In this year's Fall letter, we are going to begin exploring Jesus’ heart for unity, for oneness. The topic is the main passion fueling the Verbena vision and it has come forth as a result of meeting with hundreds of men and women over almost two decades and seeing the Spirit unify and integrate these believers in their inner person. We have expressed on the website that this passion for unity extends not only to the individual but also to the body of Christ worldwide, namely the Church. We are staking out ground in this engagement, though the topic is monumental, and we are inviting others into the conversation wherever we are. We won’t get very far in this short space but will lay some meaningful groundwork for ongoing discussion. Please join in with us.
Isaiah 35:8 is the source for the title of the "Reflections" since the letter’s inception more than 15 years ago. We believe the "highway" spoken of there describes the way of unity of the believer in union life with Christ and describes the way of unity for the whole Church, stating that "only the redeemed will walk there and the ransomed of the Lord will return."
John 17, Jesus’ passionate prayer to his Father in heaven just prior to his Crucifixion, is also a foundational Scripture for our work in prayer with people and for our work in joining Jesus in his prayer for the oneness first of each follower in Him and then for the oneness of all believers. Isaiah 35 and John 17 powerfully communicate a way in the Spirit, His way, Himself as "the way, the truth and the life."
When we pray John 17 with Jesus, we join Him in his posture of prayer: His face turned toward heaven - His voice addressing His Father in heaven, whom His teaching on prayer has already made clear, is also our Father in heaven (Luke 11). Joined in this prayer we are joining in the very heart of God for his creation, the very heart of discipleship and evangelism and the "hope of glory." His prayer unifies in time each believer and the community of believers:
"My prayer is not for them alone" (those given to him during his time
when the Word became flesh), "I pray also for those who believe in me
through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you
are in me. May they also be in us so the world may believe that you
have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me that they
may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be
brought into complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and
have loved them even as you have loved me …I have made you known
to them, and will continue to make known in order that the love you have
for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
There is obviously much mystery here as we encounter the prayer that the incarnate Christ be made manifest in each of his followers and through that union made manifest throughout his Church. So often the horizontal unity is emphasized in the first order - as if were we to work hard enough to bring it about it would eventually happen. In the Spirit, we might say that they are both being worked together but it is difficult to fathom, and seems proved by history, that individual believers not unified themselves by Christ and in Christ could be unified as a body which would communicate the love of God to the whole world. And it should give everyone confidence in praying for the one, no matter how deep the pain, no matter how great the barrier, no matter how great the abuse, how traumatic the story, that Jesus' prayer will be answered by His Father. He will be the way and bring unity within, deeper intimacy of a life in Christ and Christ’s life lived in a person. You in Christ, Christ in you: Christ. This is the fulfillment of John 17 that the whole body may come to complete unity in Christ.
Do we have our part in the fulfillment of John 17? Clearly we do. Henri Nouwen puts it to each one this way: “Do you really want to be converted? Are you willing to be transformed? Or do you keep clutching your old ways of life with one hand while with the other you beg people to help you.” He goes on:
"Conversion is certainly not something you can bring about yourself.
It is not a question of will power. You have to trust the inner voice that
shows the way. You know that inner voice. You turn to it often. But after
you have heard with clarity what you are asked to do, you start raising
questions, fabricating objections and asking everyone else’s opinion.
Thus you become entangled in countless contradictory thoughts,
feelings and ideas and lose touch with the God within you. Only by
attending constantly to the inner voice can you be converted to a
new life of freedom and joy."
So part of the way is a simple turning from all that is not. Then, we turn our face up and out in search of what is, a search for the transcendent real, and that very quest says Sandra Schneiders, author and professor of theology and spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, CA, "exercises a fascination in the life of a person that ‘relativizes’ the ‘normal’ concerns of life." The passion for the "ear to hear" that voice and obey is such a quest.
We believe that God has put a dream in each of our hearts that would draw us to seek more deeply that oneness with Jesus. That voice: His. That face: His. Ears of the heart attentive to that voice and eyes of the heart locked gaze to gaze with his in the watch within:
"The promise," says Schneiders, "that the dream is true deep within our
hearts keep us open to the call, fresh to join forces with those who see it
too. The longing, and the following, are themselves evidence that the truth
is in us and has prevailed in the face of all the evil surrounding us. The
very desire to follow Jesus is Jesus."
Isn’t that a great encouragement? That the Jesus praying in John 17 is the Jesus praying in you to the same end that we would be one. We pray to see more, to hear more and "to join forces with all those who see it too." “See, there it is."
Come, join the conversation and pray with us.
Trip and Laurie
The Verbena Foundation