Wednesday's Big Idea: May They Be One

There were several ideas floating around today, all good and all worthy of their own post. I'm going to stick with the key passage which touches on many of the other topics and that is John 17:20-26.

As we learn to pray, it seems a good start to follow the Master and so along with Matthew 6, The Lord's Prayer, we are looking at Jesus' prayer in the garden, which is an incredible insight into the heart and mind of Christ just before his arrest and ultimate crucifixion. He starts praying for himself, moves on to His disciples and finishes by praying for all believers. This final passage is where we started today.

In just 7 verses the prayer for unity is repeated over and over: "that all of them may be one","that they may be one as we are one","May they be brought to complete unity." Christ wants that unity to be complete and binding - "as we are one." Further, out of that unity comes love - "that the love you have for me may be in them." Christ sees ahead into the future, understands that a house divided cannot stand and prays specifically for a house united, against which nothing can stand.

Our Wednesday morning prayer time is a small demonstration of unity. We are a varied group, a group which would never form outside of a supernatural gathering and through the intimate experience of prayer we find ourselves bonded in a way difficult to explain. I suppose I would start with Christ's simile - "As we are one". The Father and the Son are inseparable. Nothing can change that relationship and the relational bond is permanent. We are adopted into that relationship and Christ becomes our brother and we are sons and daughters of the King.

We are one by adoption. In a quite literal sense, we are brothers and sisters, we are a family unit and are called to behave as one. In the second chapter of Acts, we glimpse what this was like for the early church. Each one cared for one another in such a way as to sell their belongings and have "everything in common." They lived in community to the extreme. We like to think "that was then, things are different now." But I wonder, are they? What would it look like if a community of believers was so committed to one another that none lacked in clothing, food and shelter? What would it be like if we loved each other deeply enough to rely on one another for help? It defies 21st century, American, rugged individualism. It recognizes that I am not "self-made", but God-made and it is His grace that supplies my needs.

I don't know how, or if, it is possible to replicate that time in Christian history, but I would like to think the theory remains intact, if not the exact application. Our challenge is not to form a utopian, commentaries village, it is to be utterly devoted to God. Out of that devotion comes unity and love and how that is expressed will be different for us than for those 2000 years ago. The outcome is similar, though - we care for our brothers and sisters because we "love one another deeply." My prayer is that we continue to grow in that love.