Listen to the Cynical

Listen to the Cynical

(John 20:19-31)

Sunday, April 7, 2013, Windsor UBC,  J G White

I start this little series of sermons today on listening to various voices around us, with the cynical, the critical, those who doubt what this is all about.

I've been reading and hearing a lot, in recent years, about the trends in Canadian society, and the falling away from religious faith that is prevalent.  A lot of Christian study has gone into what the younger generations think and believe and do in North America.  There is a lot of doubt about organized religion, criticism of Christianity, and scepticism about God and Jesus.

For instance, David Kinnamen has a book, YOU LOST ME: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church... And Rethinking Faith.  He quotes John Sullivan, former Christian, and writer for GQ magazine:  The hell stuff - I never made peace with it.  Human beings were capable of forgiving those who'd done them terrible wrongs, and we all agreed that human beings were maggots compared with God, so what was his trouble again?

I'm getting to be a firm believer in listening long and hard to the questions people have.  Holding back my reaction, my answer, my correction, my instant Bible-study for those who doubt what I believe about Christ.  I'm a believer in this patient listening, though my actual listening this way has far to go.  So I've been looking to Jesus to see if He wants to train me and you in this.

And I see my Lord, newly resurrected, meeting with his closest friends and followers.  Alison read one story for us today.  Christ came to them, showed Himself, breathed peace into their presence.  Thomas was missing that day; and later, Jesus returned.  Some interpreters of this event give so-called "Doubting Thomas" a hard time; but don't forget that he asked for no more than the other disciples had been given - a real look at Jesus in the flesh, alive again.

Thomas had said he'd need to meet Him, be sure it was that wounded body.  Many of the others probably felt the same way one week before, closed in and hiding in their meeting room.  They all got to meet and see Christ.  "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe" said Jesus.

In this, and so many of our Jesus stories, I see our Lord listening and paying attention to those who would follow.  He comes to them, He knows what they need. He sees "ye of little faith," and meets them.  He keeps choosing those to follow Him who have doubts and questions.

You can read all the books you want about our secular culture, post-modern culture, and digital culture; but the rubber meets the road with those who are in West Hants, on your street, in your family.  As I talk with local folk - people you also know - about God and faith, some are cynical, they doubt, they critique God and our claims about God.  One young person speaks of problems with the Bible and what is in the Bible, and how we use it.  A middle aged person talks of not fearing death and hell, while church people seem to think he should fear.  A senior, who’s actually a "churchgoer," dislikes the talk at funerals of life after death; she can't quite believe in that, doesn't want that at her own funeral.

These are all the confessions of people whom I have seen in the past in these very pews.  Which helps me wonder if we are all more alike than different, we 'believers' and we atheists and skeptics.  We all have questions that don't seem to have answers.  Sometimes we don't feel it is safe to ask our questions, or simply to disagree.

We should be safe with God.  I believe in a Jesus who can handle doubts, disagreements, questions, critiques.  He still sends His Spirit to visit, and show Himself. Matthew's record of Jesus' final departure comforts me.  As the disciples gather where Jesus told them to, for His farewell, Matthew tells us, "When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted."  (Matthew 28:17)  In their last moments with Jesus, those few who were the very closest to Him had doubts.  "Is this real?"  "Is He real?"  There was worship, and doubt, together.  And Jesus blessed them in that moment with an amazing mission statement, the great commission.

Jesus knows and understands the doubts each person has.  Jesus offers Himself, and is willing to meet.  Now, it's by way of God the Holy Spirit.  Jesus listens; He does this as we become His ambassadors today.

John's Gospel claims "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 He is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in His name." (20:30-31)

In this very room, we encourage faith in one another.  In the pews, around His table.  We bring our faith to the table, however small or great, and we are not alone; and we are not without Him.  When we leave, we are ambassadors for Christ.  Our lives today can "be written" so others will believe and have life in Him!  

As the Apostle Paul wrote to his friends in Corinth, "you show that you are a letter of Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."  (2 Corinthians 3:3)  And some of us, this week, will be letters sent from the Saviour to the cynics and skeptics. ]

Let us pray.