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United Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors Weekly Sermon |
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“Everybody Come
Together” World Communion Sunday October 4 Last
June the theme for annual conference was “Everybody Fed.” Everybody fed. Bishop Grant Hagiya, and those planning the
conference, wanted us to ponder what would it mean for everybody to be
fed. What
does it mean that everybody is
fed? This is an especially poignant
question for this World Communion Sunday.
Today we recognize our connection with Christians from around the
world. We recognize our common bond in
Christ Jesus; a bond that makes us one body in Christ. If we are one body, what does it mean that
everybody is fed? Are we talking
about food, or a Bible study, or some sort of spiritual encounter? The answer is yes. And the answer is no. And sometimes the answer is maybe. This
response may be a bit frustrating to those who want straight and clear cut
answers. But the holy happens in
mysterious ways, and in mysterious places.
Listen to this story from ‘Visions of a World Hungry’ by Thomas G.
Pettepiece. “Surely
the regime can’t continue to keep almost ten thousand political prisoners in
its gaols! In here, it is much easier
to understand how men in the Bible felt.
Stripping them of everything superfluous, many of the prisoners have
already heard that they have lost their homes, their furniture, and
everything they owned. Families are
broken up; many of the children are wandering the streets; their father in
one prison and their mother in another. There
is not a single cup. But a score of
Christian prisoners experienced the joy of celebrating communion without
bread or wine: The communion of empty
hands. The non-Christians said: ‘We will help you. We will talk quietly so that you can
meet.’ Too dense a silence would have
drawn the guards’ attention as surely as the lone voice of the preacher. ‘We have no bread or water to use instead
of wine’ I told them. ‘But we will act
as though we had.’ ‘This meal, in
which we take part ’I said, ‘reminds us of the prison, the torture, the
death, and final victory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The bread is the body which he gave for
humanity. The fact that we have none
represents very well the lack of bread in the hunger of so many millions of
human beings. The wine which we don’t
have today is his blood, and represents our dream of a united humanity; of a
just society without difference of race or class.’ I
held out my empty hand to the first person on my right, and placed it over
his open hand. And the same for
others: ‘Take. Eat. This is my body which is given for you; do this in
remembrance of me.’ Afterwards all of
us raised our hands to our mouths receiving the body of Christ in
silence. ‘Take. Drink. This is the
blood of Christ which was shed to seal the new covenant of God with men. Let us give thanks; sure that Christ is
here with us, strengthening us.’ We gave
thanks to God and finally stood up and embraced each other. A
while later another non-Christian prisoner said to me: ‘You people have
something special which I would like to have.’ The father of the dead girl came up to me
and said: ‘Pastor, this was a real experience! I believe that today I discovered what
faith is. Now I believe that I am on
the road.’” So
what sort of things stood out for you in this story? What happened that allowed that spiritual
encounter with God? So who got fed?
In the story who got fed? For
me, the important pieces were around the aspects of community. How the people came together so that
something wonderful could happen. In
that moment those who were separated and/or estranged were able to overcome
their spiritual distances which kept them apart. Christianity and the secular world were
reconciled. The man who experienced
the death of his daughter became reconciled to God. God is able to remove the barriers that
separate us. God is able to foster new
meaning out of old relationships, and is able to establish unity where there
was logical divisiveness. Last
Sunday our Bishop Hagiya and Bishop Wm. Chris Boeger of the Northwest Synod
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America formally recognized our
sacramental union. Their joint worship
celebration marks a new relationship between our churches where we can
jointly and independently celebrate communion together. Each church will accept each others
clergy. They have authorized the
other’s clergy to officiate at communion and the churches will continue to
forge new ways to deepen their relationships with each other. God’s revelation in various forms will work
together for our mutual benefit. Our
scripture reading this morning comes from the Letter to the Hebrews starting
with Chapter One. This letter was
written to bolster a community of Jewish Christians. The community had earlier become followers
of Jesus Christ. Now they need some
encouragement to hold onto their faith.
The message of the letter is to sustain your faith in Jesus
Christ. The letter says that “Long ago
God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in
these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). God sent Jesus to walk among us, and speak
to us; to show us God’s will and God’s way, by being in relationship with
us. Jesus “is the reflection of God’s
glory, and the exact imprint of God’s very being. He sustains all things by his powerful
word” (v. 3). God
has spoken to us by a Son. He sustains
all things by his powerful word. The
Word became flesh, and lived among us. God is not distant, but with us. God is not silent, but speaking to us. God is not harsh, but full of grace and
truth. The scripture goes on to say
that “the one who sanctifies” — Jesus — “and those who are sanctified” — each
of us — “all have one Father.” And for
this reason Jesus isn’t ashamed to call us brothers and sisters saying “I
will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters in the midst of the
congregation I will praise you” (2:12). What
a difference it makes to know that Jesus truly loves us and cares for
us. He isn’t ashamed to call us
brothers and sisters, and to walk with us, talk with us, and tell us we are
his own. But this leaves us with a
challenge: to grow in our relationship with Jesus by really working at it day
after day after day. Jesus loves us
exactly as we are; that’s the good news.
But he loves us too much to let us stay that way. He wants us to grow in our relationship
with him and become more productive.
Like any good friendship, marriage, or long-term relationship, we have
to give it priority in our lives and really work at it if it’s going to be
healthy, life-giving, and fruitful. In
the Name, of God the Creator, Christ the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit that
sustains our lives, Amen. Pastor
Golden |
