Doubt - Rev. Jarrod Cochran

 

Do any of you remember the old “Rocky” movies?  Do you remember the one where he had to fight Mr. T?  Well, when I was a little kid, I was absolutely crazy about Mr. T.  I watched “The A-Team,” I had a Mr. T action figure, I had his album (yes, he had a rap album) – I even had the fake Mr. T necklaces and rings.  I can only imagine what the people at my childhood, fundamentalist church thought of the preacher’s son wearing flamboyant costume jewelry…I’m sure they still think my marriage is a cover-up.

Anyway, I was such a huge fan of Mr. T, I couldn’t wait to see this Rocky movie.  Somehow, despite what everyone else told me, I just knew my man – Mr. T – would beat Rocky in the final fight.  I was probably the only one who thought so.  I was like the guy who would bet against the Harlem Globe Trotters.

You can imagine my surprise when, in fact, Rocky beat Mr. T.  After the movie, I expressed to my dad how disappointed I was that Mr. T lost.  I remember my dad telling me, “Why did you doubt that Rocky would win?  He’s the star of the movie!”

The reason I bring up this story is because it reminds me a little bit of Peter attempting to meet Jesus on the water.  Peter hops out of the boat on top of the water, feels the strength of the wind on the water and became afraid.  Peter then began to sink!  Peter cries out, “Save me!”  Jesus grabs him and pulls him up, asking, “Little faith, why did you doubt?”

I remember reading this story as a kid and thinking, “That Peter’s an idiot.  You’ve got Jesus – who, as described to me by my Sunday school teachers, was like Superman, Merlin the Magician, and Fred Rogers all rolled up into one – standing right there.  How in the world could he doubt?”

Little did I know that as I grew older, I would find myself relating to Peter’s plight and slips of the tongue more and more.

We all doubt.  We want to believe and put all of our faith in Jesus’ vision of God’s kingdom, but we sometimes feel that it’s a little too good to be true.  So we settle.  Sometimes we settle for what we think is the “next best thing” and sometimes we settle for something much less than God’s dreams for creation.

This is why we buy into so much of the things we do.  We know that Jesus told us to turn the other cheek, and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword, and that he himself exemplified active peacemaking in his life and death.  We know these things, but yet we tell ourselves that wars and violence sometimes is unavoidable.  Sometimes we have to stand up for what is “right.”  Well, it has been my experience as I study past wars and recent wars that these things never reveal who is “right,” they only reveal whose side is more powerful.

I remember speaking at a church service about active peacemaking in today’s post-9/11 climate.  A gentleman came up to me after the service and said, “Peace…” pointing to his Navy lapel pin, “I believe in peace through superior firepower.”

I responded by telling him that I believe Jesus is calling us to achieve peace through superior love.

Jesus told us that whatever we do to the least, the last, the lost, and the left-out in this world, we do it to him.  Our society says it is compassionate, while it sweeps the poor and disenfranchised under its rug.

Our society makes up stories about the poor like, “They’re all poor and homeless because they want to be;” “They’re just lazy;” or “They should just get a job,” and repeats the lie so often that the general public believes it. 

I was on my way home from a meeting in Mid-Town this past week, when I saw some police officers attempting to arrest a homeless man for standing on a street corner with a sign that says, “Will Work For Food.”
I pulled over and talked to the cops and after a little conversation, I was able to take him into my “custody.”

As I talked with this man, I found out he had the same story I’ve heard a thousand times from our poor brothers and sisters:  “I had a job and I got laid off.  The bills kept piling up and eventually I had no where to live, no possessions but the clothes on my back.”  That’s the story that society doesn’t tell you.  So, I gave the guy some money, prayed with him, and set him up with a few people who might be able to get him a job and off the streets. 

I’m not telling you this story to show you how great I am; I’m telling you this story to emphasize that our society has told the poor, “We know you’re out there, we just don’t want to see you;” while Jesus and his followers have proclaimed, “We know you’re out there and we want to love you and help you.”

We want to believe in Jesus’ message of radical inclusion so badly, but we see the example of the traditional Church and Religion act in an exclusionary manner.  The Church vilifies family and loved ones because they’re gay.  The Church tells us what’s good for America is what’s good for God.  The Church teaches us to get what’s yours first, then worry about everyone else.

I remember right after September 11, 2001, churches had record attendance.  Just as quickly, those attendees left.  I don’t think we can blame this solely on the fickle whims of people.  These men and women came to us looking for answers, looking for something besides the ugliness of what the worst of the world has to offer.  Instead of finding that; instead of preaching the politics of the Prince of Peace to them, we preached the politics of the Pentagon.  Instead of lifting up our voices in a song about God’s love, grace, and justice, we beat the drums of war.

It is indeed so hard to believe in God’s dream that Jesus described as “God’s kingdom” as being something real when we’re brought up in a world that teaches the exact opposite.

And I’m not here to tell you today that you should never doubt.  I’m not here to tell you today that I don’t occasionally have doubts of my own.  I contend that if we didn’t doubt, we wouldn’t have a real faith. 

You see, the beautiful thing about Jesus’ message is that whether you have recycling bins in alley or bullet cases, whether you’re from the West Side or the East Side, whether you’re blue-collar or white-collar, there’s a place for you.  

Jesus proclaims a kingdom where there’s no male, female, race, sexual orientation, or ethnicity that will hinder us from loving one another and treating each other as equals.  Jesus spoke of a kingdom where the poor were blessed and cared for, where mercy is a beautiful quality, where justice is poured out from everyone of us, and where those who are peacemakers are children of God.  Jesus believed and died for a kingdom where they only things that truly mattered were that we love God with all of our essence and that we love others as we should love ourselves.  As my friend and fellow minister, Bart Campolo, puts it “Nothing else matters.”

This is the vision that we as followers of Jesus are to put our faith in.

I want to share in God’s dream for the world.  I dream of a day where a police officer uses his night stick to play baseball with inner-city youth.  I dream of a day when the United States’ Blackhawk helicopters are used to rescue people from a flood.  I dream of a day when Gangstas and Wasps can sit down together and see one another as brother and sister.  I dream of a day when the wealthiest among us no longer care about how to make more, but are concerned with how to give it to those who are without.  I dream of a day when our map books no longer have the imaginary boundaries that divide “us” from “them” and we learn to recognize each other as fellow children of God.  I don’t just dream of this day – I believe this day will one day come.  And I believe that it is up to me and others to help bring it about.  Jesus said that God’s kingdom was already among us – in our very presence.

Though I know it’s not completely possible for a human being, I no longer want to doubt.  I want to believe that God’s dream is possible! 

Look around you when you leave here today.  This world needs you.  For many, we are the only evidence for the existence of God.  When all others hear from us are words of anger, hatred, division, racism, prejudice, and violence; then we are not proving the existence of a loving God.  Only when we proclaim with our words and with our actions unconditional, sacrificial love do we prove to them the existence of the God we know through Jesus. 

Though we may have our doubts, know this:  The only God worth believing in – let alone following – is a very good God.  Does the Bible have to be inerrant for me to believe in a really good God?  No.  Do I have to have a one-hundred percent accurate depiction of Jesus to believe that he, his message, and his example are worthy of following?  No.  Do I have to know all the “right” answers and believe all the “right” things for my faith to be authentic?  No!

Our time, our energy, our work, and our lives are not wasted believing, preaching, teaching, and acting out the good news of Jesus.  The only god worth believing in is a really good God.  The Jesus we encounter in scripture and the difficult, but awesome path he calls us to follow if we wish to follow him, is a beautiful reflection of a really good God.

Therefore, that makes God a God worthy of placing our belief, our faith, our trust, our devotion – and even our doubts – in.