I’ve always had a great deal of sympathy for poor Thomas, forever
after to be known as “Doubting Thomas.” But, just put yourself in his
place for a moment. He knows that Jesus, a man, a human being, has
died. And now his friends tell him that they’ve seen Jesus alive!
Honestly, what would your reaction be? You’d probably be saying, “Are
you kidding me?” or “Hey, wait a minute. This joke is going too
far!” It would actually be unreasonable for Thomas to believe. And
so, I think he should be called “Reasonable Thomas.” You see, I have
just used two words, “reasonable” and “unreasonable.” And this, I
think, is what this incident is all about, reason and faith....
Science and Faith.

Science deals with proven or reasonably deductible facts, things we
can see, hear, touch, measure. And so, from the point of view of
science, it is unreasonable to expect a person who has been three
days dead now to be alive. So I think we should honor Thomas for his
integrity. He’s not going to go along with the views of his friends
just so he can be part of the group, when to do so, offends his own
reasonable judgment. Thomas was an independent thinker. And I think
we should honor him for that. You see, too often we are governed by
the herd mentality, the group mentality, and do not think things out
for ourselves. I really do believe that there cannot be any profound
faith if there is not at least some doubt, some questioning, indeed,
a constant search for understanding, a constant search for truth.
Faith will always honor and respect the findings of good science. And
there are many great and dedicated scientists who are also people of
deep faith. We are talking about two entirely different forms of
knowledge: science, to be learned. Faith is a gift of the Spirit. We
are dealing with two different disciplines entirely. There is
however, one thing that they have in common. They both need to be
constantly nourished, science, by devoted study, experimentation and
research, and faith, by devoted study, research, and prayer. I’m
very, very hesitant to describe the belief of the disciples, the
statement of Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” Very hesitant to describe
these things as “acts of faith” because they saw what they saw. They
physically heard what they heard. For them, belief in the risen Lord
was based on their personal observations, their personal experience.
But faith goes way, way, way beyond that! Our faith today does not
depend on some personal apparition or, indeed, on apparitions
supposedly that other people have had, no matter how holy they are.
No, our faith is simply a gift of the Holy Spirit. Or perhaps it is
better described as the “Holy Spirit dwelling within us and assuring
us of the truth of what we believe,” the Holy Spirit, within us,
saying “This is true. This is true.” Because of this, we have no
reason to envy Thomas being invited to physically touch the Lord, for
that risen Lord himself has said, “Blessed are those who have not
seen, but believe.” What we do have to honor Thomas and the other
disciples for is their openness, their readiness to accept the
reality of their own experience. And it cannot have been easy, for
their experience of Jesus Risen contradicted everything they had
known. To believe that a dead person is now walking around alive,
well, that seems unreasonable. And yet, these disciples were open
enough to accept the reality of their experience. There are many who
hear, many who see but do not accept, are not open, to the
promptings of the Spirit. They deny the possibility of the reality of
things that they cannot scientifically observe or measure. You see,
faith is the acceptance of that possibility. Faith is the acceptance
of the possibility that there are things that we cannot see, that we
cannot measure. Faith is like walking up to a great chasm and being
willing to jump. Faith is putting our trust totally and completely in
the word of another, and in this case, the word of God, Jesus Christ
himself.

Belonging to a community of faith, worshipping regularly with fellow
believers as we do this morning, this is of course a tremendous,
tremendous support for us on our common faith journey. But,
ultimately, a faith stance can be a very lonely and at times a very,
very scarey place to be, especially, when it seems to contradict the
realities of our own everyday experience. For example, our faith is
telling us that God is a loving God, wonderfully loving, merciful,
good God. And then we look around. We open the newspaper and we see
evil. We see sin. We see war. We see violence. We see sickness. We
see innocent people suffering. And that seems to contradict our faith
in a loving and merciful God. So, as I say, a faith stance can be a
lonely place, a difficult place. And so we really need to pray for
one another for a deepening of our faith. Lord, I believe. Help my
unbelief. And we are deeply consoled by the inspiring words of Peter
that we heard just a few minutes ago, when he said, “There is cause
for rejoicing here. You may for a time have to suffer the distress of
many trials but this is so that your faith, which is more precious
than passing splendor of gold, may, by its genuineness, lead to
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ appears.” And then the
wonderful beautiful words, “Although you have never seen him, you
love him. And without seeing him now, you believe in him. And rejoice
with inexpressible joy, touched with glory, because you are achieving
faith’s goal, your salvation.” Amen. Alleluia!