"Coming to Belief"
Sermon Presented April 23, 2006
John 20:19-31
Last month, Beulah brought me an article Bruce had clipped from the Wall Street Journal titled "On eBay, an Atheist Puts His Own Soul on the Auction Block." The atheist, Hemant Mehta, a graduate student at DePaul University, promised the winner that for each $10 of the final bid, he would attend an hour of church services. Even though he is an atheist, Mehta said he suspected he was missing out on something.
Forty-one bids were placed, and the winner was Jim Henderson, a former evangelical minister from Seattle, whose $504 bid prevailed. Henderson wasn't looking for a convert. He wanted Mehta to embark with him on an experiment in spiritual bridge-building. Henderson runs off-the-map.org, a Web site whose professed mission is "Helping Christians be normal." He disagrees with the conservative political agenda of many Christians, and wants religion to be more inclusive and help the disadvantaged.
The arrangement that the two men struck was for Mehta to attend 10 to 15 services of Mr. Henderson's choosing and then write his reaction to each. Mehta agreed to provide his nonbeliever's outlook on the church services on the off-the-map Web site. Henderson agreed to donate the $504 to the Secular Student Alliance, a group headed by Mehta.
I went to Henderson's Web site and read Mehta's assessment of the churches he attended - all in the Chicago area. Some of the churches were very large - like Willow Creek - and one was a house church of 20 young adults - Via Christus Community Church. Via Christus' pastor, Mike, was forced out of an evangelical church because his views didn't fit the conservative mold of the other staff members. This church engaged in an honest exchange during the teaching-worship time. Mehta stated: "It was a small gathering of people trying to grow their faith in a number of different ways. It's a type of Christianity no atheist should have a problem with. In fact, it seems the only people who would be against it were conservative Christians like the ones who told Pastor Mike to leave the old place." (March 27, 2006)
I was interested in the attempts by Christians to convince Mehta to believe in Jesus as the only way to God through what the Bible says. As I read the comments, I knew that words alone wouldn't convince most people who don't believe in God and Jesus. It takes something more!
This morning on this first Sunday after Easter, we will look at a most familiar text - one I have preached on each "first Sunday after Easter" since I began preaching, and yet the sermons aren't even similar because I see something different each year. So, even if you are more familiar with this text than I, I invite you to look at it again with fresh eyes and an open heart. I'm reading from John 20:19-31.
When this story opens on the evening of Jesus' resurrection, the disciples have no peace or purpose. Their leader was crucified and they are locked in a house, fearing that the Jewish leaders who organized Jesus' death may now come after them. Their hopes that they would rule over an earthly kingdom are shattered. They didn't really trust the message that Jesus was alive given them by the women, even though Peter and the "other disciple" tried to check it out. As they grieve, Jesus appears in their midst with the message: "Peace be with you."
Now how Jesus arrives is significant! He literally appears in the room - passing through a locked door. This leads us to believe that Jesus' body wasn't resuscitated, but that he has a different body - able to pass through the density of solid matter. Those who know him best don't recognize him at first because his appearance is different. In our rational world, we can understand their reluctance to believe.
With this experience, the disciples believe that Jesus is alive. However, Thomas wasn't there, and they can't convince him of what they saw. Words won't do it! A week later, Jesus appears again and this time Thomas is present. Again the doors are closed when Jesus suddenly appears in the room. When Thomas sees him, he believes. He needs the same proof as Mary and the other disciples. He needs to see the risen Lord.
This chapter of John's gospel concludes with the writer's stated purpose for writing the gospel: that his readers might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing, they may have life in his name. John gives his readers an eyewitness report so they can believe, have life, and then tell others. But is that enough?
In the 13 verses of our text, John uses a form of the word believe six times. He wrote this gospel decades after Jesus' resurrection for people who didn't see the risen Lord, so that they would come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. This is the thesis of what John's gospel is all about.
However, I'm not a Christian or a minister solely because of what's written here, and the same probably holds true for you. I stand here because of my personal experiences with the Living Lord many times over. Oh, I've never seen Jesus with my eyes, heard him with my ears or touched him with my hands. Sometimes I experience him differently than I do now, sometimes there is a void, sometimes he is almost close enough to touch, and sometimes I doubt my faith altogether. Like Thomas, people who contemplate their faith do experience doubts. Because we are all different, the Holy Spirit works with us differently, so there's no hard and fast rule for how a person comes to faith or maintains faith. Some come to faith with greater difficulty than others, and some have greater difficulty than others maintaining their faith when a crisis hits.
On the first page of John Irving's novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, he quotes Frederick Buechner as saying: "Not the least of my problems is that I can hardly even imagine what kind of an experience a genuine, self-authenticating religious experience would be. Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there is no room for doubt, there would be no room for me." (I want you to know that I copied this quote from a book I loaned out and never saw again. My new copy doesn't have the quote! I can't explain it.)
Doubts are part of our rational world. We will never have perfect understanding of God or Jesus. God can't be measured or contained and the faith of men and women for twenty centuries can't be limited to any one understanding or experience. God is God!
I'm convinced it's more difficult to be a pastor or a person of faith today than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Our world is now more rational and people don't easily accept what others tell them or what they read. Today only about 1/3 of the people here in the United States attend church regularly. People want proof and they have difficulty committing to anything! They want to see for themselves, but unlike Thomas, many don't stick around people of faith long enough to find their own faith. And I fear that we people of faith don't do a very good job of living out our faith so that others see Jesus in us.
Our Christian faith isn't built on the Ten Commandments or on a literal interpretation of the Scriptures - as is the case for many Christians today. It can't be appropriated from our mother or father or pastor or Sunday school teacher. Our faith must become a personal relationship with God through Christ and not a factual treatise or confession. Christianity is conversion to a new way of life - a life of following Jesus.
It's okay to doubt! Jesus didn't scold Thomas for his lack of faith or his desire for proof, but out of love, gave him the same proof as the women and the other disciples were given. And like Thomas, most people today need more help to believe than what we read or hear. Thomas wouldn't accept second-hand faith, but sought his own. He wanted to see and to touch Jesus.
Let me say it again: most of the time words from the Bible alone aren't enough to bring a person to faith. Like Thomas, seekers desire a touch. They seek Christians who share their faith - not through the Four Spiritual Laws, but through living, breathing embodiments of the faith shown through love. You might not be a follower of Jesus, had you not known real, living, and breathing witnesses who testified to you by their daily lives that there is a force for good loose in the world. That force is God. For you, experiencing love sparked believing.
Just as the disciples stood behind closed doors of fear and faithlessness, so do we. And just as Thomas doubted, so do we. This morning, let's invite Jesus to come through our closed doors bringing peace and faith. Let's be in the right place at the right time so that we don't miss the blessing. Let's keep our minds and hearts open so that we can experience the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
