Comfort in Unity
AM: Psalm 66 • Isaiah 28:9-16 • Ephesians 4:1-16
PM: Psalm 116, 117 • Isaiah 4:2-6 • John 14:15-31
Our reading from chapter 14 of the gospel of St. John today invites us to join Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper. In chapter 13 he was “troubled” by the agony awaiting him, when he would be deserted by even these, his best friends; but now, with typical generosity, he turns his attention to their needs and tells them, “I will not leave you desolate” and “Do not be troubled.” Again and again he reminds them of the unity he shares with the Father and that they share with him and therefore with the Father too: “I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
By about 100 a.d., a few years after St. John completed his gospel, a writer who was probably a disciple of St. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians. In the reading from Ephesians for today, the author might be recalling Jesus' Last Supper affirmation of our unity with the Son and the Father when he writes, “There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
In John's version of the Last Supper, Jesus commands his disciples to “keep [his] word, and the writer of Ephesians tells us how to keep the word of God: “I, therefore,” he writes, “a prisoner of the Lord, for the Lord, beg you to live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” We can imagine what a relief it was for this writer, condemned for his service to the Lord, to know that the Lord and all Christians were there with him “in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” every day of his imprisonment. As for ourselves, let us join hands and hearts together and live that life “worthy of our calling” which the writer of Ephesians and our Lord Jesus recommend.
Written by John DuVal
John is borrowing the phrase “join hands and hearts” from Kay DuVal's Morning Reflection on the Lord's Prayer of last month. For their evening prayer and reflection, he and Kay have been reading Rhonda Mawhood Lee's amazing handbook on prayer, Seek and You Will Find (Forward Movement, 2021).