19^th April 2010

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley (11th April 2010)

Lessons -- Psalm 150; Revelation 5:11-15; John 20:19-31

The recent Global Atheist Convention caused quite a stir, reviving memories of fierce debates in the 1960s on the 'death of God' and exposing the failure of the 'new spirituality' to face questions of truth and doubt. It is fascinating to see how doubt has become an unshakeable faith
-- a certainty sustained not so much by reason but by ridicule of those who believe in God.

There are many reasons to doubt. We shouldn't be too quick to condemn 'doubting Thomases' and praise those who are positive about the future, know where they're heading and always look on the bright side of life.
Indeed if we want a robust faith then at least initially we should side with the sceptics! Otherwise we will deserve the atheists' taunts that religious beliefs, particularly of the Christian kind, act as a deterrent against doubt.

The story of 'doubting Thomas' is troubling to atheists and Christians.
Doubt and faith are not strangers but travelling companions. Here is a man of faith, a disciple of Jesus, who doubts the presence of God in Jesus. It is a story of hope for all, including atheists and Christians, who have experienced the absence of God and been confronted by the reality of 'existential doubt': that is, doubt that passionately questions life itself.

When every door to faith and hope seems closed -- as it was for the disciples after the crucifixion of Jesus (vv 19,26) -- and we are deeply sceptical about the enduring power of love and goodness, the story of 'doubting' Thomas who comes to faith comes as a surprising source of certainty.

Certainly such a faith doesn't come easily! It is entirely unexpected -- after Thomas faces his existential doubts. His doubt is not to be confused with popular doubt which couldn't care less about God. Such doubt, shown by some smug atheists at the Global Atheist Convention, is easy to 'believe in' because it doesn't require serious personal wrestling with reality. Existential doubt on the other hand is suffering caused by a passionate longing to believe in the enduring power of love and goodness.

Remember! Thomas was one of the twelve disciples called by Jesus to share in God's mission to preach, to heal and to forgive (v23). He had high hopes for a new age of righteousness and mercy. He is a man of faith who cannot easily accept news of an improbable reversal of fortune for his crucified Lord. Understandably, like many atheists and believers, he has serious misgivings about reports of resurrection.

But his scepticism is far deeper than theirs because of his experience of God's presence in Jesus. In view of the depth of Christ's self-giving humanity, in whom he had glimpsed the very being of God, Thomas believes that talk of resurrection is wishful thinking. Like good atheists, he refuses to be consoled by glib or pious answers!

That is why he issues a fearsome and intimidating challenge to the other
disciples: 'Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe. (20:25)' Prove to me that God hasn't been overwhelmed by evil in the crucifixion of Christ. Show me that God's mercy, displayed in Jesus'
words and deeds, has defeated sin and death!

We can identify with his existential doubt. We too are often sceptical about the Easter message. After the crucifixion of Jesus isn't it unbelievable that, in a world where people suffer terrible affliction and brutality and death, we could still believe in the enduring goodness of God? In such a world, as Thomas knew, it is foolish to believe in the resurrection of Jesus!

Shallow optimism, as Thomas and good atheists know, is a poor substitute for existential doubt. Faith in a happy ending is too easy for one suffering the 'dark night of the soul'. So too is apathy. Contrary to criticism of Christians by some atheists, it is not enough to go along with what others believe. Reality must be faced and the logical conclusion drawn.

Thomas reasons that, if God has destroyed the power of sin, evil and death, it could be known only by recognising the marks of crucifixion.
Unlike Barbara Thiering, who somewhat improbably says that Jesus didn't really die on the cross, Thomas is in no doubt! He also knows that a merely spiritual presence will not be a genuine sign of hope in the person who cast out evil and forgave sins in his earthly ministry. That is why he says: 'Unless I see the marks . . . I will not believe. (20:25)'

There's much to admire in Thomas, but his doubt does expose him to cynicism. If there had been no answer to his ultimatum, he (and every Christian and every atheist) would be justified in turning away from God.
If Christ was only a courageous teacher whose life came to an abrupt and tragic end, then there would be no hope. Ultimately, evil would have defeated good and cynicism would reign.

Astonishingly, however, evil doesn't win and his cynicism is defeated.
Thomas is so overwhelmed by the unexpected presence of the crucified Jesus that he exclaims, 'My Lord and my God! (20:28)' He doesn't call Jesus 'teacher', 'friend', 'prophet' or 'Spirit'. Unlike many atheists and others he doesn't say: 'tolerance has overcome religion', 'the human spirit has prevailed' or 'Jesus' values are still relevant'. This seems very convoluted.

He stammers, 'My Lord and my God!' Thomas reacts spontaneously to this unparalleled event by ascribing the resurrection to the Creator and Ruler of the universe whose very Being has been embodied in Christ.

His reaction shows that the resurrection is outside the scope of what we can imagine or accomplish in relation to good and evil. Only the Risen Lord who was crucified can overcome existential doubt -- even in the life of a person of faith! In Christ the loving power of the Creator of all things is revealed as the reality who has defeated evil and death.

This is a word of hope for all in our despair, resignation, shallow optimism or cynicism. To believe it (as our text makes clear) doesn't require that we actually touch or even see marks of crucifixion. But it does mean that, in the midst of our own existential doubts, we should listen to the testimony of those who have gone before and, facing the reality of evil, open ourselves to the possibility that the dread power of evil has been defeated in principle by what God has done in raising the crucified Jesus to life.

The point of our 'seeing' is not only for ourselves. It is particularly for those, like Thomas and many atheists and Christians, for whom 'the vision of his sceptic mind / was keen enough to make him blind / to any unexpected act / too large for his small world of fact!' (Together in Song, 649.)

Thus it is made clear in the last verses of our text that Jesus' disciples are to preach this message of hope, to forgive sins and to bring people to life through faith in the Risen Lord in the hope that they too may live in hope. The Christian community has no other task than to point an often cynical, apathetic and superficial world to the place where sin, evil and death have been dealt the decisive blow: in the Risen-Crucified Lord.

The Church's task is not -- as many Christians seem to think -- to treat Jesus as a teacher of human wisdom whose memory we honour and whose faith and values we imitate. If we think that is what Christian faith is all about, then we should listen to the searing criticisms of sceptical (and suitably militant) atheists whose doubts about God (like Thomas's) are not trivial. At least then we may experience existential doubt and be open to really hearing the message of Easter: that the Risen-Crucified Christ, who is God with us in the flesh, has overcome evil and has thus enabled us to live fully in the world as a people of hope.

If like Thomas we see the horror of the crucifixion as an all-out attack on the goodness of God and doubt the resurrection, then we will be saved from shallow optimism and stoic resignation -- and be enabled to truly rejoice in God's victory over evil in Christ as the sign of hope for a new heaven and a new earth (envisioned in Revelation 5:10ff).

Then together with all genuine doubters -- Christian and atheist -- we too will exclaim in astonishment, 'My Lord and my God!' and be compelled to invite our cynical or apathetic brothers and sisters to believe. Then too we will be emboldened to take up the Cross knowing that, whatever befalls us, the love and goodness of God shall ultimately triumph.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.