Sunday, April 27, 2025
/2 Easter
Acts 5: 27-32; Psalm 118: 14-29 or Psalm 150; Revelation 1: 4-8; John 20: 19-31
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Not even a week has passed since the day of resurrection, and already, people do not believe that it really happened! Of course you might be thinking of Thomas, the one who didn’t believe his fellow disciples when they told him they saw the resurrected Jesus. But I’m not talking about Thomas – I’m talking about all the disciples, none of whom believed Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told the disciples what they had just seen at the tomb where Joseph of Arimathea had placed Jesus’ body – namely that the stone was unrolled and the body was gone! The Gospel of St. Luke says that the story these women told the disciples of Jesus “seemed like and idle tale, and they did not believe.”
All the disciples! Not just Thomas, who insisted on seeing the mark of the nails in Jesus’ hands. It’s too bad that among all the disciples, all of whom wrestled with doubting Jesus’ resurrection, Thomas is known as the “doubter” as if he were the only one.
Jennifer Michael Hecht, a historian of science and poet, authored a book entitled The History of Doubt. In this book, Hecht explores the history of doubt starting with Greek philosophers in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE all the way up to modern times. What is revelatory about her book is that doubt as we understand it is not just a modern invention. Doubt has been with us a very long time, and doubt has made positive contributions to religion over time.
Even Jesus, I believe, doubted in his final moment of anguish on the cross, where he quotes the first verse of Psalm 22: “my God, my God why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22 is a written expression of anguish, despair, and doubt. But in the same psalm, the author writes “since my mother gave birth to me, you have been my God.” Meaning – you are my God, and I have enough room to doubt or question your existence because of whatever circumstance I am facing.
What I am trying to say is that doubt is not the opposite of faith. The opposite of faith is certainty. Certainty is not what Jesus is calling us toward. Far from being a hindrance to faith, I believe that it is doubt which makes faith sweet.
Socrates, the great skeptic, once said that he knew more than anyone else did because he knew that he didn’t know anything. Smart man. Awareness of how little we know, I believe, is the starting (and perhaps finishing) place of faith.
Arguably, one of the greatest examples of faith in the Bible is the story of Job. Job lost everything – his children, his friends, his possessions – he even lost his argument against God. Yet Job found strength to begin again. His faith was refined through his rebellion against God. Doubt is not your enemy. Doubt is your friend. You could not ever have faith without it. AMEN.