“When we sing to God in heaven
We shall find such harmony
Born of all we’ve known together
Of Christ’s love and agony”
The fifth verse of Richard Gillard’s hymn speaks of harmonious living. On retreat this week we debated whether the line of singing to God in heaven was about life now, or life after death. For myself, I believe it could speak of both, but I would like to focus on life now.
As Christians, particularly Methodists, when we worship together, we sing. In worship, we should set aside the differences we have and worship together. In worship we can often find a harmony that is often difficult to find in other areas of our lives.
The harmony we find in worship, in Christian fellowship, is created from a community going through the highs and lows together, by helping each other bear the load, by holding the Christ-light for others when needed. It is a harmony built from true relationships.
I am not naïve enough to recognise that church isn’t always like this and for some people it is not like this at all. I find this really sad, as if we were truly in relationship with each other, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we would experience harmony together. That doesn’t mean it will always be easy or that we will always get along – but that is part of growing in relationship.
Trinitarian God
We celebrate the relationship that we see in you
Father, Son and Spirit in perfect harmony
We celebrate the relationship that we have with you
And the relationships we have with others
Help us to strive for harmony by building relationships
Celebrating joys and comforting in sorrows
Staying together in the good and the bad
Just as you stay true to us
Amen
You can download this Prayer for the Week here
Prayers for February written by Revd Claire Rawlinson
Picture: photo by Ludomił on Unsplash
