Stake Your Reputation

“Stake Your Reputation”
John 20:19-31
Todd Buegler
April 10-11, 2010
Lord of Life

Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, and from Jesus, the Son of God who is the gift of grace! Amen.

Reputations are important. We all know that. And everyone wants to have a good reputation. Most want to be known as “nice”, “kind” or generous. Sometimes there are people who want to be known as “tough” or “rugged.” People go to great lengths to protect their reputation. Entire industries have popped up, whose sole purpose is to create and protect the reputations of their clients, corporate or individual. Reputations are important...and they are fragile. Sometimes reputations are deserved…sometimes they are not.

Take the story of Bill Buckner. Bill Buckner played a 22 year career with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had over 2,700 hits and a career batting average of .289. He won a National League batting title. Yet he will always be remembered for one terrible moment in the 1986 World Series.

At that time Buckner was playing for the Boston Red Sox, the Sox took a 3-2 game lead against the New York Mets. The sixth game went into extra innings, where the Sox scored two runs in the top of the tenth. Twice in the bottom of the tenth the Sox were one strike away from winning the series. On a 3-2 pitch, Mookie Wilson hit an easy little grounder up the first base line towards Bill Buckner. All Buckner would have to do is to scoop up the ball, step on first, and the inning, the game and the World Series would be over. But Buckner didn't get his glove low enough. The ball rolled through his legs, and the Met runner on second scored. So the Mets tied the series 3-3, and went on to win in the seventh game.

From that fateful moment on, the name "Bill Buckner" has been forever tied to the word "Error." To this day, people still talk about "pulling a Buckner." It's synonymous with making a really bad, obvious mistake. Is this reputation deserved? In light of everything else that Buckner accomplished in his career, probably not. But there it is. That’s his reputation…defined by one brief moment in one game.

And so thinking about reputations, we turn to Doubting Thomas, a man with a reputation. A "doubting Thomas" is somebody who lags behind in matters of faith. A "doubting Thomas" needs more proof. A "doubting Thomas" has a hard time trusting. This is the reputation. Is it real? Is it deserved? Well, I’m not so sure.

We don’t actually know much about Thomas. We do know this: When Jesus decided to return to Jerusalem, the disciples were sure it would be certain death for all of them. They didn’t want to do it. But it was Thomas who said “Then let us go so that we may die with him.” It was a courageous statement…yet we don’t remember him for that. We also forget that Thomas makes one of the most profound confessions of faith found in scripture. After Jesus appears to him, Thomas looks Jesus in the eye and exclaims “My Lord and my God.” My Lord and my God. No where else in scripture are any of the disciples so clear and direct in identifying who Jesus is.

I think Thomas got a bad rap. I mean, how'd you like it if your name went down in history attached to "doubting"? And I’m not completely sure that the title of “Doubting” is even that accurate. There is a difference between having “doubt” and having “questions.” Did Thomas doubt? Or was Thomas just being honest about his questions?

It had been 3 long days from the crucifixion to the resurrection. All of the disciples were in despair. In the back of their mind they had to be wondering “Was it all a hoax? Had the previous 3 years been just a waste?" And then Jesus appears to the disciples. But Thomas wasn’t there. He didn’t see Jesus appear. He didn’t hear Jesus’ voice. Thomas was still wondering if it was all real.

When Jesus did appear again, Thomas was honest about his questions. And while that honesty has bought him something of a negative reputation, Jesus didn’t’ criticize him for it. Jesus didn’t blame Thomas for asking to see his hands, and he never condemned him for his questions. I think that Jesus understood that once Thomas worked through his questions, he would be one of his strongest disciples.

You see, faith is not the absence of doubt. Faith is living with questions…living with doubt, and overcoming it. I think we can learn from Thomas’ example: Having questions…having doubts is not necessarily a bad thing. I have had my questions and doubts.
• I was in Biloxi, Mississippi 10 days after Hurricane Katrina hit. I saw the destruction. And I asked God: “Really? How could you let this happen?”
• Every year I have gone to Westhaven Children’s Home in Jamaica and have worked with the orphaned children. And while they get the best care possible there, it’s just not enough. And I have asked God “How can this be?”
• I have stood by the bedside as a family watched the life fade from the body of a child. “Really God? How can this be in your plan?” I have questions.

We all have questions. To deny this would not be honest. And the lesson I take away from the story of Thomas’ interaction with Jesus is that questions are ok. Questions are good. Asking questions and wondering is how we grow in our faith.

