"Who Are You?" John 21: 1-14; Acts 9: 1-6

This sermon kicks of the post-Easter preaching series that looks at questions we might ask the resurrected Christ.  The first question is, "Who are you?"  In the John  story, the disciples do not ask that question; in the Acts story, Saul does ask that question.

A few thoughts as I work on the sermon.

1.  Henri Nouwen notes that, “Jesus does not speak about a change of activities, a change in contacts, or even a change of pace. He speaks about a change of heart” .” Making All Things New, Henri Nouwen, 42

2.  The transition from pre-resurrection to post-resurrection belief is the transition from knowing who Jesus is to living who Jesus is.

3.  I find it interesting that the story in John includes the question, "Who are you?" that will not be asked.  Why note the question if they really know who Jesus is?  Is the uncertainty because they are not sure or because they are not sure they want to be part of what it means if Jesus really is resurrected?

4.  For some reason I started thinking about how we identify the resurrected Christ, which also leads to how others might identify those who follow the resurrected Christ.

5.  In the Acts story, Saul is very interested in who had struck him blind.  That seems like a reasonable response.  Look at what Saul ends up doing with the answer -- he gives his life over to following Christ and spreading the news of Christ's resurrection.

What do you think?