January 23, 2020

Christ the King Lutheran Church, Houston

I’m grateful for the planning and leadership of Christ the King Pastor Karin Liebster.

The week of prayer for Christian Unity falls every January 18-25. Every year Christians in Houston and around the world gather to pray for the unity of the church, remembering Jesus’ prayer that his church might be one.

The theme for the 2020 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, is taken from Acts 28:2 “They showed us unusual kindness.” Could it be that showing kindness to strangers is the highest moral good? Jesus said, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? … Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

In Acts 28, Paul and his companions are shipwrecked and shown unusual kindness. Every year on February 10 Christians in Malta celebrate the Feast of the Shipwreck of St Paul, marking and giving thanks for the arrival of Christian faith on these islands.

Ships are an important sign in the church from Noah, to Jesus’ disciples. St. Gregory the Great (540-604) wrote that the Church is a ship in which God takes us safely through life from one shore, birth, to the other, death.