[Propertalk] John 20:19-31 commentaries - Part 3

[Joe Parrish]

I once got a phone call from a retired minister who wanted an appointment with me. When we were together, I kept waiting for the shoe to drop, for the thing he had come for to reveal itself. Whatever it was, I knew it would be concrete -- an illness, a lapse, a fear, an alienated loved one. It might have been anything. And so we talked and I waited. Finally, as he was leaving, I understood. There was something concrete that had brought him to me. But I was totally unprepared for what it was. He never put it into words, but what he wanted was to open the locked door of his retirement by praying for a younger minister, someone who was doing each day the things that he used to do. He wanted to pray the power he had known in his own life of service, to share the commission, and so he knelt and took my hand and prayed for my ministry. With his words and his posture, it was as if he breathed on me a power that was neither his or mine. There was no one else in the room you would have been able to see had you looked in the window--just two followers, one old, one younger, but someone else was there giving both of us what we needed to serve him.

http://day1.org/518-handwitness_testimony

Catherine Taylor 
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I discovered that Christians can become fixated on their Sunday school theology and not move beyond it; and I also discovered that a person can become fixated on their doubts and not move beyond them.

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_thomas_the_doubter.htm

Edward F. Markquart
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Centuries ago, Copernicus doubted that the earth was the center of the universe and Christians round him were using the Bible and quoting the Bible to prove that the earth was the center of the universe. His doubt of their reading of the Bible lead him to a larger and deeper understanding of the Christian faith. 
Centuries ago, during the time of Columbus, certain Christians were using the Bible and quoting the Bible that the earth was flat and had edges and if you sailed too far, your boat would fall over the edge off the earth. Columbus doubted the Christianity he had been taught, and his doubts led to a deeper and larger faith. 

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_thomas_a_honest_doubter.htm

Edward F. Markquart
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You see, peace is not simply the absence of conflict. Peace is the presence of justice for all. No, you and I will not always agree on the way to peace, yet in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are all sent into the violent world to be peacemakers.

http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/hanson_4714.htm

Mark Hanson, 2004
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Virginia was 19 years old and pregnant when she went to live with her 15th set of foster parents. Her case file read like a textbook example of neglect, abuse and bureaucratic failure. She sat silently in a chair, hands neatly clasped, staring into her lap. The foster parents, whose three children were in school, had been appraised of Virginia's story and promised that this placement would be "temporary". (Temporary was the story of Virginia's life.)
Finally, the foster mother said, "Are you frightened, Virginia?"

"Kinda," she replied without looking up. Then, "I've been in lots of homes."

"Well," the sympathetic woman tried to reassure the bewildered young mother-to-be, "Let's hope this time turns out for the best."

Virginia's reply is one of those statements that sticks to your soul -- it was flat, without change of tone and without Virginia even looking up -- "Hurts too much to hope."

http://www.lectionarysermons.com/pieces1.html

John Jewell, 2000
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When we have left behind all objective probabilities about God and the Christ, and all subjective approximations to God and the Christ, when all preliminary certainties have disappeared, the ultimate certainty may appear to us. And in the power of this certainty, though never secure and never without temptation, we may walk from certainty to certainty.

http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=375&C=22

Paul Tillich, 1955 
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