Seventh Sunday of Easter

May 29, 2022 

Seventh Sunday of Easter

I am writing this on the morning after the horrific shooting at the elementary school in Texas. First, please read this prayer of Jesus:

John 17:20-26

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!

“O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”

Two weeks ago, I was serving as a spiritual director on a Walk to Emmaus retreat. On Sunday morning, I shared with the group assembled for morning chapel my personal experience with the beauty of the Body of Christ during the weekend. The sponsoring team for the retreat had been covering me in prayer for some health issues I’ve been dealing with this year, and I had one particularly profound experience with a member of the support team who shared a very applicable scripture passage with me. What I was experiencing was the Body of Christ, the church, that Jesus was praying for in the above passage from John 17. And what I was experiencing two weeks ago was the life Jesus envisioned for his followers to experience throughout their lives.

I believe I am safe in assuming that the young man who murdered twenty-one people on May 24, 2022, did not experience life in the Body of Christ. One of the commentators on TV, speaking on the night of the shooting, referred to the moral rot of our society. I agree with that description. But God, within the moral rot, the sin that encompasses so much of our culture, has created the islands of righteousness that are the Body of Christ.

The politicians will be putting forth all manner of solutions to violence in our society. From my perspective, all I can do is continue in my work as a co-laborer with Christ to extend the Kingdom of God. It is through our life in Christ that the world will believe God sent Jesus as the savior of the world. I pray all my followers who are seeking the Life in Christ as their way of life will reaffirm their commitment to building for the Kingdom of God.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.