Introduction
Thomas is a key character in this Sunday’s gospel reading. He was not so much a doubter as someone who looked for evidence before he would believe. Presented with the evidence he makes a powerful declaration of faith. But is it so bad to doubt? And what about the many candidates in the coming elections who will be losers?
This week's news
Our news here in Britain is, perhaps inevitably, dominated by the elections, national and local, now less than a month away – my polling card arrived this morning. Only a major catastrophe is likely to break through into headlines dominated by the elections. But it may be worth remembering that the campaign proper began in Holy Week and continues through the first half of the Easter season. How does the story we tell through this season connect with the stories which dominate our news?
Reflection
The first bullet point under Sermon Ideas for today (Adult & All Age ROOTS, issue 76, page 32) points out that the nickname ‘doubting Thomas’ is unfair. And the drama ‘Handsome Thomas’ (available to subscribers on this website) makes the point even more sharply. But when did you last hear any politician express doubts? When discussing their opponents’ ideas they usually express stronger negative views rather than mere doubts. In politics it seems that to doubt yourself, or your party’s policies, is considered quite unacceptable. As Christians we can sometimes be equally dogmatic. Might the search for evidence, and even doubt, be undervalued virtues?
And what about the losers? The majority of those who seek election, whether to Parliament or local councils, will be losers. In Good Friday’s Guardian, Giles Fraser wrote: ‘Christianity, when properly understood, is a religion of losers’. He went on ‘a church is at its best when it fails, when it gives up on all the ecclesiastical glitter, when the weeds start to break through the floor, and when it shows others that failure is absolutely nothing of the sort’.
On this basis, politics – and for that matter business – are on quite the wrong track. If the last shall be first, then failure is success, and real triumph comes from the utter weakness of the one who hung on a cross.
Jesus used the idea of a seed ‘dying’ only to re-emerge as an image of his coming death and resurrection; the Easter hymn ‘When the green blade rises’ draws on that imagery. As spring finally arrives in Britain, there may be a temptation to overuse springtime imagery as a metaphor for resurrection; but (providing that it is not pressed too far) such imagery has its uses, and not just in the flowers which decorate the church and Easter cross. For death and resurrection are surely intimately intertwined in the story we tell in this season.
What does Acts 4.32 say to today’s world? Could we make an election slogan from the notion of property being held in common? And, if not, why not? If in the earliest days Christians shared property, how is it that, twenty centuries later, the gospel is so often seen as essentially about personal morality and not about worldly economics?
Prayer
In your intercessions remember all who are candidates for election to Parliament or to local councils, and those who make the election process possible (e.g. local government officials, people who work at the counts, and the police).
Pray also for those who seek evidence to support their faith, and those who want to believe but struggle to do so in the face of doubt.
A prayer which could be used after a confession, after a sermon or after intercessions:
God of the Resurrected One,
help us who have not seen the resurrected Jesus
to come to believe that the story we tell is true,
and that the resurrected Jesus shows us a foretaste
of the resurrection for all people
beyond the confines of this age and this world;
in his name we ask these and all our prayers.
Amen.
Questions
- Was it unreasonable for Thomas to seek for the same evidence which the other ten had already seen?
- Does doubt have a positive side? Or, to put it another way, can certainty sometimes be counter-productive?
- Discuss whether your faith should affect your vote, and, if so, why? …and, if not, why not?
Action
As you consider how to exercise your vote next month, follow these links to read:
- the election briefings from the Joint Public Issues Team. The Joint Public Issues Team serves the Methodist Church, Baptists Together, the United Reformed Church and the Church of Scotland.
- the study guide to the Anglican Bishops’ Pastoral Letter.
- the letter from the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales.
Young People
With the possible exception of Scotland following the referendum, the evidence is that young people are less likely to vote than older people. Will you vote when you can? Read this reflection by one young person. Discuss the reasons for voting, and those which people – perhaps you, or your friends - give for not doing so.
Dudley Coates is a Local Preacher in the Yeovil and Blackmore Vale Methodist Circuit and a former Vice President of the Methodist Conference.
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