101: Thou Shalt Doubt (Sunday, June 12th, 2022)

OT Lesson: Judges 6:33-40 (CEB)

Some time later, all the Midianites, Amalekites, and other easterners joined together, came over, and set up camp in the Jezreel Valley. Then the Lord’s spirit came over Gideon, and he sounded the horn and summoned the Abiezrites to follow him. He sent messengers into all of Manasseh, and they were also summoned to follow him. Then he sent messengers into Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali too, and they marched up to meet them.

But then Gideon said to God, “To see if you really intend to rescue Israel through me as you have declared, I’m now putting a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece but all the ground is dry, then I’ll know that you are going to rescue Israel through me, as you have declared.” And that is what happened. When he got up early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung out enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water.

Then Gideon said to God, “Don’t be angry with me, but let me speak just one more time. Please let me make just one more test with the fleece: now let only the fleece be dry and let dew be on all the ground.” And God did so that night. Only the fleece was dry, but there was dew on all the ground.

NT Lesson: John 20:19-30 (NRSV)

It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.”

Thomas, the one called Didymus, one of the Twelve, wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We’ve seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe.”

After eight days his disciples were again in a house and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus entered and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more disbelief. Believe!”

Thomas responded to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus replied, “Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.”

Then Jesus did many other miraculous signs in his disciples’ presence, signs that aren’t recorded in this scroll. 

Sermon

Introduction

Good morning. Last Sunday, my wife Hannah told me that our son Samuel at some point was going around with his middle finger up. So let me explain about that. During our last Korea trip, once we visited Hannah’s cousin. They have a pet parrot, not in a cage but free roaming in the house. Samuel was curious about the bird and tried to suddenly grab it. The parrot panicked and bit Samuel’s middle finger. Quite big chunk of flesh came off and Samuel bled a lot. The persistent pain bothered Samuel for a while and he raised his middle finger at me for about two weeks. Hannah and I have been telling him not to do that, but from time to time he still does that probably because of his memory. If you saw Samuel last week with his middle finger up, I apologise. If you see him like that from now on, I apologise in advance.

Quiz

Let me begin with Bible trivia. How many tribes are there in Israel? Twelve. Good. And how many disciples did Jesus have? Twelve. Very good. I have all Bible scholars here! Because you guys are so good at Bible trivia, let me go a little further. What are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel? And what are the names of the twelve disciples of Jesus? Some of you can name them all for sure but I guess most of us can name some of them but may not all of them. There are a few names everybody knows among the disciples of Jesus, like Peter, James, John, and doubting Thomas. Today’s NT lesson is so famous that even quite a lot of non-Christians know it. For about two thousand years, Thomas became the icon of doubt, unbelief and no faith. All Bible commentaries and sermons blame Thomas and encourage us not to be like him.

About five hundred years ago, many people began to question the church, the Catholic church. Among many, at least we know these two--Martin Luther and John Calvin. And the church used this Bible story to silence them—“Shut up and just believe.” When they do not listen, the church executed them or excommunicated them. Excommunication simply means kicking them out of the church. You may think, it is not a big deal. You can always go to another church. But back then in Europe, there was only Catholic church. Being kicked out of the church means many things: You lose your right to work and earn money. You are not allowed to shop and buy stuff from anyone. You are out of the legal and government protection. For example, if other people kill you or run you over, they are not guilty at all. Actually lynching was highly encouraged by the church against anyone excommunicated. It was a legal, social, and economical death sentence. So back in the Medieval Europe, they were not allowed to doubt the church at all. But did Jesus really mean that? Is Jesus actually forcing us the blind faith?

India

I went to India in 2016. In the following year, I came to Indiana. It was a travel seminar from the school and was a very good trip. Hannah was freezing in Chicago, but I enjoyed very much the sunny and blooming weather in low 90s. I saw how they collect rubbers. I saw the banana trees. I also found that in India, women wear the wedding ring on their toes, not on their fingers. I found thousands of flowers and millions of colours. I enjoyed so much variety of curries, tandooris, and all kinds of other Indian foods. 

