Community Church Sermons
April 23, 2006
John 20: 19-31
R. Tim Meadows, Ph.D.
Associate Pastor
I do not believe it. I cannot buy it. You don’t say. I do not think so. Is that possible? Well, bless His heart. The Dickens’s you say! You do not mean it. All of these statements are simple variations on a theme that express the sentiment I doubt it! A sentiment for which Doubting Thomas becomes a foil for all of Jesus’ followers. In the early hours, days, and weeks that passed between Christ’s crucifixion and reported resurrection all of His followers dealt with this sense of doubt. The reported sightings by some did not alleviate the doubt of others who often required their own encounter with Jesus before they could believe.
These followers help us to see that doubt is a part of the normal human experience, especially as we relate to God. So many things complicate the human encounter with the divine, that we often are tempted to abandon the relationship or at least to doubt its relevance and value to our lives. Today, we seek to examine this common phenomenon, and try to understand where it arises from, how to work through the experience, and what value it possesses for the journey of faith.
I. Doubt Is A Universal Experience: I am sure that some great thinker said so, but if not it is true that “one, who has never doubted, has not thought deeply.” Doubt comes to us all, wanted or unwanted, and often refuses to leave until we have given our doubt an appropriate hearing. Doubt denied or repressed is not the absence of doubt; rather it is the breeding ground for eventual disappointment with God.
II. Doubt Arises From Many Sources: The sources of our doubt include:
- Fear: This emotion of uncertainty promotes doubt. Uncertainty prompts doubt because of a lack of information or because of the limited knowledge we may possess.
- Experience: Life is filled with stuff, some of which is difficult and inexplicable. When we experience these kinds of things doubt may arise from a sense of wondering why God did not do something to prevent this occurrence. Doubt prompts the question “Where is God when life hurts”?
- Unseen nature of God: The fact that we cannot touch, see, feel, or experience God in human terms makes doubt understandable, however a part of faith involves mystery which escapes the human understanding. If God were just one of us raised to a higher level, doubt would increase rather than diminish. I agree with Thomas Merton who said “If you find God with great ease it may not be God you have found”. Mystery may be an unwitting aide to doubt, but faith with no mystery is dull and lifeless.
III. Doubt Is Diminished In The Presence Of Evidence: Never accept easy answers to complex problems. The church is filled with dispensers of this kind wisdom, who complicate more than alleviate doubt with their certain solutions. However, just as some choose to believe, others choose to disbelieve, no matter what evidence they are presented with. William Sloane Coffin has asked “Why do we judge every other area of life, by its best representation, but always evaluate religion by its most outlandish practitioners”? When dealing with doubt about God we would do well to remember many of the evidences of His work in the world. The beauty of nature, the things that go right, the power of community, etc. Our doubts arise from the difficulties of life, but confidence arises from its blessings unless we refuse to allow that to happen.
IV. Doubt That Does Not Destroy Us, Brings The Strength Of Conviction: Doubt is a vehicle which can strengthen our relationship to God as we work through the questions that concern us. The danger of unbelief in God is not that we will believe nothing, but that we may come to believe any and everything. I agree with Coffin who said that “Doubts move you forward and not backward, as long as you doubt out of the love of truth, and not some pathological need to doubt.” Philosopher Robert Ingersoll reminds us, “An unexamined tenet is an unfit belief for the mind of anyone.” Doubt worked through produces clarity of belief and confidence of the truth of the convictions that guide our lives. Unquestioned belief can only survive in an unchallenged environment which will never exist in reality. The good news is that as we struggle with doubt God works with the faith we have until we can have more.
The purpose of this sermon is not to remove any doubt that you may have about the Christian experience. I cannot do that nor would I want to even if I could. For some of you doubt is the thing that drives your faith, doubt is the thing that keeps you in communication with God, doubt is the thing that keeps you from giving up. So no, I do not want to remove your doubt, I simply want to encourage you to do as the German poet Rilke encourages one to do “Love the questions, and live into the answers.” Do this because the only thing more difficult than relating to an invisible God, is relating to no God at all. May the grace of God sustain you as you move toward God’s kingdom day by day.
Two sources that were helpful in preparing this presentation were:
William Sloane Coffin Letters To A Young Doubter. (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, KY., 2005).
Philip Yancey Reaching For the Invisible God: What Can We Expect To Find.
(Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI., 2000).