In the good company of doubters

I preached on John 20 this past Sunday, which includes the well-known story of “Doubting Thomas.”  Personally, I think Thomas has gotten a bad rap.  Two reasons…

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People perceive Thomas as a failure because they perceive that doubt = bad.  That’s not true.  Doubting something can lead you to investigating it and discovering its veracity (or lack thereof) for yourself.  Having doubts – even about faith – can actually end up strengthening faith.  Thomas’ time of doubt concludes with him confessing to Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” (20:28).  From this famous (or infamous) doubter comes “the greatest confession of the Lord who rose from the dead” (George R. Beasley-Murray’s commentary on John’s Gospel, p. 385).  This can be anyone’s experience, assuming you decide to actually wrestle with your doubts.  If you say you have doubts about faith but do nothing to work through your doubt, then I’d call it cynicism or flat-out disbelief, not doubt.

Because people perceive doubt = bad, I think many hear disappointment or impatience in Jesus’ words when he says to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe” (20:27).  I do not believe that accurately captures the tone of Jesus’ voice or the language of His posture.  Instead, I see Jesus simply doing what He always does – taking the initiative, doing what it takes to draw, to woo people to Him.  So Thomas is not a failure.  He serves as part of the picture of what Jesus can and will do to strengthen people in their faith.

 

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The other reason Thomas has received a bad rap is because he is often portrayed as the only doubter in the room.  It’s only been one short week since the rest of the disciples were in the same room, “the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders” (20:19).  Why were they huddled together in secrecy and fear?  They had heard the report of Mary Magdalene, that she had seen the empty tomb and the living Jesus.  Why else were they huddled together in secrecy and fear except for the likely reason that they doubted Mary’s report.  They, too, wouldn’t believe the report without proof!  A week before the events concluding John 20, the room was filled with doubters.  In John 20:25, Thomas is the only one doubting now, yet he’s the one we single out and call Doubting Thomas.  The poor guy.  (Gail R. O’Day writes about this in her commentary on John’s Gospel, pp. 846, 849.)

Personally, I receive comfort in reflecting on how I am in good company when I have doubts, knowing that the very first disciples experienced the same thing – and had their doubts taken seriously and resolved.

Art:
”Doubt of Thomas” by modern Japanese artist Sadao Watanabe.
www.scriptum.com/art.cfm?rec_id=1544

Practical holiness

Using the story of Ananias meeting Saul as a launching point, I spoke yesterday on practical ways we can live holy lives as God’s holy people empowered by the Holy Spirit.  Ananias serves the church today as a model of this in his obedience to Jesus.

The message concluded with these two quotes:

…True holiness is seen over time in our persistence.  It is relatively easy to “flirt” with righteousness – being occasionally courteous to other drivers (if you happen to be in a good mood), helping someone in need by opening the door for them (if you have time), throwing a few extra bucks in the offering plate (as long as you won’t miss them).  But this behaviour is in reality superficial righteousness.  The righteousness God seeks is a persistent righteousness, a commitment to continue making the right decision even when, perhaps hourly, you feel pulled in the opposite direction.  Holiness is far more than an inclination towards occasional acts of kindness and charity.  It is a commitment to persistent surrender before God.

(Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage, p. 108)

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…As a person works daily – hourly and by the minute – to grow in reverence and love, in faith and fear toward God, he or she generates and offers God both worship and service…  When I make it my daily calling, my chief aim, to remember my Lord’s goodness toward me, then, in turn, my heart will be moved with gratitude and my lips will long to tell God, “Thanks, Lord, thanks, thanks, thanks!”  In response, I’ll set my sights on worshiping and serving my good and faithful Father with all that I’ve got – with my hands, my feet, my lips, my will, my emotions, my conscience, my everything.

(Dale Cooper, “Piety and Religion” in The Banner, Jun 2009, p. 29)

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Here are a couple more things I picked up in my research into the story of Ananias and Saul that were beyond the purview of yesterday’s message…

First, in his commentary on Acts entitled True to the Faith, David Gooding comments on how Saul, immediately after his conversion, spends a great deal of time with other Christians.  Reflecting on this, Gooding writes (pp. 145-146):

You can come to saving faith in Christ, as Saul did, all by yourself through personal acceptance of Jesus as Lord.  But if that faith is genuine, it will lead to acceptance of the Lord’s people… They are His disciples, His saints, they call on His name; and in giving the Holy Spirit to each one of them, He unites them all in one body (cf. 1Cor 1:2; 12:13).  I cannot receive that Holy Spirit and refuse to be a member of that body.  I cannot claim to love the Lord Jesus and refuse to love His saints.  I cannot claim to be identified with Him and refuse to be identified with His people.

