Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

the Rev. Emily Boring

Jesus’s question, “Who do you say that I am?”, is not a question Christians

answer once and for all. We inherit understandings of Jesus from scripture,

tradition, theology, worship, and culture, just as the disciples

interpreted Jesus through their own religious history and political

circumstances. But Jesus asks us to bring those inherited understandings

into conversation with what we ourselves have experienced.

The preacher illustrates this through worship at the U.S.–Mexico border,

where Christians on opposite sides of the wall pray, sing, exchange the

peace, and celebrate Eucharist together. There, the wall—an instrument of

separation—becomes like both cross and altar, making tangible the claim

that Christ’s love overcomes division.