Psalm 16:5-11 You show me the path of life.
Acts 2:14a, 22-32 God raised up…
John 20:19-31 Blessed are those who have not seen…
I.
OK, I admit it. I am quite weary of all the media talk about Obama’s pastor, The Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright. Sure the sound bites from a few of his sermons sound dreadful- no, reprehensible! I cannot possibly associate myself with these inflammatory statements. And Wright is a United Church of Christ pastor, one of us! Let’s disown him and get on with the primary campaign.
But hold on! Jeremiah Wright has just retired as Senior Pastor of the UCC’s largest congregation. An African American congregation, Trinity UCC on Chicago’s South Shore is highly respected way beyond our denominational family, as an effective and courageous gospel outpost of social justice. It helped to break the practice of redlining by Chicago banks, opening up home buying opportunities for thousands of qualified minority families. It ministers daily to hundreds of hungry people. It works faithfully with AA and other self-help programs to break the alcohol and substance-abuse cycle so common to urban neighborhoods. It has given young black males pride in their heritage and encouragement to stay in school and make a positive difference in the world.
All of these achievements and more are credited to the ministry of Jeremiah Wright, himself the product of the inner city of Philadelphia. When Jerry addresses his people, he knows of what he speaks because he has been there himself. And he speaks in a language that gets their attention and changes lives!
I consider Jeremiah a good colleague and friend. We became acquainted over thirty years ago when we were young pastors elected to the board of directors of the Illinois Conference of our UCC. Then and know, he both delights and irritates me. He amazes me at taking a dispirited 200 member miniority congregation in a grimy neighborhood and developing it into a 8,000 member UCC powerhouse of the Spirit. At clergy conferences, some of us white guys have taken him on about his sermonic style. We have told him how we are concerned about his linguistic extremism and of some of his- shall we say?- revisionist history. His retort has been consistent: You have not been where I have been. You do not serve where I serve. I could not preach where you are and do what you do. Neither could you pastor and preach where I do. We each have our ministries of social justice and gospel conversion to do. His is a ministry that has drawn the likes of Oprah and Obama, and countless other leaders in their field, sitting side by side in Trinity’s pews with the homeless and the hopeless and the addicted and the afflicted.
When did freedom of the pulpit become an issue in America? And when did we require presidential candidates to take seriously every word of every sermon preached by their pastors? Where I live, I am used to folks disagreeing with what I preach! If there is no debate over what I preach, I am not doing what the preaching task demands. If I am not mistaken, even Jesus had his share of disagreements with the solid citizens of his time, inside and outside of the synagogue. In fact, his home town congregation ran him out of town for appreciatively preaching from the prophet Isaiah (Luke 4:16-30).
Let me say it once more. Judging from the sound bites CNN and Fox News are replaying, it appears that Pastor Wright sometimes dangerously overstates his points. He sometimes draws unsupportable historical and political parallels. His language sometimes is offensive. That said, who are we to discredit an entire 35 year ministry on the basis of a handful of sound bites? Who are we to discredit Trinity UCC for the words of its now-retired senior pastor? Who are we to so easily judge one of its church members by all that has been said from the pulpit of his church by the pastor?
We are in dangerous waters. We cherish the separation of church and state. Yet a government agency now seeks to censor what is being preached from free pulpits. We are even questioned about a member of our denomination who publically shares his faith at General Synod. Clearly, the UCC has not, nor ever will, endorse any candidate for public office. And it ought to be obvious that what is preached from the pulpit of a church, synagogue or mosque is the faith-based view of the preacher. The preacher’s views do not automatically represent the views of the congregation. Let us in the religious community be careful to avoid being used by disreputable political interests.
II.
What does all this have to do with Thomas, the patron saint of skeptics? Everything! Would that more of us had Thomas’ courage to question what we hear. The other disciples have experienced the Risen Christ on Easter evening. As Jesus materialized through their fear-locked doors, showing them his wounded hands and side, they rejoiced with a mighty sigh of relief!
