Peter Gomes was a marvelous thinker and preacher. Gomes, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard Divinity School and Pusey Minister at Harvard's Memorial Church, brought his considerable intellect and wit to bear on generations of Harvard students and faculty.
Without fail, he challenged his congregation to consider carefully the relationship between mind and heart. In one of his better known sermons, he said to the educated elite populating the pews, "Many of you have learned to make sense out of religion," he said. "Instruction is what we are about, and we would be tutored in matters of religion as in a foreign language until that blissful day when we will know what the Virgin was not, exactly what happened on Easter Day, and what was the ultimate plan behind the plan of creation" (Sermons, p. 217).
The problem is that life doesn't always fit into neat, intellectual categories. Life is full of surprises --irrational happenings, wonderful and sometimes not-so-wonderful accidents, unexpected, unplanned-for love, ecstasy, beauty, sickness, death. Sometimes it doesn't fit together, and a religion that aims for the bliss of no doubts, no questions, no unresolved dilemmas is not going to be very honest, nor very adequate.
In our scripture passage this weekend (click here to read), a man encounters Jesus and decides to believe, to trust -- at least for a moment -- in God's healing power, though all evidence points to the contrary. In the words of William James, he engages in the "willing suspension of disbelief" and asks Jesus to heal his son. In the process, he engages in a fascinating exchange in which faith and doubt are held in balanced tension.
If you struggle with particular beliefs or doctrines, or with trying to believe a lot of stuff you know isn't true, this is a good Sunday to join us in worship. We'll claim God's promises in a few baptisms, hear great music, receive new members, and explore this fascinating story.
Come and bring a friend.
