Sermon Archive

"Just Believe", John 20:19-31

Date: April 19, 2009, Second Sunday of Easter
Author: The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel

GLORY TO THE FATHER AND TO THE SON AND TO THE HOLY SPIRIT, AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING IS NOW AND WILL BE FOREVER. AMEN.
            Last Tuesday night I was teaching confirmation with Pastor Robyn and we turned to our Lutheran Handbook to read Luther’s Explanation of Holy Communion. Some of the confirmands could not find their book so I found an extra one. I opened the book to find that the owner was Peter Pan. Now I suppose I should not have been surprised, after all in our guestbook we can read that Mickey Mouse attended our church. But then I got to thinking—or rather my mind wandered during the singing—is there anything about Peter Pan that related to faith? Then I remembered. Tinker Bell saved the life of Peter Pan by drinking the poison left by Captain Hook. Tink drank what Peter thought was his medicine and her light started to fade. The fairy was dying and could only be saved by one thing—children of all ages who believed in fairies. On stage and in the movie of the play, Mary Martin turns to the audience and says to us all, “Just believe.” Clap your hands if you believe. I remember sitting with our girls when they were little and we clapped furiously. Magically, Tinker Bell’s light begins to shine brighter—she is LIVING because we believed.
            Well, I do not know how much the sacrificial deed of Tinker Bell really has to do with faith. Fairies, Easter Bunny, Santa Claus are fun for children. The Easter Bunny came to our house last week and left so many chocolates and jelly beans and peeps. I always told Mary and Anne that they should say they believed in Santa Claus because they would get more presents—so even into high school they would have their picture taken with Santa at the department store. But I still remember when my parents told me about Santa Claus and what went through my mind, “I hope they don’t tell me that God does not exist next.” That may be the problem with childhood fantasies of fairies and bunnies and elves. Faith is not magic. God is not manipulated by clapping of hands or wishful thinking.
            The best thing for real religious faith is a healthy dose of doubt. Not everything is to be believed or accepted. Frederick Buechner, the popular author once wrote, “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” And this Sunday after Easter is the time each year when we hear again the story of Thomas who said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in Jesus’ hands and put my finger in his side, I will not believe.” Forever after the disciple is called by the moniker, “Doubting Thomas,” but his doubts were healthy in many ways. Thomas represents all who want evidence for faith, not just hearsay but proof.
            The story begins on Easter evening when the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Yes, Mary Magdalene had told the other followers that she had seen the Lord, but then she was a woman and not to be believed. No one at the time trusted the testimony of a woman. But then Jesus came to the disciples.  He entered through the locked door and said, “Peace be with you.” After this he showed them his hands and side. Then the disciples rejoiced and received the Holy Spirit from Jesus. These disciples needed to hear Jesus’ voice and see the marks of his suffering and only then did they rejoice and believe. The following week, Jesus showed himself to Thomas. Jesus 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.” And then Jesus spoke words to us, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have seen and yet have come to believe.” Jesus did not reject Thomas his follower, but came to him. Jesus does not give up on us either but comes to us and meets us where we are and then takes us where he wants us to be. We have not seen but we have come to believe.
            “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” Hebrews 11. The goal of our preaching and our witness is faith. It is accepting that which can not be proved and trusting the promises made without seeing them fulfilled. If our faith could be proved, it would be science not faith; knowledge and not religion. There is no conflict between them; they are just different. Science tells us the what and the how but religion tells us why. If you want to know about the world around you, read science. The Bible is poetry and story and song and tells you the why behind the how. Science tells us that our solar system is part of a lens-shaped island which is represented by our galaxy, the Milky Way, which has a diameter of 100,000 light-years (the speed of light being 186,282 miles per second; a light-year is the length it would take to travel in one year). In our galaxy there are estimated to be 100,000 million light-emitting stars of the same kind as our sun. Yet our Milky Way is only one galaxy amid hundreds of millions of others. Nothing is static but the universe is expanding and changing. In the midst of all this, our religion tells us that each human being is important to God. We believe that each person is a unique creation, each man or woman redeemed by the blood of a loving Savior, that God desires that each person come to a knowledge of the truth in Christ and have everlasting life.
            Thomas is blessed by Jesus but even more blessed are those who believe but have not seen. And it is that faith which saves. We are saved by faith alone apart from works of the law—we are saved because of God’s grace not our own reason or efforts, not because of who we are or what we have done but because of God’s goodness and mercy. Faith is fiducia, simple trust in the promises of God. But faith is also assensus, the faith which is centered in Jesus Christ which saves.
            In our Wednesday morning Bible class we have been studying the Pastoral Epistles. We have finished 1 Timothyand are now beginning 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon. These letter were written much later than the earlier epistles of St. Paul and scholars are divided on whether they were written by another hand—the vocabulary is different and the ideas are different—or whether an older Paul is now writing for a church that is being established for the long haul rather than waiting for Jesus to return shortly. The views of marriage and the family are quite different, orders in the church regularized, even the concept of faith as trusting in God’s promises changes into accepting the right doctrine of the faith. But both fiducia and assensus are important. You really can’t have one without the other.
            Faith in faith does not save. Faith must have content. Just clapping for Tinker Bell or writing a note to Santa or wishing that for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows does not work. Real life is not wishful thinking. Sometimes a flower grows and sometimes it rains so hard that the flower bed is washed out. There are many people who believe in God when the going is good and when times turn tough reject God. I have known some from this congregation. But as Martin Luther once said, “Even the devil accepts the truth of the Apostles’ Creed” and Buechner has added, “Believing in Christ is not the same as believing things about him such as that he was born of a virgin and raised Lazarus from the dead. Instead it is a matter of giving our hearts to him…of believing in him the way a child believes in a mother or a father, the way a mother or father believes in a child.” We need both trust in God in spite of life’s difficulties but it must be trust in God, faith in the God revealed in Jesus Christ who died and rose again. It is faith both as action and content, right doctrine and personal decision.
            Thomas was not wrong. He wanted to make sure that it was really Jesus of Nazareth who was risen and living. He wanted to make sure that this was not specter but the Jesus. From knowledge he was willing to move to faith. From seeing and hearing and touching, he was willing to believe. Thomas believed and said to Jesus, “My Lord and my God.” Our faith is not in any old thing but in the risen Christ. Amen.

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