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Christ Centered Unity:
Be Patient, Bearing With One Another In Love.
Ephesians 4: 1-13
4 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.8 This is why it says: When he ascended on high, he took many captive and gave gifts to his people.”
9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions]? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
What does it mean to “be patient, bearing with one another in love?”
The Rev. Dr. Allen Boesak makes it clear. Our move to justice happens when we, persistently and insistently, keep our eyes on the other shore. This patience does more than simply wait. Called makrothymía in Greek, this word means long-passion. It is to persevere for an adequate amount of time before expressing anger. It is to elude any impulsive yearning to retaliate, to get revenge.
How does that happen? Love. Brian McLaren says that in Jesus, “Love decentered everything else; love relativized everything else; love took priority over everything else—everything.” Love enables patience, even in anger.
However, this does not mean to lose anger. It is not an admonition to accept or settle for injustice. Rather, it is to assure that anger does not get in the way. It is to work tirelessly in appreciation and fairness for God’s people. Patience is to persist in the moral and spiritual quest for agape, the love of God that seeks good will, the welfare of all.
Abraham Lincoln said, “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” In Christ, our patient walk to God’s love and justice may often be slow, but it always looks ahead. Any wrath in our walk comes to spur, to bring God’s love and justice to bear. This walk seeks no return to Egypt. It does not revisits to what we know as unfairness. It moves us, together, into God’s love for all.
Prayer: Let me live, in the fruit of the spirit called patience. Help me to keep my eyes on the other shore, on the place ahead of me that is love, freedom, peace and power. And I, with others, will give you all praise, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Meditation Moment: We can walk slowly to the other shore when we fix our hearts and minds to look ahead and not behind.
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