By the way, when it comes to food, you cannot find a burger at McDonald’s with beef patty. They only have either fish burger or chicken burger. But those are not all I found in India. For example, I found St. Thomas there.

In the shrine of St. Thomas, it is believed that there is actual piece of St. Thomas’ bone, very tiny piece. I found the place where St. Thomas was baptising Indians.

I also found the place where he was killed and martyred, the place where he was buried, and many more. When the missionaries went to India in eighteenth century, they were surprised to see something unexpected. That was the Christian church.

When the missionaries saw something like this in India for the first time, they might have thought ‘What!!!’ Those missionaries believed Christianity only exists in Europe, but the fact is India has 2,000 year old Christian church and tradition. The Church name in India is MarThoma church, which means St. Thomas Church.

This is the photo of me with His Highness, Theodosius Mar Thoma. He is the same as the Pope in Catholic. Just like the Catholic Pope is the direct line of St. Peter—not biologically but in authority, the head of the MarThoma church is also the direct line of St. Thomas. By the way, Indian people liked me a lot because I was wearing the T-shirts with a cow drawing on it.

According to the legends in both Europe and India, St. Thomas went to India and martyred there evangelising local people. But how? How come can a doubting person dedicate his whole life to Christ even unto death? If that is true, we should learn from St. Thomas rather than bashing and blaming him. If we look into the Scripture closely, it is not that other disciples believed without seeing Jesus first. They all saw Jesus before except Thomas. Thomas questioned based on the common sense, proper reasoning, and logic. Was Jesus mad and upset at Thomas for the questioning? Did Jesus say to him like “You doubting Thomas, burn in hell”? No. Jesus gave him the answer by letting him touch the wounds and Thomas experienced Jesus which gave him the firm assurance and stronger faith. With that assurance and faith, he was able to go all the way to India and serve the Lord until his death of martyrdom.

Gideon

Today’s OT lesson is about Gideon. Before this part, Gideon met the messenger of God, and he boldly and angrily questioned the messenger: “If God is with us, why do we have all these problems? Why is God letting all these things happen?” And now, in today’s story, Gideon is asking God for proof and evidence. ‘Let the dew sit only on this fleece.’ And then the next day, ‘let the dew sit only outside of the fleece.’ Was God angry at Gideon’s request? Did God punish him for asking questions? No. God gave him the answer and evidences which gave Gideon the firm assurance and stronger faith. With that assurance and faith, he was able to fight for God and for his people, advancing the kingdom of God.

Mary

Let’s think about the mother of Jesus. Another Bible trivia: Do you know her name? Mary. Then do you know her father’s name? Bible does not mention it but some church legend says the name is Joachim. But I don’t think it can be true for two reasons. The same legend says that Mary’s father Joachim was super rich living in Jerusalem. This is direct conflict against the Bible. Mary was dirt poor living in Nazareth. The second reason is that the female name Mary, which is in Latin Maria, means the daughter of Marius. Let me give you an example. You all know Julius Caesar who crushed the Republic Rome and opened the door of Imperial Rome. He had one daughter and her name is Julia, which means the daughter of Julius. If a guy named Claudius in the ancient Rome had five daughters, then the names of all five girls were identically Claudia, because they are all the daughters of Claudius. So we don’t really know the real name of Mary’s father, but I think it might be a bit safe to say possibly Marius.

Anyway when Mary was visited by the archangel Gabriel, she was told that she was going to get pregnant. Then Mary asked a question to the angel: “How’s that even possible? You know, I’ve never slept with a man. And I am not going to.” This also was a hundred per cent legitimate question based on common sense, proper reasoning, and logic. Was Gabriel angry at her like ‘How dare do you question the Word from God? Forget about the Son. You burn in hell!’ No. The angel gave Mary the answer which in turn gave her the firm assurance and stronger faith. With that assurance and faith, she became the mother of Jesus Christ. Mary raised and protected Jesus until he became the Saviour of the whole world.

