BLESSED ARE THE DOUBTERS
NORTH PARK SEMINARY CHAPEL
FEBRUARY 11, 1999
JOHN M. BUCHANAN
» Mark 9:14-27
“| believe; help my unbelief!”
Mark 9:24
Dear God, If the requirements to get in this
¥
morning included moral perfection or
theological certainty, not many of us
would be here. We come to worship you
out of our need for forgiveness and
acceptance. We come because we don’t
have the answers, sometimes only the
questions. We come in hope and
expectation and trust that somehow your

love for us can overcome our moral failure

and our religious uncertainty, and even

our doubts. So, startle us, O God, with
your truth and open our hearts and our
minds to your word. In Jesus Christ our

Lord, Amen.

———}

—_—_-

He is, | have always thought, one of the most

compelling characters in the Bible, |this man

aS TS

who brings his sick son to Jesus\ What he says
—— f Ss:

on the occasion, | have always thought, is one
of the most relevant and perhaps frequently

a,
uttered prayers by modern Christians (“1

believe; Lord, help my unbeliet.”) 4 os a.

In the motion picture Life is Beautiful, a story in

many ways similar to this one is told.\ The first
*neen—w

part of the movie, which takes place in Fascist

eee

Italy during World War Il,\is about Guido, an

Sp

antic, amusing young man seeking his fortune

enema)

and future who falls helplessly and sometimes

ridiculously in love. \He marries his princess,
SS a

eS

and they havea son. |Guido is Jewish\ One day,
after the Germans have occupied Italy, he and
his six-year-old son are taken away from their
bookstore < and shipped to a concentration

camp. \it is the little boy’s birthday.] His father
es =

begins to weave an incredible fantasy, the

purpose of which will be not merely to disguise
the ghastly reality of what is happening, but

ultimately to save his son’s life 1's actually all

an elaborate game.\His father has made

reservations on the special train, which
Sa ee med

consists of cattle cars.\At the camp, everyone

ane

gets to wear funny uniforms, and everyone is
eee

Se et my

competing to wina prize.\The prison guards

are there to prevent them from winning. Whe

little boy must hide all day in the barracks, must

never be seen or heard, must never ask for

== See

more food or snacks.\In the final, dramatic

scene, as the U.S. Army approaches and the

war is over and the S.S. Guards are frantically
Seas, aia

destroying the evidence of the Holocaust, Guido
eae) = 2

comes up with one last dramatic ploy—the end

of the game which will result in his son’s
ees | |

freedom.

Sarees

It is a wonderful movie land Guido reminds me
a rd ;

of the father in the story who will do whatever it

takes, say whatever it takes, to save his son’s
a gE, a ad

life and who brings him to Jesus.

ee SI

One day, in the midst of an ongoing debate

between the followers of Jesus and the

religious authorities, a man steps out of the

SSS

crews \nterrupts the discourse, and announces

that he has brought his sick son\ Apparently,

the disciples have already tried to heal him and
ty

have failed. \The little boy has a major physical

challenge. \He appears to have epilepsy, a

condition which in the ancient world was
Ss

frightening because of its violent and
unpredictable symptoms, which were so
mysterious and so terrifying that it was

4

generally believed that the person was

possessed by a demon | Apart from ,

==

understanding and treatment, epilepsy is a

heartbreaking condition. \Most of the time, he is

fine; beautiful, energetic little boy, running

and playing and talking and asking questions

—a,

non-stop.| And then, without warning, his
et

beautiful face contorts, his eyes roll back| he

falls down, and he can’t seem to speak or hear.

wees

He grinds his teeth almost violently and foams

ees,

at the mouth| People are terrified and his
== aE op

friends run away/then, later, children, being

children, tease him about it and mimic his

t

. . ape . 9 ‘
seizures.\tt is humiliating s also dangerous;

he has often hurt himself during one of his

seizures.|His parents have done everything
a! ee

they can think of, talked to everyone who knew

—o

anything or thought they did, tried every
prescription, And, as parents in any age who
have responsibility for a chronically-ill child,
they look to the future with a great deal of

- =p
wariness and dread.\Someday, he’ll be on his
own), without them to protect him and take care
of him| So, they wait and watch for anyone who
has a new idea, a new approach.

That’s what the man was doing there that day.

It doesn’t say so, but | think he’s feeling very

vulnerable and nota little foolish | He doesn’t

like to beg anyone for help,and he’s not at all

a

comfortable with religious fanatics and faith

aaa

.healers and would-be messiahs| in fact, his

inherent intelligence and careful thoughtfulness

See

are often in conflict with his desperation to help
———— cicada

his son live He doesn’t like this business of

coming to a young, charismatic rabbi from

Nazareth.

“Teacher, | brought you my son; he has a

EE =

spirit that makes him unable to speakjand

whenever it seizes him) it dashes him

a,

down:\and he foams and grinds his teeth

and becomes rigid; pnd | asked your

disciples to cast it out, but they could not

do so.” |

And at that very moment, it happened again.

———

The little boy had a seizure and fell down| And -

_ his father is surely cradling him when he says,

“If you are able to do anything, have pity and

help us.”