I knew a man in California who was a pastor of a pretty non-traditional church. Most of the people who attended did not grow up in the church, and weren’t bound by traditions or expectations. So one day when he was preaching, right in the middle of the sermon, a young woman raised her hand. He wasn’t quite sure what to do, so he pretended he didn’t see it. But then she started waving her hand around and he couldn’t ignore it any longer. So he paused his sermon. “Yes, Marcia?” “Pastor Mike, you kind of lost me here. I’m not really sure what you’re talking about.” Mike didn’t really know what to do with this interruption…he quickly thought about laughing it off…or of side-stepping it and getting back to the sermon. Then he realized that she was right. “I was talking in circles…I really wasn’t making any sense”, he thought. He had lost her. And then he noticed others around her were nodding. So he sat down on the step and explained what he meant. And she asked some follow up questions…and then others did too. And Pastor Mike realized “If this woman hadn’t questioned…If she had just walked out the door, my message would have completely missed her.” Now, it’s common practice there for people to interrupt…to ask questions…to wonder. It’s not a bad practice. Perhaps we should think about starting it here. (I’ll tell you what…we’ll start next week…when Pastor Peter is preaching.)

5th Graders, today is a really important day for you. Today is the day that you will receive the gift and the sacrament of Holy Communion for the first time. In just a few minutes you will come forward and will participate in God’s gift of grace for you. A question I get asked a lot is “Why do we wait until 5th grade to get to take communion?” It’s a great question. Partially, we wait until 5th grade because it’s when you get to that age that you develop an “understanding” of communion. But I have to be honest with you, I am 44 years old, I am a pastor, and I don’t fully understand the mystery that surrounds communion. If you had to fully understand it before you could receive it…none of us would qualify.

God gives this gift to us not because we understand it, but because we need it. We need this grace. We need this gift of love. We need this forgiveness. And a big part of the reason that we choose to wait until 5th grade before you receive it is because we think 5th graders are ready to ask and to wrestle with the big, hard questions, and to wonder.

We want you to continue to ask “what is this all about? How does this work? How can eating a little wafer of unleavened bread and receiving a little bit of wine equate to forgiveness for all of our sins?”

The healthiest faiths are those where people wrestle with the questions. And asking questions is good. It is honest. 5th graders: ask your questions. Talk about it with your parents at the dinner table. Wonder about why we do what we do. Ask God the difficult, challenging questions of life. It’s ok. God can handle it. Read the scriptures to search for the answers. Listen for God’s voice when you talk to your friends, your parents, or your grandparents. Talk to me, or any of the pastors. Your asking questions will help all of us to grow in our own faith. Don’t be afraid of honest questions and healthy wonder. Thomas wasn’t, and that was ok with Jesus. You and I need to be more like Thomas, not by doubting more, but by being more honest with God and with each other.

Last week I was back in Jamaica at Westhaven with one of our mission teams. One of the tasks we were given was the delivery of food packed at Feed My Starving Children. We unloaded and delivered an entire semi-trailer load…over 270,000 meals to orphanages all over the island. And we fed this food to the children at Westhaven. I watched as my wife, Lori, who had never been there before, sat and spoon fed the meal to Calvin, a young man whose body was bent and twisted and he couldn’t feed himself. It was a slow process. But as she fed him, she spoke to him…she told him stories...she held his hand. And there was a light in his eye and a smile. And I watched Lori, and saw the same light in her eye. I could see from both of their faces that they both knew that this food…this gift…this was all about love.

I’ll be honest…I don’t completely understand it…I don’t understand how God works in those moments. I have questions. I wonder. But I don’t doubt. God was present there. It was almost a sacramental moment. Jesus was in the midst of that relationship. Jesus’ love was in that food. I don’t doubt it.

In just a few moments, we will all come forward to receive this gift; the bread and the wine; and I’ll be honest. I don’t completely understand it. I have questions. I wonder. But I don’t doubt. I don’t doubt that God is present here. This is the sacramental moment. God’s real presence is in the bread…God’s real presence is in this wine.

Reputations are important. We know that. What can we understand about Jesus’ reputation from the gift of the sacraments? Here's what we know: Jesus longs to be in relationship with each of you. Jesus’ love and presence is in this bread and this wine. For each of you, Jesus went to the cross. His reputation of love and grace, it is well-deserved.

The question that we have to all ask our selves is “what is my reputation?” “What do I stand for?” Am I a follower of Jesus? Do I try to live as Jesus lived? Do I receive, and then share these gifts that God first gives us?

5th graders (and everyone else): Ask…wonder, but do not doubt. The Jesus who opened his nail-scarred hands to Thomas to answer his questions, opens those same hands to you, and gives you this great gift: the bread and the wine...the body and the blood. He does this because His love is a gift freely given; and his love for each one of you is without question.

You can stake your reputation on it.
Amen.