“Trust but Verify”


Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – April 28, 2019

Centenary United Methodist Church

Psalm 139:1-12; John 20:19-29

     

    Our lesson for today contains the story of doubting-Thomas.  He found himself doubting when his dearest friends told him that Jesus had appeared to them.  This morning we are going to explore this quality of doubting as being a response that actually serves us.   

    One of the favorite sayings of a former President of the United States was "Trust but verify." This is excellent advice when we are thinking about international affairs.  It is also wise to develop such caution because the world has a good number of charlatans that are looking for ways of swindling people in an attempt to get their hands on their financial assets.

    A young woman named Elizabeth Holmes started a Silicon Valley biotech company named Theranos that soared to a value of nine billion dollars.  The company claimed that their technology enables them to present clients with a wide spectrum analysis of their blood from just a few drops from a finger.  In normal blood testing practices, a technician from a company like Lab Corp may take three or four vials of blood to achieve the same results.

    Elizabeth is a physically attractive young woman who is charismatic, has a convincing passion for her company, and is highly energized.  No one doubted her genius or her reports.  The problem was that Theranos' house of cards collapsed when it was discovered by doubting Thomas-type researchers that they could not duplicate the results with the company's testing.   All parties gathered in court last week to determine the date for the trial.  If she and others are found guilty of fraud, they may face up to 20 years in prison and each could be fined 2.25 million dollars.

    Some of us have experienced con-artists who prey on seniors.  I have a collection of letters in my files that were received by seniors in my former churches.  Some of them were from Evangelists that were soliciting money from the public.  One letter had a statement, "God has specifically given me your name as one whom I can trust and count on to help me spread God's Word to others."

     On another occasion, I found a senior gentleman who had nine copies of a book from a well-known pastor in the United States. I knew that the books came as a result of his making a string of donations to this pastor's ministry, a conclusion that was later confirmed by a family member whom I had alerted. 

    No one will ever convince me that the pastor's marketing-team did not know that they were sending books to a senior whose mind was having difficulty with recalling past donations.

    It is extremely disappointing when a pastor's hunger for new sources of revenue caused his team to market "Christ First" pins with a snob-appeal.  For a certain size donation, one could receive a pin made out of gold.  For lesser donations, a donor could receive silver or bronze pins.

    Thomas was acting like most of us would if we received the news that Jesus visited a collection of our friends in a form that could walk through locked doors.  Yet, when further evidence was witnessed by Thomas, he became absolutely convinced that Jesus was alive.

    As mentioned in last week's message, a number of people today have to wait until their death to discover that what died was their vehicle in which they were living. Most people do not understand that they are not their bodies. 

    Our bodies are the only aspect of ourselves that is similar to the cocoons in which others are living.  Inside of these vehicles, however, resides a spirit that is totally different than any other.  People continue to go on doubting this understanding because there is no visible evidence to support such a claim.  Death of the vehicle always provides the evidence that life continues.

    What is more important to us than this understanding is what we do with the conclusion we reach. Once Thomas had his doubting cured by seeing Jesus alive for himself, Jesus said, "Do you believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who believe even though they have not seen me." (John 20:29)

    All of the disciples initially doubted.  Last week our Scripture discussed how women had gone to the tomb where Jesus was buried.  Once there, they encountered two spirit-beings who told them that Jesus was still alive. When they reported this news to the disciples, every one of them thought the women had taken leave of their senses. (Luke 24:11)

    Today, we have a good number of testimonies available from very credible sources that death comes only to the vehicle.  Have any of these reports changed our thinking and feelings about our survival when our bodies stop functioning?  These stories are from people who have gone through the process of leaving their bodies.  Later they were resuscitated, and they told remarkable stories of their experiences.

    Currently, there is a movie about a boy who fell through an ice-covered surface and was pronounced dead.  However, his heart suddenly began beating and he has completely recovered.   The Apostle Paul wrote about a man who experienced one of these episodes, but several times even he doubted the validity of what the man reported. (2 Corinthians 12:2f)

    Some people live in denial for the rest of their lives by deciding that such testimonials are a product of people's vivid imaginations or that their brains have a capacity to create delusional thinking to protect them during the process of dying.  What is the result of making such a decision? 

     When the material world is all that people understand, they put their trust and hope in what cannot deliver peace, fulfillment, and a spirit of well-being.  Such qualities can only come from our choices, not from the movie theater where all the drama takes place.

    People may become cynical, skeptical, and mistrusting when every social institution disappoints them. They do not trust the decisions of politicians, the rising prices of everything, the presence of people who are poor and disadvantaged, and the deadly natural disasters that destroy people during tornadoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes.  Such experiences can evoke the conclusion,

    "If there is a loving God, where is this God during these tragic moments?" 

    The world has always been this way since the beginning of recorded history. We must understand this! Nothing is different today from all prior history but the cast of characters and their circumstances.

