The Second Sunday
of Easter
19th April
2009: 9:00am & 11:45am
Preacher:
The Revd Jenny
From Doubt to Faith
I speak to you in the name
of God the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
Good morning,
and a special word of welcome to the friends who are listening on radio HK.
At this year’s Oscars, Meryl Streep was nominated for
her role as a stern and straight Nun who ran the parish school like a Dragon
lady in the acclaimed movie “ Doubt”. Philip Hoffman
played the Roman Catholic priest who had just arrived in the diocese and was
keen to introduce all kinds of changes.
Set in the1960s , the
story took place in a Bronx neighborhood and sought to address a number of
issues such as church hierarchy, power struggles, gender differences , making
conclusions based on hearsay, judgments, sexual abuse, and in particular “Doubt”.
It is a movie that many might benefit from watching and discussing together. The
priest preached about “doubt” and said:” Doubt can be a bond as powerful and
sustaining as certainty.”
Today’s gospel from John is
about a disciple who doubted. It has been said that Doubt as “a path towards
(deeper) religious faith lies at the heart of the story of
Doubting Thomas.
Jesus has 12 disciples,
one of them betrayed him, one of them denied him, and at least one of them
doubted him. Little is known of Thomas apart from the fact that his name
appears in all the disciples’ lists in the other 3 Gospels. But in John’s
Gospel, Thomas plays a distinctive part. Let’s take a look.
After Thomas decided to
follow Jesus, he learnt that following him meant going all the way to the
cross. In Chapter 11, after Lazarus had died, Jesus wanted to return to
In Chapter 14, shortly before
the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples that he was leaving so that he could
go and prepare a place for them and explained that in his Father’s place there
were many mansions. Thomas could not understand and challenged Jesus, saying:” Lord,
we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” In
response to that, Jesus answered,” I am the way, the truth and the life”.
Thomas clearly had a mind of his own, and he was not afraid to express his
opinion and Jesus never stopped him.
Then we came to Thomas’
incredulity of the resurrection from John 20.
Unlike our Easter, the
first Easter for the disciples was not exactly a happy occasion, at least not
in the first few hours. Their Teacher had been crucified. They were afraid that
their turn might come next. It was true that someone had come back from the
tomb and told them about the resurrection. But that messenger was neither one
of the 12 nor a man. As they gathered on that first Sunday, they were wondering
what might come next.
Their fear and anxieties
were a big contrast to today’s followers, who hail Easter as the greatest feast
day. In my former parish in
The disciples had mixed
feelings, some felt guilty, others worried about their future and some thought
that it was time to return to fishing. It was in this context that Jesus
appeared to them and reassured them. But Thomas was not there, he had probably
withdrawn from Christian fellowship to seek loneliness rather than
togetherness. And so after the disciples told him about the resurrection,
Thomas simply refused to believe in such nonsense and announced: “Unless
I see the print of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the print of
the nails, and unless I put my hand into his side, I will not believe”.
So eight days later, when the
doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in the midst of them and said: “Peace
to you”. He did not rebuke Thomas but gently invited Thomas to touch him and
check it out for himself.
At that point Thomas did not
put his finger in the print of the nails, and he did not put his hand into his
side, but he made the confession of a
lifetime. His confession summarizes the whole Gospel, he exclaimed:” My
Lord and my God”. His summary is the supreme Christological pronouncement
of John. In the first chapters, there were many titles given to Jesus: Rabbi,
Messiah, Prophet, King of Israel, Son of God, the Word, the Light, the Way, the
Truth, the Life and the Bread of the World.
Now, coming to the end of
the Gospel, the confession;” My Lord and
my God” echoes the beginning of the Bible where it says, “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. Furthermore,
when we come to the last book in the Bible, we hear the same information or disclosure
again from Revelation: “Worthy are you,
our Lord and God, to receive glory, honor and power.”
Doubting Thomas provides a
good lesson for us to learn. William Barclay wrote : “He(Thomas) absolutely refused to say that he understood what he did not understand,
or that he believed what he did not believe. There is an uncompromising honesty
about him. He would never still his doubts by pretending that they did not
exist. Tennyson wrote ’There lives more faith in honest doubt. Believe me, than
in half the creeds. …There is more ultimate faith in the man who insists on
being sure than in the man who glibly repeat things which he has never thought
out, and which he may not really believe. It is doubt like that which in the
end arrives at certainty.
.
Unlike Thomas, I never
doubted the resurrection but I have my doubts about the nature and attributes
of God. If God is love, why would he or she allow so much pain? If God is just,
how can he or she allow so much injustice to take place in the world, in the society
and also in my little world? Wouldn’t life be a lot simpler if everything was
just black and white, and the words paradoxes and suffering disappeared from
our dictionaries? Although I have been baptized for more than 40 years and
ordained for 25 years, I still ask questions. As I am a slow learner, I seldom
receive direct revelation like some of my friends do, but God has always been
most gentle with this slow learner and does speak to me through life’s
absurdities and pain.
Recently a book spoke to my
spiritual quest. A New York Times bestseller entitled “The Shack” wrestles with
the timeless question: ‘Where is God when it hurts?’ The book reads like a
modern day’s Pilgrim’s Progress. A young girl was abducted and possibly
murdered while she was camping in
After I finished reading
the book, I had a lump in my throat. Somehow, it helped me to know that
whenever I cry, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?” I am never alone,
for Jesus had already been abandoned for my sake, for your sake, for our sake
and because he had already walked the way of the Cross, from that Holy Week
onwards, no one has had to walk alone, none of us has to suffer alone. Thomas’
Lord and Thomas’ God -- he suffers for us, and he suffers with us.
Although Thomas doubted,
he was certainly no coward. He doubted in order to be sure. And once he was
sure, he would go all the way and his surrender to certainty was complete.
Legend says that he was the only apostle who travelled outside the Roman Empire
and preached in
Thomas’ emblem is that of
a spear, because tradition said that he was speared to death and like all the
other apostles, became a martyr for his declaration “My Lord and My God”. He is
not only the patron saint of
I started by saying that one of Jesus’ disciples denied him, and at least
another one doubted him, yet church history tells us that these disciples
marched into martyrdom all counting it a joy and privilege. If we claim to
share the glory of his Easter, we too must share in the walk to the cross. May
God give us such joy and ease, so that as we doubt and as we learn, we too, may
grow in Christ, and in so doing, echo the words of Thomas and the many
disciples down through the ages:” Worthy
are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory, honor and power.” Glory to you, from generation to generation, Amen.