Black Holes and Anchor Lines

April 30, 2000

John 20:19-31

One afternoon about twenty years ago I was fishing along the edge of nantasket Roads, the shipping channel that goes just past the Boston Light. It was well into the fall and past the summer heat. I had a VIP guest in my little fifteen-foot boat. I really wanted to catch some flounder. (My VIP was Sam Hunt, the biggest linebacker in the NFL, and a starting player for the New England Patriots.)

I was all set for a couple of hours of good bottom fishing as I swung my boat around to face the incoming tide and threw out my anchor. It was fifty to sixty feet deep and the tide was beginning to run, and I let the anchor line run out through my hands. As a matter of fact it ran so fast that I came to the end sooner than I thought and I watched with a sick feeling as the end went overboard.

I grabbed for it, and then quickly started the engine and tried to swing back and get a boat hook on it but it was out of reach and the line was slowly sinking out of sight. We were drifting with no way to hold steady.

How we finally got another anchor and had a great day of fishing is another story. [Should I tell you?] But I never will forget the sinking feeling when my anchor was lost. It was a mini-picture of what it is like when things we really count on aren't there any more.

WHEN THINGS WE REALLY COUNT ON AREN'T THERE ANY MORE!

THOMAS LOST AN ANCHOR WHEN JESUS DIED

When Jesus died something in Thomas did, too. Jesus simply had not performed according to Thomas's idea of what Messiah was supposed to do. Messiah was supposed to end suffering and bring peace and probably beat up on the Romans and bad guys and make His friends the new government. Thomas found out he didn't know Jesus as well as he thought he did.

Thomas LOVED Jesus, Don't make any mistake about that. Before the Passover, when Jesus was on his way to Bethany he was warned people were waiting there to kill Him. Thomas was one who said, "Well, let's go and die with Him!" But when the actual death came it shattered Thomas. Thomas had seen Jesus' power. Calmed the sea. Healed the sick. Raised the dead. But then Thomas had seen Jesus crucified in weakness and now Jesus was DEAD!

Thomas really wanted to believe that Jesus was alive. The rest of the disciples said they had seen him/. Two men on the road to Emmaus claimed he had talked with them and broken bread at their house. They were so very sure. But Thomas was not. "I have to see for myself! I have to know!"

Did YOU ever get the idea that others had a better, tighter faith than you? Did you ever wonder how people could be so sure they knew God? Did you ever wonder if anyone could really KNOW Jesus?

CAN ANYONE REALLY KNOW GOD?

CHRISTIANS DON'T ALWAYS TALK ABOUT THEIR DOUBTS

We like to talk about our victories. We like to have people think we're really together, spiritually. But people do fight battles with darkness. There are some questions we don't know the answers to.

Maybe sometimes we get to thinking "I'm probably the only one who fights battles lie this!" Or, "If other people knew the thoughts that come to my mind they wouldn't have any faith in me." But the reality is that every Christian has to fight the good fight of faith.

Am I saying that we cannot know we are saved? Absolutely NOT! Our spiritual model John Wesley specialized in preaching about the assurance of salvation. We can be saved and we can KNOW we are saved. But there will always be questions we can not answer.

THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO NEVER FIGHT BATTLES WITH DOUBT ARE PEOPLE WHO NEVER ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS THAT FAITH ENCOUNTERS IN A REAL WORLD. THERE IS A NAME FOR 'OSTRICH PEOPLE' WHO LIVE WITH THEIR HEADS IN THE SAND. IT IS 'OBSCURANTIST.' ONLY THE OBSCURANTIST NEVER FIGHT BATTLES OF FAITH, AND THEY GIVE UP THE INNER CORE OF THEIR INTEGRITY. THEY FIGHT WITH ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO DARES TO DISAGREE WITH THEM ON ANY MINOR POINT. THEY BECOME TRUE FANATICS.

Fanaticism is only insecurity turned inside out. But genuine faith is forged on the anvil of honest doubt. It says "I wish I could believe, but here is a reality I can't understand. Please, God, I want to know!"

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HONEST DOUBT AND UNBELIEF

Doubt and unbelief may superficially look alike. Maybe even sometimes they are hard to tell apart, Unbelief comes from a heart that is centered in itself and says "Show me and I'll think about it and maybe I will and maybe I won't!" Doubt, on the other hand, seeks to find God. It says, "Show me Yourself, and i will believe!"

I have based my entire life and my life's calling on the trust that God answers that cry. Like Thomas who cried "Show me!" I believe that God answers the seeker. A life verse is Hebrews 11:6, which says that God honors a seeking faith.

What do we do when we are seeking a Jesus that seems out of reach?

What do we do when we face the dark moments when it almost seems our God has failed us? Black holes of agony when we send our desperate prayers winging their way toward heaven, and NOTHING seems to be happening?

THE ANSWER OF FAITH IS JESUS, A PERSON, NOT AN EXPLANATION

We think we need the answers to the questions of life. And we need to keep facing them, and wrestling with them. But answers are not what makes faith. Thomas thought he needed one kind of proof. When Jesus CAME, that was all Thomas needed then.

THAT PERSON IS STILL VERY MUCH AVAILABLE

Text: These words were written so that YOU might believe, and that believing you might have LIFE through Jesus' name!

His name is Joel. He is a leader in his field of science, radiology; a practicing physician, but more, a professor at a university, and a Sunday School teacher. But once Joel was far, far away from where he ought to be with God. He and I had a confrontation about something he was doing I believed was wrong. I recall desperate prayer and tears, and I had little reason to believe there was hope. After that confrontation there were years of what seemed to be little spiritual progress. Imagine my joy when a few years ago I had a phone call: "My wife and I have found the Lord!"

I lost the anchor line out of that little fifteen foot boat because I failed to take hold of the end of the anchor line. But our eternal life doesn't depend on how well WE hang on, but rather it depends on our being able to say to Jesus MY LORD AND MY GOD!

God does not reveal himself to unbelief. But God ALWAYS answers honest, seeking, willing-to-follow-Him doubt, the doubt that wants to become faith. THE RESURRECTION IS AN INVITATION TO CHOOSE LIFE!

INVITATION TO COMMUNION

Jesus is calling every one of us this morning, calling us to follow Him and put him at the center of our lives. He is asking us to put away selfishness and sin, and asking us if He can give us LIFE, and FORGIVE OUR SINS, and ADOPT US into his Family.

Holy Communion

As we come to Holy Communion time, let this be a way we can respond to the call of Jesus to "Come, follow Me!"

Affirm your faith with me:

The Apostles' Creed on Page 7 UMH

Invitation

Prayer of Confession on Page 8 UMH

Let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God!

The Lord's Prayer

Communion

Benediction