Unity
- Jon Graf
- Apr 26, 2009
- Series: Weekly Readings for Meditation and Prayer
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What is Lectio Divina? Wikipedia puts it this way: “Lectio Divina is Latin for divine reading, spiritual reading, or "holy reading," and represents a traditional Christian practice of prayer and scriptural reading intended to engender communion with the Triune God and to increase in the knowledge of God's Word. It is a way of praying with Scripture that calls one to study, ponder, listen and, finally, pray and even sing and rejoice from God's Word, within the soul.” While some critique it as being too ‘mystic,’ there are some helpful insights we can learn from it. To slowly… Study... Ponder… Listen… Pray…and Sing God’s Word.
Theme: Unity > from the Latin “unitas” (one).
Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.
–A. W. Tozer
Last week we looked at the ‘Gospel.’ This week we look at ‘Unity.’ They go together. True unity can only be found through Jesus, the heart of the Gospel. Without Jesus we remain divided—isolated in the trappings of our own selfish minds.
"Unity without verity [truth] is no better than conspiracy"
–Puritan John John Trapp
Reading: Psalm 133
A Psalm celebrating unity and the joys it brings. It illustrates this through two similes: 1) the oil running down the head, beard, and robe of Aaron in v. 2 symbolizes one being made holy or saturated with the character of God, 2) the dew of Mt. Hermon in v. 3 shows that unity would make Israel richly fruitful. For us today, the oil shows God’s mercy of redemption through Jesus, while the dew shows God’s mercy of blessing the creation. In sum, God blesses lives lived in unity around the Gospel.
Reading: Philippians 2:1-11
Paul’s message seems almost impossible, but he really meant it. The Anglican Bishop N. T. Wright asks: “How can we even begin to think that it might be possible to live the way Paul indicates here—thinking the same, loving each other completely, regarding everyone else as superior to you and your own? The answer must be that everyone must be focused on something other than themselves; and that something is Jesus Christ himself, the king, the Lord, and the good news.”
Reading: Isaiah 65:17-25
As a Christian community, we must seek to live in unity. But the world seems disunited and fractured (as does the church). These verses show that we are united together as we look forward for God to make all things right, to restore the fractured pieces, to bring unity and harmony to all creation.
Prayer:
God, we are broken, make us one. We are fractured, put us back together. We are disjointed, restore us. We pray that you would unite us around Truth, around your Being. Draw us into a relationship with you that we might be united with each other, and that we might be witnesses to the world of your action to restore unity, harmony, and peace to all of creation. In Jesus name, Amen.