Not so long ago I met someone who asked me: “What can an agnostic find in Pilgrim Church?” That’s an honest question. I hear other questions as well: “Is Pilgrim Church only for true believers or only one kind of believer?” “Can I have doubts and still attend Pilgrim Church?” “Is there room in your church for diversity of belief?” Someone in another church asked me in humor: “Do I have to park my brain with my car before I come through the church doors?” All good and honest questions, and they deserve sincere and honest answers.

Let’s begin with a definition. What is an “agnostic?” An agnostic is one who disclaims any absolute knowledge of God, but does not deny the possibility of God’s existence. To put it another way – an agnostic is someone who says that he or she has religious questions. Some synonyms for agnostic are: skeptic, doubter, questioner.

The opposite of agnostic is gnostic. Both words come from the Greek word “gnosis” which we translate in English as “knowledge.” In the Greek language “gnosis” was understood to be a particular kind of knowledge. Historically, within the Christian faith there have been individuals and groups of people who have been known as “gnostics.” Gnostics emphasize intuitive knowledge, insight, and knowledge of one’s self. They believe that to know one’s self is to know human nature and destiny. They also believe that to know one’s self at the deepest level is to know God.

Early in the Christian church’s history, gnosticism was considered heretical for a whole list of reasons, some political and some theological. The best book on the subject is one by Elaine Pagels, entitled “The Gnostic Gospels.” But today we are not thinking primarily about gnostics but agnostics. I think we can all understand why some people see themselves as agnostics.

It’s a normal and proper response to those who are always claiming absolute certainty about God. One of the temptations of religion of any kind is a lust for certitude. For some this lust for certitude causes them to believe the Bible is the literal words of God, a magic answer book without error. This changes the actual meaning of the Biblical narrative into a collection of pseudo-facts.

Personally, I take the Bible seriously, but not literally. I do not discount its importance as the foundational document on which the church stands, but I cannot accept the idolatrous authority with which the Biblical words are sometimes stamped. People are longing for certainty in an uncertain world. We call them fundamentalists or literalists.

This lust for certitude causes other people to join religious cults which promise to take away all uncertainty. In a cult, the leader knows all. He or she has secret knowledge. It’s another form of Gnosticism. The followers come to believe that God speaks the truth only through the leader’s visions and revelations. History is filled with stories of the destruction and tragedy which cults and their leaders have brought about.

Some years ago, I read the sad story of a cult leader in Africa. In 1856, a young woman was walking by a river near the Indian Ocean in Africa when she had a vision: She was told that the people of her tribe should destroy all their cattle, cease cultivating their crops, and build new enclosures to receive new beasts which would miraculously appear. The dead would arise from their graves and strong people would arrive in an army to drive white people into the sea. The people believed in her vision. They killed their cattle, then they watched for the resurrection. Chiefs vied with each other to prove their orthodoxy by personally slaughtering their great herds. No resurrection came. Forty thousand are thought to have died of starvation in the famine that followed. Desperate people ate horses and dogs. They even ate their children.

Some agnostics and skeptics were needed among those poor people. However it’s not easy being an agnostic or skeptic when you are in a crowd of true believers. Perhaps some of you may feel that uneasiness in Chattanooga!

But let’s return to our original question: what can an agnostic find in our church?

1. My first answer is: other agnostics! In fact, I hope that each one of us has a little bit of agnosticism in us. Some will have more, others less. Where religious faith is concerned, I believe the lack of certitude about the nature of God represents a healthy respect for the divine. God can never be totally described or fully experienced by any one of us. There is always more to God than we can see or know. There is no one among us who has all the truth about God. The Bible tells us to “test the spirits to see whether they are of God.” In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.” In other words, don’t look onlt at what people say they are or what they say they believe. Look at how they live.

2. Second, not only can an agnostic find other agnostics in our church, but he or she can also discover that Jesus never put down those with doubts and questions. Rather, he affirmed them. I believe Jesus today accepts our agnosticism in the same way he accepted the agnosticism of people in his own time.

In our Bible story for today, the story of “Doubting” Thomas, we see the acceptance of Jesus for those who have their doubts about the resurrection or, for that matter, any other part of the Christian faith. Thomas found his resurrection faith in his own way. We will have to find our own faith in our own way. Martin Luther once said that just as no one can take a bath for you neither can anyone believe for you. I believe Jesus accepts doubt-filled, questioning faith when he says: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Faith in the last analysis is a basic trust in God that goes beyond facts and proof.

Faith is an openness to mystery. Faith acknowledges that we cannot know it all – we can never be completely certain.

All this is very different from the claim that some religious folks make with their set of absolute certainties about God, human beings and the meaning of life. An insistence upon absolute certainty misunderstands religion. Religion is a search for meaning, not for certitude. In this church, we invite agnostics, skeptics and cynics to join us in that search.

3. Third, as an agnostic I believe you will find in this church an openness to new knowledge and experience. We are not afraid of what Biblical scholars have discovered or might discover in the future. We are not afraid of what scientists tell us. We are not afraid to look through telescopes and microscopes and learn more about the universe. As people in the Reformed tradition of the Christian faith, we believe that God’s truth is continually breaking forth in new ways. We believe that God is still speaking.

We also believe that both agnostics and gnostics need what this church provides at the center of its life – the regular worship of God. The church is the only institution in our society which keeps reminding us week by week of the spiritual and transcendent dimension in all of life. Our Christian faith keeps telling us that there’s more to life than the physical, more to life than what we see, more to life than the here and now, more to life than the material world we deal with every day. There is a spiritual and divine dimension within and throughout all of life.

I believe we need continually to be reminded of this because it’s so easy to get bogged down with the everyday problems we face. We can lose all sense of perspective. Our regular Sunday gathering together to worship God helps us to see life as a whole. Worship lifts us above the immediate. It reminds us of our relationship with all of creation. In worship we can catch a glimpse of life from an eternal perspective.

As an agnostic I also believe you will find in this church family a loving, forgiving, supportive, and accepting community of people who are ready to help you in your troubles and celebrate with you in your joys. I need that, my agnostic friend, and so do you. So whoever you are, wherever you are on your life’s journey, my agnostic friend, you are welcome here. Amen.