“I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.” John 17:11
“Ou fe yon sel”. What image comes into your mind when you consider the message from our Savior in John 17 that says “we are one”? Next time you are sitting in ‘your’ pew at church spend a few moments, gazing at the Cross, and look at the others sitting in ‘their’ pews; did you sense the image of ‘we are one’ was present.
Back in the day, I was having coffee with a friend in Lincoln and I was sharing that another Lutheran told me that a young man from a non-denominational church had told them when finding out they were ‘Lutheran’ advised that they were not a Christian at all. Being a Lutheran is not being a Christian?
Farther back in the day while I was living in Haiti, a member from another Lutheran Mission Society that supported a Lutheran Pastor in Haiti indicated that the Haiti Lutheran Pastors that I was working with were not ‘really’ Lutheran Pastors. Being a Haitian Lutheran Pastor trained at the Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne didn’t mean that they are ‘Lutheran’?
If you turn on the news any given day you will most likely find that our society has become very prolific at pointing fingers, spreading facts that may or may not be true and proclaiming that ‘my way’ is the high way and you are wrong. What is happening in our world? We all can’t be right all of the time and we all can’t be wrong; all of the time. We were all there when the crowd shouted for Pilate to release Barabbas. We were all there during the scourging. We were all there when the nails were being driven to hold our Savior on the cross. We were all there when He said ‘it is finished.’ We were all there; He died for all of us.
The children in the attached photo attend one of the Lutheran schools in Ouanaminthe. These three boys and three girls are like me; Lutherans and Christians. Doesn’t matter what this world may say about you, them and me, Christ died for our sins and now in the heat of July, several weeks after we celebrated Pentecost, we join voices and proclaim that He is risen; risen indeed!!! Ou fe yon sel; we are one! Thank you for joining me in supporting the Trinity HOPE feeding program at their school. I thought that a good song to close this devotion would be the words to ‘We are one in the Spirit’ that was written by Peter Scholte.
“We are One in The Spirit, we are One in The Lord. We are One in The Spirit, we are One in The Lord. And we pray that all unity may one day be restored. And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our Love, yes they'll know we are Christians by our love. We will work with each other, we will work side by side. We will work with each other, we will work side by side. And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride. We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand. We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand. And together we'll spread the News that God is in our land.”
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you…Jay