of our doubts and questions; in our joys and in our sorrows; in the crosses we suffer, and in the grace of new life. May we too be like Thomas, confessing of Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”