The Hope of Unity
Good Morning Friends,
Working together for a common cause is difficult. There are economies of exclusion and an idolatry of money and financial systems that rule over instead of serve. And then there is inequality which spawns violence. Oh, and egos. Sometimes people pretend there is unity when there is not. Certainly without a culture of faith guiding us it would be worse. The temptation is to succumb to spiritual selfishness or to become an isolationist and pessimist. The hope of any communal commitment of value though is found in a relationship with Christ…a relationship personalize with words which sets the heart on fire…recreating a new passion. Yes I am writing about love… a love of God that hears the cry of those in need and develops a concern for the vulnerable with The Hope of Unity.
Scripture: If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:9b-11 (NRSV)
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;
Ephesians 4:4 (NIV)
I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’
John 17: 14-26 (NRSV)
Message: The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of those who truly encounter Jesus. It is renewed each day we share the joy and the hope of Jesus’ gift to the world. When Jesus spoke about unity, His intent was far beyond patriotism to the nation under the rule of Rome. It was a prayer for all time. I got a sense of it at noon before the serving of turkey in Immokalee this Thanksgiving as 2000 people became silent in prayer. It was not some institutional striving for an authority that compelled this unity but I think an irresistible path of influence that is the journey of love in Christ. Beyond His death, Jesus expected a dynamic and growing body of believers that would last throughout the ages. Friends, if we are to be the Body of Christ, living and loving others in this world we must also be disciples in the world… servants, purifying, preserving, and penetrating society for the kingdom of God and His righteousness and peace. Here we become God’s people fulfilling God’s promise… Here we realize the impact of a unified Body for which Jesus prayed. Here we experience the love of Christ. There is a miracle here that lies within each of us that empowers, equips and enables us to receive the power of life…love. What it amounts to, when in unity with other lovers, is the power to be like Jesus in this world. We are to witness by and through the power of the Holy Spirit in which we move, live and have our very being. Friends, live in the power of the Spirit. Be enthusiastically hopeful because Jesus has interceded for us to protect, sanctify and bring unity to us all through love for those called into His hope.
Pray we are in union with God. Pray the entire people of God proclaim the good news. Pray we make a communal commitment. Pray we take the steps to be involved and supportive, bearing fruit and rejoicing in the hope of transformation. Pray we have a personal encounter the saving love of Jesus. Pray we find value in each other. Pray we overcome temptations and insufficiencies to proclaim the Gospel with profound joy and in unity. Pray that even though we live in a world of disunity we can hope in the reality that Jesus prayed for our unity. Pray that we desire to be one with His love…one with other disciples as a visible manifestation of His glory. Pray we have the courage to follow the leaning of the Holy Spirit. Pray we thank God for the companions along the way. Pray we move in unity of Spirit. Pray the called out assembly in this place lives to emulate Him. Pray we learn to love creatively with faith in the power God has to do great things in and through us. Pray we realize the power of the Holy Spirit is for a purpose. Pray we conform to Christ-likeness. Pray we share what we have received in Christian love. Pray that the streams of Holy History converge into one, of Christ in every area of human experience washing over and transforming culture in the power, revelation, and revival of His presence with us. Pray we in unity find hope.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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