Unity
United by God in Christ
Based on: Ephesians 4:1-6
One of Aesop's fables goes like this. A lion used to prowl around a field in which four oxen used to live. Many times he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way the lion tried to attack he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, they started arguing among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field. Then the lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four. What is the lesson? United we stand, divided we fall.
Today is Unity Sunday. Is this little story from Aesop's fables a good illustration of the unity we have here at St. John's? I think you find some similarities, but also some important differences.
We Are One Body
Based On: 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, 12-27
Have you ever stopped to think about how marvelous God's creation is? I am baffled that some people can actually think that all of the wonderful things in this world came about by chance, through evolution. Just watch this! (Take out a pen and hold it in a hand as if to write with it.) Now isn't that amazing? Do you know what just happened? There are 22 muscles in the hand and they all worked together along with all the bones, ligaments, skin, and other parts of the hand – simply to hold a pen.
It is amazing when you begin to understand how each part of the hand has its own job to do. Each part of the hand is important. Each part of the hand works with all the other parts and when all the parts work together, the hand can do some pretty amazing things.
Unity
Based on: 2 Chronicles 30
It must have been a tremendous gathering of people – a worship service that covered the whole city of Jerusalem. They came from all over Judah and Israel to celebrate the Passover, to praise God for what he had done and for what he promised to do. Let’s take a look at this inspiring and encouraging display of unity among those people in the land of Israel. We will see that in order to have unity among each other we must first have unity with God. Then we will see how this unity has blessings for us.
