Sermon on the Easter 2A: What do We do with Doubt?
The picture above is amusingly relevant to our current services conducted using the Zoom app on our computers. But appropriately, let me express some “doubt” about its accuracy, according to history and scripture. Examples?
- First, of course there were no computers then.
- Second, the disciples would not need Zoom since they met behind locked doors of the same house.
- Third, we do not know how many disciples were attending (the word disciples is different from the “12/11 apostles” and even lists of the twelve vary).
- Fourth, scripture requires physical touch, not visible perception, by “Doubting Thomas” for his personal revelation.
So it is proper to doubt the picture’s accuracy.
It is funny and true nonetheless.
Both history and scripture are so full of gaps and contradictions, that doubt is easy to come by, and truth difficult to recognize and gain acceptance.
Because we should want to live according to truth. And truth requires facts. And these days we lack a common consensus about truth and facts: people believe that facts can be “alternate,” “fake news,” “post-truth.” They pick and choose these facts based on their ideology, ignoring what they do not want to believe.
Of course, not just these days. As I pointed out last week, many “facts” of different gospel stories are too contradictory to be easily reconciled. That does not mean the resurrection story isn’t true. We take it on faith that Christ is risen in fact.
But about the details, in the years since, Christians have argued about so much—which is why we have so many different churches, that the “one holy catholic and apostolic Church” we will profess in the Nicene Creed remains but an aspiration, not a fact of this world.
How do we overcome doubt?
For Thomas, when he went into that room, he was full of doubt. He was suddenly confronted with a surprising, incredible truth, and responded “My Lord, and my God.”
What is your response to Jesus? Is it a leap of faith, or a recognition of reality beyond normal explanation?
Our response, according to “First Peter,” to those of us who have not seen and touched him, but love him nonetheless, our response needs to be a lifetime of genuine faith, to be tested, even suffered in trials, by fire. We can still harbor doubt. With no doubt we can be easily tricked. Skepticism helps us evaluate whether our life's work conforms to God's will.
God has saved us through the resurrection. Yet we can rejoice in praise and glory in Christ’s revelation only when we live out Jesus's commands to repent, to love God, to love our neighbor.
That Christian service requires accepting some hard truths, the most important being that we should be at least as concerned about what others need for themselves as what we need for ourselves.
I have no doubt, and recent events of the pandemic have only further convinced me, that we need to work toward a more just, equitable, and supportive society than we’ve had up to now.
What do you believe we should do?
Written for the parish of St. James & St. George 2020 April 19
URL: <http://therev.brianpavlac.org/srms/20200419.html>