31 Days of UnitySample

(Re)new: In Luke 15, Jesus tells a story about two brothers who don’t realize what they have from their Father. The younger brother looks at his life with his family and decides that it isn’t enough. He shames his father, demanding his inheritance to go and pursue his own life, and runs off to a distant land where he squanders all he has. Lying in filth of a pig pen he finally realizes how good he had it before and decides to head back home and beg his Father for forgiveness. The older brother never runs off, but he is just as lost. He lives without joy because he is always trying to earn his place with his father. His life of duty offers no enjoyment of the father’s blessings. It isn’t until his younger brother returns and is greeted with lavish mercy and excitement that he is confronted with his own shortcomings.

So too do we struggle to realize the gifts and blessings that are inherently ours as the children of God. This is part of the prayer the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus. The prayer is focused on the church recognizing the gifts they have already received from God.

First is the gift of hope. How precious is this gift of hope! When our faith is rooted in our creator, the God who is and was and will be, we have an enduring hope that transcends our circumstances. The second gift is understanding God’s delight in us. We are a glorious inheritance, a prized possession, God’s joy! Oh, the joy of knowing how loved we are by our Father! The third gift is power. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead and placed him above all other authorities is at work in us. God is at work in our lives with the fullness of God’s power!

Paul prays for these gifts to be revealed to the church because if we do not realize all that we already have as the children of God we will spend our lives searching for lesser things. Without realizing the hope we have in God we will search for other powers to put our hope in. Placing our faith in lesser things will undoubtedly let us down. If we don’t realize God’s delight in us we will search for ways of earning God’s attention and affection. Our faith will become performative and it will be duty and obligation. If we don’t realize the power of God at work in our lives we will turn to the power offered to us by the world. We will try to carry out the work of God without the power and presence of God and wonder at the results.

As we seek renewal for the church, Paul’s prayer is our prayer. Without realizing all that we already have as the children of God we will never know the fullness of Christ. If, however, we root our communities in hope, God’s unmerited delight in God’s children, and the power of Christ, we will discover anew our ability to be good news for the world. May the eyes of our hearts be enlightened to know these truths of God’s love for us.

After you read the passage, ask yourself these questions:

• Of the three gifts listed above, which one is the most encouraging to you today?
• Where do you most need the power of God in your life? Where do you need God to show up and bring resurrection?
• How would realizing these gifts change the way we relate to each other in the church and the world around us? What could we begin to heal if we lived into this prayer?

Our Prayer for (Re)newal

Create in us clean hearts, O God, that we may learn to be your people, and live in unity with one another. Give us the gift of humility, and strengthen us to live in sacrificial love for one another. May we glorify you by being peacemakers in a world of division. Amen