Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Today’s text




Ephesians 4:1-3


I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you therefore to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you were called. With all humility and gentleness, and with patience, support each other in love. Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together.


Reflection


There is a peace that binds us together and the name of that peace is Jesus.


In recent weeks, I sometimes have taken to repeating a simple phrase as a mantra. I say it under my breath or barely aloud: Jesus is our peace.


Sometimes, such as when I feel anxious, I speak it as a petition: Jesus be our peace.


It is not easy to say what this means to me, but I can share what it does. The phrase is a portal, a doorway into a fresh and immense reality.


I enter a space big as the universe or at least as large as the universe within the mystery of my own soul. The noisy chatter of my anxieties fall quiet, and I know the love that is in Jesus.


It is as if I enter the reality that he is, the world that is in him. In that world, the love of God is as embracing and pervasive as the sky, and I know beyond any doubt that there is nothing to fear.


I wish I could say there were particular images or words associated with this awareness, but right now I can name none. There is nothing I see that I can describe. I know only that I enter this immense space where I know union with the mystery of all that was in Jesus, loving unity.


I am in him, in the unity he shares with that Loving Mystery he called Father, who is a living fountain of love and life in such abundance that worry about … anything … disappears.


The world lights up as place of wonder where joy and peace of heart are not only possible but plentiful, even amid the challenges of the day. A desire emerges to live in peace with every living thing, every human soul and all creation.


The reality into which I enter is not an occasional reality but always there, waiting for my awareness to open the door, the awareness that comes in simplest prayer: Jesus is our peace.


Knowing this peace, seeking unity in the Spirit is not a chore but an invitation to live in the reality that Jesus is instead of the much more fearful world we create in our anxious imaginations.


Pr. David L. Miller