Easter

Intro

If you were here last week then you will remember the great outage of 2022.

Last Sunday, right about this time, I was preaching and all the sudden the electricity went out. The whole church.

I was mid sentence and I really wanted to finish my sentence so I did and then addressed the outage.

There were people immediately up and heading into the foyer to address the issues. Our head usher and head trustee and one of our elder were immediately out checking on what happened, checking on our kids ministry, and trying to figure out how to proceed.

It turned out we were obviously all ok and that there was jsut a greater outage in Attleboro of about 5000 homes.

But as I was driving home that Sunday I started think about

Chaos monkey.

Chaos Monkey is a suite of software that Netflix has used since 2011 where it randomly shuts down a service or part of their software to see how the employees and rest of the company reacts when something shuts down without preparation.

They inject chaos into the system. And as they do it shows where the company needs to spend time on in order for Netflix to function fully.

how do you know how to proceed when you don’t know what will be disrupted?

Talk about a time when your life felt disrupted

We live Chaos monkey all the time. The pandemic was a chaos monkey. The outage last week was a chaos monkey. The conversation you weren’t expecting a few days a ago was a chaos monkey. That grade or that report or that review at work or school can be a chaos monkey.

They are things that are introduced into our lives that can help us to draw attention to things that matter.

For the disciples, the crucifixion, the death of Jesus was a chaos monkey. His resurrection was a chaos monkey. Everything had gone sideways and they were trying to make sense of everything

Thomas is the voice in the middle of the chaos monkey.

He voices his doubt bringing attention to what is most important. He is very interested in belief. He even wants to believe. But he cannot until He puts his hands in the wounds of Jesus.

Doubt is a part of growth.

That’s why we are going to look at Thomas. He is the patron saint of post pandemic living. He asks, I want to believe, show me something that is worth believing. Show me what is real.

So we are going to look at the intersection of faith and doubt. And we will find that doubt is not the absence of faith nor is it the opposite of faith.

As we look through Thomas’s story we will find that

His Doubt was an invitation to life-giving faith in Christ

doubt is a part of life and the Christian experience

John 20:24–25 ESV

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

We are all Thomas now. And that is great news because Christ responds directly to Thomas. God is not put off by our doubts in fact He seems to draw near in them.

Thomas is an easy target. He stands in the middle of the room and declares his doubt.

But think about what is happening here.

doubting thomas meme 1

Jesus is raised from the dead. and he meets with and communicates with mary magdelene.

Then Jesus appears to a group of disciples.

The room was locked and they were hiding.

Jesus shows up and shows his hands and sides.

why? Jesus had to show that he was not an apparition or someone else. That He was the same Christ who went to the cross. The wounds were still there.

At this point Thomas makes an appearance. The disciples tell him what has happened and he asks to see the same thing that they did. HE wants to know that it’s really the Christ. He is looking for proof.

Again whatever arguments we had to dump on Thomas we don’t now. We spend all day looking for proof for whatever ideology or area of interest or conspiracy theory we are hoping to support or deny

family dinner table and aggressive koalas.

we are skeptical because we can find answers quickly .

We are all Thomas.

We live pretty skeptical lives these days and the point I want to make is not that that is bad, it just is. We have to figure out it’s place in the life of faith.

Doubt is a part of belief. You can’t doubt something if you don’t already have a modicum of belief.

Where else do we see doubt held out in the Scriptures (think: Job or the psalms)?

Think of doubt like hide and seek when you were a kid.

- You are the counter and everyone else is hiding. You don’t doubt that they are hiding you might just doubt where they are hiding. I doubt they hid in the couch cushions. I doubt they hid in the sink. Your doubt reveals your belief. You know they exist and are hiding somewhere you just doubt where they are.

Look at this quote from philosopher Charles Taylor

Even doubting is faith; even temptation is belief; you cannot entirely remove belief in a secular age. Belief is native to our thinking and actions. It is not if you believe it is what you believe. - Charles Taylor. A Secular Age.

It’s not if you believe it’s what you believe.

The problem with doubt is not it’s pursuit. If you doubt, like the kid playing hide and seek, you are still in pursuit of something.

The problem with doubt is when we give up on it. Then the pursuit ends.

We are pursuing something. And that can often be defined through doubt. What is it that you are pursuing this morning? What is it that you hope to hang onto?

What is in the back of your mind that you are skeptical of? That part of God that you doubt? His love or will or ventless or kindness? or ability to save?

Doubt shows us something about ourselves. Paying attention to doubt can be helpful.

If you are able, take some time to share a doubt you have in your group

Doubt helps us to understand where attention is needed. It reveals our desire.

Doubt can be helpful in where it leads us.