God Loves Questions

People tend to think that God hates questions, and that God forces blind faith to us. But I think it is the opposite. God loves questions. Bible does not show us the complete answer from the beginning. Instead Bible shows us the endless series of questions of kings, prophets, matriarchs, and patriarchs. Bible shows us their journey to the faith through questioning, searching, and understanding.

God loves questions so much. So when Joshua crossed the Jordan river, God commanded the Israelites to carry huge boulders. So when their children saw them carrying those big rocks, they would think it is weird and funny. Then the kids will ask a question. And then the adults can give them answer which will give the children the firm assurance and stronger faith. God wants the children of Israel to ask questions. And God wants you to ask questions as well.

No Question leads to No Faith

I think “no question leads to no faith.” It may be different here, but the pattern I found in Canada is: the good and faithful young people stop going to church once they go to college. I believe it is because they were not allowed to ask questions in the church, and we forced them just to believe. That works in protected environments such as high school and church. But when they are challenged by others with unexpected questions, they collapse and lose faith because they are not prepared nor trained for questions.

One day at my first year of seminary, after the class of Introduction to Biblical Studies, one of my classmates was still sitting even after everybody left the classroom. He looked quite shocked. I asked him “Hey, are you alright? What’s wrong?” He said he didn’t know how to process what we just learned. He was mentally collapsing and losing faith according to his words. By the way, he was already an ordained baptist pastor at that time. What we learned that day is that the Noah’s flood is not the unique story only in the Bible. The archaeologists found the similar stories in the Middle and Near East. The professor said that the flood narrative is quite common. Somewhat similar flood stories are found in China, India, Thailand, Korea, North and South American Native tribes and so on. My friend said he never heard about it before, never thought about it before, and never questioned about it before. And now he was losing faith.

I could not really understand my classmate. And I told him this way: At the end of the World War II, the United States dropped two nuclear bombs in Japan. That was a historic event which shocked the whole world. It was on the news papers around the world. Every single news paper in America and in the whole world made it headline.

Think about if only Chicago Tribune talks about it, and none of the other papers in the whole world say it. Would it be true? Probably not. If only Bible says Noah’s flood, and none of the other ancient texts or records say about it, then the story might have been forged and fake. On the contrary to the professor’s saying, the commonality of the flood narrative actually proves that the flood was real and the Bible is true.

Then my friend revived and regained the faith. If he were trained to question everything from his early days, he might have the skill to think of his own and to protect his faith by his own questioning and reasoning.

No Question Leads to disaster

Christians in the middle age just believed and asked no questions. Actually they were not allowed to question. And as the consequence, there was sales of indulgence, the church was corrupted,  and the blind faith of the people made the witch hunt possible. Jamestown Massacre in 1978 was also the result of blind faith without questioning nor understanding. Here in this church, you should not just believe whatever I say simply because I am a pastor. You shall doubt. When I preach, you must first question about it, “Is it really?” Then you should think about it, ponder about it, and reason about it. When your sound logic finally says ‘oh that makes sense,’ then you can to take it as your own. When you read the Bible, do not just take it as is without thinking. You shall doubt. You must first question about it, “Is it really? Why?” Then you should study about it, think about it, ponder about it, and reason about it. By doing so, we can read the Bible between the lines, approaching to the true meaning of God’s Words.

Conclusion

Friends in Christ, Jesus said “Ask, Seek, and Knock.” And Thomas the disciple of Jesus was asking a question, seeking understanding, and knocking to a whole new level of faith. Let us also seek understanding by reasoning and studying diligently. Then God will give us the firm assurance and stronger faith based on the understanding which is unshakeable in any situation. Our faith will then be like a house built on the rock of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour whose name is to be praised from India to Indiana. Amen.

Rev. Je Lee