Grace and Peace to you in Christ.  Amen.  I’d like to share a few words from a Pastor I admire who has written his sermons into many great books.  These words come from his book “In the Eye of the Storm” and the Pastor’s name is Max Lucado.  

“There are snowstorms.  There are hailstorms.  There are rainstorms.  (We could add firestorms to that too)  AND, there are also DOUBTSTORMS.  Every so often a doubtstorm rolls into my life, bringing with it a flurry of questions and gale-force winds of fear.  And, soon after it comes, a light shines through it.  Sometimes the storm comes after the evening news.  Sometimes I wonder why I watch it.  Some nights it's just too much.  From the steps of the Supreme Court..[the White House…Iran…] to the steppes of South Africa, the news is usually troubling.  Thirty minutes of bite-sized tragedies…

Sometimes I wonder, How can our world get so chaotic? …

On Sundays I stand before a church with a three-point outline in my hand and a prayer on my lips.  I do my best to say something that will convince a stranger or a hurting heart that an unseen God still hears.  Still cares.  Still acts in love.  And I wonder WHY so many hearts have to hurt.    Do you ever get doubtstorms? (he asks)  (pg. 125-126)

I know that I DO.  And times of doubt are hard and challenging.  But I think doubt gets a bad rap!   I don’t see DOUBT as a danger.  I see doubt as a doorway…a path into the mystery of God’s love.  I think the apostle Paul would agree with me when he declares “IF GOD IS FOR US, WHO IS AGAINST US…FOR  I AM CONVINCED THAT ….NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD THROUGH CHRIST JESUS. (Rom 8)   Not even doubt!

In our gospel for today, Jesus offers us multiple parables that describe the Kingdom of Heaven.  Each of them feel rather far fetched and reckless by worldly standards.  A tiny mustard seed; an internally bubbling yeast; a hidden treasure in a huge field; a pearl only a wise enough merchant can find, and a net thrown into the sea of all kinds of fish.    Like the seeds sown on all kinds of soil no matter its quality, don't these ways of finding the Kingdom of God seem rather random?  I would guess that a shrewd business executive of today wouldn’t place financial odds on any of them.  Yet, THIS, Jesus says, is how God grows His kingdom. Each one requires a persevering trust and personal growth in order to DISCOVER its value.  Is it so unreasonable then to understand doubt as a “yeast” within us that gives us courage to seek a GENUINE faith rather than a prescribed set of beliefs, rituals and behaviors that fit a recipe for a mature faith?

I recently read a story about Hannah, an environmental scientist and activist who was conversing with a church theologian at a climate change conference.  Hannah was raised Catholic…super-Catholic, she said, with much of her education in Catholic schools, so her faith was always formed in solid rituals of Christian faith.  But now, as an adult, she feels the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she, along with so many others, is struggling to survive in strange and chaotic times.  “I feel like I have lost my faith,” she says.  “Faith in God, faith in humanity, faith in government, faith in markets…it’s all gone!  She made a gesture with her hand to indicate her faith had vanished like a puff of smoke.  “I’ve lost faith that my research will make any difference, or that marching and protesting will make any difference.  I've reached the depressing conclusion that the world runs on money, not wisdom or common sense, love or justice…Meanwhile you religious leaders in our dying churches today are so afraid of offending the people who love money so passionately that you’ll never muster the guts to tell the truest truth of all:  that money lies, that it’s a fake value, and it’s destroying life.”

The theologian finally got a word in and said this:  “You may have lost your faith, but you sure haven’t lost your fire!” She laughed and said, “Yeah, even though I’ve lost any confidence that my efforts will make a difference, I’ve come to realize that I can’t give up trying…I’m going to keep marching and telling the truth.  I’m going to keep pushing forward because I couldn’t live with  myself otherwise.  I’ll keep fighting this battle for the earth to my very last breath…it’s just who I’ve become!”

Did you catch that?  IT’S JUST WHO I HAVE BECOME.  Hmmm…sounds a bit like a bubbling growing yeast that just won’t leave the dough alone, but keeps rising and forcing passion to rise and give way for something living….growing…becoming.

The theologian then shared this insight:  That strikes me as the greatest kind of faith of all.  Faith that goes on when every reason for hope is gone.”

Is THAT what Jesus meant when he said the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast?  Or the smallest of seeds?  Or a treasure that has to be found and dug up to reveal the true pearl of grace?  Is faith more of a journey than a destination?  Is it intentionally fragile so that God’s action within our struggles can outshine our own human endeavors?

These are good questions, aren’t they?  Our culture is struggling with these kinds of questions now more than ever before.  The absolutes of the past don’t seem to hold as they once did.  So many prescribed NORMs are being revisited and revised by new generations who say they just don’t work for them anymore.  People are perplexed by diversity and pluralism as the world grows smaller and we brush up against so many “others” who seem so different…and YET, aren’t  they JUST LIKE US…REALLY?

So what if doubt isn’t the enemy that needs to be slapped down, covered up, denied oxygen?  What if it’s a form of what the early church mystics called a “DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL”  moment?  A time when God seems silent and absent, and draws us deep into the struggle of our questions.  What if doubt is about descent into our denials and fears where we discover we must TRUST GOD beyond our own understanding. And what if doubt is really LOVE.  Could it be that knowing God is not a destination…but a journey seeking peace without answers and …finding harmony with one another?  A  letting go and letting God show us the Kingdom of Heaven…despite our doubtstorms?

I can’t help wondering what the church of the future might look like?  It appears it may be very different from the church we were raised to love and cherish.  It will grow like yeast in new communities of dough, I’m sure.  And in those communities, our human longing for spirituality always seeks MEANING, BELONGING AND PURPOSE.  So my guess is that a place that welcomes DOUBT…TOUGH QUESTIONS…DIVERSITY and offers unconditional grace as the yeast of hope WILL FIND A WAY TO BE REBORN.  

This hope is what gets me through my own personal doubtstorms.  It’s why I keep coming to this little church in Finland, Mn among you precious people of God.  Together, let us embrace our doubts and the doubters all around us.  Let us welcome the YEAST that brings the Kingdom of Heaven and its light.  Amen.