A WORLD IN NEED OF WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY

Rev. James Singleton

10/3/10
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:14-18

Seldom have we experienced a more contentious, conflict-ridden period of time in our lives than what we are living through today? Politicians seem to be little more than self-interest groups whose goal is to hinder their opponents. Washington has never been more divisive with Democrats and Republicans wanting nothing to do with each other and Tea Partiers want nothing to do with either of them.

American Moslems are becoming persona non grata in this country by virtue of the fact that they are of the same professed religion as the hijackers of the planes on September 11. The hottest button issue in the country today is whether a Moslem cleric can build a community center within blocks of where the Twin Towers were destroyed. It has sparked protests and inflamed hatred against Moslems which led to threats of Koran burnings in Florida which, in turn, led to mass riots and protests in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

There is animosity and distrust between those of us who live on Main Street against those who work on Wall Street because CEOs are getting rich on the recession while the rest of us are getting on the crumbs that fall from their tables.

There’s the growing animosity toward illegal immigrants that has led to controversial laws in Arizona resulting in heated demonstrations and suspicion of everyone who doesn’t look like an Anglo-Saxon American.

Even the violence between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland has flared back up as riots broke out in Belfast this summer.

These are times of great divides and times of increasing despair over the future. Our divisions have inflamed our fears which have burned up our hopes. It’s no wonder that World Communion Sunday is hard to take seriously. What is the good of a day that pretends to be about unity? What unity? There is barely any unity in the Church, let alone the world!

There are churches in which we would not even be permitted to take communion! There are churches that I’m not certain I want to even be affiliated with, like the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida that nearly started Armageddon.

We take communion here every Sunday, so what’s the big deal. Let’s just go on and pretend that it’s just us. We don’t need anyone else. We don’t need to pretend that we are all one with those who don’t agree with us and those we don’t like and those who anger us and those who are so different from us.

Let’s just close the doors and talk about unity among ourselves. Of course, that is a fragile unity, too. There are those among us who rub us the wrong way and whom we would not particularly want to invite over for dinner. So why do we even bother to observe this day?

Some churches have given up on it and don’t celebrate World Communion Sunday any longer. They have chosen to go their own way and leave the rest of us to try to make sense of this day. But I’m not ready to give up on it just yet because I believe it still has value, especially in divisive times like these.

It is, first of all, a dream, not a reality—but it is God’s dream and a vision of what the Kingdom of God is meant to be and will one day become. We must never lose sight of that dream. This dream of unity is to be our polar star. It is what we measure ourselves against. It is how we know we are lost. If we lose the dream of unity, then we no longer understand that we are called to a higher way of life.

Secondly, World Communion Sunday is the day that makes sense of what is happening in the world and the day that gives us a way out.   

As our passage of Scripture states, of all the ways God has chosen to speak to us, Jesus Christ is his final and ultimate word. God has nothing to say that is not included within the life, teaching, miracles, death, and resurrection of His Son. In fact, this one called Jesus is, in no uncertain terms, our God. “He is the very reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.”

It was through Jesus that everything was created, not least of which is humanity. We are the crown of creation. God made us in God’s own image. God gave us the ability to do good, to love one another, and to be a blessing to the world. And yet, the writer of Hebrews admits, something has gone terribly wrong.

This glorious Jesus Christ came into the world, not as a prophet, but as a Savior. Human beings may be the crown of creation and all of creation may have been given into our control to bless and do good, but we have lost control. There is something rotten at the core that is frustrating the good that we are supposed to be doing and dividing us. Something called sin has become part of our very being and try as hard as we might, we are unable to make this world a place of peace and justice for all.

Our greed, pride, self-centeredness have resulted in a world of frustration. It is human beings that are tearing this world apart. The world simply cannot be saved by anything human. If there is ever to be any hope of overcoming this sin that plagues our lives and pollutes our world—then it must come from outside of the human being. Which brings us back to the glory of Jesus Christ.

Today, in this world so torn apart, are millions of people coming together who, even though we speak different languages, have different skin color, live within different cultures, belong to all socio-economic strata, have different points of view on just about everything, are from different political spectrums, and even different Christian perspectives, we find our unity in the broken body and spilled blood of Jesus.

And we all gather to, first of all, do something that is very radical—confess that we are not just humanity, we are sinful humanity. Every individual who has the courage to come to this table today must come confessing his and her part in the cruelty and coldness that has become the world. We need look no further than our own strained relationships and how we have contributed to the strain. We come as those who know we need saved.

Afghans, Iraqis, Iranians, Russians, Chinese, Americans, Republicans, Democrats, Tea Partiers, legals and illegals, conservatives and liberals, Moslems, Catholics, Protestants, and Religious nuts —we all stand guilty of making the world the way it is.

Today we gather with friends and enemies, those whom we love as well as those whom we have had a falling out with. We see sitting at the table those with whom we have disagreed, gotten angry at, cursed and been cursed by. But everyone gathered at this table today points the finger nowhere but at self.

In a world that does not want to accept responsibility for anything, that wants to project all evil upon the enemy and blame all that’s wrong in the world upon the other person, World Communion Sunday gathers a people that admit responsibility for wrongs. We have personally done wrong to others; we have failed to do good for others; we have gone along and allowed the system to oppress others on our behalf.

But as painful as that all is to admit, that is our hope. There is hope for the world so long as there are people who have enough humility and faith to see the truth about them and who can gather together at one table to seek forgiveness and reconciliation.   

Today we join millions of human beings in proclaiming that repentance that leads to unity must start, not with you, but with me. That is why I say that World Communion Sunday is still relevant today more than ever.

And one final reason why we still need to observe this day has to do with our lack of hope in the future. Those who gather around this table cannot come as a people with no hope. For as the letter to the Hebrews reminds us: here we see Jesus, not just broken and bloodied, but risen and triumphant.

 Hope is the essence of Christianity. Hope is not based upon the belief that all pain and suffering and divisions are magically ended, but it is based upon the belief that God’s dream of peace on earth, goodwill toward all is still alive. There is more going on in the world than just human actions. There are also God actions that are in play.

This world is going to be saved. The world may be out of our control, but it is still in God’s control. World Communion Sunday reminds us that hope is based upon the belief that God loves me and God loves you and whatever our differences are we have a common bond that is deeper and stronger pulling us together than the wedges trying to drive us apart.

The bond that ultimately ties us together is not our intellect, not our political persuasions, not our physical likeness—the blessed tie that binds is God’s love for us and our call to reflect that love to one another. It is only love that can traverse all other divisions. Holy Communion is the communion of the saints, i.e., sinners who have found their unity in God’s love and grace.

The world needs a people who still believe in the future. The world has too many people who have stopped trying; who have thrown up their hands and said, “What’s the use?” and have allowed themselves to be terrorized and defeated. But Christians are hopeful people who have not given up on humanity because we have faith in the One who so loved the world that he gave His only Son.

World Communion Sunday is about believing again in the future of the world because we believe that God’s dream is greater than the nightmares we create; we believe that God’s grace overcomes the sins and divisions we cause; we believe the one who sustains all things by the power of His word will have the last Word.  If ever there was a world in need of World Communion Sunday—it is our world! So let us commune!

AMEN.