Final Sunday

It's been a good experience preaching a sequence of sermons in a local church.  On Sunday I reach the last of the chosen questions.


Deciding which verse best begins a Scripture text (and where to end) is sometimes complicated. I am preaching the famous questions: But what about you? Who do you say I am? (Mark 8:29) yet I believe it makes sense to begin the story with the healing of the blind man in Bethsaida (Mark 8: 22-26).  The fact that Jesus has a two-stage healing with this man at first only able to see 'people looking like trees walking' invites us into the complex world of seeing in and out of focus.  For me, that prepares for the way in which Peter  says the right thing about who Jesus is, but his picture is way out of focus.


As I work this week my sermon's main impact will be:
By the grace of God this sermon will say - it is not straightforward seeing who the real Jesus is but he will ask us specifically;
this sermon will do - challenge hearers to commit to the real Jesus!
I think all of us can get Jesus out of focus, can't we?