What jumps out to me
from these two questions
that are coming from the crowd to Jesus,
is this assurance from Jesus
that we can recognize our
identity as individuals
and as a community of Jesus followers,
that outside circumstances
may have us questioning
"Who are we, what are we about?"
But that perfecting some
sort of external self,
is just part of this
system of righteousness
that doesn't actually hold real security.
God is after our heart
relationship as individuals
and who we are at our core.
That is who we are.
The, "Who do you think you are?"
Makes me think right now, but like,
what is the purpose of the church?
Like what is church even
able to do in these times,
where everything feels uncertain and like,
we don't know how to quite plan for it.
I will be honest with you
as one of your pastors,
as I'm sure you are too.
We're like, this is not the new ministry,
or we would have anticipated going into.
In fact, we are probably
like you, a bit disappointed.
This is not like what we would
have maybe categorized before
as like the best version of ourselves,
but actually part of the like,
who do we think we are
as a body of believers,
is to say, "God, what do you have for us?
What are you doing right now?
How can we adapt to these things?"
I just want to encourage and remind you
that our purpose and vision
as a church, has not changed.
It is very much the same.
We are purposely creating
loving communities
of Jesus' followers.
Our vision is still to introduce
spiritually curious people
to the Jesus-centered life,
through church, through
a body of believers.
You know, it may look different
the way that it happens,
but the why and the what we want to do,
is still very, very much the same.
So the who we are, who
do you think you are,
is so true for us as a community,
as well as for each of us individually.
