LOCKED DOORS

April 11, 2010
Easter 2
Psalm 150
John 20:19-31

(prayer)
In a little over a month, I will be off on a week of Study Leave as I and Patti attend a retreat. It is so seldom that I get to have Patti come along on these kinds of trips. That’ll be nice ... and the event will be a nice follow-up to my sabbatical last year. It will give me a real opportunity to focus on and practice the connection between spirituality, music and life-and-social action as part of the modern church.
This past week, I got an email from the retreat organizer, who said that they were planning on adding to the optional Saturday afternoon activities: the opportunity to swing hammers at a local Habitat for Humanity project. Patti and I jumped at the chance to sign up for that.
Now this will be in Hendersonville, NC, which is a fair ways from St. Albert, but Habitat for Humanity was under fire in that city to the north recently. Did you hear that story in the news?
I know that the authors of the letter to editor of the St Albert Gazette have since apologized for the “way [they] came across”, even admitting it was “terrible”, but I think that the sentiment expressed in the original letter is still worth some attention.
Long story short if you missed it, the authors felt that the higher standing of living in St. Albert meant that Habitat did not belong there. The letter quite strongly implied that if someone couldn’t to afford to live there, they didn’t deserve to live there. It went on to mention the expected (but hard to listen to) comments about increased crime that surely comes with low cost housing and the evils of lower property values for those who don’t need social housing. Yada, yada, yada ... N.I.M.B.Y. ... yada, yada
Some people are afraid to live in the midst of diversity. Aren’t they? Well, welcome to the 21st century. Greater access to travel and communication have made this a very small world indeed. Building walls and gates to create artificial zones of unity and isolation are some people’s attempts to ignore the reality that we are a more diverse human family than some want to admit or deal with.
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Every once and a while I hear someone say something like: “soon, the minorities will be the majority.” Content aside, from a pure syntax point of view, it’s a silly statement. But regardless, that’s just natures predilection for balance.
Truth be known – none of the six basic skin colour races has the majority. Sure in many local contexts the numbers vary and the language of majority and minority might be accurate. But on a global scale (and with easier travel, movement and settlement on increasing numbers of local scales) we are all minorities. Only people with a fear of diversity worry about such things.
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In a completely un-related example, I caught a clip from the Ellen DeGeneres show on YouTube a couple of days ago. Well a picture paints a thousand words, let’s take a look ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK1q_Y3G1EM
Wow!
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For me, these are current examples of how fear or mistrust can sometimes have an effect on how a person looks at the world.
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Fear is miserable emotion. Anyone who has had the misfortune of being genuinely, really scared can attest to that. And most of us I am sure have had at least a small taste of fear sometime in our lives.
[Fear is not necessarily bad. In fact, fear is often a very helpful emotion – it can keep us safe, it can slow us down when we need it; it can move us in new directions. But in certain circumstances it can paralyze us so that we get stuck.]
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Does anyone remember the scene from Michael Moore’s Oscar-winning documentary “Bowling for Columbine”? There was a scene where Michael Moore was in the Toronto-area and found a number of people who hadn’t locked their doors. He just walked into their homes. Moore’s point was to try and contrast that with what he was portraying as the excessive fear that exists in the lives of Americans. Those scenes were widely criticized as a bit mis-leading. It’s not like Canada is a country free of fear.
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Now, I’ll admit it, I don’t always lock my house door, especially when I’m home. [decided to keep it in] But there are times when I am very careful to make sure the house is locked: when we are away and at night ... and (almost always) I lock my car doors (even when, on occasion, my keys have still been in it and sometimes even when the engine was still running).
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Deep Fear is paralyzing. It forces us to focus on absolutely nothing else but our extreme short term well-being and safety. Nothing else matters.
Without fear, the same person might have a vast array of things that are important to them, but when gripped by fear, all of that is set aside.
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Now, the main character in today’s familiar gospel reading is Thomas. What’s his nickname? {The Twin; Doubting Thomas!} I would suggest that the singled out nickname is inappropriate, first of all, because all of the disciples had the same doubts after Mary told them that she had seen the lord, three days after the crucifixion. But furthermore, the descriptor would be better if it was Fearful Thomas (and Fearful Peter and John ...). It was their fear that kept them behind locked doors, not their doubt.
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We often assume that doubt is the opposite of faith. And by dictionary definition, it might be true. But over and over again in the Bible when faith is contrasted, it is with “fear” not doubt. Faith v Fear is much more common that Faith v Doubt.
Several times in the story of Abraham and his family, God reassures them with words like “Fear not, for I am with you, or Fear not, I will provide or Don’t be afraid, I have heard you or Have no fear, I am your shield.” (cf. Gen 15:1; 21:17; 26:24; 50:21)
One memorable line in the 23rd Psalm (v4) is: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you [God] are with me.”
Think of the disciples in the boat with Jesus during a storm. After Jesus calmed the waters with a word of peace, he turns to the others in the boat and says: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith.” (Mk 4:40)
And in perhaps the most famous double story in the gospels (a so-called Marken Sandwich because it has one story in the middle of another), Jesus is called to come help the daughter of a synagogue leader named Jairus: his daughter is dying. (cf: Mk 5:21-43)
On the way see to the girl, Jesus is touched by someone in the crowd, a woman, who has had a menstrual bleeding problem for a dozen years (coincidently the same length of time that the little girl has been alive – she’s 12 years old). Against all fear of retribution and social protocol, the woman reaches out to Jesus and discovers that she is healed. The crowd is horrified, Jesus touched a women during her cycle, now he is ritually unclean and he is going to visit with the Synagogue leader’s family? The crowd is understandable upset at the woman. Jesus has a different point of view, he tells the woman, “Your faith has made you well; go in peace”.