Again, as we move through the passage we will find that doubt allows for Thomas to be invited into a life giving relationships with Christ.

Thomas was not going to be satisfied until he looked Jesus in the face and placed his finger into the mark of his nails and his hands into his side. That is his condition for belief.

Doubt can show us what truly and really matters in life.

We have treated doubt like it is the opposite of faith. But that is not the case. The opposite of faith is unbelief. It is a lack of belief. Doubt requires you to have faith. To hang onto a belief.

Doubt brings the reality of our belief to the surface. It puts it right in front of us. We could even say that doubt is the place where belief becomes more tangible.

- Up until this moment last year (show picture of the Evergreen) we probably didn’t think too much about the supply chain. But now we do. We even know some of the language.

The evergreen got stuck in the Suez canal which is a canal that has 12 percent of the worlds trade travel through

We never thought we cared that much about the supply chain. We clicked two day order and then it showed up on our doorstep.

Until it didn’t

We bought a couch last year and had to wait 5 months for it.

We often don’t think about or see the supply chain because we don’t have to. Rose George calls it “sea Blankness in her book ninety percent of everything. We don’t think about the hundred thousand freighters the move our stuff from port to port.

And until things don’t work like they are supposed to that we think about it at all. 90 percent of the things you wear eat and own are shipped across the ocean and we never think about it. Until there is a disruption.

as an example The ship has the capacity to carry 20,000 20-ft shipping containers,

The disruption brings it to the forefront of our minds. IT shows us what we are missing.

Doubt is a disruption that brings to the forefront of our minds what it is we are missing. What it is that we may need to pay attention to.

The pandemic, a 2 year disruption brought all sorts of doubts about everything to our minds.

about God

about safety

about finances

war

peace

security

friendship

politics

all of it came right into our face. And we became pros at becoming skeptics.

Some of us are sitting here this morning doubting the very existence of God. Or the existence of your friendships or of your family.

We doubt, we become skeptical because we care about these things.

So before you bounce on the existence of God or your friendships, recognize that those are areas worth paying attention to.

Hang onto your doubt. It isn’t in the pursuit that it is lost, it is in dropping doubt.

But here’s the good news. Even in the doubt, even in the anger. God has not left. In fact, He leans in. Let’s look at Christ’s interaction with Thomas.

How do you see Thomas as an example of solid Christian Faith?

It was at the moment of Thomas’s greatest doubt that we see the greatest invitation he will ever receive

Doubt brought Thomas face to face with Christ.

John 20:26–28 ESV

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

So the story picks up 8 days later. The disciples are still locked away in a room for fear. And Jesus came in and stood among them.

Then, in the most incredible part of the narrative. He approaches Thomas. And He directly answers him. He tells him to put his finger in his hands and hand in his side. And in so doing invited him to believe.

There are other people in the room. And Jesus addresses Thomas. And his response is in the form of an invitation. He tells him based on this experience that he doesn’t have to doubt. He can believe.

Thomas’ question brought him face to face with Christ. And he recieves a life giving invitation.

now you may, at the point of this story say, well yea Thomas got to look Jesus in the eye. My doubts are doubts because I can’t prove them. I doubt what God says because I can’t look Him in the eye.

Fair. But Jesus doesn’t give us a way out as the passage goes on.

John 20:29–31 ESV

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

We are considered in this story. We are called blessed for struggling with doubt and still believing

And then we see that in that belief we receive life.

Our doubt can bring us to a life giving invitation to know Christ.

Our doubt is a searching and a seeking. And it brings us near to Christ.

And since Christ has said He would never leave us nor forsake us, any movement toward Him is already a movement near Him.

I want to show you a quote by one of my favorite philosophers and theologians, Soren Kierkegaard.

Truly, no more than God allows a species of fish to come into existence in a particular lake unless the plant that is its nourishment is also growing there, no more will God allow the truly concerned person to be ignorant of what he is to believe. That is, the need brings its nourishment along with it…The need brings the nourishment along with it, not by itself … but by virtue of a divine commandment that joins the two, the need and the nourishment. (Kierkegaard, Soren. *Christian Discourses.*Pg 244-45).

When we are in need, God provides the nourishment.

God grants life.

Doubt sustained with Christ in the room can lead to incredible faith

And we want you to experience life giving faith.

So maybe you are here this morning in doubt. You are in great company. Whether you have been here for 4 minutes or 40 years you are in good company.

We have a number of ways to work through doubt together.

Next Step

Ground Floor

Faith Foundations

Faith Communities

And we would love to pray for you up front after service.

But Christ is inviting us into a life giving faith through Him. And doubt is something He absolutely uses to bring us close.

How has doubt in your life been an invitation to believe and trust Christ?

2 songs to end. One worship one special.