Week Of Prayer For Christian Unity 2017Sample

Reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Commentary

What if? What if the prophecies in the Bible actually came true? If the wars between people stopped and if life-giving things were to be made out of the weapons of war?

What if God's justice and peace reigned, a peace which was more than simply the absence of war? If all of humanity came together for a celebration in which not a single person was marginalized? What if there really was no more mourning, no more tears, and no more death? It would be the culmination of the reconciliation that God brought about in Jesus Christ. It would be heaven!

Psalms, canticles, and hymns sing of the day when the whole perfected creation finally arrives at its goal, the day when God will be "all in all." They tell about the Christian hope for the fulfilment of God's reign, when suffering will be transformed into joy. On that day, the Church will be revealed in her beauty and grace as the one body of Christ. Wherever we gather in the Spirit to sing together about the fulfilment of God's promises, the heavens break open and we begin here and now to dance to the melody of eternity.

As we can already experience this presence of heaven, let us celebrate together. We may be inspired to share images, poems, and songs from our particular traditions. These materials can open up spaces for us to experience our common faith in and hope for God's Kingdom.

Questions

• How do you envision heaven?
• Which songs, stories, poems, and pictures from your tradition give you the feeling of participating in the reality of God's eternity?

Prayer

Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank you for this week of prayer, for being together as Christians and for the different ways we have experienced your presence. Let us always praise your holy name together so that we may continue to grow in unity and reconciliation. Amen.

OR:

Lamb of God, the heavens adore you, the saints and angels sing before you with harp and cymbals' clearest tone. Of one pearl each shining portal, where, joining with the choir immortal, we gather round your radiant throne. No eye has seen that light, no ear the echoed might of your glory; yet there shall we in victory sing shouts of joy eternally!

[German: "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme," author: Philipp Nicolai (1599); English: "Wake, awake, the night is flying" (third stanza), translated by Catherine Winkworth]