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Worshipping doubters



Believing in Jesus, but unsure exactly what this means - worshipping doubters are called to see God and humanity with very different eyes to the world. By Joe Haward



'And when they saw him they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came to them and said...'


This is a fascinating verse in Scripture that invites us to doubt.

What is interesting is that Jesus comes to worshippers/doubters/worshipping doubters and sends them all into a world of certainty with the Gospel.
 
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Worshipping doubters are sent by God to those who are certain and secure in all that they believe and to declare that they have witnessed something that they do not quite know how to explain or put into words. Oh, they will use words, at times with great confidence, yet those words do not quite portray everything that they have seen and heard.

Worshipping doubters declare to a world of certainty that all that they are certain of may need to be re-examined. The Resurrection calls us to question everything we know, invites us to doubt and thus to find faith.

Worshipping doubters smash the god idols of certainty that call us to mindlessly adhere to the way the world is. The certainty gods do not want you to think, perceive and see that you've been lied to.

These worshipping doubters have experienced something that has forever changed their lives, but quite how it has been changed and the way it will look in being changed is filled with uncertainty and doubt. They are looking at the Risen Jesus and they do not know how this is all going to turn out.

They will go into the world with a message of hope, redemption and reconciliation, their doubt not a hindrance to their calling but a means through which their calling takes shape.

As worshipping doubters we walk unsure of where this will all lead, yet that doubt enables us to have faith in God and trust Him and not our own strength, skills, knowledge or wisdom. As a worshipping doubter we find that we can only trust God because we simply do not have the answers.

This is not some kind of pluralistic 'everything is true' or 'everything is mystery' for the Love of God revealed in Christ is something that we can be sure of, live in and celebrate. Worshipping doubters do not leave their minds at the alter of ignorance, rather their doubt compels them to think, to pursue, to challenge and to love God with all that they are; doubt enables faith and to live in grace.

To be a worshipping doubter is to know that the Risen Jesus meets with you and you have no way of telling what He will do with your life.

To be a worshipping doubter is to meet with the Risen Jesus and know that He is beyond your clever ideas, ideology and understandings of God, yet close to you, present with you and known by you.

The Risen Jesus destroys all our concepts of God and humanity, right and wrong, fear and faith, morality and ethics, life and death; the Risen Jesus compels us to see that everything and everyone has changed in light of His Divine Humanity.

Worshipping doubters are called to see God, humanity and the world with very different eyes and hearts and to go and be heralds of a brave new world.
 

The Revd Joe Haward leads This Hope Baptist Church in Newton Abbot. He blogs at RevJoe

See also: Being a minister and doing stuff

Joe Haward, 28/05/2014
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