Psalm 150

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Doubting Thomas: the Test of Faith

To summarize: The question here is: How do we know that Christ arose? This is a resurrection question. How do we know that Christ is alive, resurrected from the dead? And the answer is, we know this by living it ourselves. We live it. We show it. The risen Christ lives through us. This is how we know.
Easter Season:
We are in the season of Easter now, and so for the next five Sundays most of our readings will be from the Gospel of John. We will hear the beloved scripture passages that develop and expand on the Easter message: the new life we find in the Risen Christ.
Doubting Thomas
In our reading this morning, we have the story of Doubting Thomas. Doubting Thomas has become a term in popular speech we sometimes use to refer to a skeptic; someone who is skeptical, who requires concrete proof before accepting a belief. A skeptic wants personal experience, direct experience, as proof. So the Doubting Thomas figure in our reading today brings up the important question of doubt and how doubt relates to the faith life.
There are some great lessons to be found in this scripture passage. We all have times of doubt. We all go through periods of doubt, periods of uncertainty. Am I doing the right thing? Did I make a mistake? Did I take a wrong turn? This type of doubt is a form of humility. “I don’t know everything about everything. I may need more information. I might be wrong.” Through doubt, we recognize our limitations.
Hutzpah.
It’s good to ask a lot of questions before making a decision. Otherwise, mishaps can occur. There’s a thing called “hutzpah.” You know, “Hutzpah?” It’s a Yiddish word. It means you have a lot of nerve. A person with hutzpah knows everything. Very self-confident, you know? And, don’t get me wrong. Sometimes we all need to put some extra hutzpah in the gas tank, so to speak. But too much hutzpah, and we run into problems.
The Ship Captain.
You’ve heard me tell the story of the ship captain. (Well, I’ll tell it again, just because I have enough hutzpah to tell it again.) The ship captain is out at sea on a dark, foggy night. He’s at the helm of his ship, on the ship’s bridge, when he sees a light out on the water, dead ahead. Right away, he gets on the radio,
“This is the captain of the USS Dreadnaught. I am a battleship heading directly toward you! Give way!”
A few second later, the answer comes back on the radio: “And I am a lighthouse.”
We make mistakes. It’s ok to doubt, to question, to be uncertain. It’s ok to look for direct experience, to look for empirical evidence. It’s ok to test our faith. This is very important.
Ask questions, then go on.
But notice that Doubting Thomas does not remain Doubting Thomas. He gets his questions answered, and then, he goes on. He decides for himself, and then, he goes on, to live the life of Christ, to live the Christian life, following the example given by his Lord.
We do have ways to test our faith. We have practical ways, things we can discover through our own direct experience. We can test our faith empirically, by asking ourselves some questions: Have I died and been reborn? Have I arisen with Christ, arisen to a new life? And if so, how would I know?
Speculation is not the way.
Not all questions are useful. Not all questions are helpful. Speculative questions, for example, take us outside the realm of empirical proof. And speculative questions miss the point. When it comes to faith, the important question for a skeptic, and the important question for us, is this: Does my faith translate? The ultimate test of one’s faith is whether or not it “translates into a life of compassion that permeates throughout one’s life for the long haul.” (Habito)
Questions we can ask to confirm the validity of our faith.
Real and practical Christian faith is not so much concerned with proving exactly what did or did not happen 2000 years ago. We cannot literally put our hands into Jesus’ wounds. This is not the way we test the validity of our faith. The true test of faith is how it translates. In other words, how we live, right here and now. There are questions we can ask ourselves to confirm the validity of our faith. Here are some questions:
Has your old self died and have you risen to a new life?
Are you a loving person?
Do you have a moral compass?
When you make a mistake, can you apologize and ask for forgiveness?
Are you gracious? Are you generous? Are you humble?
Can you forgive others when they hurt you?

Before I go on, I want to just pause here, because this one is a sticking point for many Christians. Forgiving is difficult. Forgiving people who hurt you is a huge barrier, a huge test of faith for all of us. And I’m preaching to myself here, too. I’m right in this boat with you. But we have to keep dying. We just keep dying. Die to self, and then be reborn. The old self dies. And along with it, all the hurt, all the trauma, all the grudges, all the old stuff. It dies. Let it die. Allow it to die. And be reborn into NEW LIFE. That is the key to forgiveness. That is the key to letting go. You have to DIE. The old you has to die. If you can’t seem to forgive, if you are struggling with forgiveness, then it means you have not completely died. We have to die first, before we can be reborn. And it doesn’t happen just once. It happens over and over, we die. We forgive, over and over. 7 times 70. That means there is no end to forgiveness. There is no limit. If you are struggling with this, think of Christ on the cross: Luke 23:34, the first words he says on the cross are “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Can you forgive others when they hurt you?

Ok, here are some other ones:
Do you want to help others?
Do you want to alleviate suffering?
And at the same time, are you strong?
Can you withstand suffering?
Can you withstand persecution?
Can you establish boundaries: what you are willing and not willing to put up with?
Do you strive every day to become a better person?
Are you willing to accept criticism and to reflect on your faults?
Do you know yourself?
Can you be true to yourself?
And finally, do you feel joy? Do you feel the joy of being born into new life?

All of these, and more, are proof of your faith, because they are the attributes of Christ. These tough questions are the test of the faith life, because they are where the rubber hits the road, so to speak. Christians choose Jesus Christ to be the example. As Christians, we know a direct experience of the resurrection because we live it out. We live it out in our own lives.
The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Do you want to be a Christian? Then burn those words into your heart and mind. Memorize that verse. Friends, this is not just a pretty story. It’s not just a religious slogan or mumbo jumbo. It’s a living reality. It is the direct experience of new life. It is real. This is the living reality of our faith. We express Christ’s resurrection every day because we have been reborn, too. We have risen, too. We have risen from the death that is sin, risen to new life in Christ. Alleluia, he is Risen. Amen? Amen.