Loading...A couple of years ago, when I was starting as an interim in a new congregation, I was told that they had their adult forum (“Sunday School”) after worship and that they could find someone to teach it, OR I could lead it. Right?!?
Uh..... [scramble, scramble]
As I didn’t know what they’d studied, or were interested in,
I came up with the class called “Stump the Pastor”.
Participants could ask questions:
ask questions about God, the Bible, church, faith;
ask questions you have, or that others have asked you that you just weren’t sure how to answer;
ask questions about confusions or doubts.
I got the idea for “Stump the Pastor” when I remembered that teachers sometimes say,
“Remember, there are no bad, stupid, or dumb questions.
All questions are good!”
You might relate to that invitation:
you have a question but think “everyone else must know the answer” or,
“if I question this thing (whatever that “thing” may be) about God then that might mean I’m a ‘bad Christian’” or,
“no one else seems to hesitate when we get to a particular part of the service, so I must be the only one who doubts or wonders.”
You might also relate to Thomas.
I can just imagine Thomas’ thoughts, or even words:
“Y’all are telling me this fantastic tale about Jesus alive and that you saw him.
You talked with him. You saw the nail holes.
You received the Holy Spirit from him (which is a whole other story!)
But that’s too much!
I can’t believe it.
I saw how he was flogged and humiliated and crucified.
I saw his bloodied body. I saw his death.
So, no. I don’t believe you.
I must see him, talk to him, and actually touch him before I believe this news.”
Now, I’d like to stop here in this musing about Thomas’s words and thoughts for just a moment to make an observation.
You have to realize that everyone – Thomas and all the others –
would have been scared witless.
Most of the disciples were in a locked room for fear of the Jews!
Maybe they were afraid they were next to be crucified.
Thomas wasn’t even there that first night
(was he too frightened to even be with the group in their locked room?)
It’s likely that everyone was tense, scared, and grief-stricken.
It must have been awful.
So, we cannot fault Thomas,
or point fingers at him for his questions,
or belittle him for his “doubt”.
It was all so weird – the week, the crucifixion, the crowds, the death. Everything.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Here’s another observation.
Or, really, a question:
who WOULDN’T doubt?!?
Some of us receive information fully on faith and go on in that grace.
But most of us, I suspect, bumble and stumble a bit more.
We question. We worry. We doubt. We wonder.
We are confused. We are even angry.
This reminds me of a story I read in an essay by Anne Lamott
about a member of her church –
a woman who’d loved Annie into the church, and faith,
and relationship with God
(when Annie was barely stepping into the back corner
of the church building on Sunday mornings);
a woman who would give baggies of dimes to Annie periodically
to help her out financially when her son was young.
One day this woman announced in church that she’d been diagnosed with “Cancer. Yep, it got me. I got cancer.”
But, there was no-way-no-how that she was going to “fight it”
or be angelic or beatific in the face of her cancer diagnosis or treatment.
She was angry and crabby.
She didn’t want to be cheered up.
She even stopped coming to church.
But then, church went to her.
Church went to be Christ to her
with hands and feet to love and to be present with her –
just as she was.
~~~~~~~~~~~
This is one of the reasons I love ol’ Thomas,
and indeed this whole sequence of resurrection stories in John’s gospel:
They are accepted just as they were.
Reach back earlier in the 20th chapter of John where
the Beloved Disciple sees the empty tomb and believes;
Simon Peter sees the empty tomb and the linen wrappings lying there;
Mary encounters who she thinks is the gardener who says her name and, realizing it’s Jesus, throws herself and his feet and then goes and tells others;
the other disciples are locked in a room later the same day and Jesus shows up amongst them, talks with them, shows them his hands and feet, and breathes on them; and
Thomas – Jesus comes to Thomas and invites him to touch his hands and his side which prompts in Thomas the confession: “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus met and encountered each of these beloved where they were in faith, or doubt, or confusion and offered himself for what they needed to believe and to receive love and grace.
Jesus met and encountered the woman with cancer from Anne Lamott’s church.
Jesus met her right where she was in her crabbiness, stubbornness, and anger.
Jesus met her in that place through the people of her church and met her with love and grace and resurrection life.
Jesus meets and encounters you in your place of faith, doubt, or confusion (which may be a different place today than it was yesterday,
and that it will be tomorrow)
and offers himself for what you need to believe and to receive love and grace.
Indeed, the next verses in John’s gospel says so:
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”
~~~~~~~~~
In your bulletin, you have a quarter-sheet-sized piece of paper.
As the service progresses – in the silence to follow or during communion or some other time – I invite you to write down a question you have.
A question you’d like to ask God
or a question about God.
Something you’re unsure of or doubt or wonder about.
A question you’re not sure is OK to ask,
or one that you’ve already asked a number of times,
and just haven’t gotten an answer yet that makes sense.
Write down your question,
and put it in the offering plate (or in the basket in the back).
I’ll read them and pray over them.
Maybe they’re questions you’d like to have raised and talked about in a “Stump the Priest” session to be held later this year.
Maybe they’re questions you just want to offer up to God.
I invite you all, the Simon Peters, the “other” disciples, the Marys, and the Thomases to ask your questions.
Jesus invites your doubts, your concerns, your questions
and meets you right where you are with love, grace, and resurrection life.
This is the goodness and the love of God for you. Amen
