Monday Meditation

being bound to one another

Once when our Presbytery was enduring conflict and disagreement around a variety of “issues,” a pastor/colleague invited me to lunch. We didn’t know one another well, but there was an assumption about our differences. We had a great conversation, sharing a bit about our lives, our “origin stories” and our current concerns about “the issues.” It turns out we had a great deal in common underneath our differences. At the conclusion, Stan invited me into a 30 day practice of prayer for one another, after which we would meet again to share our experience and continue our conversation. It was a gracious invitation that turned out to have a profound influence on both of us. A deeper friendship was born, that remains to this day though our circumstances have changed.

Recently, I adopted a similar 30 day practice for several friends/family/colleagues to whom I sent an email saying I was praying daily for them. It was a lived experience of what it means, in practice, to belong to the body of Christ, the communion of saints. Recently, the members of the Bible study I lead in our congregation have been invited to be in mutual daily prayer for each other. There may be people in your life that you want to draw closer to them. For whom do you want to enter into an intentional practice of prayer? I commend to you this practice and the prayer from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 3:14-21.

I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family
in heaven and on earth
takes its name.

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory,
he may grant that you may be strengthened
in your inner being with power
through his Spirit, and
that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith,
as you are being rooted
and grounded in love.

I pray that you may have the power
to comprehend, with all the saints,
what is the breadth and length
and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ
that surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled
with all the fullness of God.

Now to the One who
by the power at work within us
is able to accomplish abundantly
far more than all we can ask or imagine,
to God be glory in the church
and in Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever.
Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21