[AI translation] In this festive service today, we welcome once again a small group of young people into the large family community of the church. Here we have among us the baptised sons and daughters who were baptised 13 or 14 years ago with the promise of their parents to raise and educate them so that they too might witness to their faith. That is why they will stand before God and the church and declare that they believe and profess the gospel of Christ, that they promise and swear allegiance to Christ and His Church, and that they are making the commitment their parents made to them at baptism. Well, it is to this very profession of faith and vow that I would now like to give them, and all of us, on the basis of the story that has been read, the solemn warning and encouragement of God's Word.First of all, this story is a warning about how important it is for a person who wants to follow Christ to belong to the community of other believers and to take part in the occasions of fellowship with them. It is so important because it is there, in the community of the church, that one can experience the miracle of Jesus' presence again and again. Here, too, we have the story of a small group of disciples sitting together in a room on Easter Eve, and while they were talking about Jesus - one and another of them told us about their experiences of Jesus, just as they did today in a Bible study - suddenly, in some inexplicable way, Jesus himself appeared among them, standing there in his living reality, in the flesh, before them! They experienced the fulfilment of the promise Jesus had made to them a long time ago, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there will I be in their midst". So they were together, in the name of Jesus, speaking of Jesus, and behold, the one they were talking about appeared among them.
That is still the real significance of worship today, of every Bible study, of every gathering of people together and talking about Jesus, that Jesus himself is present! So here too, now too, among us, Jesus is just as surely and as really present as he was then, in that little circle of disciples. Only we cannot see him with our physical eyes, but we can experience the power of his Spirit just as much. I don't want to, I can't explain how this is possible - the disciples didn't know how Jesus appeared among them even through the closed door - but I absolutely believe and know! I am convinced that what we sing: "God is here among us!" is a much more real truth than we think or imagine! So the very point of any gathering is that there is Someone besides us who see each other, who we do not see: Jesus! I know that is a very bold statement, especially when we think that we are such wretched people, so weak in our faith, so unworthy and unfit to be graced by the presence of Jesus... But that little army of disciples was no better than we are. And yet neither the closed door, nor fear, nor little faith, nor any other weakness of the disciples prevented Jesus from appearing among them. That is the value and gift of our gatherings! In fact, I would go so far as to say: we come together, two or three or hundreds of us, in his name, to experience his presence! For those who do not come for that: why do they come? Just to practise an old custom, or to bathe in a little religious atmosphere, or to meet a friend, or to listen to and judge a human oratorical performance? So it's not worth it! Always come here, and to other meetings of the congregation, with the desire to experience the presence of Jesus, his empowering, comforting, uplifting nearness, and thus to prepare yourself to face the further struggles of life! May this biblical scene make us aware that yes: Jesus is here among us!
The rest of the story then shows even more clearly how necessary it is for a person who wants to follow Christ to attend a church meeting. Behold, we read, "But Thomas, one of the members of that little church, was not with them when Jesus came!" So in that gathering where the disciples had the great, happy experience of meeting Jesus, Thomas was absent. Perhaps he had something else more urgent to do, or was not in the mood, or was tired, or was out of the church fellowship, and so missed out on a happy experience! And while the others had already been strengthened in their faith in the living Jesus, Thomas was still struggling with doubts, torn, unable to come to a conclusion, slowly losing what faith he had left. Oh, how often I have seen that a man who loses his relationship with the church community, with the other disciples of Jesus, sooner or later loses his relationship with Jesus himself. There is a profound truth in the divine thought that we read right at the beginning of the Bible, "It is not good for a man to be alone." It is not good spiritually, it is not good for survival in the life of faith! Whoever is left alone spiritually, whoever has no praying companions, whoever does not keep in touch with his spiritual brothers and sisters: his faith becomes more and more uncertain, weaker and slowly fades away, like the flame of a candle burning alone in the wind... It is not wrong to have doubts of faith, as Thomas did, but it is wrong to be left alone with these doubts and to want to face them alone! That is why we invite you here to church and to other occasions in the church, again and again, because it is through each other's faith that we are built up and strengthened, however weak our faith may be individually. We need each other, we need occasions for our brotherly hearts to meet, where we listen to the Word together, where we say the prayers together, where we sing the psalms together. We also need intimate, intimate gatherings where each of us can open our souls honestly, share our problems, as Thomas did here in front of the disciples when he said frankly that if he could not see the wounds on Jesus' hands, he could not believe that he had risen! Yes, one must break out of spiritual loneliness and spend time with those who have already met the risen Jesus, and then even the doubter will be convinced that Jesus is risen!
