E Pluribus Unum.

If your Latin is rusty, the English translation is “Out of Many, One”.

This motto appears on the Great Seal of the United States, dating back to an Act of Congress in 1782.

It originally spoke of forging one nation composed of many diverse states. President Obama stressed that we are forging one people composed of many diverse peoples.

The Webb Space Telescope forges one mirror out of 18.

The primary mirror of the Webb Space Telescope consists of 18 individual mirror segments.

Why?

Only in this way could the primary mirror be folded small enough to be squeezed into the tip of the rocket, as if it was an origami.

Each of these 18 individual hexagonal mirrors is 4.3 feet in “diameter”. They are connected to each other. But being connected isn’t enough. All 18 mirrors must be aligned so that they function as one large mirror that is 21 feet 4 inches in “diameter”.

How well aligned?

NASA explains:

To work together as a single mirror, the telescope’s 18 primary mirror segments need to match each other to a fraction of a wavelength of light—approximately 50 nanometers. To put this in perspective, if the Webb primary mirror were the size of the United States, each segment would be the size of Texas, and the team [at NASA] would need to line the height of those Texas-sized segments up with each other to an accuracy of about 1.5 inches. (jwst.nasa.gov)

Furthermore, NASA is aligning these mirror segments at a distance of a million miles!

How does God align the diverse followers of the Way of Jesus—and do it across diverse cultures and two millennia?

A clue came when the Church Universal was born at the Festival of Pentecost. On that day, people from all over the Roman world heard the good news about Jesus in their own language.

There was only one Jesus and one Spirit of the one LORD. (Deuteronomy 6:4). Nevertheless, people could follow Jesus while retaining their diverse languages, genders, and cultures! (Acts 1:12-14; Acts 2:1-47).

As the Apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia: “There is neither Jew nor [non-Jew], neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28; see also Colossians 3:11).

How is this possible?

At the Last Supper, Jesus prayed that all of his followers “may be one” and “may be brought to complete unity” (John 17:22-23).

He used an illustration about a vine to explain how to unify ourselves—how to align ourselves.

We must abide in Jesus as the branches of a vine abide in the vine. (John 15:1-17).

We will be many different branches—many diverse people and diverse churches. But we must all still abide in the one, same vine. Jesus!

We must “love each other”. (John 15:17).

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the divided, disunited church at Corinth, he described the kind of love that makes such unity—such alignment—possible among diverse followers of Jesus and among diverse branches of the Church Universal.

Regardless of which branch of the vine we are on, if we do not abide in this kind of love, we are nothing. We gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2-3).

Regardless of which branch of the vine we are on:

—we must be patient with the other people and branches:

—we must be kind;

—we must not envy;

—we must not boast;

—we must not be proud;

—we must not dishonor others;

—we must not be self-seeking;

—we must not be easily angered;

—we must not keep any record of wrongs;

—we must not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth.

—we must always protect, always trust, always hope, always persevere. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

We must always abide in the vine of Jesus.

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For additional thoughts arising from the Webb Space Telescope, please read my blogs “The Webb Space Telescope—Reaching the Place of Service”, “The Webb Space Telescope—Years of Preparation”, “The Webb Space Telescope—Liftoff!”, “The Webb Space Telescope: God’s Unfolding Plans”, “The Webb Space Telescope: Shedding “Whatever Entangles Us”, “The Webb Space Telescope: Many Parts, One System!”, and “The Webb Space Telescope: Fashioning Each Mirror”.

In my book Visions of the Church (published together in one volume with my book Visions of America), I use the troubled—but ultimately triumphant—flight of Apollo 13  as the narrative thread to provide an overview of 2,000 years of Church history in a mere 80 pages.

For information about the Webb Space Telescope, please check the official NASA information at jwst.nasa.gov.

In case you’re wondering how Congress passed a law about the Great Seal in 1782, even though the Constitution did not take effect until 1789, remember that the original Continental Congress was established in 1774 by the Thirteen Colonies. In 1776, this Congress declared independence from the British Empire. Its powers were eventually set forth in the Articles of Confederation. These Articles of Confederation were replaced by the current Constitution of the United States of America that was drafted in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and that was adopted in 1788 when a sufficient number of states ratified it. On April 30, 1789, George Washington was sworn in as the first President under the Constitution. Although we routinely refer to George Washington as our first President, there had already been a number of Presidents under the Articles of Confederation.