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June 1, 2025

Transformation as Salvation

Julie O'Neal   |   Read John 17:20-26

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Lectionary Week
May 26–June 1, 2025
Scripture Overview

Across these verses, a rich journey unfolds, weaving together themes of identity, transformation, faith, and unity. Acts portrays powerful shifts in identity as a young enslaved girl and a jailer are given new opportunities. In the psalms, we read how people empowered with God’s righteousness and justice can transform communities. Revelation helps us remember the early church and how tradition continues today. John underscores unity among believers, praying for oneness through faith, mirroring divine unity. Collectively, these scriptures showcase how individual identity, nurtured by faith and transformation, unites people with God and one another, fostering cohesive unity and shared purpose.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

• Read Acts 16:16-34. When have you experienced unexpected transformations that have challenged your sense of identity and self-perception?
• Read Psalm 97. How does recognizing the presence of something greater than yourself inspire in you gratitude and a desire to contribute to your community?
• Read John 17:20-26. What signs of division do you see in your community? How can you work toward the oneness to which God calls us?
• Read Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21. Who is invited into the kingdom? How does this reshape the way you view the invitation to the sacraments?

Respond by posting a prayer.

John 17:20-26

20 “I’m not praying only for them but also for those who believe in me because of their word. 21 I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. 22 I’ve given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one. 23 I’m in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you have loved them just as you loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you gave me to be with me where I am. Then they can see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, even the world didn’t know you, but I’ve known you, and these believers know that you sent me. 26 I’ve made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your love for me will be in them, and I myself will be in them.”

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible. Used by permission.

Written in 1988, the hymn “Ososo” (TFWS #2232) petitions God to reconcile the divide between North and South Korea. Today it is sung to ask God for wholeness and healing in all places of conflict and harm.

It is not hard to imagine a nation in turmoil, torn apart by...

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Prince of Peace, healer of all, may we be inspired to imagine peace and to work toward reconciliation in our communities and the world at large. Amen.


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