How the Light Gets In: Doubting

 

 

Advent 3 (preached at Second Presbyterian Church on Sun, Dec 11) 

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There's a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in

--"Anthem" by Leonard Cohen

 

Sermon excerpt: 

Doubts and questions and uncertainty in life and in faith are natural and normal. The Israelites did their fair share of it as they wandered in the wilderness, and goodness knows the disciples did their fair share of it too. And as long as we continue to look to God for answers, I don’t think there’s any harm in doubt because it means your faith and your belief is trying to grow. To have questions means you are not satisfied with remaining the same; that an answer that satisfied you 2 or 3 or 10 years ago may not fit any more because your understanding of what God did for you in Jesus Christ has deepened. Your faith is awake and moving, growing.

So maybe John the Baptizer is having a little crisis of faith, maybe the doubts were starting to creep in and overwhelm him, sliding between the bars of his prison cell. And he does the only thing any of us can do in that position: he goes straight to Jesus for the answer to his question.