May 28 .WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY & LAUDATO SI WEEK  Day 8 “The Justice that restores communion.”  Scripture: PS 82:1-4. “Give justice to the weak and the orphan, maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.”     

The Book of Psalms is a compilation of prayer, praise, lamentation, and instruction from God to us. In Psalm 82, God calls for a justice that upholds the basic human rights to which all people are entitled: freedom, safety, dignity, health, equality and love. The Psalm also calls for the overturning of systems of disparity and oppression, and fixing anything that is unfair, corrupt, or exploitative. This is the justice that we, as Christians, are called to promote. In Christian community we join our wills and actions to God’s, as he works his salvation for creation. Division, always has sin at its root, and redemption always restores communion.

God calls us to embody our Christian faith to act out of the truth that every person is precious. Every person has a right and responsibility to participate in society, seeking together the common good and wellbeing of all, especially the lowly and the destitute. In Jesus and the Disinherited, Revd Dr Howard Thurman, spiritual adviser to the Revd Dr Martin Luther King Jr. states that: “We must proclaim the truth that all life is one and that we are all of us tied together. You must lay your lives on the altar of social change so that wherever you are, there the Kingdom of God is at hand.”

Jesus tells the parable of the widow and the unjust judge in order to teach the people “about their need to pray always and not to lose heart” (Lk 18:1). Jesus has won a decisive victory over injustice, sin and division, and as Christians our task is to receive this victory firstly in our own hearts through prayer and secondly in our lives through action. May we never lose heart, but rather continue to ask in prayer for God’s gift of unity and may we manifest this unity in our lives.

Challenge. As the people of God, how are our churches called to engage in justice that unites us in our actions to love and serve all of God’s family?

Pray the Christian Unity prayer and the Laudato si’ prayer  for the Baptist/Pentecostal churches.  

PENTECOST A.   Scripture:  There are varieties of gifts but the same spirit and they are gifts of service but the same Lord.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  Just as the body is one and has many members and all the members are one body so it is with Christ.   Cor 12:4, 12

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES THAT COULD BE DONE IN THE FAMILY TO CELEBRATE PENTECOST.

  • Spend some time together to reflect, discuss and share what gifts and fruits you see in each other.
  • Let each choose the gifts and fruits they believe they need for their own lives and pray together that the Holy Spirit will bless each member with what they have asked.
  • As an activity – possibly with smaller children – talk about the meaning of the different gifts and fruits, make a poster of the picture and colour it in.