Wednesday, April 26, 2017

That They All May Be One


Jesus prayed, “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:20-26

Being One

She stands in a darkened harbor
raising her torch to the sky
we look up and smile at her words
give me your tired, your poor.

She stands aside at the border
looking on the guns and the razor wire
her relatives waiting on the other side
praying for one more kindness.

Our words are holy when we talk unity
we think we are so hospitable
as we demonize the recent stranger
who days ago were our people.

Love seems in short supply
meted out to those like us
welcome for the thoroughly vetted
the lighter skins the familiar languages.

Jesus bends in prayer over us
asking us to see our brokenness and need
knowing that others ache like us
reaching to be embraced as a lost sibling.




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