One Word
This winter on The Daily Pattern we’re in a series called One Word. Each day we take one word – a feeling or circumstance – and bring a word from God to it. Let the Word of God speak to your life.
Invocation
Make the sign of the cross, and say,
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Invitation Prayer
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt. 5:5) O Lord, I am lowly and humble. You alone are my inheritance. Amen.
Word: Ephesians 2:13-16
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”
Meditation
Division by Paul Cloeter
I’m writing this devotion on January 6th, a date immortalized now for two reasons. News media today is filled with reports and commentary on the violent insurrection that took place at our nation’s capital one year ago. Truly, that will go down as a dark day in our nation’s history. It’s an ugly reminder of how divided we were and continue to be as Americans and how, in the words of Jesus, “a house divided against itself will fall” (Luke 11:17).
In one respect, it was also a dark day 2,000 or so years ago on this date when wise men came to the capital city of Israel to participate in the ‘inauguration’ of a new King. Back then, the incumbent was not happy either, and the resulting violence has become as much a part of the story as the miracle star and the three gifts. We celebrate Epiphany, January 6th, as a festival of light. Gentiles (that’s most of us) living in darkness have seen a great light (Isaiah 60:1-3). It’s our Christmas Day. Jesus has come for us, too! But if today is anything, it’s a lasting reminder of the division between the light and darkness of this world into which Jesus was born.
A valid case can be made that ‘division’ is the word that best describes the consequences we all suffer because of sin. Genesis 3 is the story of how sin separates us from a holy God. It ruins the beautiful harmony within His creation that God had intended for us. It results in death with its division of soul and body. Ultimately, it requires the division of heaven and hell.
And it’s this same ugly, divisive sin that turns us into enemies with others whom we don’t consider to be part of ‘us’.
God’s solution to the sin of division is reconciliation; to make “the two one”; ‘them’ and ‘us’ become a united ‘we’. It’s a peace process that would require violence. King Herod’s infanticide would become the blood of Christ on a cross. But through that great act of reconciliation, we who are now “in Christ are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! . . . And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Cor. 5:17,20).
Now more than ever, America needs this message. Live it! Share it!
Lord Jesus, You came into this world to bridge that great chasm between God and us caused by our sin. Bring the healing power of your peace to our struggles with division. Amen.
Prayer for Family
· For my immediate family (parents, spouse, siblings).
· For extended family (cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents)
· For close friends that are as family to me.
· For those who don’t have families, or whose families are broken.
· For forgiveness and reconciliation where there is division in my family.
· For provision where there is need in my family.
· For God to be the foundation, and the cross the center of my family.
· For a generation yet unborn, future members of our family.
Closing Prayer
O Lord and King, your Kingdom comes even without our prayer. But we pray that it would also come among us. We are desperate for your reign and rule, for all we see is rebellion. Come into my heart, my home, my family, my work, my church, my community. Rule with justice and with mercy. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.