Who do you say that I am?
When Christ walked the earth he let people discover for themselves who he was. Similarly, our discovery of Christ must be personal. This knowledge cannot be second hand. It is difficult to describe Jesus with our human categories, they seem inadequate. Savior, Teacher, Prophet, Lord, Judge, Liberator, Healer, and Protector, each title is contextualized based on differing cultures or specific needs, each having a valid perspective and understanding.
I will always remember an evening in the fall of 1992. I had shared in a wonderful weekend, surrounded by friends and family, upon my return home I was consumed with loneliness. I had everything anyone could possibly want; a fantastic job, my own home, a loving church community, …show more content…
He provides us with the concept of a mystical view of God. He relies upon the poetic and rhetorical nature of scripture to enlighten us and draw us into relationship with Christ. Schleiermacher connects us with who Christ is and the work of Christ. With recognition that God’s aim is the fullest union of the divine with human nature in the person of Christ, given to the community of believers through the Holy Spirit. His attention to the work of Christ creates within our self-consciousness an emotional perspective of God. Schleiermacher’s Christology places Christ’s teachings at the center of his approach. Christ’s divinity for Schleiermacher consists that the God-consciousness is the active source in his life and within the Christian community. HE suggests the Bible is not divinely inspired rather written by people who were inspired by the work of Christ and the church’s experience with Christ. Focusing on the work of Christ and how his work moves believers to respond, Schleiermacher claims it is Christ’s example that provides people with the knowledge. He is redeemer. Our awareness of Christ is through our self-consciousness, or intuition. “All Christ’s activity, then proceeds from the being of God in him. And we know no divine activity except that of creation, which included that of preservation, or, conversely, that of …show more content…
Just as God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are I relationship as One. We two are to be in relationship. As a community, our message must not be for passive edification or entertainment; we are called to express the Good News in the daily pattern of our life. As God/Jesus shows us the fullest expression of responding to God’s self-giving love, we are to express this within community as an expression of our acceptance of God’s love for us. Karl Barth stated, “as creators or as beneficiaries of culture, we all participate in it as persons responsible for it. We can exercise no abstinence toward it, even if we want to. But we should not want to do that. Each of us has a place and a function in its history.” (Humanity of God, Karl Barth wrote,