When we say yes to following Jesus, opportunities to be transformed and bring transformation are continuously present. Let’s look at the example of Mary, mother of Jesus, for glimpses of how this can happen when we are open to God working in our lives and world. 

This sermon explores how the vision of the Ann Arbor Vineyard can be lived out in practical ways.

In part, two of this two part series, we look at the role of Jesus as our high priest in more detail. For many of us, when we’re truly honest, we’re not sure Jesus is comfortable with the grittiness of our humanity. A deeper look at Hebrews shows us that he truly does understand our humanity and lived a fully human life. He is also uniquely the Son of God and to understand our salvation we need to see that after Jesus was resurrected, he ascended to the right hand of the Father. The good news includes that Jesus, a fully human being, is in heaven making intercession for us.  This gives us hope when our faith is difficult or uncertain as an anchor for our soul—he helps us with our faith.

It’s common for us to look backwards to better times when our current situation is difficult.  This is true in our faith journey as well.  The problem is that this approach puts the burden on us to be able to remember and “re-believe” our conversion moment or the last time we felt close to God.  This was a similar problem facing the Christians who received the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament and who were facing persecution.  The answer God gave them through the author of the letter was to see Jesus as their High Priest.  The power in this is that we realize God has not just come and rescued us through Jesus as a one-time event, but that he has given us a high priest in Jesus who helps us trust and respond back to God, especially when thing are hard.