Doubt Isn't Destiny

We return again this year to that renowned story of doubt, Thomas’ doubt. 

Every year, on some Sunday after the unbelievable story of Jesus’ resurrection, the church calendar gives space to the story of someone having trouble believing the unbelievable.  Yes, Thomas with Jesus’ help resolves his doubt. But do you think Thomas lived the rest of his life without a single moment of doubt? Do you think this intelligent, probing figure never doubted again? Pardon the pun, but I doubt it.

Any faith worth its weight will include moments of doubt. Doubt and faith roll together! If you’re not doubting, you’re not thinking. And if you’re not thinking, your faith is likely not as deep as maybe it could be.

I’ll be honest with you this morning. I think I’ve said it before. Doubt comes easily to me.  I ask a lot of questions. I’ve always asked lots of questions. That cliché imperative – question everything – comes easy to me.

I’m pretty confident any question you may have now about our faith is one I’ve asked. Heck, it may be a question I’m still struggling with. 

Doubt is no sin. Doubt is hard, requires extra work, may trouble us, but it is no sin. 

Here’s my pastoral advice to those who doubt their faith. Don’t do anything drastic. Just peep on keeping on. Keep moving forward. Keep connecting to the Spirit of Love. Keep exercising the spirit. Keep praying, meditating, seeking to sit in God’s presence. Keep coming to church to experience the gift of community! Don’t give up on all of it because of a doubt about a part of it.

I’d like to think this community is fine with your doubts. I in fact encourage your questions. I sometimes think we don’t ask our questions out loud in community enough. We keep them to ourselves as if we should be ashamed of them. No! As I said, doubt and faith roll together! And doubt gives way to a stronger faith in the end. And vice versa. But if we keep practicing our faith, we get through and do so together!

This brings me to something I’ve been wanting to share for a little while here. It has to do with the future of the church. I firmly believe that as younger generations grow into their spirituality here in America, a change will need to happen in our church communities. 

We are a house of worship. This is true. This will always be true. But worship presumes understanding and faith, doesn’t it? Folks don’t worship what they don’t fully understand, trust, or have faith in. Folks don’t worship what they doubt is true. If I don’t know whether I believe in the God of the Bible or not, worshiping the God of the Bible becomes an obstacle for me and my sense of belonging inside the church. 

Have you ever considered that our sole focus on worship on Sunday mornings excludes folks who have a lot of doubts about the God we worship? 

We are open and affirming and are rightly proud of this. But are we doubt and doubter friendly? Would the Thomases among us be comfortable Sunday mornings?

I firmly believe that a shift needs to happen, a shift born of the fact that so many people question, doubt, and lack grounding in our faith. If so many don’t have a grounding in who God is, how can we expect them to be comfortable with worshipping a God they don’t know?

That said, I firmly believe we need to be a house of spiritual practice more than a house of worship. Not in a way that rules out worship, but in a way that highlights spiritual practice. 

Churches, to be concise, need to become houses of spiritual practice.

What is spiritual practice? Spiritual practice means working through our faith by engaging in ancient practices that give our hearts peace and wisdom even if our intellects question things. 

Some examples of spiritual practice are things we already practice. Prayer – connecting to God through talking and listening to God – is a perfect example. Another example is the selah moments we have each Sunday. In these mindful moments, we quietly rest in the presence of God. That’s a spiritual practice. Singing, if done mindfully instead of rotely, is a spiritual practice. Mindfully listening to music can be a spiritual practice.

Another example is one I’m introducing today – spiritual, or what I’m calling mindful communion. 

Maybe partaking of the juice and the bread doesn’t align with where you are. Maybe you doubt what it’s all about. Maybe you’re really literal and the metaphoric thinking involved in communion – that the bread and juice is a metaphor for Christ’s body and blood that we metaphorically ingest - turns you off. Well, getting to the essence of communion – the taking in of Christ’s selflessness so we live out compassionate lives – might be the perfect spiritual practice for you.  

Here’s another factor as we think about church as a house of spiritual practice. In some ways, Protestant churches like ours often are really houses of the pastor’s sermon. 

Have you ever wondered why we focus so much on the pastor’s sermon? 

One word I hear a lot in reference to the sermons is inspiration. Everyone wants to be inspired and many look to the pastor to inspire them with his or her words. Yes, I often try to inspire. But, let’s be honest, any inspiring word from the pastor usually lasts as long as noon on Sunday. The inspiration sermons give are usually rather surface level. Sharing wisdom is more important to me. Wisdom is meatier than inspiration. 

Here’s a question to ponder. Who is the true source of our inspiration, the pastor or the Holy Spirit? Of course, the Holy Spirit. And you don’t have to wait till Sunday and the Sunday sermon to be inspired.

Inspiration can happen any time you’re awake. Whenever you mindfully breathe in and say thank you, Lord, inspiration literally happens. Inspire literally means to take in the spirit. When you breathe in the life God has given you, and do so with gratitude, you are practicing inspiration.

And the more you practice inspiration as you live your life, the stronger your faith becomes, the easier it becomes to work through your doubts, and the richer your spiritual lives become.

Here’s another thing about the sermon. I think our Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and even our Episcopal brothers and sisters teach us a great deal in this regard. In these high liturgical traditions, it isn’t the sermon that is central to Sunday service. Sure, the homily happens, but what is central to Sunday service at Our Lady of Mercy, for example, or St. Gregory's Orthodox in Bristol every Sunday is the Eucharist, what we call the sacrament of Communion. Eucharist happens every Sunday and is the heart of Sunday services there.

Why is Communion so important? Well, they’d argue, to be like Christ, it is of utmost importance that we receive Christ, spiritually internalize Christ. This is what happens through the Eucharist. And so, the spiritual practice of receiving communion becomes a vital, weekly spiritual practice. 

I’m not suggesting we do Communion weekly, but the weekly practice of spiritual communion is a good option that decenters the sermon and centers spiritual practice, namely the spiritual practice of communing with Christ.

Therefore, I end with introducing this new, 2-3 minute segment – mindful communion. This is borrowed from the Mindfulness Service we’ve tried. We’ll use a refrain to help us, a refrain based on our breathing. It’s there in your bulletin –

I breathe in the selflessness of Christ…

I breathe out the compassion of Christ…