UNITY: Being of One Peaceful Mind
Next Sunday we will embark on a 5-part worship series around the word, UNITY. While division easily turns us away from each other, unity calls us to turn towards one another even when we disagree. This series builds on the two worship series that preceded it, the first being on PEACE, and the second being on the mind. My hope is that what we explore in the weeks ahead will move us as God’s people towards being of one, peaceful mind.
A beloved hymn that declares the unity of a peaceful mind in the Church is “The Church’s One Foundation.” I especially love this verse:
Elect from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth
her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.
Samuel Stone wrote “The Church’s One Foundation” in 1866 when he was 27 years old and serving as a priest in England. We could easily gaze back across history and think of his words coming from a land far away and a time long ago. The reality is that the Holy Spirit gave him the powerful poem in the midst of great conflict and unrest in the Church, and its message is vital for us now.
The peace of our one Lord, Jesus Christ, and the mind of that same Lord are all we need to move towards unity. Let us press on to the one hope in him as we listen to his Word together.
all good things to each of you,
Dr. Darian