A Rational Faith

Some two months ago the report of an enquiry into Weapons of Mass Destruction was published in America. This enquiry had been looking into the circumstances surrounding the Iraq war and one of its findings was that the principal evidence had come from one individual who had been known to exaggerate in the past. If this is true it raises the question as to how reliable this man was and why his handlers were so ready to believe him. Did no-one doubt his evidence, given previous experience? Or was it simply that he gave people the information they wanted to hear and so everything else got over-looked? In the end, if people are desperate enough, do they only hear what they want to hear and contrary views are either screened out or over-looked?

The same questions were raised in this country a year or two back. But it's not simply about Weapons of Mass Destruction. When the history of the 2008 'Credit Crunch' comes to be written I'm sure quite a lot will be said about warnings that were given, but never heeded. We read of them in our newspapers; the warnings about loaning money to people at five times their normal salary and the dangers of loaning money when there was a good chance it could never be re-paid. All the evidence suggests that while there was money to be made people became deaf to the voices that raised a more hesitant note.

But it is not only them and us. How often in our own experience have we ignored the warning signs because we wanted it to be our way? In hindsight its hard to see why we didn't hesitate. We are rational people and for the most part we behave rationally. But somehow we got carried away. We became so confident that everything would work out alright that we ignored the warnings of our own conscience. And then in hindsight we found ourselves having to admit that all the signs had been there, but we ignored them. We ignored them because we only wanted to hear what we wanted to hear.

Over the past ten days the Gospel story has included two men who suffer from an indifferent press, Judas and Thomas. Judas who felt betrayed because Jesus turned out not to be the man he wanted him to be; and Thomas who refused to believe the irrational claims of others without further evidence. Yet in fairness to Thomas he had good reason to doubt. Resurrection, insofar as anyone believed it at all, and of course the Pharisees did believe it, was still only at the level of theological theory. There was no evidence for it. It was certainly true that Jesus had spoken about being raised up on the third day, but such language was only really intelligible if resurrection had been a common experience. You and I read such passages with the benefit of hindsight. Without that Thomas would have heard our Lord as making impossible claims. Small wonder then that the disciples generally proved slow to understand. Jesus may have felt frustrated, but there was very good reason for that.

Equally there was very good reason why Thomas didn't believe the disciples when they claimed they had seen the Lord. He would have been well aware that when Jesus had been placed in the tomb he was well and truly dead. Moreover a substantial stone had been placed over the entrance and as an additional safeguard Pilate had ordered the soldiers to protect it. In a world of unknowns the Roman Governor didn't want the disciples removing the body and claiming resurrection.

Against this background Thomas was being invited to believe that Jesus had come to life and got out of the tomb, and that was a belief too far. His fellow compatriots must have imagined it. Either they saw a ghost or, because none of them had wanted to lose Jesus, their minds were playing tricks. They had seen what they wanted to see. Small wonder then that he had stated categorically that unless he actually touched the body and knew for definite that it was for real, he would not believe.

Thomas has been branded doubting Thomas for the firmness of his views. But actually his position was quite sound. Why should he believe when there was no evidence? His fellow disciples had not believed before they saw the Lord so why should he. It was only when the Lord came and stood in their midst and they had seen Him with their own eyes that they did believe. And even then it wasn't all of them, for Matthew records in his gospel, "The eleven disciples made their way to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to meet Him. When they saw Him they fell prostrate before Him, but some doubted".

So why has Thomas got this bad press? It isn't as though the others only had to see to believe, but Thomas needed to touch to be convinced. For in the end, as the Gospel makes clear, Thomas never did touch Jesus, he too only had to see to believe. No doubt the problem comes because of our Lord's saying, "Happy are those who never saw me and yet have found faith". But this was never intended to be a criticism of Thomas. St John was writing when many Christians had come to faith without the benefit of seeing the risen Lord and the apostle placed our Lord's saying at this point as an affirmation of them.

Yet the whole episode leaves us with that niggling feeling that to have doubts in the Christian life is somehow unworthy. Perhaps then we should suspend our critical faculties and simply believe despite all evidence to the contrary. This of course is what people like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchins believe we do already. They argue that we believe because we want to believe, instead of facing up to the truth that God is a delusion and we have simply been taken in.

But for us to go along with this and suspend judgement is to ignore the three pillars that are the foundation of Anglicanism, scripture, reason and tradition. Our faith must be rooted in scripture and reflect the age-long tradition of the Church. But it must also be rational and reasonable. We are not encouraged to believe simply because we want to, far from it. All the time we should be testing our faith against the reality of the world. And we are to do that, not because we are afraid of what people like Richard Dawkins might say if we didn't, but because a belief that cannot give answers to the questions that challenge us in every generation will always be limited. For if this is God's world then faith in Him must be faith in the one who is the saviour of all people and brings salvation for all the world.

The fear in doing this is that demanding evidence and asking questions will only serve to weaken the faith we already have, rather than strengthen it. Yet the evidence is to the contrary. For those who are engaged in Inter-faith dialogue and are challenged about their beliefs bear witness to the fact that they become more confident and articulate in what they believe as well as stronger in their own faith.

The same is true for those engaged in the work of evangelism. When doubts are expressed and we are forced to give answers our faith becomes stronger and deeper. As Tennyson once wrote, "there lives more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds". This should not surprise us, for how many people have come to faith as a result of experiences that would seem to challenge the very existence of God, be it personal suffering or the sheer emptiness of a self-indulgent life. Even that well-known hymn, "Through the night of doubt and sorrow, onwards goes the pilgrim band", reflects the reality that even for people of faith there are always moments of doubt and uncertainty to contend with.

Through the story of Thomas doubt has had a bad press in the Christian tradition. Yet faith and doubt go hand in hand. A few people may be given the gift of pure faith, but for most of us an honest wrestling with our doubts is very much at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. This is only to be expected because if our faith is to be believable it needs also to be rational. In the end faith is faith and as such is a step beyond reason. But at its core what we believe must be able to address the questions of life otherwise people will not come to faith.

"What is truth" asked Pilate? In the end what people want to hear is not the voice of certainty, but the witness of those who have wrestled with life and still believe. May we have the courage to be open and honest about our doubts and fears that day by day our faith may grow until we come to the fullness of the glory of God.

More sermons, modern and historical, available in Norwich Cathedral Library

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