Growing In Unity - Week Of Prayer for Christian Unity
Notes
Transcript
GROWING IN UNITY
GROWING IN UNITY
Scripture
1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 3:21-23,
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?
So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
Is Christ divided?John 17:20-23, As you and I are one
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Meditation
On the eve of his death, Jesus prayed for the unity of those the Father gave him: “that they may all be one... so that the world may believe.” Joined to him, as a branch is to the vine, we share the same truth that circulates among us and vitalizes us. The truth that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior! The Way, the Truth, and the Life!
Each tradition seeks to lead us to the heart of our faith: communion with God, through Christ, in the Spirit. The more we live this communion by faith, the more we are connected to other Christians and can minister to all of humanity. Paul warns us against an attitude that had already threatened the unity of the first Christians: absolutizing one’s own thoughts and traditions to the detriment of the unity of the body of Christ through faith. Differences then become divisive instead of mutually enriching. Paul had a very broad vision: “All are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.” (1 Corinthians 3:22-23)
Christ’s will commits us to a path of unity and reconciliation through Jesus Christ our Lord. It also commits us to unite our prayer to his: “that they may all be one... so that the world may believe.” (John 17:21)
that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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.
Prayer
Holy Spirit, we ask that you would come and abide in us. Renew in us the passion for unity in Jesus Christ, so that we may live in awareness of the bond through faith that unites us in you. May all who have put on Christ through Faith by grace, unite and bear witness together to the hope that sustains each of us. Amen.