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I Am He

The woman said... "I know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we'll get the whole story."
"I am he," said Jesus. "You don't have to wait any longer or look any further."

John 4:19-26 (The Message)


This week in our Holy Week Services and Prayer Breakfasts at Dundonald Methodist we're reflecting on some of the outrageous claims of Jesus that are often bracketted together as the "I am" sayings of Jesus... If read without any understanding of historical context, or the miraculous "signs" to bear out what he was saying, Jesus could literally be said to have an ego problem... In this first reflection for Palm Sunday we use as our starting point Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman at a well, on a previous return journey from Jerusalem to Galilee.


REFLECTION

“I am…” Says Jesus…

“I am he…”

The one you’ve been waiting for…

The one you’ve been arguing over…

The one the prophets foretold…

Yet the one who was before the prophets…

I am he...

The one you have worshipped down the centuries

Without seeing my face or hearing my voice.

I am he…

I am here

To enable you to worship worthily

In Spirit and in truth

To empower your praise

And to enable you to live out your lives to my glory

I am he you have been waiting for.

Here I am…

Stop looking elsewhere…

Stop waiting for someone else…

Someone who fits your picture of what I’m like

A mirror of your positions and prejudices.

The answer to your selfish hopes and aspirations.

I am here...

To challenge old certainties and break down old barriers.

To meet with the outcast and the other.

I am here...

Where you least expect me...

Not at a temple or shrine...

But in the everyday, workaday, midday heat…

I am here...

With those whom you would least expect me to be with...

The other sort, the wrong sort...

I am he...

I am here...

And I know all about you.

No point in trying to hide anything.

No point in trying to change the subject.

No point in trying to tie me up in theological debate.


I am he...

I am here...

To talk, to listen...

To take a drink if you will give me one...

Or anything else you care to offer…

I am here...

I am he

PRAYER

Lord God… Great I AM

We pray for those who have lost sight of who they are… Trying to be all things to all people… Wearing different hats in different places… Their lives dictated by the needs and desires of others… Those who feel their best days are behind them… Or that their ambitions have been sidelined… their hopes indefinitely postponed…

Lord God… Great I AM

Make yourself known in Jesus Christ

So that we may know who you created us to be.

We pray for those who feel ashamed because of their past… whether they have any reason to feel ashamed or not… Those who feel themselves friendless… Those who look for love and acceptance in all the wrong places… Those who find it hard to accept genuine love when it is offered because they feel they don’t deserve it…

Lord God… Great I AM

Make yourself known in Jesus Christ

So that we may know who you created us to be

We pray for those who define themselves in terms of labels… theological, denominational, political, national, sexual… especially those who are certain of what they are not rather than what they are… those unable to conceive of a God who operates outside our boundaries… those who think that God thinks like them…

Lord God… Great I AM

Make yourself known in Jesus Christ

So that we may know who you created us to be. AMEN


This week's reflections are dedicated to Alan Lorimer... with thanks for all his support over the past few months.


Selah


ps. Sorry for the delay in this post and the fact that it was mangled the first time it went up. Yesterday was a day of technical difficulties!
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