Lately I am struck by how interconnected our lives are -- not just our lives as a family, community, or church body, but as citizens of the U.S. and the world. If a factory closes here and a comparable one opens in a different country, families are affected, for bad and for good, in both locations. If a tariff on imported sugar beets helps the farmers in one country, it hurts the farmers in another. If a beautiful work of art is created in one place, it has the potential to help beautify many places.... and the examples go on.
Through Facebook I recently reconnected with some people from high school and grad school I hadn't talked with in years. In addition to Facebook, email and phone calls, I even connect with friends through those "old-fashioned" face-to-face conversations! Technology provides us with avenues to keep connected in ways we didn't have 10-15 (or more) years ago. And yet, in some ways, our local communities have become less interconnected. I know one set of neighbors pretty well, one lady more than by name, and two other houses by names. The rest of my block I don't know their names. If calamity happened in the middle of the night, would we know each other well enough and trust each other to help each other? Or, to put it another way, would I be interconnected enough with the people around me to know we would "have each others' backs?" Tis' a strange, paradox of a world we live in.
But, if we are followers of Jesus Christ, we know we are interconnected. Paul talks about the parts of the church being like parts of a body: that all are important and each need each other. We suffer together, we rejoice together. And Jesus prayed for unity among the believers in John 17. Maybe that's because he knew us - knew that we, even with good intentions, find ourselves pushing for things that may cause disunity within the church. Maybe because there is always some little whisper of chaos the Enemy is trying to stir up within a church. Even when we don't want to be (for whatever earthly reason), we are interconnected by a God who wants us connected to Him.
So, we pray....
God of Life and Love,
Remind us of the gift of being connected to you. Help us live a life connected by your Spirit to the Source of the Abundant Life. Keep us mindful of those in this world whose lives are affected by our actions, and help us to be the hands and feet for your Word to go forth. Remind us how to love and to continually seek you so we can remain unified as your children and your church. Show us your most excellent way and give us one heart and mind with each other and with you. Guide us by your hand into the paths of peace.
Amen.
20-23I'm praying not only for them
But also for those who will believe in me
Because of them and their witness about me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they'll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they'll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you've sent me and loved them
In the same way you've loved me.
24-26Father, I want those you gave me
To be with me, right where I am,
So they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me,
Having loved me
Long before there ever was a world.
Righteous Father, the world has never known you,
But I have known you, and these disciples know
That you sent me on this mission.
I have made your very being known to them—
Who you are and what you do—
And continue to make it known,
So that your love for me
Might be in them
Exactly as I am in them. (John 17 MSG)
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire the greater gifts.
And now I will show you the most excellent way. (1 Cor. 12 NIV)
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