Look Many have said that when they first walked into Christ Church, it "felt like I had

come home." Implicit in that statement is "recognition." Obviously, none of the people making that statement had ever been in Christ Church. Yet somehow, they felt that it touched something within their soul that had always been there, but not recognized. Though they had never been here, they recognized it as their home. The word "recognize" comes from a combination of Latin words meaning "reacquainted." That only deepens the mystery of how someone can be "reacquainted" with a place they had never seen before, but now call "home." Another experience of coming home is having been away from one's childhood home for a long time. But something that you hear years later reminds you so powerfully of home that the distant years collapse and it feels like only yesterday that you were "home."
1. When have you experienced the "shock of recognition?"

When have you done something, or gone somewhere, that felt right in a way that you couldn't quite put into words.

Book: John 21:1-19 Rather than "none of the disciples dared to ask him, 'Who are you?'" It would be a more accurate translation to say that the disciples did not "question," or "cross-examine" Jesus. They weren't sure who it was that had prepared a meal of thanksgiving (in Greek, eucharistia) on the beach. But somehow, they recognized that it was Jesus. Perhaps in the overwhelming abundance of fish, they remembered that it was at a wedding in Cana of Galilee that Jesus began his public ministry by turning water into an overwhelming abundance of wine. Or perhaps it was on the word of the Disciple whom Jesus loved, who said, "It is the Lord," that they recognized the risen Jesus, who apparently looked nothing like the Jesus they had known before. 1. Would you have needed some testimony, like that of the Beloved Disciple, to recognize Jesus? Or would evidence of a similar occurrence, like the turning of water into wine, have been necessary to convince you? Or would have something less tangible, like the love between you and Jesus, have been sufficient? Took Today, we pass many people by as we walk through our routine days. Could any of them be Jesus? If Jesus rose from the dead, then He is still alive today, and still appears today. Early symbols of the Eucharist used bread and fish as images, not bread and a cup. The early Christians understood that they needed to be ready to recognize Jesus when they least expected it. So should we.

1. Where in the life of the Church, or the Sand Mountain community, can

you recognize the presence of the risen Jesus? Where, in the life of the Church, or the Sand Mountain community, do we need to help people recognize the risen Jesus?