Second, considering how God can transform even enemies like Saul the persecutor into brothers and sisters in Christ, there is hope for anyone who is wandering far from God’s loving embrace!  The implication is this:  The Lord’s people (read: the church) need to be prepared to welcome people they never thought they’d welcome.  In fact, as Mark Buchanan urges in an article entitled “Messy, Costly, Dirty Ministry,” we need to be praying for encounters with these people…  and then for the ability to show them the grace of Jesus when we meet them.  This is not easy, which suggests why the church isn’t consistently good at this.  But welcoming our enemies as brothers and sisters is precisely the mission of reconciliation Jesus invites us to join Him on.

Bible math

Genesis 50 concludes with noting how Joseph lived a total of 110 years.  My TNIV Study Bible study note at 50:26 says that “ancient Egyptian records indicate that 110 years was considered to be the ideal life span; to the Egyptians this would have signified divine blessing upon Joseph.”

Well, that’s pretty cool how Joseph’s lifespan has spiritual implications.

But it gets better!

As you may have noticed in reading Genesis, the author is careful to note how many years each of the Patriarchs live.  Abraham makes it to 175 years, Isaac 180 years, and Jacob 147 years.  Here in Genesis 50, we find out Joseph lives 110 years.  A scholar named Victor P. Hamilton has calculated how the number of years the Patriarchs live can be expressed as a standard decreasing integer being multiplied by a standard increasing square number.  Watch:

Abraham:  175 years = 7 x 5²
     Isaac:  180 years = 5 x 6²
    Jacob:  147 years = 3 x 7² 
  Joseph:  110 years = 1 x (5² + 6² + 7²)

Hamilton writes in his commentary on Genesis (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995):  “Joseph is the successor in the pattern 7-5-3-1, and the sum of his predecessors (5² + 6² + 7²).  In this way, Joseph is linked intimately with his family line…  It appears that the narrator is suggesting that Joseph symbolically brings to a conclusion the patriarchal narratives” (pp. 708-709; quoted by Bruce Waltke in Genesis: A Commentary [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001], 626).

Beneath what may appear to be a boring bunch of numbers lies an insightful comment the author desires to convey.

Praying for God’s project for the whole human race

As 1 Timothy 2 starts, Paul says we should pray for people in authority.  Paul mentions kings in particular, but we are more familiar with mayors (Carman Graf), premiers (Gordon Campbell), and prime ministers (Stephen Harper).

Speaking on this passage, I quoted a sentence from N.T. (Tom) Wright’s book Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters (London: SPCK, 2003).  Here’s the entire paragraph…

“As so often in the New Testament, the call to prayer is also the call to think:  To think clearly about God and the world, and God’s project for the whole human race.  Don’t rest content with the simplistic agendas of the world that suggest you should either idolize your present political system or be working to overthrow it.  Try praying for your rulers instead, and watch not only what God will do in your society, but also how your own attitudes will grow, change, and mature” (p. 21).
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Grace and mercy

“The grace of our Lord was poured on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14).

I mentioned the other Sunday that together with the apostle Paul, disciples of Jesus can say these words.  (Stop right now and read the verse aloud, pretending that you wrote it!)  God is abundant in the grace giving department.  Consider also the mercy He extends to us, as Paul notes one verse earlier.

Grace and mercy are two words that we often use interchangeably.  I sometimes mix up which one means what exactly.  Singer Wayne Watson has cleared it up for me a great deal in his song simply entitled “Grace” (from his CD Living Room):

“Grace keeps giving me things I don’t deserve.
Mercy keeps withholding things I do.”

I quoted that when we were talking about 1 Timothy 1 the other week.  What I didn’t quote were a few lines from another Wayne Watson song that especially makes me appreciate God’s mercy.

First a little context:  People sometimes use the expression that they want what’s coming to them, that they want what they deserve.  Who hasn’t said, “I deserve better than this?”  However, texts like Ephesians 2 remind us that what we really deserve is God’s wrath.  Our holy God doesn’t have the time of day for the slightest trace of sin, but we have soiled ourselves in it.

In his song “Merciful Heaven” (from his self-titled CD), Wayne Watson sings:

“Some people want what they deserve,
but not me, no, I know my heart too well.
And I’ve just barely got the nerve
to make this one request,
and I know that You will hear me…”

Even when we were dead in our transgressions, God not only hears and sees us, He makes us alive in Christ, pure and whiter than snow!  Amazing mercy!

“…You’ve got the power and I have the need:
Merciful Heaven, have mercy on me.”
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