But Thomas wasn’t there. What reason does he have to think that his friends are not just suffering from the extreme stress they have been under? The disciples had been afraid of being arrested, exhausted from keeping watch for the authorities all that Saturday after the crucifixion, spiritually drained from experiencing the execution of their rabbi and friend after the mob rule and mock trial. Stress can distort reality, making visions and dreams and hopes seem real. So, in the face of his friends’ enthusiastic and apparently solid witness, Thomas dares to question them. They must have been incredulous. Thomas said (John 20),
Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark…and my hand in his side, I will not believe.
Would that we had had a few more Thomases around in the last few weeks! A few more thoughtful people of faith who would have been willing inquire as to whether the sound bites in any way mislead the public about what Jeremiah Wright’s full message might be, and about the full story of Jeremiah Wright’s ministry. Thank goodness we did have the steady, faithfulness of our UCC president, John Thomas, himself under pressure because of the IRS’s very public and quite unfounded investigation of the UCC. Too bad that John Thomas did not get a few seconds’ air time amidst the tabloid media’s eagerness for a story.
Of course, Doubting Thomas eventually does get to touch the wounds and come to see Jesus standing there before him.
My Lord and my God! he declares in full awe and faith.
But the point is that Thomas is willing to ask the tough questions and to seek the full story before declaring what he believes. No one was going to prematurely influence his judgment on the most important matter of his life! In this, Thomas would be comfortable with today’s so-called Neo-Atheists, who insist on reviewing every assumed doctrine of organized religion. Critics like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins are questioning the certainty of faith. They ponder the question of whether those who are absolutely convinced of their salvation might be a danger to civilization. As Harris puts it, …Certainty about the next life is simply incompatible with tolerance in this one. (E.J. Dionne, Dr., Wash. Post).
In the March 19 (’08) issue of the New Republic, Catholic writer, Michael Novak (from his new book, Belief and Unbelief) states that questions have been the heart and soul of Judaism and Christianity for millennia. And well they ought to be. Only by questioning what we observe and what is presented to us as unassailable truth, can we ever hope to draw nearer to the One who is Truth.
III.
Of course, Jesus surprises us again with his parting comment to Thomas:
Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not
seen and yet have come to believe.
This declaration is nonsense until, in our own struggle for truth, we come to realize that Jesus is not chastising Thomas but merely declaring that the Lord will not always come in flesh and blood, wounds and all. But, the Lord will come, as today’s psalmist knows full well, having reached the Promised Land full of joy and faith. He has seen God’s mighty hand make a way out of no way, and he declares his faith (Ps. 16:11)-
You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
At Pentecost, Peter experiences the Lord in a non-material but highly spiritual way. As the Spirit so inspired apostles to risk their lives to spread the Gospel, Christ was clearly present. How else could Peter so bolding declare,
God raised him up, having freed (Jesus) from death, because it was impossible
for him to be held in its power? (Then remembering King David, the patriarch,
Peter quotes the scripture (Ps. 16:8-11)-
I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;
therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
moreover my flesh will live in hope…
Doubting Thomas reminds me that faith is made stronger by doubt. Through the stages of my life, I have sometimes burned with Christian conviction. Then again, there have been many moments, especially when confronted with undeserved evil, when I have reached out for Jesus’ wounds and found only emptiness and doubt. Then again, there have been times in which faith and doubt contended within me in such a mighty warfare that mounting the pulpit felt too painful to bear.
One time, I shared these things with a member of the church I was serving at the time. As he declared how spiritually empty he felt, how faith seemed to allude him, I told him that I knew what he was feeling because it was what I also was experiencing at that moment. Astonished, the parishioner declared, Then my seeking your help is like the blind leading the blind.
No, I reflected. It’s more like two honest seekers being led by One who sees clearly the road ahead.
Amen.