“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 was that you ask? What image comes into your mind when you consider the message from our Savior in John 17 that says “we are one”? During a Lent service a few months ago, while gazing at the Cross, listening to Pastor Fitzner’s message and then looking back over the congregation gathered in our Sanctuary the image of ‘we are one’ was present.
Back in the day while living in Lincoln, I recall when a young man from a non-denominational church had told me, when finding out that I was a ‘Lutheran’ told me that I wasn’t a ‘true’ Christian. 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 Pastors that I was working with were not ‘really’ Lutheran Pastors. According to them, being a Haitian Lutheran Pastor trained at the Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne didn’t mean that they really are not ‘Lutheran’.
Political parties are now putting ads on the airwaves telling how good their candidates are and how bad the opponents ‘really’ are. It seems 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 the Lutheran school in Ouanaminthe. These three boys and three girls are like me; Lutherans and Christians. Doesn’t matter what the ‘learned’ of this fallen world may say about these kids, you and me; Christ died for our sins and now 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 today 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