John 20:19-31
As many of you know, this Sunday the week after Easter is often informally known as low Sunday. I think that refers to the typical attendance on this day. Or it might refer to the energy level of everyone who has been involved in Holy Week services.
But, really, there are no “low” Sundays. All Sundays are Days of Our Lord and, in addition, today is the Second Sunday of Easter. The church celebrates Easter as a season. The Great Fifty Days of Easter. Probably less well-known, the church also celebrates what is called the “octave” of Easter. Easter itself is more than just one day; it is eight days, an “octave” of days. Eight days, Sunday through Sunday, make a circle, and circles signify completeness, fulfillment, infinity. Easter is all of those things.
Those of you who remember your grade school piano lessons will remember that octave is also a musical term. And I like to think of the days of Easter week as a rising scale encompassing an octave. Musically speaking the notes that encompass an octave, the beginning and ending notes, are the same but different. The same, but different. Easter day and today are the same, but different.
Today, this second Sunday of Easter, the focus of the Gospel reading is always on Thomas. It’s interesting that we also encounter Thomas around Christmas. His own feast day in the calendar is December 21. So Thomas lurks right in the midst of the two biggest, most important holy days in the Christian year.
Today, this day that is the same as Easter, but different, the Gospel reading tells of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, first to the disciples with Thomas absent and then with Thomas present. It is the story of “doubting Thomas.” The story of doubting Thomas inextricably linked with Easter. Doubt is a part of Easter.
Doubt is probably not the best word to use. Generally, doubt is passive, indifferent. Doubt turns away for lack of interest. That doesn’t describe Thomas. He was active, seeking, asking “honest questions.” And Thomas had all sorts of faith. He knew God’s presence and love with him. And he had been a faithful disciple of Jesus.
But within the context of that broad and rich faith, he was not quite sure yet about that one piece… the bodily resurrection of Jesus… He was still searching, asking questions, trying to understand what it all meant for him.
That sort of searching, honest questioning is an essential part of faith. Without it faith is mere superstition. Faith without doubt is just superstition. A faith that is alive, that is rooted in a relationship with God will always be searching, questioning, exploring, demanding more understanding.
When facing doubt, people often seem to fall into one of two unfortunate attitudes. Both presume that faith and doubt are incompatible. Sometimes they feel that questioning or doubt is wrong and, therefore, should be quashed. As people of faith, they feel embarrassed by any presence of doubt, so they deny it or push it away.
On the other hand, some people, when confronted by their own questions or doubt, throw out the baby with the bathwater… thinking that the existence of questions or doubt negates the whole idea of God and faith.
Doubt is not incompatible with faith. Doubt is a part of faith. A healthy, essential part. Doubt, that like Thomas’ is active questioning, searching is an essential part of Easter faith.
If you would like a model of a faithful Christian who doubted who is closer at hand than Thomas, consider William Temple. I’ve quoted Temple quite a bit recently. He’s in one of our stained glass windows. He served as Archbishop of Canterbury at the dawn of WWII. This story comes from an online description of Anglican saints (HERE).
In 1906, [Temple] applied for ordination, but the Bishop of Oxford would not ordain him because he admitted that his belief in the Virgin Birth and the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus was shaky. However, Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, after a careful examination, decided that Temple's thought was developing in a direction that would inevitably bring him into an orthodox position, and decided to take a chance on ordaining him (deacon 1909, priest 1910). He may be said to have won his bet, in that by 1913 Temple had indeed committed himself fully to the orthodox position, and could write: "I believe in the Virgin Birth...it wonderfully holds before the imagination the truth of Our Lord's Deity and so I am glad that it is in the Creed. Similarly I believe in our Lord's Bodily Resurrection."
I don’t know the source or the context for the quotation from Temple. But as I read between the lines I’m not sure that he’s completely convinced yet about the biological reality of the Virgin birth, but he surely believes in its meaning, and his faith was much the richer for his ongoing questioning. And the church and the world have benefited greatly from Temple’s writings and his ministry.
Honest questioning is an essential part of faith. It was for Thomas. It was for William Temple, and it is for us. Honest questioning is an essential part of an Easter faith.
