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PSALMS 133 EPHESIANS 5:8-14
JOHN 17:20-21
The
Scripture tells us that when Joshua and the Israelite's arrived at the gates of
Jericho, they could not enter. The walls of the city were too steep for any one
person to climb; too strong to be taken down with brute force. And so they sat
for days, unable to pass on through.
But God had a plan for his people. He told them
to stand together and march together around the city, and on the seventh day he
told them that when they heard the sound of the ram’s horn, they should speak
with one voice. And at the chosen hour, when the horn sounded and a chorus of
voices cried out together, the mighty walls of Jericho falling down.
There are many lessons to take from this passage, just as there
are many lessons to take from this day, just as there are many memories that
fill the space of this church (ELCT- Day). As I was thinking about which ones
we need to remember at this hour.
What
a vision Jesus must have had of the essential oneness of the race. Man is one
continuity of the race throughout all the ages. Bird and beast are always
beginning; they are what bird and beast were thousands of years ago. Man is the
exception. In his life today, he shows a whole past of human knowledge. It is
the whole race of man which is the image of God; forever in the making, never
made. We are members of Christ; we are members of the whole body of humanity,
past, present, and to come. The whole family in heaven and earth centers in
Him; derives its life and spirit from Him.
I. In speaking the words of the text, Jesus
was leaving the world and returning to the heavens; for party interests in the
world were too strong to allow Him to live. But of one thing He was sure that
men would believe in Him; that after His death, the affections of men in the
world would go out of the world, and would seek to centre themselves in Him.
Our poor animal senses may be shut up in the world, but our hearts never. The
hearts of the most skeptical men refuse to be dictated to by their unbelieving
brains. The world cannot hold back its heart from Christ—that is the supreme
fact in the world; and when other facts and attractions have had their day,
human hearts are found struggling away towards the Christ of God and the Christ
of humanity. He was sure, therefore, that although His last day in the world
was come, He was only at the beginning of His reign.
II.
"The Father Himself loved you,"
says Jesus; "that you all may be one love and one glory." There is
but one revealed glory—living glory—and that is the glory of God, the eternal
love. He says, "I will give to the children that glory; I will centre it
in their souls as the very fountain of their power." What an inseparable, unutterable
union, this indwelling of the Divine glory will make. First of all, our union
with God Himself; not by anything that is from ourselves, but first of all, by
the glory of God Himself being put into our souls, and so uniting us with
Himself, by Himself, and the very bond which unites us with heaven unites for
ever one with another.
Our Savior here prays on
the behalf of such as should believe on him, that they might be one in faith,
and one in brotherly love. Whoso considered this as a piece of Christ’s prayer for
believers, and that St. Paul hardly wrote one epistle to the primitive apostolic
churches in which he did not press this by most potent argument, cannot but
nourish some hopes, (how improbable so ever it appears at present), that all
the sincere disciples of Christ shall one day arrive at the keeping of the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and likewise look upon themselves in
point of duty obliged to endeavor it. To which pitch of perfection possibly
Christians might soon arrive, if superiors would, after the example of the
apostle, Acts 15:28, lay upon their
inferiors no more than necessary things; and equals would
learn to contend for truth in love, and to walk with their brethren so far as
they have attained; and as to other things, to forbear one another in love; and
wherein any of their brethren are otherwise minded, then they are to wait till
God shall reveal it to them, Philippians 3:15.
He also prays that they
might be one in the Father and the Son; that is, that they might believe; for
faith is that grace by which we are united to, and made one with, God and
Christ; though others interpret it of obedience or such things wherein God the
Father and Christ are one. For although so many as are ordained to life shall believe, yet
that they might believe is matter of prayer: this our Savior prays for, for the
further glory of God, which is that which he meant by the world’s believing
that God had sent him; there being no greater evidence that Christ is the true
Messiah, than the general acceptance of the doctrine of the gospel, which he
brought throughout the world; for who can imagine, that a new doctrine brought
into the world by one of no greater reputation than Christ had in the world,
and propagated by persons of no greater quality than the apostles were, should
obtain in the greatest part of the world, if he that first introduced it had
not been first sent by God into the world, and the apostles had not been
extraordinarily influenced and assisted by God as to the propagation of it,
after Christ was ascended into heaven?
His prayer is that the
unity which He has requested for the Apostles may also be experienced by His
people as a whole. That unity He likens to the unity between Himself and His
Father, a unity of purpose and action, of love and truth, which will be theirs
as they abide in Him and the Father. This portrayal of unity and love will then
make its impression on the world so that the world will believe that Jesus
Christ came from the Father. Here of course He means by ‘the world’ that part
of ‘the world’ (that is, of the non-believing world) that sees Christians
active in a unity of love.