Jesus responiis Anything is possible for the

_—e,
one who believes. And now, the man begins to

ES
weep] he and his faith and his love and his

desperate hope for his son are now the focus.

ee

| “All things are possible if you believe,” Jesus

has said.

So there he is, loving his little son enough to

Cal

walk through the fires of hell for him, enough to

die for him,\and it turns out that his son’s life
eae sara

es

depends not on his bravery\ but on his faith.

And so, for the love of his son, he blurts out the

aa De a hres

most honest confession I’ve ever heard “I

wae =e 2 -.,.
an,

believe; help my unbelief.”

That touches my heart|1"m'a father\ it touches

eS

that place in each of us where we love
eee

Cm

desperatel \tov e h to give life itself f
perately e enoug give li self for

the child, the woman, the man\but also the

place where we know the limits of our love;

where we know that sometimes we can’t give

SS TT

life-healing wholeness, save life;|can’t make it
ST —_—_——,,
all_right. (i vetieve; help my unbelief.”

/

Theologian Douglas John Hall writes, [No

| ena

Biblical verse is more existentially meaningful

ee

... than this prayer, (Lora, | believe; help my

unbelief.” ( Thinking the Faith, p. 250).

10

We post-moderns, as a matter of fact, seem to

be suspended somewhere between belief and

unbélief, faith and doubt. Part of us continues
——) eae

to want a religion that is rational and provides
ouueme — ee” nila al

us answers to life’s most difficult questions, ard —__

wr = - ————————

a

ies a —

art of us rebels whenever religion tries to tell

us too much.
—— Ss

preaching in Memorial Church at Harvard. ;
at

“Many of you have learned to Y ake sense out of
religion,” he said. “instruction is what we are
about, and Wwe would be tutored in matters of
religion as ina foreigy language untithat

blissful day when we will know what the Virgin

11

was not, exactly what happened on Easter Day,
and what was the ultimate plan behind the plan

of creation” (Sermons, p. 217).

_7 The problem is that life doesn’t always fit into

en
neat, intellectual categories|\ Life is full of

surprises—irrational happenings\ wonderful
eae GT Ser

and sometimes not-so-wonderful accidents,

unexpected, unplanned-for love|ecstasy,

beauty, sickness, death\ Sometimes it doesn’t
fit together, and a religion that aims for the bliss
of no doubts, no questions, no unresolved

dilemmas is not going to be very honest, nor

very adequate.

aa aaa

12

So, post-modern men and women like you and

me live with both belief and unbelief. John

——=—- ea ——

Updike, who continues to take the spiritual

eee

pulse of our age, describes our religious
Piel

dilemma in his novel /n the Beauty of the Lilies,

which is a description of the American religious

SS,

————

experience in the 20" Century. y he Reverend
Clarence Willmott, pastor of the Fourth
Presbyterian Church of Patterson, New Jersey

at the beginning of the Century, loses his faith,

his voice, his job, and ultimately his life.
Willmott, after struggling with doubt, finally

surrenders to unbelief:

ae

(na he had long suspected, that the

universe was utterly indifferent to his state

eed

13

Tie?

eee?

of mind and as empty of divine content as
a corroded kettle. [au its metaphysical

- | content had leaked away, but for cruelty

e- | and death, which without the hypothesis of
-. | God became unmetaphysical and simply

facts.” (p. 7).

—— | Our problem is that we are products of a time in
———— a
Western history when human confidence has

never been higher—intellectual confidence,

confidence that all thi ings can ultimately be
known and understood \confidence that the
human intellect can be trusted to be the final
arbiter_of reality.| If you can observe it
objectively; Wweigh, measure, describe it, prove

it; \t's real; if you can’t, itisn’t.
aT EI TA SSE,

14

In that climate, religion becomes ideas about

eS

God)|Faith becomes a collection of doctrine.

Belief means understanding and accepting as

true,\concepts, theses, propositions. \In this

climate, there is no room for doubt. /in this

climate, doubtis evidence of inadequate or

weak.faith.

And what happens, observers of our culture tell
us, is that people who find that they continue to

doubt conclude that religion is not for them;

nee SS

that the continuing presence of doubt, the
eae eit en

continuing struggle with difficult questions and

quandaries, places them outside the faith

community.\Perhaps that’s true, to a degree, of

15

— ag ‘ es pdt Yu + wm da~
Pe Fy Sy = "TU

Se yev sens
if you should bq because you think having faith

means having everything sorted out\resolved,

and having sure answers to all of life’s tough

questions—and you surely don’t Perhaps your
a = , ae

definition of faith is theological certain gy and, in

ie — ee ead

that you don’t have much you conclude that
eee en,

you don’t have faith. | YOU /¢ QUA.
apo ver f.- -(ectur
oh Hn hk baw ©
It is, in fact, a bad definition of faith with which

a.

we are opecating here/a disastrous definition, a

definition characterized by that crusty old
Oe

SES ey

Maine farmer, who said,(“Faith means believing

what you_know ain’t so.”

