Ron Suskind, a senior US journalist, recently wrote about a conversation he had with Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a treasury official for the first president Bush.
“Just in the past few months,” Bartlett said, “I think a light has gone off for people who’ve spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he’s always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do. This is why he dispenses with people who confront him with inconvenient facts. He truly believes he is on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence. But you can’t run the world on faith.”
What worries me is that George W. Bush is not alone. There are many people who think like him. Who are convinced that God speaks to them directly and clearly, with a message that not just influences their own lives but it applies to other peoples’ lives as well.
I found this little poem describing this group:
They know.
They have no doubts.
Their world is neatly divided into good and bad.
Their law universal.
They tell you how to live your life.
Because they are
The Entitled.
I guess we all know people like them. Full of certainty. Not a shred of a doubt that there may be other ways to God, other ways to happiness, other ways to ‘be’.
You know, before I joined my current agency, I worked for another advertising firm for 8 years. It was called DDB which stands for the three founders: Doyle, Dane, Bernbach. Of the three, Bill Bernbach is widely seen as the father of modern advertising because he believed in the power of ideas, and he put art directors and copywriters together in teams to come up with these ideas. He was also very good with clients, despite being a creative. And I believe one of the reasons for that was a little card he always carried in his pocket when he went to client meetings:
“He could be right”.
Every now and then this card reminded him to question his own position and ideas, to keep an open mind and actually listen to what the other side had to say – “He could be right”.
I think we all need a card like that.
The people that oppose our way of life, that close down our parties, that tell us not to show affection in public – they all need one so they would, for a change, ‘listen’ and stop their ranting for a moment of clarity.
But let’s also order a stack of cards for us. How often do we look down on those with opinions different from ours, call them names, and refuse to even intellectually engage with their argument and point of view.
Not being certain, having doubts – this is not highly rated in today’s world and not within the Christian Church.
When we think of Jesus’ disciples, we give them words that go along with their names, describing and defining them. Judas Iscariot=The Betrayer. Peter=The Rock, John=the one Jesus loves, and Thomas…doubting Thomas.
I have always liked and admired Thomas. And I always thought that he was being labeled unfairly. Let me tell you why.
Thomas is actually mentioned three times in the Bible. The first time is in
John 11:7-16
7Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”
9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. 10It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”
11After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Wow. How devoted. Ready to die with Jesus, no doubt, no questions asked.
The second mention of Thomas is in John 14.
John 14
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God[a]; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Isn’t it amazing that Thomas, of all disciples, is the one who asks the question that brings out the greatest “I AM” statement? One of the most known statements in Christianity stems out of a question that Thomas asked. This was not a sign of doubt. This was seeking for deeper truth.
Finally, the third mention is the one we all know and remember, the one that gave Thomas his nickname:
John 20. 24
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
So there you have it. Thomas doubts that Jesus is risen from the dead. He needs proof. How … human.
And to put things in perspective: The other disciples had seen their ‘proof’ before: Mary Magdalene had seen the risen Lord, the others had witnessed the empty tomb. Not Thomas. He had to take the others’ word for it.
So can we blame him if he wants proof, if he asks for evidence? And when Jesus shows him the evidence, then Thomas realizes who Jesus has become. As the first disciple he fully grasps the magnitude of what has happened.
He says: “My Lord and my GOD”. He knows that when he sees the risen Lord he is truly encountering God. So his initial doubts have led him to a deeper realization, to a deeper faith.
I think we’re all Thomases every now and then. Full of doubt. We doubt that God loves us and cares for us. We doubt our salvation. We doubt the resurrection took place. We doubt that God even exists.
We don’t DENY these truths. But sometimes, when things go wrong, loved ones fall ill or die, bad things happen, we ask “Why?”. And we doubt.
Is that a bad thing? Many people think so.
You know, when reading up on Thomas, he gets a bad rap in almost every sermon and commentary. He is used to outline the bad side of ‘doubt’ and how to overcome doubt.
But is doubt such a bad thing?
We all have doubts and most of the time we try to suppress them. We ignore them and refuse to admit them to ourselves and certainly to others. We’re treating doubt as some kind of spiritual disease.
But PRETENDING to be certain and PRETENDING to be faithful will not solve the problem. Sooner or later the doubts will come back.
Actually, I even think God wants people who challenge him, people that struggle to understand. He wants us to engage with him. He wants us to wrestle with him.
