Are Religious People Fooling Themselves?

Psalm 16; John 20:19-31

          Let me ask a raw, potentially upsetting question:  Are we fooling ourselves?  Are religious people in general fooling themselves?  If our faith is worth its salt, it must be able to answer this question.  We claim to believe in things we cannot see or verify empirically.  Our primary text includes stories about people walking on water.  A man being swallowed by a giant fish, living in its belly for three days, and surviving.  It has stories about people dying and coming back to life.  People being healed from debilitating illnesses.  We don’t see these things happening today, but we claim to believe them as part of our religious faith.

          Don’t think we’re the only ones with incredible stories.  The Quran claims Muhammed split the moon into two parts.  With the touch of his hand, he healed the sick and cured the blind.  He caused two trees to move at his command.  Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism—all the world’s religions have stories that challenge modern sensibilities.

          And here’s what’s happened.  Since the 1990s a large number of people in this country have left Christian faith and joined the ever growing ranks of U. S. adults who describe themselves as “atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.”  In 1972, 90% of people in this country claimed to be Christian.  In 2020, that number dropped to 64%.  If that trajectory continues, in 2070, only 35% of people in this country will claim to be Christian.

          A lot of issues are contributing to that decline.  The two leading causes today are the church’s alignment with a political party and the church’s treatment of people in the LGBTQ community.  I wonder how many of those who left became fed up and said, “I just don’t believe it anymore?”

          We have a story before us today of a man who said that: I just don’t believe it.  I’m nobody’s fool.  I’m going to have to have proof before I believe.

          We call him Doubting Thomas, which I believe is an unfortunate moniker to be saddled with.  Thomas did eventually believe, but he will be perpetually known as the doubter.

          Here’s what happened.  Thomas was not with the other disciples after the resurrection when Jesus appeared to them.  “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” Jesus said to them.  When the disciples later found Thomas, they told him the good news, “We have seen the Lord.”  With the certainty of a postmodern agnostic, Thomas let them know where he stood, “Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the marks of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

          Doubting Thomas would be no one’s fool. 

          A week later the disciples were gathered again.  This time Thomas was with them.  Jesus appeared.  He invited Thomas to put his finger in the nail prints and his hand in his side.  According to John, Thomas didn’t need to touch Jesus after all.  He declared, “My Lord and my God!”  And he believed.

          Thomas had to decide about the man from Nazareth, as we all must.  Will we join the ranks of those who claim to believe “nothing in particular,” or will we dig deeper to cultivate a believable, credible, sustaining, and world changing faith?  As you decide for yourself about this man from Nazareth, I challenge you to factor this into your decision.

          First, develop a critical understanding of the Bible.  Don’t hear the word “critical” as negative.  An art critic is not someone who hates art and wants to tear it down. No, an art critic loves art and wants to appreciate it at a serious level.  The same is true when we develop a critical understanding of the Bible.  We want to understand the culture out of which it arose.  We want to understand, as much as we can, the intention of the writer.  We want to understand how the first hearers would have understood it.  All of those factors must be taken into consideration when we develop a critical understanding of the Bible.

          So, you read a story about a man named Jonah.  He was an unlikely prophet.  He ran away from God.  To get his attention, the story goes, God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah.  Jonah lived in the darkness of the fish’s belly for three days and three nights.  Then he was vomited onto the shore.  Guess what?  It got his attention!  He lived in darkness for three days and then was resurrected.  It got his attention, and he became God’s faithful servant.

          The critical interpreter asks, “Is the story of Jonah intended to be literally true?  Or, does it have value and a powerful message if it is interpreted metaphorically, as a parable, not unlike the parables of Jesus in the New Testament?”

          Now, let me say this.  Some stories in the Bible are presented as miracles.  They are acts of God that accomplish a specific purpose.  But not all of them.  When we develop a critical understanding of the Bible, we do not try to force the Bible to be what it was never intended to be.  It is not a science book.  It is not a history book. It’s not a math book.  It is a book of faith, so develop a critical understanding of the Bible as you decide about the man from Nazareth.

          Here’s something else to factor into your decision.  We must not assume the material world is real, and everything else is not real.  That was part of Doubting Thomas’ issue.  He knew the material world.  He lived in it and understood it.  He knew what happened after a man was crucified.  The process of decomposition set in.  That’s the way the material world works.  With plants.  With animals.  With humans.  We’re all subject to it.  Thomas understood the material world.

          The material world is real.  Let’s admit that.  But let’s also be open to the realness, the reality of, the non-material world.  I’ve got a few little children in my life now.  Our granddaughter is five.  Our caregivers who help us with Hannah have little boys all under the age of two.  When I hold these children and look deep into their eyes, I feel something that in non-material.  And it is real.  We had our daughters and their families at our house last Sunday for an Easter lunch.  I told them that I can remember from when I was a child hearing the older folks say, “Oh, it’s wonderful to have everyone together around this table!”  Well, I’m the older person saying that now.  It is wonderful to have our loved ones gathered around a table for a meal.  That feeling is non-material, but it is real.

          When we hear a call to duty, that is real.  When we speak of honor, that is real.  When we experience ideas that change our life, that is real.  Not material but real.  Great religion operates in that real.  The material world exists, sure.  But, as you decide about the man from Nazareth, make room for the truth of the non-material world too.

          Here’s one more thing I would ask you to consider.  A lie, an untruth, cannot live forever.  Eventually truth prevails.  I can admit that some of religious faith is foolishness and can be discarded.  We’ve had our fair share of charlatans and hucksters.  We’ve had our sentimental and selfish beliefs.  We’ve been off track, hating instead of loving, warring instead of creating peace, building empires instead of building the kingdom of God.  Discount all of that.  Let it die.  We don’t need it.

          But what about the power of sacrificial love?  What about a vision of peace?  What about the concept of brotherhood?  What about our hope for a banquet table where everyone is equal and valued?  Those truths prevail!

          And what about the great personalities of faith?  Jesus of Nazareth.  Gandhi.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  What about the brilliant theologians, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was martyred 78 years ago last week?  What about Paul Tillich, Thomas Merton, and Frank Tupper, some of the most brilliant people to ever live?  And what about those servant souls, like Mother Teresa, Lottie Moon, Henri Nouwen, and so many others?

          Let’s admit that there is religious foolishness, and it can be dismissed.  Let it die.  But all around us, all through the ages, something else has been happening.  Truth has been rising.  And nothing will ever stop it because truth prevails!  Factor that into your decision too.

          It is cheap and superficial to lump great religion in with its caricatures.  We do not judge great architecture by a mechanic’s shack.  We do not judge great music by the sounds coming from our neighbor’s basement.  We do not judge great characters by the ones who have fallen into the gutter.  Let us not judge great religion by its frivolous, misguided caricatures.  Great religion has been the soul of the human family.  It has had its low periods, for sure.  We’re probably in one now.  We must accept and own that.  But those low periods do not tell the entire story.

          So, are religious people fooling themselves? That’s the raw, potentially upsetting question with which I started.  Here’s my honest answer.  Some religious people are fooling themselves.  Scammers of all kinds, religious and otherwise, are successful, and we must protect ourselves.  Thomas, Doubting Thomas, can be our model.  He had to decide, as we all must.  You can believe in “nothing in particular.”  Or you can build a great faith, a faith that is worth its salt.  I challenge you to dig deeply and cultivate a believable, credible, sustaining, and world changing faith.

Closing Prayer 

          Lord, save us from the prevailing winds that blow across the religious landscape today.  Save us from the imitations.  Help us to have the courage to dig deeply and build a great faith.  Amen.