APRIL 15, 2007 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
ACTS 5:27-32; PSALM 150; REV 1:4-8; JOHN 20:19-31
Before and After
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we may believe and in believing we may obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Just for kicks I “googled” Doubting Thomas this last week. A scan of the almost 900,000 sites – actually, I visited about 10! – but they revealed a fairly consistent theme: poor Thomas doesn’t deserve his bad reputation. The collected wisdom argues that Thomas is something of a martyr, bearing the brand of doubter simply for expressing what everyone else believed.
Jesus is dead, the disciples are scared, they can’t make sense of Mary’s claim, and when Christ appears among them, it scares them to death! Three times the Lord has to say “Shalom – Peace!” before they settle down!
Let me see a show of hands: how many agree that Thomas has been unfairly convicted by the court of public opinion, that he’s actually more of a hero for any who dare voice their doubts?
Here’s my two cents’ worth – I agree that this disciple’s designation as doubter is not deserved…but for a different reason: look how his doubts are dispelled, how his questions crumble when he’s confronted with the cruelly cut ex-corpse of Christ. Whose wouldn’t??? From Karl Marx to the Marx Brothers to our brothers and sisters of any creed, time, race or place: when confronted with Christ’s command to reach out and touch his wounds, what could any of us say but My Lord and my God!???
Here is strong support for the assertion that faith and facts do not mix – Jesus says it himself when he asks Thomas, Have you believed because you have seen me? The implied question is: Who wouldn’t??? Today Jesus might have said, Heck, even that group mentioned in yesterday’s paper called the “New Atheists” could have said nothing else.
Faith and doubt alike are crushed by cold, hard facts. Says the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 11:1, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen!
I don’t think that Thomas deserves to be honored as the poster child for all who harbor doubts…his struggle with faith only lasted seven days! Weekly I meet greater heroes in my office whose frustrations and failings foment a fervent fight with faith, whose trials and temptations cause a terrible test of trust, whose sadness and suffering threaten to sap all sense of certainty: that God cares about us, that the Holy Spirit is working in our lives, that Jesus’ resurrection makes any kind of difference in our problems and pain.
This is where the rubber hits the road, where the lightning cracks, the thunder booms and the waves crash upon the rocks of our lives and faith. Most of us, I believe, would give anything to trade places with Thomas. To be ABLE to KNOW instead of left HAVING to TRUST is what we so often crave. And the Lord knows that…which is why he immediately goes on to bless all the millions of us who follow by faith…and NOT by sight.
In this sense, I’m more comfortable with the faith struggle of another biblical figure – the O.T. prophet Elijah (I Kings 19:9-14, 18). Hiding alone in the desert, he is angry with God. He has done the Lord’s bidding, he has stayed true to the faith, he has dedicated his life to serving God’s Word – and now people are trying to kill him because of it. That doesn’t seem fair, he tells the Lord in so many words.
This is how God responds. Recognizing the prophet’s need for a spiritual boost, the Word of God calls Elijah out of the cave in which he is hiding. Watch, he is told, because the Lord is about to pass by. So Elijah goes out and sees a great wind smashing the rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence… or in the words of the old RSV, the sound of a still small voice (19:11-12).
We know how Elijah felt, how those disciples feel: hidden away, locked-up, lonely and afraid. It doesn’t seem fair, we tell the Lord as well. With our gut-wrenching grief, our wholly hurting hearts, our perplexing problems and consternating cares, we ask, we pray for some kind of affirmation…and what do we get? Well, like Elijah, (which puts us in very good company!) we’re often left with…the sound of that still, small voice…
But that’s a peg on which I can hang my hat of faith. That sound of sheer silence did not leave Elijah silent. And that same small voice, heard by every age since the resurrection, has not left the Church silent. In fact, you and I are living testimonies to the truth that the sheer silence of God speaks volumes about heaven’s love and concern for us and for all people.
Look at the change in the disciples between our Gospel from John and our lesson from Acts for today. They are two entirely different snapshots of the very same people: the proverbial before and after pictures. Like an ad for a weight-loss program or exercise machine: in a very short time, the disciples look vastly different. Something happened to them – they have changed.
From hiding behind locked doors, fearful that they, too, would be killed, we now see the Lord’s followers bravely proclaiming the good news of Jesus… in front of the very same council that condemned and crucified Christ!
Has the threat disappeared? Not at all. The very next verse that follows this story (5:33) says that the leaders were enraged and wanted to kill (the disciples). So what’s different? Anyone?
Here’s a clue from our Gospel for today. Says John, when the Lord had spoken a word of peace to his frightened followers, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit…” (20:21-22).
It as if God has something special to tell them, to tell Elijah, to tell us. Like a child telling a secret in a voice that’s almost too quiet to hear, so, too, God breathes on us, speaks to us in that still, small voice. The message is the same: God loves you…God loves us all.
This is the word of the cross that you and I are entrusted to share with the rest of the world. May you always hear God’s Word in that still, small voice, that sound of sheer silence…and may you also be moved to speak and love and serve this world on behalf of Jesus Christ. Amen.