Believing
Based on Acts 5:27-32, Revelation 1:4-8, John 20:19-29
How would you define the word “believing” as it relates to your spiritual journey? How strongly do you believe the tenets of our faith – especially that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day and is alive and well and active in your life and our world? Many people struggle to believe this because they have neither seen someone rise from the dead nor have they had an experience of the Risen Christ in their lives. They wonder to themselves, if I can’t believe this, then what am I doing in a Christian church? However, believing does not mean that we will never doubt. Believing simply means that we are willing to hold open the possibility and hope that there is a Higher Power that we can experience in our lives and our world.
Our believing is complicated by what we read about our ancestors in the faith - many seemed to have such strong beliefs – such trust in God to see them through any situation. Helpfully, we also have examples of people who struggle to believe. Mark 9 contains a story where the father of a possessed boy begs Jesus to heal his son “if you can” the father says. Jesus replies, “If you can? Everything is possible for one who believes.” To which the father replies, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” I think that most of us can resonate with that father’s claim that our believing is a work in progress – not a finished product.
Our scripture readings for this Sunday begin with a report on the activities of the Apostles from the Book of Acts. The Apostles had been teaching and healing and had been jailed by the Sadducees. However, an angel had released them from jail and sent them back to the temple courts to preach. When this was discovered, the Sadducees re-arrested them and brought them for questioning. When asked why they kept teaching in defiance of the temple edicts, Peter told them that they must teach what they have witnessed and to what they believe God is telling them to do.
The Book of Revelation opens with the statement, “…blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it,…” The writer believes that Jesus died to save all, and that God is the beginning and the end, the One “who is, and who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.”
The Gospel according to John gives us the story about the Risen Christ appearing to the believers on the evening of that first Easter. Thomas was not with the rest for that appearance and was unbelieving of the story that he was told. Believing, according to Thomas, would happen when he saw the Christ for himself and was able to touch his wounds. A week later, Thomas had his encounter with the Risen Christ and found himself believing just by seeing and speaking with him. His doubt was replaced by believing when he experienced the Risen Christ in his life.
The Christian Church writ large has been in a prolonged season of decline. Many people have stopped believing in the ability of the Church and her leadership to speak into their lives. They’ve stopped believing that Church leaders care more about the people than they do about themselves. They’ve witnessed and been wounded by the repeated moral and ethical failings of many religious leaders and have left organized religion seeking an alternate narrative in which they can believe. Thus, we’ve seen a rise in “nones” those with no defined religious affiliation and the “spiritual but not religious”. This exodus from organized religion begs the question - have all the people who have left the Church discovered anything that provided them what an experience of the Risen Christ in their lives can?
Lauren Jackson, a reporter for the New York Times wrote an article entitled, “Americans Haven’t Found a Satisfying Alternative to Religion” which provides an answer to that question. This article was published last week on Good Friday. She chronicles her journey from unquestioning belief in the tenets of the Mormon Church, to the place where she is now, as a person in her 30s, holding the tension of unquestioned believing and discerning. She writes, “…Religion provides what sociologists call the ‘three B’s’: belief, belonging and behaviors. It offers beliefs that supply answers to the tough questions of life. It gives people a place they feel they belong, a community where they are known. And it tells them how to behave, or at least what tenets should guide their action. Religious institutions have spent millenniums getting really good at offering these benefits to people.
For the last few decades, much of the world has tried to go without God, a departure from most of recorded history. More than a billion people globally and about a third of Americans have tried to live without religion. Studies in recent years have offered insights into how that is going. The data doesn’t look good. ‘There is overwhelming empirical support for the value of being at a house of worship on a regular basis on all kinds of metrics - mental health, physical health, having more friends, being less lonely,’ said Ryan Burge, a former pastor and a leading researcher on religious trends….”
The first disciples and many who followed them discovered the benefits of believing in the Risen Christ. In believing in an active and loving force in their lives which gave meaning and purpose, which transformed their life and the lives of those around them, which comforted them in times of trial and persecution. Believing that they were called to live as Easter people gave them a countercultural message and lifestyle that attracted those who lacked a similar experience and support from their worship of dead pagan gods.
Episcopal Bishop Barbara Harris speaks about what it means to live as Easter people writing, “…Easter people are believers. We believe not only in the possible, we believe also in the impossible. We believe that the lame were made to walk, and the mute made to speak, that lepers were cleansed and the blind received their sight…We can believe also that with the helpful presence of God’s Holy Spirit, we are strengthened and sustained on our earthly pilgrimage. Further, we can believe that we can fashion new lives committed to love, to peace, to justice, and to liberation for all of God’s people….”
I don't believe in Christianity because I read it in a book or because I say the Creeds and prayers. I believe it because I see people’s lives and the communities around them being transformed. This lived demonstration is what convinces me. When I see positive changes in people, I can't help believing that Christ is alive, and God is still at work. I could preach about the transformative power of God all day, and many would still not believe it - but when we see it at work, then like Thomas, we start believing. Seeing is believing. Do we see the Risen Christ at work every day in our lives and world? If not, maybe it’s time to try believing until we can see. Amen and amen!