     Divine intervention during our unique circumstances is what people want.  Asking God for help during a personal crisis is often the substance of our prayers. Our planet holds over seven billion people, each with their own personal needs and desires. Does it ever dawn on us that such Divine intervention would be akin to parents who become overly involved with a student's Science Fair project or doing their children's homework for them?  God did not give us an opportunity to incarnate in this world for the experience and then decide to intervene each time our fears reach out to God to throw us a life-line.

     Our Creator never needs to become involved because God knows that each of us is secure and safe one hundred percent of the time while we are temporarily cocooned in our solid forms.  Contrary to what the Church has taught, our Creator would be insane to allow our eternal destiny to remain in our hands.  Most of us are blind as a bat concerning the nature of a created process that gives us an opportunity to respond to everything that evokes our human emotions. 

    What we can do is learn how to adjust to all our circumstances with our developing confidence, our abilities, our creativity, and our powerful imaginations. Our major task in life is to interpret our experiences in such a way that we mature in spirit. 

     Both believers and non-believers create their own dramas by faith, sheer logic, or fear.  We can create solutions or engage in self-pity to life's complications.  We can learn how to hold on to our peace or surrender it to fearful thoughts fueled by frightening circumstances.  

    Those who have wealth from their understanding of spiritual world have the knowledge that there are two worlds, spiritual and material.  This understanding has separated them from those who have knowledge only of the material world that never stops its assault on human values. (Matthew 13:12) Only the spiritual world offers guidance for people.

    Google has a commercial that features a man sitting at one end of a park bench and a woman sitting on the other end.  She tearfully tries to speak to him in German. The man responds, "I do not understand you."  Then Google ends the commercial with a Beetle's song, "Help! I need somebody," as the Google logo appears.  The ad sends a clear message that Google comes to the rescue by providing the needs of people for guidance and information.

    That episode literally happened to me.  I was visiting someone in northern Virginia.  When I got off the Metro train, I found a woman in an emotional meltdown.  The two of us were alone on the platform. She knew little or no English and was terrified.  Standing in front of a map of the Metro system, I verbally announced the various destinations.  When she heard Metro Center, she exclaimed "Da! Da! Da! Metro Center!"

    She had gone three stops beyond her desired destination. She had to trust me because we had to go up the stairs, cross over the train tracks and come down the other side so she could board the next train going in the opposite direction. I waited with her until the train came.  When it arrived, she turned to me and said with smiles of gratitude, "Blagodaryu vas!  Blagpdaryu vas!" which is Russian for "Thank you!  Thank you!"

     We can get lost emotionally when we interpret our experiences from fear and uncertainty that are generated by our earthly experiences. However, when we learn that everything happens as part of a process to help us grow skills of spirit, we can realize that we still have a choice.  We can choose between attitudes that serve us and those that do not.  Fear has never led anyone correctly.

     Jesus came to teach attitudes rooted in love and that is the path less-traveled. This path is the only one that works to produce stability.  Such a path has little to do with religious beliefs. It has to do with a process that affects all humanity.  The process does not care about anyone's belief about it.

    A storyline that very few people realize, including The Church, is that we have an infinite amount of time to figure out the meaning and purpose of our lives.  We must trust in God's process of teaching.  The quality of our lives will verify that such trust works because of the results that our lives generate.

     

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

Loving God, we come this morning hoping to discover creative ways of changing our attitudes.  Guide us so we do not forget our calling to be a guide for others.  Jesus patiently taught his listeners the art of letting go of their judgments, yet we find blaming others a far more satisfying response.  There are moments when we give greater care to our outer appearance than we do to the quality of our thoughts.  Enable us to guide others to communicate with more compassion, understanding, and patience by making such visible changes within ourselves.  Lead us to the awareness that greater stability would come to our world if we took increased responsibility to build more wholesome and peaceful communities.  Amen.

      

PASTORAL PRAYER

Merciful God, we are hungry to discover more creative ways to tap into the unseen world that governs the quality of our lives.  As we enter our worship experience, we open ourselves to ways of moving away from the pace our routines have set for us.  Many times, we are encouraged by being here to learn how to tune into a new horizon toward which to walk, a refreshing attitude we want to develop, or a more creative way to respond to old irritations.  We often leave Centenary knowing more clearly who we want to become.

Yet when we re-enter the world, frequently we encounter the attitudes and insensitivity of others.  Our minds can easily forget all that we have learned.   Guide us to understand that we will never have the skills of a seasoned sea captain until we have been tested by every conceivable weather pattern. 

Help us, Lord, to learn that love is a contact sport, not just an attitude.  When your light shines through us, darkness flees.  When your mercy shines through us, we respond with attitudes of patience and perseverance, not thoughts of contempt.  When your compassion shines through us, we understand the division between people.   Some of us desire to live in community while others have yet to make that discovery.  Help us to live so that our lives become a signpost that points the way for others. We pray these thoughts through the loving spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . .