Pastor Chris Seay offered an invitation into Holy Week, continuing to draw from the unique insight of theologian C.S. (Jack) Lewis as we considered the character of Thomas the Apostle and how we handle doubt. Even as we stand shouting "Hosanna!" on this Palm Sunday, will we continue to investigate, wrestling with hard questions, struggling well with a story that defies easy comprehension?
Text
Matthew 21:1-9
John 11:16
John 14:4-6
John 20:24-31
I think the trouble with me is lack of faith… often when I pray I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existent address.
-C.S. Lewis
Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith… Sometimes I think it is my mission to bring faith to the faithless, and doubt to the faithful.
-Paul Tillich
Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.
-Frederick Buechner
I do not believe there ever existed a Christian yet, who did not now and then doubt his interest in Jesus. I think, when a man says, “I never doubt,” it is quite time for us to doubt him.
-Charles Spurgeon
A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.
-C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
-C.S. Lewis
You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929. I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words “compelle intrare,” compel them to come in, have been so abused be wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.
-C.S. Lewis
Reflection
Think of an experience in your past, or perhaps even currently, in which you found/find yourself grappling with doubt. How did God make his presence known? Or if you're currently wrestling, how are you handling it? How can you better integrate rhythms of study, prayer, silence, and community into your season of questioning?
Worship Set
I'll Fly Away
Solid Rock
Let Our Faith Be Not Alone
God's Highway
Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me
Come To Me