Who Do you Say that I am?
As we make the liturgical shift from Christmas to Epiphany, the lectionary also makes an appropriate shift from stories of the baby Jesus to stories of adult Jesus. Specifically, the lectionary this year invites us to contemplate Jesus the miracle worker, Jesus the teacher, and Jesus the transfigured.
I think it’s helpful, during this season of discovery, to read these texts with Jesus’ question to his disciples echoing in our head: “Who do you say that I am?”
It’s a question that we’ve likely been asked before by a preacher or confirmation teacher, but it is nonetheless a helpful question to reengage periodically because the answer to this question doesn’t just reveal something about who Jesus is, but who we are as well.
Father Richard Rohr puts it beautifully: “Your image of God creates you.” Such a statement makes one wonder if the current climate of fear and hatred is product of Sunday school classes and Sunday morning sermons about an angry and vengeful god.
But as we lean into a new year and a new liturgical season, I wonder if the stories of Jesus the miracle worker, Jesus the teacher, and Jesus the transfigured might alter our image of Jesus ever so slightly, and in so doing, change how we understand ourselves and our place in God’s grand story.
I think it’s helpful, during this season of discovery, to read these texts with Jesus’ question to his disciples echoing in our head: “Who do you say that I am?”
It’s a question that we’ve likely been asked before by a preacher or confirmation teacher, but it is nonetheless a helpful question to reengage periodically because the answer to this question doesn’t just reveal something about who Jesus is, but who we are as well.
Father Richard Rohr puts it beautifully: “Your image of God creates you.” Such a statement makes one wonder if the current climate of fear and hatred is product of Sunday school classes and Sunday morning sermons about an angry and vengeful god.
But as we lean into a new year and a new liturgical season, I wonder if the stories of Jesus the miracle worker, Jesus the teacher, and Jesus the transfigured might alter our image of Jesus ever so slightly, and in so doing, change how we understand ourselves and our place in God’s grand story.
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