Imagine what an embarrassing surprise it must have been for Thomas to hear Jesus say what he said almost word for word! (v.27) Yes, that's what Thomas said a week ago, exactly as if his words had been recorded on an invisible tape recorder and were being played back for him! What is it? Did Jesus hear what he said to the disciples? But Jesus was not there! Or was he there when Thomas didn't see Jesus?! Not somewhere far away beyond the stars, but here! And the invisible Jesus hears and sees so clearly everything we do and say here in the visible world! That is what Jesus wants us and Thomas to feel. Let every unbelieving Thomas realize that the invisible world is, let me put it this way: Jesus, whom we cannot grasp with our five senses: is closer to him than his own shirt or skin! We are surrounded by eternity, we are enveloped in it! All around us, this visible everything that separates us from eternity is so thin that everything, even a sigh, even a thought, can be heard through it! Everything is transparent. Even a sin committed in secret! And indeed, it would be very nice sometimes, when we have an impure thought or intention, when we speak or act badly, if we could remember that everything is known, seen and heard by Someone who is invisibly present! There is no running away or hiding from God! So says an old psalm, verses 2-5 of canto 130. So Jesus is present where you don't even think He is, He sees and hears everything even when you don't want anyone to see or hear what you do or say!
But this fact is not only a great warning, but also an even greater encouragement, which goes like this: dare to believe in Him and count on Him even if you cannot see Him! I know that in an age when everything is measured, calculated, examined with binoculars and microscopes, taken apart and put together: it is difficult to believe in an invisible God. Man today is used to believing only what he can see, what he can touch with his hands, measure with his mind. He accepts as reality only what he can prove by experiment. What he cannot grasp, he simply says does not exist! He demands that the perceptive capacity of his brain can only be the measure of what is possible in the world that is! He doubts everything else.
Yet Jesus says, "blessed are those who do not see and believe!" As if to encourage us: dare to believe! Don't be afraid to believe in the existence, in the presence of someone you can't see! Not seeing does not mean that this someone does not exist! Because the love of your mother cannot be found in the heart with a microscope, a chemical experiment, a dissection, you cannot say that this is it, this is love - you cannot, but it is there! But how much is there?! And in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, joy cannot be calculated with a logarithm, and yet it is in every voice of the mighty chorus. The world of God, the living reality of Jesus, can only be known by faith. Blessed are they who see not and believe.
By seeing, anyway, one can only attain to external knowledge, not to grasp the true essence! Look: Pilate saw Jesus, the Roman soldiers who crucified Him, seized Jesus with their hands, and yet they did not know who He really was. And the Apostle Paul never saw Jesus with his bodily eyes, or Gábor Bethlen, or Albert Schweitzer, and yet they really knew Jesus. Let no one think that faith is an inferior function to sight. Let no one fear that he is doing a martial thing, an anti-scientific attitude, if he believes! Faith is more than seeing. Faith is direct seeing, grasping the essence. Let us not reduce the world around us to what we can see, let us not impoverish ourselves by considering the world of realities to be only as much as we can know of it through the keyhole of our understanding. Do you think those who have given up their faith in God have become happier? I think not! On the contrary, I find that in the doubting soul there is an incredible desire for the living God. Doubt, cynicism, vociferous criticism are in fact nothing more than a veiled desire for the world of faith. Such a person wants so much to come to a living faith! Modern man has no greater desire than to believe in a childlike way.
Verily, happy are those who believe! They are happy because they are never left to themselves, because they have a great Someone beside them to help them in the struggle of life, to solve their problems, to carry their pains and burdens, to love people sincerely. Who guides them through difficulties, comforts them in sorrow, opens the way through death to eternal life... So dare to believe, even if you cannot see it, that the living Jesus, who died on the cross and rose again on the third day, is your Lord and your God, and then He Himself will convince you that He is, indeed, truly, your redeeming Lord and your God!
Come, then, let us say together - for he hears us telling him:
Jesus, I trust in you,
O let me not perish!
You who through sin, through hell, through the grave,
Thou art the only victor:
Encourage me in thy weak faith,
Prepare me that my soul
That my soul may see above, O Lord,
For ever and ever happy.
Canto 295, verse 2
Amen
Date: 25 April 1965 Confirmation
Lesson
Kol 1,3-10