Call to Worship:
Psalm 20:1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary
and give you support from Zion!
3 May he remember all your offerings
and regard with favor your ascension offerings. Selah
Salutation:
Pastor: Christ is risen!
People: He is risen indeed!
Exhortation:
This morning our Psalter reading and New Testament reading from Acts stress a similar concept: the idea of unity. Psalm 133 says that it is good and pleasant when the people of God dwell in unity and Acts 4 says that the effects of the Resurrection proclamation is that believers were of one mind and one soul. This is remarkable! Looking at our evangelical lanscape today, unity is not on top of the agenda. We cannot deny that in a fallen world there will be disagreements over all sorts of matters, but in a fallen world the people of God must be united in what is essential. We must be united in the truths that have guided the apostolic church all these centuries. We will confess these truths in our Apostle’s Creed; we will confess together: the third day he rose again from the dead. But to make this affirmation is also to affirm that you have also been raised from the dead into newness of life. There are a lot of intricacies to this truth. To be raised from the dead is to be united with Christ; to be united with Christ is to be united to His body. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot be united to Christ and act as if the others united to Christ are not part of the same body. Brothers and Sisters, if we are united to Christ, we are united to the concerns of the body. One body, one faith. That is why this idea of unity is so difficult to accomplish. We want to be in unity, but only in the theological sense, not in the practical and communal sense. This simply is unbiblical. To be in unity with one another is to love one another, to be hospitable toward one another, to weep with those who weep, to rejoice with those who rejoice. To live in unity is no easy task once it passes from our minds to our hands, but there is no other way to do this. I exhort you this morning to live resurrected lives and this means in unity with one another.
Let us pray: Unite us, O Lord, as you are united, Father, Son and Spirit. One God united in perfect fellowship for all eternity.
