Doubt is not unbelief

Summary

There is an ancient tradition, started by early Greek Christians in which the first Sunday after Easter was a Sunday in which to celebrate, and even find humor in life, and within the church.  In modern America, certain churches have come to call this Sunday, Holy Humor Sunday.  I was thinking about this tradition today, as I pondered upon the doubt of the Apostle Thomas.  As I was thinking, I remembered a joke that I like, and so, in the vein of Holy Humor Sunday, I am going to start off this morning’s sermon with a joke.

 

“An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring the beauty of the earth. “What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!”, he said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look, and saw a 2-meter long bear charging towards him. The man immediately began to ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was getting closer.  He ran even faster.  He was terrified, and so scared that tears were coming to his eyes. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was right at his heels. His heart was pumping frantically as he tried to run even faster, but rather he tripped and fell to the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but the bear was looming over him, reaching for him with it’s left paw and raising it’s right paw to strike him.  At that instant the Atheist cried out “Oh my God!….”

And time stopped.

The bear froze.

The forest was silent.

Even the river stopped moving.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky, “You deny my existence for all of these years; teach others I don’t exist; and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?”

The atheist looked directly into the light “It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as Christian now, but perhaps…could you make the bear a Christian?”

“Very well,” said the voice.

The light went out.

The river ran again.

And the sounds of the forest resumed.

Then the bear stopped its attack.  Still looming over the man, it dropped its right paw full of long claws, down and brought both paws together, bowed it’s head and spoke:

“Dear Lord, for this food which I am about to receive, I am truly thankful…AMEN!”

 

Now that’s a good joke!  Of course it’s not about doubt but rather unbelief, and pride I think, for doesn’t the Atheist end up talking to God in the midst of his predicament?  He does, but he is too prideful to admit his mistaken non-belief even after speaking with God.

Pride, you know what they say about pride.

(Make a claw gesture!)  Pride goeth before the…maul!

Atheism is unbelief, but in this morning’s scripture we’re wrestling with doubt, what with the doubting of Thomas and all.

In certain ways unbelief is easier to talk about and understand then is doubt.  For unbelief is the opposite of belief, right?  Unbelief is the rejection of belief.  To have no belief in a god is the very opposite of having a belief in God, or any number of gods.  Atheism is the opposite of any sort of deism.  Doubt though, is a harder concept to wrestle with or explain.

This reality is seen in regards to humor as well.  There are any number of atheist jokes.  For instance here’s a short, succinct one:  “Thank God…I’m an atheist.”

Jokes that have to do with doubt though are few and far between, and many aren’t very good.  That’s understandable, because it is a lot easier to poke fun at the difference between black and white, then it is to find hilarity in shades of grey.

There is one that I like though, here goes: “I doubt, therefore I might be!”

Doubt makes us uncomfortable, for to doubt somehow seems to us Christians that we are disrespecting God.  But I think not.  Let’s look at today’s scripture for some answers.

Quite often when we start speaking about ‘Doubting Thomas’ the first thing we think is, “How could he not believe?  Everyone else saw Jesus, why doesn’t Thomas trust them and believe that Jesus is alive?”

We figure that if we were in Thomas’s shoes we would believe, so why couldn’t he.  Yet, in thinking along these lines we are missing out on a few important points of the story.

For one, none of the disciples up to this point had believed that Jesus had risen to new life until they saw him, right?

Mary Magdalene saw him on Easter morning, but the men didn’t truly believe her testimony.  And those crowded in the locked room on Easter evening at the beginning of today’s story didn’t believe in his resurrection until Jesus appeared in their midst and showed them his hands and side.  So, Thomas isn’t acting any different than the others had, for they had all first seen and then believed.  In other words their initial doubt was part of what then blossomed into their exuberant faith.

Thomas’s strong doubt, “I must first see the holes in his hands and stick my hand in his side,” upon seeing Jesus exploded into firm faith when he exclaimed, “My Lord, my God.”

It is important for us to remember that doubt is not unbelief.  No, rather doubt is part of belief, it is a part of our faith.  You see, faith is not something to be proven, but rather something to be believed, and part of the journey of belief is to struggle with one’s doubts.

Remember, in Matthew 11, John the Baptist, after his arrest, sat in Herod’s prison.  While imprisoned he started to doubt his belief in Jesus.  In fact, he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another”

Jesus responded, “Go, report to John what you hear and see,” and then quoted a prophecy of Isaiah concerning his ministry to the poor and needy.

Also, at the end of Matthew, in chapter 28, it reads, “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.”

So, if John the Baptist, and some of the apostles all doubted, in their faith, so will we.

As a believer, as you live out your faith you will need to confront, and wrestle with your doubts, and that is okay.  It is important to wrestle with questions and ideas, it is only then that they become your answers and your beliefs.

Also, in the wrestling with questions and ideas, one’s faith becomes stronger, and one who claims to have no faith may find himself wrestling with doubt, doubt of his unbelief.

A Swede that we know, a few years ago had a scary medical situation in which he fell at night and ended up in the hospital, scared, hurt, but not too badly, thank God.  Our friend is a classic Scandinavian Atheist.  Uttering such comments as, “God doesn’t exist.  If you’re smart how can you believe in something that cannot be proven?”

Yet, I believe that accident caused him to wrestle with his unbelief, and to doubt…to doubt his Atheism.  While recovering from his accident he commented on Facebook, “Though I don’t believe, I will welcome your prayers.”

Might that not be another way to say, “Thank God I am an Atheist?”

I think it is, and so over in Sweden, in our friend we have a twenty-first century Doubting Thomas, for his name, and I didn’t make this up people, his name is…Thomas.

Perhaps he too, wanting proof like his namesake, is finding it not in facts, but rather in the realization that the possibility of meeting Jesus himself is not so unbelievable as he once thought it was.

We don’t get the chance that the first century Thomas, or the other disciples had, to have Jesus stand in our midst.  We don’t get the weird and even kind of gross chance to touch the holes in his hands or stick our hands in his side.  Yet we can find some solace and strength in the fact that Jesus knew that our faith would need to be stronger and more enduring than his first disciples who did get to see, and so believe.  Remember what Jesus said to Thomas after he had confessed his faith in Jesus as his Lord and God?

Jesus then spoke, I believe directly to you, and to me, when he said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

You…you are blessed.  Jesus looks upon you and smiles, and knows that you doubt and therefore you are…you are people of faith.

At the very end of Matthew, two verses after we are told of some of his disciples doubt, Jesus promises us this, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We walk in faith and sometimes in doubt too, but we never walk alone, for Jesus stays by our side.  Jesus blesses us with his presence, and surrounds us with his love.  Though we at times struggle with doubt, Jesus is always faithful.  Take strength from him, so that you too can exclaim with Thomas, your faith with the words, “My Lord, my God!”

Amen.

---

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.