John 8:12-19

“Jesus answered, ‘You know neither me nor my Father.  If you knew me, you would know my Father also.’” (John 8:19, NRSV)

People have a lot of different ideas about who God is, most of those ideas Biblically incorrect.  As a priest I know once said, “God created us in His image, and we have been trying to return the favor ever since!”   God has been revealing Himself since the beginning of ancient human consciousness, with varying degrees of success.  The stories and teachings of the Bible share some of those revelations.

However, the Bible also witnesses that God, after eons of trying to reveal Himself through His creation and His prophets, finally took the decisive action of revealing Himself by taking on our shape and form in Jesus.  As a baby in a stable.  As a teenager arguing with his elders in the Temple.  As a Jewish contractor.  As a sought-after dinner companion who ate and drank with all sorts of people, sometimes those considered to be the wrong people.  As a teacher who taught through stories.  As a trusted companion on the road.  As someone wrongfully accused, tortured, and nailed to a cross in a public execution.  As someone who rose from the dead and cooked breakfast for His friends.  In Jesus, God revealed that He is not “out there, at a distance.”  He showed up in a specific time and place in history.  He promised to remain with us “to the end.”

Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – as we look at Jesus in the Scriptures, open our eyes to see you in the world around us, open our ears to hear your voice calling us through that world, and give us the wisdom, and the courage, and anything else we need, to heed Your command and follow You in that world.  Amen.

– Fr. Larry Parrish, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Falls City