This delay along the road was costly, however, and the little girl died before Jesus got to her. Responding to the grief of the father, Jesus says, “Do not fear, only believe!” Jesus and the parents go into the child’s room and the next thing anyone knew, they little girl was up, alive and well, eating some lunch.
Okay, that’s enough proof-texting for one day. But I still think it is true that it is fear (more than doubt) that hinders faith.
This may be a case of diction-semantics to some degree, but I think it can helpful in focusing how we might approach a desire to encounter our spiritual sides. If we focus on doubts, we look for proof and evidence. If we acknowledge our fears, we look for what is blocking us. We look for ways to deal with those road blocks or we seek new paths. Here’s where fear and doubt overlap a bit: for some of us, those blocks may be the lack of concrete evidence.
Unfortunately for us, by definition, faith requires a leap beyond what is provable. That’s what the word means; that’s what “faith” means. If spirituality was crystal clear and completely objective, there would be no need for faith.
Faith involves a lot of subjectivity; or, as Jim Wallis likes to put it, faith is believing - in spite of the evidence.
Subjectivity naturally results in diversity in peoples’ spiritualities. Sit any two “people of faith” beside each other (even from within the same religious group) and have any conversation about what beliefs they hold dear and how they enjoy living out their spirituality and you’ll find diversity. Sometime subtle, often quite striking.
Let’s try that: if you are game, turn to a person near you and tell them something about:
· What helps you feel closer to God? ...or...
· When does God seem naturally near for you?
You have about a minute, go!
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So, is everyone saying the same thing? If you were able to listen to all of the conversations, do you think we would have only one answer? If we involved other Christians from other denominations, would we get one answer? What if we went inter-faith: one answer?
Of course not.
And that is NOT a bad thing.
The 150th Psalm was likely a hymn sung during ancient Hebrew Temple worship services: the common theme is the Praise of God, but notice the variety of how that is done: with trumpets, lutes, harps, tambourines, strings, pipes, cymbals. Praise God with dance. Melody, Rhythm, Harmony, Movement and just plain clanging noise: something I like to call the Chaos of Praise!
That psalm reminds us that the praise of God is an opportunity that for “everything that breathes”. God is the source of life and life praises God!
Diversity need not be a locked door that we hide behind. It only is, if we fear diversity. Or if we somehow fear that our own faith is brought into question, just because someone else “does faith” differently.
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As a United Church minister, believe me, I have known the experience of having my faith called into to question by others. Given the UCC’s progressive stances on the dignity of all people and the overarching love and opportunities of God reaching out to all, some of my Christian brothers and sisters have (from time to time) “noticed” the differences between how our denominations live out what we believe. Anytime you assume unanimity and find yourself face to face with diversity, it can be a bit shocking, even scary. I think I have mentioned before that, it was actually an agenda item at my very first Leduc Christian Ministerial Meeting ten years ago, whether the United Church qualified as Christian-enough to be part of the local Ministerial (that summer, the UC’s General Council had expressed continued support for equal civil rights for both same sex and opposite sex couples – we weren’t even using marriage language yet). I, intentionally, stayed out of the conversation. I had no desire to begin these new ecumenical relationships by defending myself or my denomination. I needed to learn more than I needed to teach. And so, I listened and let the existing members talk it out. And, as I expected, a diversity of views was the result. I felt very affirmed as a Christian leader and saw opportunities to find value in being involved with this diverse group of pastors.
Obviously, I and my church came out okay. The faces around the table have changes a lot over the past decade as clergy come and go, and I’m still considered “in” (phew!) – I am currently in my third (and mandated last) year as the secretary-treasurer for the local Ministerial Association. I guess being a good administrator is more important than theological-dogmatic differences.
(pray) Thank be to God!
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It was fear, that kept Thomas (and Peter and Mary and Joanna) behind those locked doors after the crucifixion.
We aren’t told why Thomas had stepped out, but he is not able to believe what the others have experienced, because his experience was different. Fear, doubt, grief – a whole jumble of emotions – closed him from finding the spirit of what had happened to the others.
John’s gospel tells us that Thomas got his turn, one week later. It is interesting to note that, for the others, even after a visit from the Risen Christ, a week later they were still behind locked doors. But Thomas was given his proof – look at my hands and feet, touch my wounds. That’s actually kind of unfortunate that Jesus came back a second time, because it supports that notion that empirical proof is necessary to believe. But, by the time the fourth gospel was written, probably some 60 years or so after the first easter – first hand visits from Risen Christ would be the rare stuff of legends. It was obviously not big on Jesus’ post-easter agenda to be going around to every potential Christian throughout the ages and showing off his crucifixion wounds. If Jesus’ message and his model (Way) for living was going to spread, it would be by faith, not proof. And it did.
The gospel writer knew that was the case – it had been the case for some 60 years already: so the final line intentionally included by the gospel writer in the Thomas story is: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
I love that phrasing – “have come to believe”. For many of us, faith is a progressive process. It is dynamic: growing (sometimes fast sometimes slowly); it stalls, it even moves backwards sometimes. Faith is a process!
If we are afraid that we are somehow not “doing it right”, because we don’t have everything figured out, maybe, we need to hear that line from John again: have come to believe.
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If you came to worship today expecting to be told all of the answers, Sorry. My best hope for you (and for me) is that from time to time, we can un-lock a new door.
Let us pray:
Loving God;
Help us find the path where we can find you.
Amen.

#185VU “You Tell Me That the Lord is Risen”