April 20, 2008

John 14:1–14

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A

Trinity Church, Valparaiso, Indiana

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In my first year of parish ministry, I preached a sermon in which I candidly confessed that, at times, I not only doubted my faith, but I had been known to doubt whether God existed at all. Susan was not amused with her new pastor. To put it more accurately, Susan was horrified. Susan knew what the Bible said about God, and Susan believed what the Bible said about God. With young adult confidence and self-righteous judgment, Susan told her parent’s new pastor exactly what she thought about my faith—or my lack of faith—and Susan told me exactly where I could go with such a feeble faith.

Most of us assume that if you really believe in God you rarely—if ever—doubt your faith in God. The Apostle Thomas was not known for the security of his faith. Many remember Thomas as “Doubting Thomas.” Thomas was not fortunate enough to be present on Easter evening to see a living Jesus. Not only did Thomas doubt that Jesus had really risen from the dead, but Thomas demanded physical proof before he would believe the Good News of Easter.

Today, we hear not so much of a “doubting” Thomas, as we hear of a “dull” Thomas. Thomas was one of the apostles at Our Lord’s Table as Jesus instituted the Blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion. After three years of spending every day seeing Jesus, hearing Jesus, and following Jesus, you would think Thomas would have gotten the point. “Jesus said, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me…If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to [Thomas], ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” Lest we be too hard on dull Thomas, Philip is not much better. “Philip said to [Jesus], ‘Lord, show us the father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to [Philip], ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”’?”

If I never doubted my faith, I would not need you in my life. If I never doubted my faith, I would never need to hear another sermon, or to attend another Bible study, or even to receive the gift of baptismal faith nurtured in the Blessed Sacrament of Our Lord’s body and blood. As young Susan quickly discovered, however, my faith is not always what it should be or even what I want it to be. Why do I keep coming back to this holy place? I come to this place where Jesus promises to meet us in Word and Sacrament, not because I have faith, but I come to this place so that I might have faith. I do not come to worship a living Jesus because I always believe the Good News of Easter morning—without a doubt. I come to worship so that I might believe. The miracle of Word and Sacrament is that, in this place, the living Jesus of Easter comes to meet me when I believe—and even more—when I am afraid to believe.

I doubt that I would ever have believed in God had not my mother brought me to the holy place where Jesus promises to meet us. I came to believe in a living Jesus, not because of what I was taught in Sunday School and not even because of the sermons I heard in my childhood. I first came to believe in a living Jesus because of the faith I saw in my mother, my grandmother, my pastor, my Sunday School teachers, and most of all, the faith I saw in the others who surrounded me with their worship and faith each Sunday morning.

I shall share a personal secret with you. I am not here Sunday after Sunday because I am paid to be here. I am here because of you and your faith. When I struggle with the doubts that creep into my faith, I quietly draw nearer to you. I hunger to hear of your faith, to be caught up in your prayers, to hear you sing the alleluias of Easter, and to see in you what it is to believe in Jesus. Surrounded by the faith of countless others, I have come to believe in the risen Jesus of Easter morning. I have seen in you the faith for which I yearn. I pray, that in me, you would see that same trust, doubting though I can be. The miracle of Easter is that we are here, bending low to peer again into Jesus’ empty tomb. The miracle of Easter is that our living Jesus promises to meet us here, so that we might have the Easter faith for which we yearn. The miracle of Easter is the living Jesus we see and hear and touch in one another.

Amen.

John Joseph Santoro +