‘Look at Jacob. His name meant “schemer”. He was a wheeler-dealer who schemed his way through life, and he even tried to do it with God. But God met him when he came to the end of his rope and could scheme no longer. They began to wrestle with each other, and Jacob came away from that experience a wounded, but changed, man. As a result, God gave him a new name. He had been Jacob, but he would be forever after known as Israel. He had been called schemer, but his new name now meant ‘wrestler with God’. Phil Rancey writes: “Is it any accident that God identified his chosen people as the ‘Children of Israel’, ‘the westler’s children’, the offspring of one who had grappled so fiercely through the night?” ‘(Rodney Buchanan)
Jesus said in Matthew 11,12: “The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” The kingdom of heaven is for those who struggle with God. It is for those who ask, seek and knock. They don’t let doubt rest; they think; they read; they study; they talk to others; they pray. Their relationship with God is too important not to struggle, because they know that doubt leads to faith.
So doubt can be good. But how to deal with it?
Two ways:
Number one deals with questions of personal faith. We need to acknowledge our doubts and fears and search for answers. Use the doubts we have to find a deeper faith, to look for EVIDENCE, like Thomas did: In God’s word as expressed in the Bible, in God’s word as expressed by His People, of from Jesus directly.
Thomas went right to the source, Jesus, to dispel his doubts. We can do that, too. We too can have a personal relationship with Jesus where we can turn to him to overcome our doubts and make a giant step of faith, like Thomas, beyond what most of the other disciples had made, and say: “My Lord, and my God.”
That’s about doubts regarding our personal faith. I believe we can get answers, personal answers, that help us live our individual lives.
Would these answers apply to anybody and everybody? Would this “Law”, as in the poem about The Entitled, be “universal”? I doubt it.
In the public debate, in questions about morality and the ‘right’ way to live as a Christian, it is good to have doubts. We may be convinced about our point of view, but we have the card in our pocket, reminding us about our opponent: “He could be right.” We don’t claim absolute certainty.
And this doubt makes us more of God’s children. While certainty makes us PROUD, doubt makes us HUMBLE.
Psalm 131 has been called one of the shortest psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn. It begins: “Lord, my heart is not proud.” St Augustine listed “the three greatest virtues of Christianity: humility, humility and humility.”
Again, similar to doubt, humility is not highly regarded in this world. It is seen as weakness, as timid and insecure; power and control are being hailed as the cornerstones of success.
Have you seen ‘The Apprentice’? It’s my favourite show, partly because it so perfectly embodies our current state of mind and the values that we treasure in this world. Imagine someone who is HUMBLE and not afraid to express his DOUBTS taking part in it: He would sit in the boardroom after the very first episode, facing Donald Trump, who’d tell him: “You’re fired.” No doubt about that.
(You can just imagine what would happen if humility would be one of the virtues the apprentice-candidates were told to aspire to. It would be like in the Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown muses about being humble and Linus tells him: “Oh yeah? I am twice as humble as you!”)
But humility is not inferiority or poor self-esteem. It is seeing our strengths and weaknesses realistically and honestly, and not letting either of them keep us from accomplishing what we need to do.
It is facing reality to admit that we don’t know everything. Deuteronomy reminds us (29,29): “The Secret things belong to the Lord, our God”.
Just like the singer Steven Curtis Chapman says in a song: “The pain fell like a curtain/on the things I once called certain/ and I have to say the words I fear the most/’I just don’t know’.” He goes on to accept uncertainty because ‘God is God and I am not’.
The first beacon of the Eddy Stone Lighthouse off the coast of Plymouth, England, was placed there over 200 years ago to warn ships of the dangerous reefs. Win Stanley, the architect who built it, was so confident of its strength that he had written on the cornerstone “Blow, Ye Winds! Rise, O Ocean! Break forth, Ye elements, and try my work!” Less than three years later a raging storm destroyed the lighthouse, along with Win Stanley and others who were making repairs on it at the time. Years later John Smeaton, an elderly leader in civil engineering, rebuilt it. He found a new site and dug deep into the solid rock. He was a sincere Christian, as the new cornerstone revealed: “Except the Lord build the house, the labour in vain that built it.” For over 90 years it stood every test – it was founded on a rock. (as told by Curtis Kittrell)
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus,
this Christmas, let us take comfort in the knowledge that you were born and that you died for our sins. That you rose from the dead and became God.
Help us to use our doubts to develop an even deeper faith. Support us when we falter and fail.
And when dealing with others, Lord, please keep us humble. Let us keep an open heart and mind, even towards our enemies.
For we need not be strong – it is Your strength that guides us, guards us and protects us. Amen.
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