Web of Unity

“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

A fine spider web, limned by dew diamonds. A grass head brushes one end, and the whole trembles and tremors, finely taut. My morning prayer walk, lightened by beauty, a prayer interrupted with praise for dew diamonds, spider weavings, and pearled patterns. 

My morning prayer—prayer lines bind intimately in unity with the High King of heaven. Prayer is to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. It invites us into a beautiful dance. Prayer brings us into the life of the Trinity. His will becomes our will. His desires are impressed on our heart. Our voice echoes Christ as he intercedes (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). The Spirit groans with us, communes with our spirit, confirms, searches in prayer (Rom. 8:15-16; 8:26-27; 1 Cor. 2). Intimate unity in prayer with the Most High, the Fear of Jacob, now our heavenly Father to whom we can run with boldness (Eph. 3:12). Each prayer sent heavenward, an invisible bond, woven tighter, limned in pure glory, arriving before the rainbow throne of light and the crystal sea. 

Yet, prayer I think weaves a fine web of unity in this world, horizontally, between believers. We are part of a body. One hundred and eighty Christians are martyred for their faith each month. Countless more reviled, attacked, mocked, rejected, lose their livelihood, family, etc. If one member suffers…. Do we suffer with them? Do we cry? Do we ache?

In their loneliness, their loss, grief, solitary cells, fleeing treks in deserts, prayer sends an invisible, glory-limned line. As they are attacked, the whole trembles and tremors. They are not alone. They are heard—by their Father, but also by us. We echo their cries to the Father. Together, in one Spirit, one body. Together, in one Spirit, we cry united in one Savior, to one Father.

Not just some nice idea. Real power, real unity, real presence, real participation attested to throughout the Scripture:

“OUR Father in heaven…” (Mat. 6:9).

And Paul wrote to those who were not physically present with him:

“I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf” (Romans 15:30).

“praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Eph. 6:19).

“for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance” (Phil. 1:19).

“You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many” (2 Corinthians 1:11).

Paul saw prayer as powerful. But also unifying. They participated in his sufferings and in his ministry by their prayers. They strove together in prayer—a fine line of unity sent out. Through the prayers of distant believers, God delivered, God blessed, God answered—a web of unity between believers and the Triune God. To the Iraqi Christians fleeing ISIS, to those fleeing in Nigeria, and from Boko Haram, to those rejected by Muslim families—our prayers bind us to them. They are not alone. It can seem ephemeral, but those fine spider web lines are strong, and glitter with a heaven-dewed glory. Prayer is by faith, and it moves mountains, crosses seas, enters behind iron curtains, penetrates enemy lines, slips into solitary cells and torture chambers, refreshes in refugee camps, not barricaded by handcuffs.

The psalms too, attest to the unifying web of prayer. At first glance, it can seem like there is little intercession. Yet, as John Goldingay notes in his commentary, the psalms are full of intercession in that the intercessors 

“involve themselves in intercession by standing with a person in need and praying with them and for them…In a quite literal sense, interceding or intervening on someone’s behalf involves putting oneself in another person’s place. It does not involve praying for someone so much as praying with them and even as them. For this reason there are no special forms of intercession. Intercession is simply praying in the first person, by taking on the persona of the one in need” (1).

We pray with them. We pray as them, one body, all suffering. In prayer we suffer with them before our one Father. When one suffers, the whole body tremors. Will you? Will you suffer when one suffers? Will you stand with them? Cry? Sacrifice time as they lay down all? Will you participate in the body of Christ? Will you tremor, touched in the fine lines of Spirit-wrought unity? And not of us, but in praise to the Spirit of unity, the Spirit who grants fellowship, through Christ, by the love of God (2 Cor. 13:14). To his praise, the Head of the body, the One who is persecuted with them (Acts 9).

NOTES
(1) John Goldingay, Psalms Volume 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic), p. 65-66.