16

As a matter of fact, | would propose that doubt

is part of an honest faith;|that faith without

doubt is either dishonest or dead| | take for my

———* Se
model the compelling man who confesses, “1

believe; help my unbelief.”
Pe

Pa

Doubt, after all, isa . ostly useful dynamic. | tl,

Rollo May wrote, “The \

ost creative people 6 ———
neither ignore doupirior ave paralyzed by it, 2: td ca’
and act despite it. Commitment is healthiest

when itis not without doubt, but in spite of

got’ ? | love something the poet Rilke said

ae eee

once, fee patient toward all thats unsolved in
Se Te

EEO Te

your heart and learn to love the questions uw lug |

17

themselves.” (sée William Sloane Coffin,

Courage and Love,p. 7).

Something happens to religion that has no room
————

Soe
——

for doubt, something not very pleasant, nor, in

my opinion, five becomes exclusive| It
begins to focus on keeping out those who don’t

measure up,\it invests its energy building walls,

not bridges. it becomes timid, introverted, and
ee —_———

irrelevant, The philosopher Pascal quipped{ l

am astonished at the boldness with which men

undertake to speak of God.”) And Presbyterian
theologian William, Placher reminds us that an

important part of our Reformed theological

tradition is that God, even in revelation, remains

hidden, mysterious; |that, as St. Augustine

18

noted, centurres@go, bi you understand, itis

not God.” Martin Luther named it the

“hiddeness of God,"/and taught that faith is the

acceptance of insecurity, living in trust of a God

who remains a mystery\\ Placher guesses that
Luther would call the doubters the most

authentic believers.” ( The Domestication of
ST Te

e

| Transcendence, p. 51).

What the man who brought his son to Jesus had

was not intellectual certainty He did not have
—=——,_..,

his personal theological statement in hand.| He
——

brushed right by the theological questions that
stop us in our tracks and cause us to build walls

of orthodoxy around our religious institutions.

He did not declare his belief in the Trinity or the

oe

19

blood atonement of Jesus or the doctrine of
= oS fe

divine election. He didn’t fall on his knees and
Ee ee ee

recite a creed, rather, he did recite his most
=e —' ‘ \ eee

personal, most honest creed. \He brought to

Jesus what he hadi his belief and his unbelief
ee ee —_—_-.. SEE

and a heart full of love for his son, and it was
enough.

“Faith,” Douglas John Hall says, Le a category
of relationship and a fundamental trust | Faith is -
what occurs from the human side, when we

Sa se ieee!

know ourselves to be encountered, judged, and
=.

accepted by the gracious God.”

That’s exactly what happened to that man when

he came to Jesus—a personal confrontation

20

that evoked his trust Something like that is
necessary for the recovery of the churches in
our time| As mainline Christianity continues to

lose members, the temptation is to tighten our

belts theologically,|to turn up the volume and,

like tourists, in a country other than their own

rss

trying to make themselves understood in a

different language by speaking | we

affirm our faith ever more aggressively and

loudly and exclusively\ In fact, we need, |

¢evesc
believe, to revise our direction 180 degrees.

=

We need to confess that we do not have all the
—_— =

==
answers that we trust God with our lives and
=——— ——— ee

our future and join the human search for truth—
a= a Sn al

which always involves doubt We ne need, |
a

ate

believe, t to welcome tl the doubter, the uncertain,

pA

the one who cannot quite get all the words of

Ti ae

the creed out.

Faith, | believe, is acting in spite of uncertainty;

oe

trusting God in spite of our doubts.

| love the way John Bunyon puts it:

ee,

a

“| am for going on, and venturing my
eternal state with Christ, whether | have

comfort here or nol lf God doth not come

o ee

in, thought |, | will leap off the ladder even

blindfold into Eternitie, sink or swim, come

=

heaven or helt Lord Jesus, if thou wilt
catch me, do\I not, | will venture for thy

name.”

22

“| believe; help my unbetiet hear in that

brave cry the voice of every one of us.

And | hear in the words of Jesus, Gan things can

be done for the one who believes, jan invitation

to bring to him whatever we have of faith and
—_—— ea

belief and theological correctness and

satisfactory answers to life’s most vexing

questions;\to come with our lives, with our love
| nid Soe

ear

for our dearest,\and our sometimes desperate

longing for their healing and wholeness and
SS

SSS

health] an invitation to come with your hopes
ae

and fears about you rselfyour life, your
relationships, your vocation, your aging, your

death; fo bring whatever you have into his

23

presence—your belief, and most importantly,

your doubts, your unbelief.

The promise is that God is trustworthy God is

faithful.| Whatever becomes of us, God can be
ear! aeeeininnenioemeed ,

counted on to love us, forgive us, accept us,

and welcome us home.

Wendell Berry, in one of his Sabbath poems,
ee

writes:

“The mind that comes to rest is tended
In ways that it cannot intend. |
Is borne, preserved, and comprehended

By what it cannot comprehend.”

24

(Sabbaths, p. 7-8)

“I believe; help my unbelief.”

“Just as | am, though tossed about,
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without

O Lamb of God, | come, | come.”

Amen.

25