For some considerable
time that unity did impress the world. They said, ‘see how these Christians
love one another’. And this was enhanced by the persecution that drove Christians
together. Even today whenever the hearts of Christians are firmly set on Christ
rather than on the church there is a unity and love which is remarkable to
behold. The more we ‘abide in Christ’, the more that oneness is seen. But let
us get on to cold doctrine alone and that unity becomes conflict. There is no
greater divider than enthusiasm for some secondary interpretation or doctrine,
or our own individual interpretation of Scripture.
It is clear that Jesus
was as much concerned for the open revealing of this spiritual oneness as for
anything else, for He continually underlines it. Christians will
inevitably disagree on doctrine, on views of the scriptures, on church
government and on many daily practices, but when they have allowed this to
destroy essential oneness with all Christians who truly believe in the LORD
Jesus Christ, they have committed a great sin. They have denied their
birthright and brought shame on Christ. If men are one with the Father and the
Son, then they are one with each other, and must love one another, and must
show it, for how else is the world to believe?. This is the ‘unity of the
Spirit’ (Ephesians 4:3). It is the
result of the Father’s love in them (v.
26) It does not mean compromising what they see as the truth, it means that
they love one another while disagreeing, because they are one in Him. That is
what matters above all.
The basis of this unity
is that they have heard and received the word of the Apostles. It is a unity
based on apostolic teaching, an assumption illustrated in 1 John 2:19 where it
results in their “abiding in the Father and the Son” (abiding in the truth
of the Triune God), as long as what they have “heard from the beginning” (the
truth presented by Apostolic men) abides in them (1 John 2:24). There are a few essential truths which determine a
man’s position before God. If a man believes in Jesus as uniquely God’s Son,
and in the fact that His work on the cross, and that alone, somehow brings him
an undeserved forgiveness, and responds to God on the basis of this, is he not
made one with the Father? Then he must be embraced in the circle of Christian
love however differently he may view more detailed interpretations.
God’s final purpose is
to reconcile all things to Himself (Colossians
1:20) and to bring all things into harmony in and through Christ (Ephesians 1:10), removing the rebellion
and disharmony that man has introduced into creation (Romans 8:1-23). The church was intended to be the first fruits, the
outward sign that God’s purposes were on the way to fulfillment. We shame Him
when we fight with each other.
Dear brother and sisters in Christ with
VISION
STATEMENT: A communion of people rejoicing
in love and peace; blessed spiritually and physically, hoping to inherit
eternal life through Jesus Christ.
MISSION: To make people know Jesus Christ and have life in it fullness by bringing to them the Good News through words and deeds based on the Word of God as it is in the Bible and the Lutheran teachings guided by the ELCT Constitution.
MISSION: To make people know Jesus Christ and have life in it fullness by bringing to them the Good News through words and deeds based on the Word of God as it is in the Bible and the Lutheran teachings guided by the ELCT Constitution.
We have twenty five (25) Dioceses; It has 23 Hospitals and
more than 140 health centers and dispensaries spread across Tanzania. It is
engaged in PHC, diaconal, HIV counseling, treatment and Palliative Care at
national and Diocesan levels. ELCT has a number of water projects as well as
poverty alleviation and environment protection projects. The implementations of
these projects have had a significant impact on development in the communities.
Brothers and
sisters, we cannot walk alone.
In the struggle for peace and justice, we cannot
walk alone.
In the struggle for opportunity and equality, we
cannot walk alone
In the struggle to heal this nation and repair
this world, we cannot walk alone.
That is the
unity – the hard-earned unity – that we need right now. It is that effort, and
that determination, that can transform blind optimism into hope – the hope to
imagine, and work for, and fight for what seemed impossible before.
So let us
say that on this day of all days, each of us carries with us the task of changing
the world, hearts and minds. The division, the stereotypes the ease with which we blame our troubles on others
– all of this distracts us from the common challenges we face – war and
poverty; injustice and inequality. We can no longer afford to build ourselves
up by tearing someone else down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or
fear or hate. It is the poison that we must clean from our politics; the wall
that we must tear down before the hour grows too late.
May the Almighty
Father through Jesus Christ help the Church that is the invisible and visible church
to show us way to live hence bring changes in this challenging world.
Prepared
by
REV. KURWA
SADATALEY
18Th JUNE,
2017
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