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The Stones

Peggy and I were in awe as we toured Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia (translated “holy family”), the concept of Antoni Gaudi. From its towering spires to its intricate reliefs and tree-like pillars — all expressed in a cohesive blend of free-flowing styles — this cathedral visually testifies to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Construction of this elaborate design began in 1882 and is anticipated for completion in 2026, 144 years later and 100 years after Guadi’s death. The Catalon architect reportedly once quipped, “My client is in no hurry.”

Truly magnificent though it is, this edifice is merely an artistic expression of something infinitely more marvelous, namely the true church, a people born of the Spirit through faith in Christ and united in Him. Paul teaches we were once “separated from Christ . . . having no hope and without God in the world,”1 but this is no longer true about us. For the apostle asserts a new and collective identity we live together: “members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”2 Members of God’s household, joined together as a holy temple in which God lives — might we be in a most real sense a “sagrada familia”? Yes, and Paul awakens the church to this reality: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? . . . God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.”3 Pause to grasp this; soak it in, it is our identity as a people.

So we are, in Peter’s words, “living stones . . . being built up as a spiritual house.”4 We are no longer unused building materials piled high, separate, and idle; rather, we are built into something far greater than the sum of our individual parts. Then what happens when we as living stones are blended together as one? We testify as one body — a new creation — to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Such an honor.

Father, “May [You] the God of endurance and encouragement grant [us] to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together [we] may with one voice glorify [You] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”5 In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Ephesians 2:12 ESV
2 Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV
3 1 Corinthains 3:16-17 NIV (emphasis added)
4 1 Peter 2:5 ESV
5 Romans 15:5-6 ESV

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A People with a Purpose

In last week’s post, I shared a snippet of a note to a fellow Kairos Prison Ministries volunteer, a response to his warm holiday message to me. “Throughout the past year, the word that keeps coming to me is ‘unity,’” I wrote. Here is another excerpt from my reply: “The older I get, the more I value and enjoy each person’s uniqueness. It’s like a symphony: each instrument sounds different than the others, yet they all blend together into something more beautiful than if they were all the same. God is so incredibly wise, building His Church this way.” The Bible depicts the Church as a building and as a body, but in our focus on unity, let’s begin with “a people.”

Sin separates us. It separates us from God and from each other. To the ancient Jews, Isaiah prophesied, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,”1 and through the prophet Hosea, God declared of wayward Israel, “you are not my people, and I am not your God.”2 Of the Gentiles, Paul likewise wrote, “remember that you were . . . separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise.”3 And between Jews and Gentiles stood a “dividing wall of hostility.”4

But God has done what only He can do: create something from nothing. Peter proclaims to the Church, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”5 We are a people — a people made one in Christ —and our differences divide us no longer, for as Paul writes, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”6 And again, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.”7 Our ethnicities, genders, and other differences remain, of course, but they no longer divide us, for united in Christ we are one with each other. We are a people, God’s people.

So Peter points us forward in new identity, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God’s] own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”8 Christ Jesus has made us to be a people, a people with a purpose.

Father, in grace You have made us to be a people united with You in and through Christ Jesus. May we live, move, and breathe as one, Your people in Christ. In His name we pray, Amen.

1 Isaiah 59:2 ESV
2 Hosea 1:9 ESV
3 Ephesians 2:12 ESV
4 Ephesians 2:14 ESV
5 1 Peter 2:10 ESV
6 Galatians 3:28 ESV
7 Colossians 3:11 ESV
8 1 Peter 2:9 ESV

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Unity’s Unlikely Starting Point

Late last year, a fellow Kairos volunteer wrote me a heartfelt reflection on prison ministry in general and some kind words of personal affirmation, as well. His note touched me and moved me to pen a reply from which I share this brief excerpt: “Throughout the past year, the word that keeps coming to me is ‘unity.’ How powerfully God acts when we submit to Him — and to each other — in unity. It starts with each and every man on the team.”

Life, even among believers, isn’t always so harmonious, is it? The word “unification” itself implies separation as a starting point — “E Pluribus” we get, but “Unum” is elusive. What does division and discord among us look like? Ever plainspoken, the apostle James confronts believers for our self-centeredness that divides: “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? . . . You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.”1 And Paul, with an edgy rebuke, chides the Corinthians for their divisive pride: “I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.”2 Such division is as sinister as it is ugly, for James teaches us, “envy and selfish ambition in your hearts . . . does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”3

Then how must we commence? Paul exhorts us to consciously choose unity over discord. “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”4 In other words, elevate the body of Christ over all that would carve it to ineffective pieces. Then do we for the sake of unity compromise the Word of God in appeasement and acquiescence? Not at all! Rather, even in our differences and interpersonal struggles, let us never lose sight of who we are and Whose we are: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”5 Then let us depart from division and flourish in the oneness that is ours in Christ Jesus.

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” — Romans 12:10 NIV

Father, Your ways are higher than ours. In wisdom and love, You have united us in Christ. Deliver us from the evil one, that we will grow up together and bring glory to Your name. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 James 4:1-2 NIV
2 1 Corinthians 11:18-19 NIV
3 James 3:14-16 NIV
4 1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV
5 1 Corinthians 12:27 ESV