Doubts, Anyone?

Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 133; 1 John 1:1-2:2: John 20:19-31

When Saundra and I lived in Atlanta, we went through a period of time when we had tremendous money problems. I was a new Christian – in fact, the day after I became a Christian believer, I was laid off from my job. About a month later, after sending out about 110 resumes, I started up an electrical automation business with nothing but one project, a loan from another customer to cover the project, my credit cards, and my new-found faith in God.

The first year was terrible. We had gross income that year of about $6000, and had to cover our bills with credit card loans. But we grew used to getting calls from bill collectors, and it isn’t a fun thing. The next year was also terrible, but sales began to pick up rapidly at the end of that year, and the next year we began paying down those bills. I spent a lot of time on the road, and Saundra worked the warehouse. Gradually, things improved.

About 8 years after we started our business, we decided to move the business and ourselves to Ohio. There, in February with the snow covering the property, we had found a house which had a large warehouse on the property, and the new payment would be about a third of what we were paying for rent for both our home and the business in Atlanta. But we were concerned that this might not be the right move for us. And so we made an offer on the new house, submitted the credit information, and prayed that God’s will be done – while hoping that God’s will was that we would get the new home. It was a scary time – we were filled with doubts over whether we were making the right decision, and also filled with doubts about our ability to get the loan. And when the loan came through, we were filled with doubts about whether or not the house would close, because in Atlanta at that time, it seemed that about a third of firm offers did not close for one reason or the other, or were delayed for weeks.

We could not handle a delay. Moving a business requires having phone lines transferred on a specific timetable, or you don’t get sales. At that time, even our credit card processing meant we had to have an active phone line – and we really needed about 3 phone lines to handle the call volume. We needed the house to close on the day it was supposed to close or we would begin to lose about a thousand dollars a day. And because of our limited cash-on-hand, we had to move about half of our home and business from Atlanta on the night before closing, with the plan being to make the final move a week later. Our fears and doubts about whether or not to make the move almost paralyzed us.

On the drive from Atlanta, Saundra turned to me. She asked me if we could plant a lilac bush on the property. It seems that when she was young, she would take lilac blossoms and put them on her pillow in the early afternoon and shut the doors and windows in her room. Then, when she went to bed, the sweet smell of the lilacs would fill the room as she drifted off to sleep. But in Atlanta, the weather is too hot for lilacs.

I replied, “Of course we can. We’ll own the place.”

When we arrived in town in early May, we drove a truckload of goods to the house and left it parked there. As we drove up, there beside the door to the warehouse was a large, beautiful blooming lilac, and under the window to the master bedroom was another that was even larger. We had not seen them in February because of the snow, but God had planted them years earlier to help us understand that God was there, and that all of our doubts should vanish. The house closed easily, and we moved in there and spent the next ten years living there. The home is on the market as we speak.

It seems that when we deal with the things of God, the subject of doubt always comes up. It isn’t a new thing – the disciple Thomas the Twin earned the nickname of “Doubting Thomas” for his skepticism that is shown in today’s story.

The disciples gather in the upper room the Sunday after the crucifixion. They had heard wild rumors that Mary Magdalene had seen Jesus, and heard from Peter and John that the tomb was open and the body was gone, with the mummy wrap still lying there, still wrapped up as though the body had simply gone right through the wrappings. But there was still a strong element of doubt, and so they locked the doors because they were afraid of the Temple leaders, and whether or not the disciples would be the next men arrested and crucified.

Suddenly, Jesus appears in their midst. He didn’t knock at the door, He simply appeared there and said “Peace be with you!”. Then He showed them His scars - the cruel nail holes in his wrists and the spear cut to His side.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus had another message: “I am sending you.” They were to go into the world and tell the world what they had seen, and tell the world what Jesus had said and done over the last three years – particularly the part where He came back to visit them this day.

Jesus then breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. The Greek word for “Spirit”, pneuma, is the same as the word for “breath” or “wind”. It is the root of both pneumonia and pneumatic. And so when He breathed upon them, naturally they got the Holy Spirit, the Holy Breath. They got the real thing! And they received a direct communication line to God.

Thomas the Twin wasn’t there. He didn’t believe the other disciples and said so. Thomas had doubts, he was skeptical, he didn’t trust the other disciples and he wasn’t afraid to tell them so.

But a week later, Thomas was there when Jesus reappeared to the gathered disciples, and Jesus knew that Thomas had doubted. “Stop doubting and believe”, Jesus said as He encouraged Thomas to touch His scars and the hole in His side.

History records that Thomas landed in Southern India in 52 AD, and founded seven churches in the area known today as Kerala. We have Christian friends in Atlanta that date the founding of their denomination to Thomas. He had given up doubting, and spread the Gospel farther than any of the disciples.

But today, there are many people who doubt the stories of Jesus. Why do people doubt?

