31 Days of UnitySample

(Re)new: There are a lot of walls in this world! Often times the only way we have discovered to prevent conflict is to build a wall. Walls divide and separate us from one another. Some walls are so big or so effective that they are famous. The Berlin Wall put citizens of the same city into two separate worlds. The Great Wall of China, a remarkable achievement of human ingenuity, stretches an unfathomable 13,000 miles! Korea has long been separated by a wall, a demilitarized zone, that has seen a people carved in half and living in radically different circumstances. With all the conflicts of our lives, a wall is often the only way we can imagine bringing peace.

Isn’t it glorious then, that God has a bigger imagination than we do? Where we see walls as a solution, God sees walls that divide as a barrier to be overcome. In Ephesians 3 we are reminded that God’s work in the world is a work of bringing together those who were previously separated by “the dividing wall of hostility”. This is a barrier destroyed by the love of God which allowed people previously separated by ethnicity and religious practice to be united as the children of God.

Once the wall of hostility is destroyed we are freed to discover a new life as God’s people. Whereas before we were defined by our lives on one side of the wall, now we can discover a new life, shaped by and for each other. This is the hope of God’s kingdom!

How does this vision apply to the church, today? Well, as we look around we can see all sorts of walls that divide us as the people of God. There are walls around church decisions that stretch back over a thousand years! There are walls around ethnic identities, race, language, nationality, socio-economic status, political affiliation, preferences for reading scripture, and so much more. There are so many walls it is hard to even know where to start.

So, why don’t we start by listening to God and asking God which wall needs to be destroyed first? In our communities or traditions, which wall was built by hostility and now can be torn down through grace and love? How can we begin to destroy these barriers through the love of one another?

After you read the passage, ask yourself these questions:

• Which walls does God reveal to you, as you pray for wisdom?
• Do you need to confess your participation in building new walls of hostility? What does repentance for this look like?
• How can God use the church when instead of erecting walls of hostility it dismantles them?

Our Prayer for (Re)newal

Create in us clean hearts, O God, that we may learn to be your people, and live in unity with one another. Give us the gift of humility, and strengthen us to live in sacrificial love for one another. May we glorify you by being peacemakers in a world of division. Amen