Press On!

(Scriptures: Exodus 20:1-20, Philippians 3:4b-14, Matthew 21:33-46)

In the United Church of Christ and in many Protestant churches, today is World Communion Sunday. This designation originated in 1936 within the Presbyterian Church, and was rapidly adopted by other denominations. The Federal Council of Churches (later renamed the National Council of Churches) began promoting World Communion Sunday in 1940, as a reminder that Christian churches around the globe, though divided by many differences in belief and observance, are ultimately and finally united in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

I’ll share the story that I often share on World Communion Sunday, of the day perhaps 20 years ago or more when I told a Roman Catholic friend about World Communion Sunday. Perhaps I waxed a bit grandiose about the unity displayed by Protestant Churches all around the globe in celebrating communion together. To all of this, my Roman Catholic friend responded by informing me that Roman Catholic churches around the globe celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday, so for Catholics, every Sunday is World Communion Sunday. And, yes, his words deflated my grandiosity a bit. Just the same, it’s a blessing that we Protestants, who fuss amongst ourselves over so many differences, can manage to get our act together once a year and join our Catholic brothers and sisters at the table of the Lord.

Here at Emanuel Church, we celebrate communion at least monthly, with additional observances for special services such as Christmas Eve, Easter, and Pentecost. As we come forward later in the service for our cube of bread and sip of wine, on this World Communion Sunday, we are reminded that when we approach the Lord’s table, we approach a table that in a spiritual sense extends around the globe, as we join believers of every race and nationality and socioeconomic level, join Christians who worship in cathedrals and Christians who worship in storefront churches and Christians worshipping in tents and open fields in eating bread and drinking wine in memory of Jesus, in sharing the body and blood of Christ, broken and poured out for us. At various locations of this great table, some believers are eating pita bread and some are eating rye bread, some pumpernickel bread, while others are eating the wafers used in Catholic and Anglican churches – and yet in a spiritual sense, all these different types of bread are part of the one celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

Through the ages, God has given God’s people gifts around which God’s people can unite and form community. For the ancient Hebrews and for Jews to this day, the law, as represented in this morning’s Old Testament reading by the Ten Commandments, was and is a point of unity. For those of us who are used to the interpretations by Luther and other reformers of Paul’s writings about the law, who are used to seeing the law in negative terms, as a burden from which we are delivered by the grace of Jesus Christ, it may be difficult to wrap our minds around the reality that the law was received as a tremendous gift, a unique sign of God’s favor, God’s special gift to God’s chosen people. The words of this morning’s call to worship in the bulletin are taken from Psalm 19, and I’d ask you to look at the call to worship again. The writer of the Psalm 19 expressed overflowing joy and gratitude for the law, calling it more to be desired than much fine gold, sweeter than honey, rejoicing the heart. Even today, in synagogue services of some traditions, when the scroll of the law is brought forth, the congregation dances around the scroll and even kiss it as it passes by.

Along with the law, the ancient Hebrews were united by the sharing of a meal, the Passover, to celebrate their liberation from slavery in Egypt, as God led them forth with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm from the land of bondage. In the same way, we are united by a meal, Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, as we give thanks for our deliverance through the death of Jesus Christ from bondage to sin and death and liberation to the freedom of the resurrection life in Jesus Christ.

As we share this meal, our Gospel reading reminds us that we are not hosts, but guests, at the banquet of the Lord. In Jesus’ parable, the tenant farmers started to act as if they were the owners of the vineyard rather than renters. Some churches act in a similar way around Communion, acting as if they own it, as if it is for them to bar others from the table. But Jesus said that the blessings of the vineyard would be taken from the wicked tenants, and given to those who produce fruit. In the same way, the Lord’s table is not ours to hoard to ourselves, but rather to invite others to partake. This is not our table, but the Lord’s table, and at the Lord’s table all seeking to draw close to Christ are welcome.

To me, it is striking that, in the midst of the Great Depression, with such widespread suffering, the Presbyterian Church conceived the idea of a day for all Christians to celebrate communion, to gather at the table. And it’s even more striking that, with World War II as a backdrop, the National Council of Churches adopted and promoted World Communion Sunday. Amid hunger and conflict, the church responded to God’s call in a way that seems impractical, but from a Christian perspective is compelling. After we’ve broken bread with someone at the Lord’s table, it’s much more difficult to turn them away from our own table hungry, isn’t it. After we’ve broken bread with someone at the Lord’s table, making war and bombing that person’s home and family is no longer an abstraction, but the annihilation of a human being with a face and a name and an eternal soul, a child of God like ourselves. The conception and promotion of World Communion Sunday in that troubled time, then, can be seen not just as a sentimental gesture, but as a prophetic act, pointing beyond the alarms of the day to the “beloved community” to which God calls us all.

We may forget that Paul wrote to the Philippians amid a similarly foreboding backdrop – he was separated from his beloved brothers and sisters at Philippi, confined to prison, with his future uncertain. In today’s reading, Paul gives us his resume as a Jew, to remind us of the cost of his obedience to Christ. It would have been easy for Paul to tell God, “hey, God, I didn’t sign up for this.” Instead, he tells the church at Philippi,

“Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

As Paul pressed on, so the National Council of Churches pressed on despite dangerous times toward that same prize. And so we, who just celebrated our 150th anniversary but are beset with many challenges, we who proclaim Christ in a time in which many suffer and cry out for justice, are called to press on, to press on toward the goal, to keep our eyes on the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Amen.