If you have money in the stock market…or in a 401(k)…I suspect you’ve already spent a lot of time this past week, on your knees, praying.

Me, too.

It’s been, to put it mildly, a roller coaster. And the gyrations went from one end of the economy to the other. You had the mortgage crisis, and banks declaring shortfalls and huge industries like Ford announcing buyouts and layoffs.

Early in the week, I read an essay by Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlewaite in the Washington Post. She’s a minister and president of the Chicago Theological Seminary. And she noted that one of the lessons of this past week – while we were all hanging on for dear life – is that, more than ever, we’re all in this together.

What happens in Tokyo affects what happens in Paris and London and New York. Economic shifts in the yen affect what happens in a local bank in Arizona. Trades that happen in Germany can determine whether a widow in Nebraska can pay for heating oil next month.

In the world we live in now, a pebble dropped in a pond can cause a tsunami on the other side.

In thinking about all this, Reverend Thistlewaite looked back at another moment in history when we were all united by a feeling of crisis and a desperate hope for survival, The Great Depression.

Specifically, she decided to re-read Franklin Roosevelt’s inaugural address in 1933. It was the same address where he told America “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

And she discovered that he also said something else important in that address: “The measure of our restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.”

Roosevelt reminded the country that there was something greater than money binding us together.

And America came to realize that were all in it together – with a shared sense of community and common purpose.

This past week, the church has been praying in a particular way for a similar sense of community and common purpose. This is the 100th year that the world has marked a week of prayer for Christian Unity. And – whether by accident or design – the scripture readings chosen for today seem to speak to that idea.

In the second reading, Paul’s letter even cries out for unity among the people of Corinth. It was another moment in time when people – the early Church – were united by a crisis, and were struggling to survive.

“Is Christ divided?,” he asks. “I urge you,” he writes….”that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”

And when we come to Matthew’s gospel we are struck by the way in which Christ himself went about building the first Christian community. He went to live in the town of Capernaum, and walked along the sea. And one day, he called first one set of brothers, and then another.

He called them two by two. Brother with brother. From the very beginning, the message was clear: being church is not a solitary endeavor. Christ’s church would be built as a community. And it would be comprised of men who didn’t work alone. They were fishermen, casting large nets into the sea.

If you’ve ever seen that kind of work done, you know it takes more than one man to haul in a big catch. You need help.

Maybe that’s one reason why Christ chose his apostles from that particular line of work. These men had stamina. They had strength.

And they knew how to work together. The great work they would undertake would demand – in ways large and small – collaboration and even compromise.

There is a lesson there, I think, for all Christian churches, as we pray for unity.

In fact, Christ himself gives us a beautiful example in the gospel today.

Some scripture scholars believe there may have been rivalry and tension between the followers of John the Baptist and those who would follow Jesus.

But you’ll notice that when Jesus begins his ministry, he uses the very same words as John the Baptist: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

He isn’t trying to compete with the Baptist.

Rather, he is continuing the work that John began – and enlarging and amplifying it.

It’s a powerful example for all of us seeking to enlarge, and amplify, the gospel and bring it into the world.

And we should never forget that what unites us is greater than what divides us. As Paul put it, Christ is not divided – and we are the Body of Christ.

As we realized this week, our world is smaller than ever.

The global economy means all of us are inextricably linked, for better or for worse. Now, more than ever, we need to bear with one another, listen to one another, hope with one another, and uplift one another — as residents of the world, and as Christians.

Roosevelt reminded us that we have nothing to fear but fear itself – and that together, bound by a common purpose, we can achieve great things, no matter what our differences and difficulties. It is a message to ponder and pray over as followers of Christ, as well.

To use a metaphor the first apostles would understand: the sea may at times be rough.

But we’re all in the same boat.