"A World Wide Body" sermon preview

This Sunday is World Communion Sunday.  It is an opportunity for us to celebrate the Lord's Supper together as a local body of believers; but it is also a chance for us to do so symbolically with the world wide body of believers in Jesus Christ, of which we are such a small part of.  It is a symbolic act of unity.

Unity is a key aspect of the passage for Sunday, Ephesians 4:1-10.  There is one body, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.  That's a lot of oneness. And yet we find so much division between our various strands of Christianity, let alone within our own denominations and congregations.  This is certainly not something that we have figured out.

And yet the vision and the invitation remain.  This is what we are to strive for, this is what we are to aim for, this is what is to be in the end.  And it seems to me that communion can serve as one of the focal practices that disciple us into this way of life and faith in spite of our short comings and our foibles.

Communion does not make us unified.  And yet when we choose to set aside our divisions and divides, to gather around one table, and to share of a common loaf of bread and a common cup of grape juice; we participate in a practice that models for us and invites us to live into these realities more fully.  And perhaps as we submit ourselves to this we become more able to fully live into it in all that we do.

As you consider World Communion Sunday and what it means to be in unity; reflect on these questions in a time of silence, through journaling or in group dialogue.

1. In what ways have you experienced unity in life and faith?  Have there been surprising or unexpected circumstances with these?

2. In what ways have you experienced dis-unity in life and faith?  How did you work through these?  Were there things that could have been done differently or ways you could have followed up on that?

3. What does communion mean to you?  Describe a particularly powerful experience of communion.

May Jesus richly bless you in this week ahead, leading you in His kingdom purposes. Amen