O Lord, we pray, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
Today we celebrate, with our brothers and sisters around the world the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
In some places it will be called "The Eucharist" - in others it will be called "Communion" - in others it will be called "The Love Feast", in still others it will be called, "The Table of the Lord" or "The Lord's Supper" - and as varied as the titles are for what we do today - so will be the means by which our brothers and sisters come to the table - and the kinds of bread and wine offered - and the understanding that people and their pastors, priests, ministers, will have of what they are doing.
Some will come forward to receive as we will do today and receive unleavened bread in the form of a wafer into the palms of their hands. They may or may not then sip from the cup - which may be wine - or unfermented grape juice - or even some other beverage in those places where grapes are unknown.
Others will tear a piece of bread from a broken loaf - and then dip it into the common cup.
Still others, like we often do, will be seated in their pews and will have individual cups and unleavened bread passed from person to person.
Still others may do these things as a part of a full meal - seated at a table in a sanctuary of God's presence - or in a church hall - or a home - or a school building - or simply sitting in a circle in a hut or in a clearing in the midst of a jungle or forest or in the middle of a place of sand and rock.
Some today will regard the bread and the wine - after the word's of consecration are prayed - as being fully and actually the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour. Others will regard the entire sacrament as an important "memorial" - and see Jesus as being being spiritually present in special manner - but deny his physical presence in the elements.
Indeed, there will be differences, some of them quite profound, in how our brothers and sisters around the world view the sacrament. Some will think that their way of doing what they are doing is the only proper way to do it. Some traditions will welcome only those persons who have made a public profession of their faith to the table, while others will welcome very young children, even babies to the table. Some will insist that each person must belong to the denomination and the community where the sacrament is being observed - others will have an table open to "all those who love the Lord and desire to walk in his path".
There will be a tremendous variety of practices and understandings this day as we celebrate the Lord's Supper - but one thing will stand out above all the differences of opinion and practice, and that is that all of us will consider what we are doing as important, so important that we might even risk argument with one another about it's meaning.
So what do we make of that?
What is our communion with one another when we have such a wide variety of practices and understandings? What is our communion with one another - and with God? Another way of putting this is to ask - Where, given our differences, is our "Commune - ity"
Some years I read a book by Tex Sample, a Professor of Church and Society. It is a wonderful book about doing "Ministry in An Oral Culture". In a section of the book titled "Tradition and Social Change" he cites an observation made by a colleague, that goes like this.
'What is common in community is not shared values or common understanding so much as the fact that members of a community are engaged in the same argument... in which alternative strategies, misunderstandings, conflicting goals and values are thrashed out."
Think about that for a minute.
What helps to define us as a community - both the community that we have here in this church, and the community that we share with our fellow believers around the world - is the fact that we are all engaged in the same argument - that we all view ourselves as followers of the Christ and engaged in working out the best way, the right way, for some the only way, to order our lives as his people in response to his calling.
Part of what makes us a World Wide Communion - is not that we agree with one another in everything - but that we believe that the discussion we have are of importance.
The Apostle Paul, in discussing the differences of opinion in the Church in Rome over the Holy Days that they should celebrate and whether or not, people should eat or not meats that had been purchased in the market place - which generally came from the animal sacrifices that were offered at various pagan temples, writes :
One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
The important thing that Paul is telling us in this passage, is that - "each of us should be fully convinced in our own minds" as to what is important - and do all that we do - or don't do - with thanks to God and in the realization that Christ is Lord of all who serve him - both the living and the dead.
There is nothing wrong with our differences of opinion as to what is right and what is wrong, what is good - and what is not good, what is true and what is not true.
Our common argument in fact helps to define us as a communion - as the people of God, as brothers and sisters of one another.
Think of your own families for a minute - families of flesh and blood and how they function.
Is there perfect agreement among you?
Are there not members who believe, sometimes quite passionately, that the family should do this or that thing while others in the family hold forth for something else - something entirely different?
And yet - while there are these kinds of disputes - if we are yet a family - do we not sit down together at meal time - and eat as one that which has been prepared for us - some taking more from a particular dish as their tastes and their inclinations lead them - others more from another?
Do we not, if we have any sense at all of being a family, gather on special occasions and join together at the table that has been set and give thanks to God for providing us the opportunity to be together and providing the food that we eat - even if our diets are different?
Do we not seek to bless one another and pray that they may live long and prosper - that they may do God's will and know God's mercy and help each day - without demanding that they do exactly what we do or think exactly the way we think?
The church around the world today is a family. We are the family of God - a family formed by our common desire to follow Christ Jesus, who is both our brother and our Lord.
We are the people of God, called together and given life, through Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are ones who trust in Jesus - and, with Paul and all the apostles and the saints strive to follow him faithfully and to keep the special law he gave us - the commandment that we love one another as he has loved us.
How do we commune today? Where is our community with God and one another?
It is in all the things we share that are of God and are fully agreed about - and in the those things that we share that are of God that we differ in.
It is in Christ Jesus - whom we seek to follow in varied scheme and practice - and in God our Father - who sent Jesus to open the way to life for all people and to make us one family.
Our communion is a mystic communion - one not limited by time or space - but rather realized where-ever men and women and children have sought, and are seeking, and will yet seek to do God's will.
It is a mystic communion that comes to us a gift from God, the God who wills that we love him with our whole heart, mind, strength and soul, and that we love one another as we love ourselves and who is able us to do that when we turn to him and trust in him and strive to do what he asks.
It is communion that is realized - one that is known deep inside us - when in humility and with gentleness and patience, we bear with one another in love and accept God's gifts with grateful and humble prayer.
God is with us, Christ is with us - and with all our brothers and sisters who call on his name today.
I can see them now - all around the world - eating and drinking what God has provided and each praying, as we have prayed, that God's will be done here on earth as it is in heaven; - that it be done here in our midst as his people - and here within our individual lives as his unique and precious children.
Praise be Our God - to Christ Jesus his Son - who has called us here today and invites us to commune with him and with one another in love. Amen
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