Sunday 04/27/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Why do we doubt?”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 16
New Testament Scripture Lesson: 1 Peter 1:3-9
Gospel Lesson: John 20:19-31
Brothers and sisters, welcome once
again on this the Second Sunday of this our Easter Season, or this our Eastertide.
This Easter Season or Eastertide, began last Sunday, on Easter or “Resurrection”
Sunday, and it will continue until Sunday June 8th, which is Pentecost Sunday. The
fifty-day period between last Sunday and Pentecost Sunday then, is partially the
period during which Jesus appears to various disciples at different times and
places. On the fortieth-day of this fifty-day period, Jesus will then ascend to
heaven, promising that the fullness of the Holy Spirit would soon come upon the
disciples and the other early followers of Jesus. So until Pentecost on Sunday
June 8th, we are going to hear some different stories from the
gospels about Jesus appearing to various people, as well as some of the various
things that Jesus taught and said.
This morning
though, what I want to talk about is doubt? How many of you here have ever
doubted something? Perhaps you doubted your spouse about something? Perhaps,
you have sent your spouse to the grocery store to buy milk and eggs, and they
came back with Twinkies and beef jerky? Perhaps you doubt our government?
Perhaps you doubt the strength of our economy? Do we ever though, doubt our
faith? Do we ever though, have doubts about God?
Now many of us
could very comfortably say, “Well of course pastor!” When I asked about faith
and God though, I wonder how many of us squirmed a little inside of ourselves?
I mean struggling with faith and with God? We would never do such a thing
right? As we are followers of Jesus Christ, who always have rock solid faith
every minute of every day. Yet life happens, does it not?
For some of us,
doubt comes from the death of a loved one. For some of us, doubt comes from war,
violence, poverty, joblessness, abuse, not having a loving earthly family, and
etc., and etc. For some of us doubt has come very seldom in our lives, and for
some of us, doubt has come a lot in our lives.
You see, I
believe that often in our human agony of loss and struggle, it is then that we
can feel the most connected or disconnected from God. That in moments of great
trials and tribulations that we can turn to or turn from God. So often when we
are on the mountain top in our lives, we may give glory to God, we may thank
God, but I find that in our agony and despair, that this is when our doubt really
turns to faith.
I think that
many of us here this morning like me, have had trials and tribulations in life.
Many of you might be able to put your finger those times of doubt, but you may
also realize how your faith grew through this struggle, or that struggle. That
God is faithful, that God always does what he says, and always says what he
does. That so many of us here don’t just believe in God in our heads, but further
that we have experienced God in our hearts and in our souls. Many of us have
felt the Holy Spirit course through us, like drinking a cup of Hot Chocolate on
a cold winter day. Many of us have felt the Holy Spirit fill us with peace and
joy, when we were broken and miserable. Oh yes, many of us know doubt all too
well, but many of us also know the power and the love God through such trials
and tribulations also all too well. Many of us can testify this morning that
God has brought us through the struggles and trials of our lives, that he is
real, and that he is powerful! That Jesus Christ is our savior, and if we put
our faith and trust in him, amazing things happen in us and through us!
Given all of
this then, the big question that I want us to think about this morning, is “Why
do we doubt?” By this I mean, what more assurance from God do we need, before we
will believe in him and trust in him, and no longer have any doubts? What will
it take? “Why do we doubt?”
Why do I as a
pastor sometimes have doubts? Why did I have some days in seminary, that I
said, “Lord I don’t know if I can do all this?” Yet God always came through and
showed me that this is where I was supposed to be. When I was tired and weary
however, sometimes I would have doubt. Growing closer to God then, is a process
of becoming more and more holy. A process of giving up doubt in exchange for
glory.
Today, Thomas,
as many of us know the term “A Doubting Thomas,” doubts the Lord. Even though this
doubter, Thomas, witnessed firsthand much of what Jesus Christ did, he says, no
I don’t believe, I have doubt.
Before diving into the gospel reading
from this morning however, let us first look at Psalm 16 from this morning. The
Psalm begins by saying, “Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.” On this
morning my brothers and sisters, do we truly, honestly, and fully, “take refuge”
in the Lord?
The Psalm
continues by saying, “I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my
right hand, I shall not be moved.” Have we ever been moved or shaken by doubt
before? The Psalm from this morning concludes by saying, “You show me the path
of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are
pleasures forevermore.” My brothers and sisters, “Why do we doubt?”
