Easter Sermon '06

04/13/2006 10:03 AM – 11:02 AM

What is the sermon that you preach to yourself today? What hope do you give yourself in the face of a silent heaven and possible hell? Acknowledge it. You are afraid. But what good does fear do you? You cannot know. Perhaps that faith that you believe in is true. Perhaps it is false. You cannot know. So where is your hope? So where is your peace?

And there it is, in this stupid, stupid belief – Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace unto you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Reach your fingers here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” – blessed? How am I blessed? I can’t stop believing in a God that doesn’t acknowledge my belief – And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples – but there are no signs for me.

Where are your signs, oh Christian? Where are your wonders? Where your miracles, your healings? Where is your Lazarus that you can point to him and say, “Look! My God has raised him from the dead! There is my proof! There is the reason for my faith!” There is no Lazarus for you. There is no proof. There is only an equal measure of hope and fear. You can’t even prove otherwise. You can’t even say, “This religion is useless! I hereby renounce my faith!” You’re too afraid of hell and too in love with heaven. Face up to it. Face up to the utter simplistic stupidity of your faith. Face up to the anguish that it puts you through. And face up to the fact that, despite the better arguments to the contrary, you still cannot stop believing. And what then do you do? You sit, oh worrying Spike. You sit and you pray. Save me, oh God. Save me from myself. Lord, I believe. Help now my unbelief. And having prayed, sit and forget your fear, sit and remember Now. Without fear. Without hope. Fall. Fall down hard on the Rock of existence, shatter into a thousand pieces, and let the Wind carry you away. Your faith is absurd. But so is your existence. Let go. Let go. Breathe, pluck the strawberry from the vine, put it in your mouth, and crush it between your teeth. Taste how sweet it is. That is all there is for you. That is your one commandment, child. Taste, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, taste and see - my Lord and my God - He is good.