The first and most important reason is a lack of trust. We have learned to not trust anyone. As we grow to be adults, people play tricks upon us and tell us lies which lead us to become injured, emotionally harmed, or suffer financially. About a month ago I received a call from a man with a strong Indian accent who claimed to be calling me from the “United States Grant-making Agency in Washington DC” and told me that a grant of $8000 had been made in my name. Of course, I needed to provide him with some personal data to get the money. SURE!

Each time this happens to us, we lose trust in people. And that lack of trust in general means that we have difficulty believing truth when faced with it. We learn to become cynical, skeptical, and suspicious of everything. And so we don’t trust the stories of Jesus. Just this week, I read someone commenting that they doubted that Jesus even existed.

The worst thing about this is that trusting means becoming vulnerable. Yet, when we truly believe what Jesus said and did, then our fears disappear, and we are no longer vulnerable since we no longer fear death.

The second reason people doubt the stories of Jesus is that they are unique and were once new to this world – yet since that time they have been duplicated over and over again in literature, on television, and in the movies. The hero who dies to save the world and perhaps comes back to life is a common idea in our culture. Ironman died in the Avenger’s movie to save the world and came back to life. Spock died to save the Enterprise and then came back to life in the next movie. The soldiers in Saving Private Ryan died to save one man. Even JR Ewing was shot in the tv show Dallas and came back the next year. It was said that poor Charlton Heston always played sacrificing heroes that died and never made it out of a movie alive. The story resonates with us so much that we have told it and retold it time and again in many different ways.

And because Jesus performed miracles – including coming back from the dead – we doubt. But that is the entire point of the story, isn’t it? The point is that God came to earth once, performed miracles, and then died and came back to life to save us from death and prove that we really could be resurrected by God.

You see, our doubting is tied to our view of the world. There are three views of the world.

There are those who believe that the world is chaotic, that powerful forces are clashing against us like hurricane waves battering a rowboat, and that we are completely subject to luck, to how things happen to occur, that there’s no plan, no order, that things just happen, while you live luck controls everything, and one day you get unlucky, you die and it’s all over.

Then there are those who believe that everything is in order, that the world runs like a well-oiled machine with physical laws always operating perfectly, and that is very predictable, with nothing supernatural possible. From a chaotic random beginning, driven by physical laws, everything orderly developed. What you see is what you get – and nothing more. What you call your mind is just a bunch of chemicals reacting to the chemicals you have eaten and the chemicals generated when light hits your retina. Your life is predictable, controllable, and it continues up until the day you die and then you are gone. There is nothing more.

And then there are those who believe that there is a good Mind behind everything, who prepared the physical laws, lets the world develop mostly according to those laws, but every once in a while, very rarely but just often enough that people have noticed, that wonderful Mind steps in and tinkers with the world just enough that people call it a miracle. Your life is guided, gently led by a loving God, and there is indeed something beyond the veil, something more than just what you can see and taste and touch. And so when you die, there is the possibility of more.

You see, if you believe in life after death, you must believe that there is something supernatural – it only follows because life after death is a supernatural event. There is no known physical law that gives anyone life after death. It makes no sense to believe in life after death if you don’t believe in God.And thus, if you believe that life after death is possible, then there must be a Mind beyond this physical world, a guiding, leading intelligence that gently molds this world as that Mind sees fit, a Mind that one day may step into your life and turn your world upside down as you see strange and wonderful things happen.

This past summer, Saundra and I had to miss the final morning of Annual Conference because we had to drop Andy off at the Boy Scout Camp in Wirt County at 9 AM. Coming back, we were two pastors without a church, so we saw a church on the left, but a gentle voice said, “Not this one,” to me. We went a few miles further and saw another church on the right, and the voice said, “Not this one, either.” And so we continued on. Finally, we arrived in Burnt House, and saw a sign pointing up the hill to Burnt House United Methodist Church, and the voice said to me. “Here.” We pulled in, Saundra snapped some pictures of a chipmunk on a stump and we went inside.

There were about 8 people there, and we sat down quietly in back as the Sunday school lesson was going on. We didn’t say a word, because we didn’t want to be asked to lead the lesson or preach in a church without the permission of the pastor, who was not there that Sunday. She alternates preaching with another church.

At the end, the lay leader asked us if either of us played the piano, and I admitted that I did, so they asked me to play one hymn, which I did. They then asked an older woman what hymn she had wanted a couple weeks back when the piano player was out, and she said, “Leave It There”. So I opened up the old shaped-note hymnal, squinted at the music in the dim light, and did a passable job playing the song, which I had never before heard or played. We finished, and everyone went home.

About two weeks later, a pastor friend of ours who happens to be a carpenter met us over at the house we’re trying to sell to help me with some flooring that wasn’t working. We mentioned that we had stopped at a church on Rt 47, and he said, “You stopped at Burnt House”. Surprised, we said, “Yes”. Then told us about the lady asked about the hymn and we said, “Yes, it was us.” Then he said, “Let me tell you the rest of the story. The woman was my aunt and she had had a stroke a couple of weeks before, and just loved that hymn, but no one was able to play it when she had come back to church. Then you two showed up that Sunday morning. She went home and early Monday morning at 1:30 am, she went home to be with the Lord.” Our friend preached her funeral a few days later, and everyone wondered who those mysterious strangers were that stopped in to play that song for her.

