Week of Prayer - Joy - the Foundational Melody of the Kingdom of GodSample

ETERNAL JOY

VERSES

Bring back our captives, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. (Psalm 126,4-6)

MEDITATION

When I meet with friends from my youth, we reminisce about shared mountain tours. We laugh about sliding over snowfields, surprising encounters with ibexes, or remember storms and breathtaking sunsets. What a joy to share such a treasure trove of memories. The psalmist also remembers, and he remembers the great things God has done. «We were like those who dreamed.» (Ps 126,1-2) What once was unthinkable has come to pass: God has liberated his people. Joy grows from memory.

There is something almost better than the event itself, which is looking forward to it! When a trekking tour is planned, I enthusiastically study maps, tour reports, and weather reports. With each piece of the puzzle, the picture of the upcoming tour becomes clearer, and the joy increases. The psalmist’s joy doesn’t grow only from memories either, but from God’s promises of a future in which captives will be freed and dried out streams will be filled with water again, and when a rich harvest will be brought in (cf. Ps 126,4-6).

Christians believe that the dryness and tears won’t remain forever. God promises us a future that is whole, flourishing, and overflowing. Christians defiantly cling to this vision of the future because they believe that with Jesus’ resurrection, the restoration has already begun. And they hold on to it while they «sow with tears» (Ps 126,5). Laughing and weeping are not mutually exclusive in the lives of Christians. In the middle of sorrow and hardship, we can feel good because we experience that God’s promises are sure. One day He will wipe every tear from our eyes (cf. Rev 21,4) and invite us to his table for the great wedding banquet (cf. Rev 19,9; Mt 8,11; 22,2ff.; 25,10; Lk 12,36; 14,8).

The best is yet to come! This is not a cheap consolation that encourages us to take leave of the world inwardly. Rather, Christian hope for the future invites us to celebrate, have faith, and love here and now. At our banquet tables, people may already taste something of heaven. And in this way, a celebration can become one of the most beautiful forms of resistance – we proclaim with it that suffering is not the ultimate reality and that a good future awaits us.

REFLECTION

· What do I imagine God’s new creation to look like? Does that inspire joy within me?

· How might some of this joyful expectation find expression in our families, churches, and communities?

· Is there room for both laughing AND weeping in my life?

PRAYER TOPICS

· That unchurched people in Europe may discover God’s hopeful promises for their lives and the world.

· For those who suffer, that God may give them the grace to remain full of joyful expectation in the middle of tears.

· For Christian musicians and artists, may their work help us experience something of the joy and beauty that awaits us in God’s new world.

SUGGESTED PRAYER

Full of joyful expectation, I reach out to You, God.
For You will bring back to life
what is unfree and dried out.
What is broken here
will be whole in Your new world.

Full of joyful expectation I reach out to You, God.
For You promise growth and thriving to those
deprived of their reward, home, or family.
In Your presence, we rejoice
because You make all things whole.
Amen.

Andi Bachmann-Roth

Co-Secretary General of the Swiss Evangelical Alliance (German-speaking part)