The Spirit’s Gift of Community:

A Call to Unity

World Communion Sunday

Luke 22:7-8, 13-20                                                              Rev. Todd B. Freeman

Bethany Presbyterian Church, Dallas                                           October 3, 2004

On this particular Sunday morning, the first Sunday in October, Christian churches across the entire world will be celebrating the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, which we also call Communion, or the Eucharist.

World Communion Sunday actually originated within the Presbyterian Church (USA). In 1936, for the first time, the first Sunday in October was celebrated in Presbyterian churches in the United States and overseas. From the beginning, it was planned so that other denominations could make use of it and, after a few years, the idea spread beyond the Presbyterian Church. The Department of Evangelism of the Federal Council of Churches (a predecessor body of the National Council of Churches) was first associated with World Wide Communion Sunday (as it was first called) in 1940.

Its purpose is to celebrate with the world community of faith our common unity in Christ. The hope is that one day we will have transcended all the boundaries that divide us and be one body.

Theologian and Presbyterian seminary professor Shirley Guthrie, who passed away earlier this year, wrote in his book Christian Doctrine, “It follows from the fact that there is one Savior and Lord of the church that the community of people who are the body of Christ are united in faith, hope, love, worship, and service. The church is universal in that it unites in faith and life Christians in all times and places; of all races, classes, languages, cultures, nationalities; in all kinds of political, economic, and social situations. There is one Lord, one Spirit, one God, one baptism, one shared bread and cup - and therefore one body [of Christ].

That is what Christians confess. But it is not what we actually see, is it? What everyone sees is not the church but many churches: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Assembly of God, Church of Christ, and hundreds of others.

Throughout history, even particular denominations, like the Presbyterians, have split into different churches, each of which claims that its interpretation of the tradition is the most authentic and faithful one. Moreover, there are separate denominations or congregations within denominations for ethnic majorities and for ethnic minorities who “would not feel at home” in each other’s church, for “upper” and for “lower” classes, for those who do and for those who do not accept [gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons, or persons with a variety of physical disabilities, or those with mental and psychological disorders] – and on and on.

This congregation, however, has strived for many decades to overcome these many barriers and divisions. All you have to do to recognize that fact is to look around at those gathered in this sanctuary today.

Behind some of these divisions lie genuinely important differences of theological interpretation. However, sometimes doctrinal differences are only the excuse to split the church along the same racial, cultural, and class lines that separate secular society into groups that are openly hostile or simply indifferent toward each other. In either case, the splintering of the church into many churches screams that the church is not one. And that implies that in fact we do not have one but many lords, are led not by one but by many spirits.

What can we say about the scandalous contradiction between the church Christians confess and the many churches they actually see and live in? The Apostle Paul made it very clear that we all need each other and must live together in mutual cooperation if the whole body is to be healthy and function properly.

What then can we do about the glaring contradiction between the unity and universality of the church we say we believe in and its brokenness in practice? What then can we do if we want the community-creating work of the Holy Spirit? Guthrie offers four important steps.

1.  If we want the community-creating work of the Spirit within and among the churches, we can give up all attempts to justify, excuse, or explain away the scandal of the church’s disunity and brokenness that contradicts everything we say about one Lord, one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, one God of us all. We can acknowledge the sinfulness of the wrangling within and the divisions between churches and denominations that call themselves the body of Christ.

2.  If we want the Spirit’s gift of community, we can examine ourselves before we criticize the faith and life of other denominations and groups within our own denomination. Is it really our steadfast holding to biblical truth that separates us from others – or perhaps only the desire to insist on the superiority of our limited and self-serving interpretation of it? If the church is split into warring churches and factions within churches, is it because of “their” or our own unwillingness to be instructed and corrected by the gospel?

When we reject and refuse to have anything to do with people and groups of people who understand Christian faith and life differently from us, is it really because we seek the integrity of the church - or perhaps because what we really want is for people like us to have controlling power? Is the disunity and brokenness of the church due to someone else’s or our own sinfulness? (Both!)

3. If we want the Spirit’s community-building power among us, we will be open to talk and listen to other denominations and groups within our denomination. What if the Spirit of God is also at work among them? If we are too afraid or too suspicious to have anything to do with them, might we not deprive ourselves of something very important the Spirit is saying to us and doing for us through them? Have we rejected fellowship with them on the basis of what they really believe and how they really live, or only on the basis of the prejudiced caricatures we have made of them?

How can we be open to the reformation of the church if we are not open to listen to, learn from, and let ourselves be corrected by other Christians and churches who read the same Bible in their efforts to be guided by and follow the same Lord we want to follow? The problem can never be solved without dialogue.

4.  If we want the Spirit’s gift of community, we will recognize that unity does not mean uniformity. I know you have heard this many time before.All Christians do not have to think or live exactly alike. [We often use this as a defense of our own progressive theology, but do we truly extend to others who do not believe the same way as we do the same right to differ?]

Are we sure that the different interpretations of Christian truth and practice among other denominations and parties are of community-splitting significance? Even if others seem to be one-sided in one direction or another, might we not need fellowship with them to correct the one-sidedness on our part?

True unity does not mean a boring and sterile sameness; it is a unity in which there is exciting and mutually enriching diversity. [And that includes the diversity within our own congregation as well.] If it is the Spirit’s unity-in-diversity we seek, we will be very careful not to draw boundaries too rigidly or narrowly, and will always be open to learn that God is more “inclusive” than we might have expected. For in our own crusade to be inclusive, do we not also, in reality, exclude others?

“Of course,” Guthrie concludes, “all this is easier said than done.” But how can we refuse to take the risks and run the dangers of such attitudes and actions if we really want [unity]?

Perhaps sharing the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper together on this World Communion Sunday can be part of the solution. This sacrament “is a way of reminding us that we do not live from our own strength. We have to be fed, nourished, given new life over and over again. This sacrament also means that we are fed, nourished, and given new life. Christ is at work in the world to feed, nourish, and bring new life to people who are desperately hungry - hungry for bread to fill their empty stomachs, hungry for forgiveness and acceptance, hungry for new beginnings and fresh starts, hungry for justice, hungry for a God who cares. [Hungry for unity within the body of Christ.]”

It is my hope and prayer this day that as we together partake of this bread and cup, we will experience God’s empowering and uniting presence with us, and within us.    

 Amen.                                    Resource: Christian Doctrine, Shirley C. Guthrie, 1994, Revised