God, you see, plans things and works out things for the best for everyone. There are many, many people in this room who have similar stories to tell – stories of amazing coincidences, stories of miraculous healings, stories of God guiding things in a way that sends chills up your spine because you suddenly realize that there IS more to this world than what you can see, touch, and hear.

But there is one more reason that we doubt. The reason we doubt is very personal. You see, deep down, many of us would like to be a god, completely in control of our Universe, particularly if we have been successful in our lives. We’d like to take charge of the world around us, ordering it the way we want it to be, the way we know it would be better, the way that seems best to us. And so we put this dome of control around us, and try to control everything in that dome of control, extending the dome as far as we can. That’s why video games are so popular – you are in control of an entire computer-generated world. That’s why crafting is so popular – you are in control of the fabric. That’s why we go hunting in tree stands – it’s the feeling of control as you gaze down upon the deer or the turkeys coming into your dome of control. In each case – you are in charge, and you are in control.

But the presence of God in the Universe can make us very uneasy, for, you see, God can’t be controlled and we know it. We can try it – I have a couple of friends who are very definite about what God will do and what God won’t do. But God will not be controlled. And since deep down we know that, we try to deny the existence of God – or God’s just and proper command of our lives which is due to the fact that God created us and we are God’s property.

Deep down, we understand that admitting that God exists means that we are not gods. Deep down, we understand that coming to church on a regular basis means that God will speak to us through God’s Word in the Bible, and that would mean we have to listen. And deep down, we know that if we listen to God through God’s Word and Holy Spirit – we will eventually have to bow the knee to God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and change our ways.

And so people doubt.

But why won’t God give me a special sign to show me that He is real and His Son is special?

Because, my friend, only a god negotiates with another god, and the God of the Universe will not help you keep lying to yourself that you are that high and mighty that you can demand God talk to you. The proper place for a man or woman is to bow to our Creator.

If you want a sign that our Creator exists, consider the rainbow or a sunset. As a physicist, I can tell you how the rainbow and sunsets form, I can tell you according to physical laws why the colors are arranged the way they are, and I can even predict somewhat when and where those beautiful colors will appear. But as a physicist, I cannot tell you why they are beautiful. For there is no need for beauty of this sort to exist in a world run solely by natural processes. Beauty, you see, is something supernatural, for in the rainbow or the sunset, the Beauty you see does not aid in our survival, but it does lift our spirits. And that tells me that a Creator God exists who loves beauty and wants to share it with Creation.

And finally, the reason that we doubt is usually because we haven’t taken the time to understand the whole story. If you want to understand the story, let me suggest the following:

First of all, get ahold of a modern translation of the Bible. One that says NEW King James, or New International Version (NIV) or perhaps the New Revised Standard Version or the Common English Bible. I personally prefer the Holman Christian Standard Bible, but they’re sort of expensive and harder to find. You can find any of these versions on Amazon and many at Walmart.

Open the Bible to the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament. Read it. Then Read the Gospel of John. After that you can jump around. But it is important to read at least Mark and John.

While you read, keep a notepad beside you and write down any questions you might have. I’m here for dinner every Wednesday evening from about 5:15 until 6:30, and I’m ready to answer questions you have during dinner. I consider that to be a great use of my time. I’m also here at 6 pm on most Sunday Evenings for the Defending the Faith class, which is a class for people who really want to understand Christianity so they can explain it to other people. It’s a good class to come to if you want to get deeper – or simply want to settle some doubts.

You know, almost everyone has doubts at some time about the issues of faith. There are some ideas and thoughts in the Bible that simply don’t make sense according to the way our culture and society normally looks at the world – but that’s the point! Jesus came to earth to completely turn things around, to take us off the collective road to Hell that our world was headed along, and put us on the road to Heaven. Naturally some things seem odd in His teachings.

For example, I was talking to my 10-year-old granddaughter the other day and mentioned that Jesus told us when we are slapped by someone to turn the other cheek to them so they can slap that cheek also. She looked at me and said, “That’s crazy!” Of course! In a world where you are told to “get even”, turning the other cheek appears like the wrong idea. Until you work through the idea that you have just taken all the power out of the slapper when slapping doesn’t upset or insult the person slapped. And then it makes lots of sense.

Take this as wisdom: When we doubt a Christian teaching, we are standing on the edge of learning a tremendous new idea. Take your doubt and turn it into a question. And ask one of the Sunday School teachers here – or me – what the answer is until you are satisfied. Any question is acceptable – for questions are how we come closer to understanding God. Every time I have doubted or questioned – and there have been many times – I have always found that the search for understanding led me to a great new truth.