This week is the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Today, we skip forward a few chapters in John to honour the importance of this week, and what it means for us.
This is a subject dear to our hearts, since our team of churches in Walton is an ecumenical one: that is, we are a united community representing several Christian traditions, all committed to each other, for the glory of God. It is not an easy path: for churches like ours to function well requires a lot of grace and understanding. But the price is worth it, as I believe – and still believe! – that churches like ours are a true reflection of God’s heart, of his longing for a renewed people who truly live as one global family. This is, after all, what Jesus prays for us in today’s iconic passage.
It is tempting to join a church where people are ‘all like us’: but true discipleship calls us to go beyond our naturally limited ambitions. Christ came for all of us, and all of our sisters and brothers are precious. To be one is not to be the same, but rather to celebrate our uniqueness and diversity within a common vision that what unites us is always more than what divides us.
This is the path we have chosen. It probably won’t ever look ‘successful’, but it is precious and beautiful, and we pray that God will be merciful to us and continue to bless us.
So, let’s pray today for our church, that we might continue to celebrate our oneness, for the glory of God. But let’s also pray for our team, for churches across Milton Keynes and ultimately for churches across the world, that unity would grow. As our world seems to be ever more divided, it has never been more important for the church to be a prophetic sign of loving unity, of seeing human barriers broken down and covered over by the grace of God.
And may God grant us grace to be one, that ‘the world might know that you sent me, and have loved them, even as you have loved me’ (v23). Amen.