CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: Seeing is Believing

St. Thomas conditioned his believing the news of the resurrection of Jesus on seeing and touching his wounded flesh.

Thomas thought the disciples—the women and the eleven—got it wrong. He didn’t question their sincerity but rather their veracity. A whole week went by, according to this week’s gospel, with Thomas as the lone holdout in the group. He had to see for himself. Only after Jesus himself invites Thomas to touch him (which he didn’t!) does he make the most complete profession of faith: “My Lord and my God!”

It’s an old chestnut that St. Thomas is the patron saint of Episcopalians, an intellectually robust lot who love to question their religion. But many people today, not just Episcopalians, could identify with skeptical Thomas.

I have spent many years studying the content of our faith and, as a preacher, I feel constantly challenged to provide a reasonable exposition of “the hope that is in [us]” (1 Peter 3:15). Our faith, in this sense, is quite challenging. So I understand the reluctance that many of us have to tell others why being a Christian is a good thing. We, the baptized who bear the name of disciples of Jesus, all too often fear that we do not quite know what we believe, or that we understand too little about it to share it.

Add to our reluctance the negative connotations that the word “believer” now bears in society and in the market of ideas. Most grievously, some of the adjectives now associated with “believer” include bigoted, intolerant, homophobic, fear-mongering and hateful. In the aftermath of the culture wars, “Christian” is a devalued currency, which, many feel, has become worthless. Sociologists tell us that the fastest growing category of people who are surveyed about their faith is not the “Nones” but the “Dones.” As in, I am done with religion.

Is it any wonder that many of us limit the proclamation of our faith to the few minutes in which we recite the creed (and, perhaps for some, with reservations about some of the truth claims made therein)?

Seldom have I met people who have became intellectually convinced of the fallacy of believing in God. (Which is not to say that there aren’t any real intellectual problems to address!) But I have all too frequently met people whose life experiences with self-proclaimed believers have driven them out of belief in God.

Learning the content of the faith; questioning it to make sense of it; acquiring skills to think theologically about our lives; exploring the implications of belief for all aspects of life; becoming adept at communicating and sharing our faith with others: these are very important pursuits. And I want to encourage us as a community of faith to become more conversant with our faith. Yes, this is a shameless plug for participating in the Christian formation ministries of your parishes and diocese. Because we do have a story worth telling.

However: Long before it can be told, faith must be shown. That God is love is not a proposition that can be proved with our minds; it is an experience that can only be shown with our lives. The way of love is the way to faith.

Perhaps we should call it, not faith, but faithing. Faith is a noun—an object to be examined—but faithing is a verb—tangible actions that can be observed, experienced, admired and imitated. Faithing refers to all the small acts that add up to a lifetime of compassion, kindness, justice, mercy, truthfulness, integrity, patience, presence, mindfulness, forgiveness, encouragement and reconciliation. We need to continually ask ourselves: Are my words and deeds kind? Are they truthful? Are they necessary? Do they build community, or do they destroy people? Do they increase or decrease the well-being of my neighbor? In short, am I showing here and now that God is love?