April 19, 2009
(Second Sunday of Easter)
Reasonable Doubt
By
The Very Rev. Terry White,
Dean
Acts 4:32-35 • Psalm 133 • 1 John 1:1-2:2
• John 20:19-31
(From
The Lectionary Page)
A defendant was on trial for murder. There was strong circumstantial evidence indicating guilt, but the police had never found the corpse. In the defense's closing statement the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, resorted to a trick: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all," the lawyer said as he looked at his watch. "Within one minute, the person presumed dead in this case will walk into this courtroom."
He looked toward the courtroom door. The jurors, somewhat stunned, all looked at the door. A minute passed. Nothing happened. Finally the lawyer said, "Actually, I made up the previous statement. But you all looked on with anticipation. I therefore put it to you that there is reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed, and I insist that you return a verdict of not guilty."
The jury retired to deliberate. In only 30 minutes the jury returned and pronounced a verdict of guilty. Confronting the jury foreman the defense attorney asked how they could render such a verdict. “You must have had some doubt, I saw all of you stare at the door."
The jury foreman replied: "Oh, we looked at the door, but your client did not."
This stunt is well known. Every so often it surfaces in courtroom scenes in movies and in TV dramas. The trick is based on the concept of reasonable doubt.
James Q. Whitman, Ford Foundation Professor at Yale Law School, has written a book entitled The Origins of Reasonable Doubt, where he examines the theological roots of this law doctrine.
He writes that in past centuries, there was more at stake than the fate of the accused. The fate of those who sat in judgment was at stake as well. Convicting an innocent defendant was regarded by the Church as a potential mortal sin. The reasonable doubt rule developed in response to this disquieting possibility. Reasonable doubt was originally a theological doctrine, intended to reassure jurors that they could convict a defendant without risking their own salvation.
Professor Whitman writes: American criminal law would be unimaginable without the reasonable doubt standard. Indeed, the requirement of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” is so fundamental that the Supreme Court has read it into our constitutional law, even though the phrase “reasonable doubt” appears nowhere in the Constitution. (http://hnn.us/articles/47018.html)
A particular point Whitman makes is that prior to standard of reasonable doubt, if a judge or juror had any bit of doubt about guilt, they were encouraged to find the accused not guilty. He phrased the practice with these words: In cases of doubt, the safer way is not to act. Today’s Gospel reading turns that sentiment inside out.
The Gospel lesson for today is read every year on the Second Sunday of Easter. This story is that important, it is that crucial to our faith. St. John knows from his own experience with new believers that doubt can paralyze the community of faith.
He tells the story of Thomas so that succeeding generations of new believers will know they are blessed because they believe without actually seeing the risen Lord’s body scarred by the crucifixion.
In this story the Risen Lord is saying to us that reasonable doubt is indeed reasonable. But the doubt that causes doors to be locked and allows fear to reduce the faithful to inaction denies the resurrection, and is not reasonable, it is not of God. The Church must never adopt the attitude of the 18th century law doctrine that says in cases of doubt the safer way is not to act.
Because of Easter Day, because of the Resurrection that brought forth life from crucifixion and empty tomb, you and I are to live with and through our doubts. We are to act. We serve. We make peace. We feed the hungry. We create justice. We die to self. We follow the first disciples and the community they created, described in our reading from Acts, as a place where no one was needy, the basic needs of body and soul were cared for.
The author of the epistle for this day is bursting with enthusiasm and fervor: We have seen the word of life and touched it, and we share this with you, so that our joy may be complete! This is our mission: to be touched by the Resurrection in such a way that paralyzing doubt is vanquished, and we are recreated and energized by the unique joy that comes from living one’s faith.
In his Easter Day sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that people often ask us, in one way or another, “How do you know the resurrection is real?” For a great many people, the burning question about faith is not just, ‘Can anyone believe this?’ but ‘Can anyone live like this?’
And this is our challenge, it is the call of our baptism. To live like this, to live as one who believes in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Paralyzing doubt can not be argued away. No preaching or teaching or even delightful debates long into the night with friends can unlock the doors of fear that John identifies. It is the living witness of the Church, it is how you and I care about our neighbors, heal the environment, serve the Lord in the hungry and homeless and lonely, and build the city of God where young and old walk the streets free of violence and fear, that powerfully testifies to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. And we share this witness so that our joy may be complete!
Reasonable doubt. Perhaps no Christian tradition is better suited to embrace it that our Anglican Tradition. We Episcopalians have certainly lived with reasonable doubt faithfully and I do not mean that tongue-in-cheek. Reasonable doubt is the basis of some of Anglicanism’s greatest gifts. Being open to new interpretations of scripture, tradition, and reason; accepting that doctrine develops; allowing for pastoral needs to override rules set in stone; and taking what we do seriously while not taking ourselves so seriously are all the fruit of reasonable doubt.
Over the last 60 years the Church has confronted and worked through reasonable doubts that excluded divorced and remarried persons from the community of faith. Indeed, we have confronted doubts that excluded people from membership in the Church and Holy Orders on the basis of color, gender, and now sexual orientation. We are doing a better job of listening to people who experiences are different from our own, and finding God in those stories.
All this is because reasonable doubt springs forth from the understanding that we must not box God in: God can act however, whenever, and in whoever God chooses to act. For God’s love and grace is for all people. Christ died and rose for all. And we, too, must die to doubt that paralyzes us, and embrace reasonable doubt that leads us to new life and resurrection.
To venture out in faith, not always sure of what is right, but at the same time convinced that non-action or the status quo is not the answer, is to live in the light of the Resurrection. It is to be a descendant of Thomas.
Alleluia – Christ is risen!
Like Thomas let us seek and create open doors, open hearts, and open minds, that risen life of Christ might be ours.