In the Apostle
Peter’s first Epistle or Letter, the Apostle Peter said, “Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Then the Apostle Peter writes these beautiful words about having faith in
Christ. He says when we put our faith in Christ we receive an “inheritance that
is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being
protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time.”
Then the
Apostle Peter makes a statement that shatters our doubt. He says, “In this you
rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,
so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that,
though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory
and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
The Apostle
Peter then tells the early church, what we can hear in the same way even today,
“Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see
him now, you believe in him and rejoice with indescribable and glorious joy.” The
Apostle Peter then concludes this portion of his first Epistle or letter, by
saying, “for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your
souls.”
When looking
at the gospel according to John from this morning, we enter the story, as it
says, “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the
doors of the house were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among
them and said, “Peace be with you.” This sharing or “Passing of the peace” of
Christ with one another on Sundays in church, comes from this and from other
scriptures. When I say at the end of church of then, “share a sign of peace and
love with each other,” this scripture and others, is where Jesus teaches us
this.
After Jesus has entered to where the disciples
and other followers were basically hiding out scared, and after he said, “Peace
be with you,” the gospel reading then says, “he showed them his hands and his
side.” The disciples that were present for this rejoiced in the risen Lord. Then
again Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I
send you.” Having said this, Jesus then “breathed on them and said to them, “Receive
the Holy Spirit.” Yet this outpouring of the Holy Spirit was just some of the
fullness of the Holy Spirit that will pour out on the day of Pentecost.
When Jesus
then vanished from the presence of the disciples that were present, soon after
one of the twelve disciples, Thomas, was greeted by the disciples telling him
that they had “seen the Lord.” Yet Thomas doubted. This is where once again we
get the term, “A doubting Thomas.” You see not only did Thomas doubt, but he
said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not
believe.”
The gospel
then says, “A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was
with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and
said, “Peace be with you.” Jesus then looked right at Thomas, the doubter, and
said to him “put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put
it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas then falls down, and says, “My
Lord and my God!” Jesus then says to Thomas, “Have you believed because you
have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
The gospel
reading for this morning then says, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the
presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.” The gospel reading
then ends by saying, “But these are written so that you may come to believe that
Jesus if the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have
life in his name.”
So how many of
us have had doubt? I know that I have had doubt? Yet my doubt has grown my
faith and drawn me closer to God. Doubt therefore, is not always a terrible
thing then, but how much convincing does Jesus Christ have to do, before we
truly believe and trust in him. “Why do we doubt”
Brothers and sisters, I would like to
close this message this morning with a story about doubt and faith. This story
is titled “Living Either Side of the Hill,” by author Scott Higgins. Here is
how it goes: “In November 2000 my wife, my kids and I took a holiday to the
Gold Coast. About 600kms north we were driving up a big hill, knowing that
Byron Bay was down the other side. We were looking forward to it. We’d been in
the car for a long time, it was hot, and we were eagerly anticipating a break.
So up the hill we came, knowing that our break was down the other side. And
then we saw it – the most breathtaking view you’re ever likely to encounter. At
the top of the hill we got the most breathtaking view of a lush green valley
stretching away to the deep blue of the ocean.”
“There was a lookout at the top of
the hill, so we stopped, jumped out of the car and stood looking. The kids
figured they’d reached the top of the world, so they danced on a little stone
wall singing, “We’re on top of the world, we’re on top of the world.” Over and
over, “we’re on top of the world, we’re on top of the world.”
“And in some ways it really felt like
it – it was one of those perfect moments frozen in time. The kids singing and
dancing, the wind fresh on the face, the sun shining above us, the road we’d
travelled stretching out behind us, the road to come winding its way ahead. We
knew who we were, where we’d come from, where we were going.”
“If you think of life as a journey,
most of us would like to sit at the top of the world, to have one of those
perfect moments where it all comes together and make sense, where we can look
back at where we’ve come from and look ahead and know where we’re going, to
have a sense of what is out there waiting for us, to see the detours and
potholes and danger points that lie out there and start planning how we’ll meet
them.”
“But instead of sitting at the top we
spend most of our time travelling on either side of the hill. God sits at the
top, has a sense of how it all fits together, but we usually don’t get that
view. We get surprised by potholes and detours and danger spots and have to
struggle our way through them. Faith however reminds us that God is at the top
of the hill, and that even in the roughest parts we can live with trust in him
to guide us through.”
Brothers and sisters, “Why do we
doubt?” Amen.
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