October 1, 2017 World Communion Sunday
Ephesians 2:14-18 John 10:14-16
Happy World Communion Sunday!
Did you know that World Communion Sunday is a gift to the world from the Presbyterian Church? It was started at Shadyside Presbyterian in Pittsburgh in 1933 and really took off during WWII, when churches were concerned with simply holding the world together.
This is a day when we celebrate the ties that hold Christians together, from a house church in China to a tiny mountaintop chapel in Mexico to a cathedral in Europe, to us. World Communion Sunday draws us together in unity. It also demonstrates to the world that relationships do not have to be based on greed or power; they can be based in love.
As I was beginning to think about this Sunday and the theme of unity and connectivity, I came across a TED talk by a woman named Suzanne Simard. (If you’re not familiar with TED talks, by the way, oh do you have a world of fascination open to you! TED stands for Technology, Education, and Design, and the TED talks are lectures by experts on an amazingly wide array of topics.)
Anyway, this talk by Suzanne Simard was from Jan. 13 of this year and is called “How Do Trees Collaborate?” Ms. Simard is an arborist on the faculty of the Forestry department at the University of British Columbia, and her research has shown that there is a network of fungi in the root systems of trees that allows them to communicate with each other and to nurture each other, even across species.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought of trees as being, well, trees. If someone had told me that cutting down a tree would affect other trees in the area (other than, say, allowing them more light) … I would have scoffed.
But Simard’s research shows that trees “communicate.” And they nurture each other. In the summer, the birch tree sends more nutrients to the fir tree; in the fall, it’s the fir that is supporting the birch. A “mother” tree sends CO2 and other nutrients to nurture seedlings and younger trees in the area, even trees of other species, increasing the resilience of all the trees in the forest.
Now, that is connectivity.
Connectivity is important to people as well, of course. I’ve seen a bunch of articles in the last few years citing research that shows that having friends promotes people’s overall health. One from the Mayo Clinic says:
Adults with strong social support have a reduced risk of many significant health problems, including depression, high blood pressure and an unhealthy body mass index (BMI). Studies have even found that older adults with a rich social life are likely to live longer than their peers with fewer connections.
Friends are important. Relationships are important. Connectivity is important.
The Bible tells us so.
We heard in our reading from Ephesians this morning that Christ is our peace. This letter was written to Christians in Ephesus where there were divisions between those who had been Jews and those who had been Gentiles. “He is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall … between us.”
It’s a good message for all of us who find ourselves frustrated with or divided from other Christians. Christ has broken down the dividing wall between us. Jesus means for that dividing wall to remain down.
Later in the same letter, Paul writes:
Accept each other with love, and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all. (Eph 4:2b-6 CEB)
Whatever divisions we have are not from God.
That bears repeating: Whatever divisions we have are not from God.
In our reading from John this morning, Jesus spoke about all the sheep, the sheep of different pens:
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep and they know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. … I have other sheep that don’t belong to this sheep pen. I must lead them too. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock, with one shepherd.” (John 10:14-16 CEB)
We are related to even the sheep we’ve never met. And we celebrate this unity in Communion, the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper—whatever you want to call it.
The Book of Order (section W-3.0409) tells us that Presbyterians believe a number of things about this sacrament, including these:
- God’s invitation to an everlasting covenant. The sign and seal of our covenant relationship with God, one we can celebrate as often as we see fit.
- Foretaste of the heavenly banquet. A foretaste of the end of time, “when God will wipe away every tear and swallow up death forever” … when joy will reign and there will be no more sorrow or pain.
- A meal of the realm of God. Or the Kingdom of God—the way God wants it to be for us. When we pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we are asking that we be able to live our earthly lives the way God wants us to live.
- Our calling to feed others as we have been fed. Not just about our being invited but about our being sent out—to live out the Kingdom. Because God’s Kingdom doesn’t happen without us.
- Communion in the body of Christ. Communion, community, communication—being connected with Christ and with each other and with all the other Christians across the world.
Like trees in the forest, we are connected. We are plural.
We English-speaking, English Bible reading, American Christians can often find it easy to forget how much of the Bible speaks to us not as individuals but as groups of people—communions of people, if you will. We forget it because in English there is no standard English word for more-than-one you (like y’all), and when we read you in the Bible, we assume it’s a singular you. But there are more than 4,000 instances, in both testaments, when the scriptures are speaking to us as part of a group. And we’re missing that message!
Someone’s tackled this. Just this week I came across the “Texas Bible” plug-in, which will apparently translate the scripture with the y’all’s in it. Or for the Pittsburgh folks, the yinzes!
Do y’all not know that y’all are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in y’all?
With the help of the Texas Bible, the verse from Ephesians 4 looks like this:
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of y’all’s calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Y’all’s calling. The calling of all of us as a body, not of us as individuals. We are called to community and as community. We are called to communion … so that when one is hurt, we are all hurt; when one group of people are discriminated against, we all feel the pain.
That’s a different way of looking at it for most of us, and perhaps it’s not an easy way for us to read the Bible. After all, we Americans love individualism.
But individualism was not part of the first-century Middle Eastern mindset. People understood themselves as part of a family, not as individuals. As part of y’all, not you yourself.
And individualism is not part of the message of the scriptures.
The scriptures are occasionally about personal piety, but more often they’re about the righteousness of the group—the community. Scriptures occasionally emphasize personal moral issues, like drinking or divorce, but more often the emphasis is on issues of social justice and reconciliation between peoples and races. What was Jesus’ main message? It wasn’t how we can achieve our own personal salvation. It was to be in communion: to love God and our neighbors, to feed the hungry and care for the downtrodden.
And so on this World Communion Sunday, we remember that we are in communion with God and with each other. With the each others all around the world.
We remember that we have roots in each other … we share bread with each other … we are connected.
Hallelujah! Amen.
revjeannegay 