October 3rd, is World Communion Sunday. It is one of my two favorite worship celebrations of the year. I guess a minister's perspective is a little different. Christmas and Easter, as wonderful as they are, end up being exhausting too. The two celebrations that I hold dearest, though are World Communion and Pentecost. These speak to me of the current life of the church.
World Communion moves me each year. I know that as we sit down to supper on Saturday, New Zealand Christian gather around their Communion table beginning the celebration of the Lord's Supper. As we sleep believers in Africa take communion. The table is different from ours. The language too. The colors surrounding the sanctuary may be quite vivid. But they continue this great banquet of God that spreads, hour by hour, across the globe. If we wake early on October 3rd, Christians in Cape Verde and the Azores will be sharing bread around the table of Christ. We take our turn as we participate in Sunday worship. When we are at home later in the day, Christians on the West Coast of the US will celebrate the great meal. Aleutian and Samoan Christians will be among the last to gather at the Lord's table.
We often disagree about how communion should be done, and who can participate, BUT for this one Sunday we call our attention to the fact, that no matter what denomination or practice, we all celebrate the Lord's Supper. The global community of faith breaks bread and pours the cup to remember that Jesus Christ is our unity. We haven't figured out yet, how that works. But on World Communion Sunday we remind ourselves that God is working around the world. We experience a foretaste of the Rule of God, who can gather us together despite our differences. We know the richness of the diversity of God's people and take our turn at sitting at table in the Kingdom of God.
