I received a text message from a good friend this past week with a link to an opinion article in the NY Times. In it, a columnist is interviewing the dean of a seminary about many of the core dogmatic beliefs of the Christian faith. A dogmatic belief, if any of you are wondering, is something you must believe to be a Christian. We get our dogma from the creeds. I am convinced that is why we say the creed right after the sermon, so if someone preaches utter rubbish from the pulpit, you all have the chance to fact check it. This seminary dean doubted things like the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and even life after death. Remember this was an opinion column and you know the old saying about opinions, they are like something else that everyone has.
My friend asked me, “Why would you want to be an ordained person in the Church if you don’t believe in what makes the Church the Church?” That is a great question, isn’t it?
Why has the Church so many times found itself, in some parts of it, rejecting the core truths revealed by the Gospels, and creating new truths people begin to cherish more than the faith delivered to us by the Saints. From the tone of the article and from a lot of what I witness in the religious world around us, my best guess is that many have misunderstood the mission of the church. Many have begun to believe the mission of the Church is to perfect the world through human undertaking. That is not what Our Lord called and continues to call the church to be. Today’s Gospel, however, does reveal the calling of the Church.
As the Gospel begins, we see the disciples hiding and locked away in fear, not knowing what to do next. As they sit there paralyzed, Jesus enters the locked room, offers them peace, shows them his wounds, and then gives them their mission, “to call sinners to repentance and to minister to those who were caught up in evil, whether of body or soul. And in all their dealings on this earth, to not in any way to follow their own will but the will of him who sent them.” (Cyril of Alexandria)
The disciples then tell Thomas what had happened, and Thomas doubts them. It is unfortunate that Thomas has received his nickname based on this. He went from being called the twin to being known as “Doubting Thomas.” We all have a little doubting Thomas in us, don’t we? What are the essential parts of our faith that you have had trouble believing? I know people, and I also have had doubts in my life. Doubts like am I really forgiven? Is God really a trinity? Does God love me no matter what? Is God always waiting for me with open arms ready to receive me? Does the Holy Spirit really dwell within me? Is the Eucharist really the body and blood of Jesus?
How do we, how can we confront these doubts when they come up? We confront them by modeling the proclamation of the founding father of the doubter’s club we all belong to Blessed Saint Thomas, and join with him in saying to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”
The problem with the kind of faith that the seminary dean in the NY Times article has is this, she wrongly thinks that Orthodox Christianity teaches that we are to be good little Christian boys and girls, and in doing so we will earn our way into heaven. That is in no way a Christian belief, the Christian belief is Jesus Christ crucified for all, so that all may have access to eternal life, not through individual merit, but through belief in Jesus. We proclaim that faith by saying my Lord and my God, as Thomas did. The reason some cannot accept this is because they cannot accept a Jesus who loves the people they hate, who forgives the people they can’t, and who welcomes the people they fear. That is why many believe their job is to fix the world, fix all people to thinking like and believing as they do. They fear different ideas and try to sum up Christianity into a moralistic code of conduct, and not a religion where the very worst can come and receive the body and blood of the very best, and be washed clean by it.
When you reject the core tenants of our faith, you weaken the body of Christ, you water down Jesus’s message of unquestioned love of creation, and God’s undeniable commitment to every one of us. What does it mean to be a Christian? Being a Christian is about accepting that the word of God through whom we all were made, freely chose to offer himself, so that we all could have the opportunity to call Him Lord. My Lord and My God, we give our lives to you not to weigh our merits, but to pardon our offenses, that we may offer and present ourselves, our bodies and our souls, as a holy and living sacrifice to you, with the understanding that only you can perfect creation, and we wait eagerly for you to return.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Christian M. Wood
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
2nd Sunday of Easter
28 April 2019