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WORLD WIDB COWMUNION OCTOBER 6, [963

World Wide Communion Sunday, 1963, — unity seems fo be the word of the

ve ha can be comforted by the thought that on this day Christians all over

the world are unified in the celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord's

Supper \AtI over the world Christians are gathering at places of worship,

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and we know they will be doing essentiamlly the same things we are doing ;

and thinking the same thoughts:\uni ty, today, is in the air.

And not only today: — for in our generation a great revolution is occurring

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in Christiantty:\It¥s name, which chokes most laymen, Is the ecumenical
ee] iss

mavement. |"Ecumenical" comes from a Greek word meaning “house or household",
pa ne

and the movement has gone a long way toward expressing the essential unity
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of all Christian men.| It has caused most sensitive Christians to reexamine the

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reasons for their distinct deneninations 11 has cause@ theologians to sit

down and discover how very little there is that separagtes Christians by way

of th@logy.|And it has provided an atmosphere of friendliness and cooperation

ED

BETWEEN LOCAL CHURCHES THAT NOT LONG AGO WERE INVOLVED IN BLATANT competition

for men's sould.

The Ecumenical Movement is important: it is not a matter of expedience,

or of any other human fancy.|For Jesus Christ was concerned about n't ty.<| Shor Hy
(ee \

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before his arrest Jesus prayed: and the author of the Fourth Gospel has
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recorded for us the essence of his prayer.\11 is a beautifuld d# and moving

prayer.\ the situation is filled With raw drama: fesus ig about to be arrested:

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his death is immanent and he is aware of it. \wis disciples are about to betray,

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deny and desert him: and he is aware of that too. [and yet the essence of his
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prayer is a petition on their behal tl Even though$ they|are about to let him

down terribly, he prays that he is glorified in them: he are the ones he
a —— —n

has taught and carfully groomed: they are his friends,

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ven though their

loyalty is about to _wain: they are his disciples and he'is proud of them —

for in them: in the work they will have to do - he will be glorified

es ts,

And then, on behalf of his wavering disciples, he uffters one of the most

significant petitions in any prayer: ("Holy Father, keep them in thy name

which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one." )

A simple phrase: and yet Bossessed of sharp insight and prophetic vision.
pre p g P

ne

A few short years later men were fo dispute with each odher saying{"!

belong to Paul, and | belong to Peter, and | belong to Appolos, and | belong

—

to Christ.tP Fifity years after his crucifixion and resurrection Christians

}

were to be split right down the middle over a thfologica] debate spring

from the Gnostic heresy, a syntheses of Christainity and Greek mysticism) In
fact the history of Christianity, the history begun by this group of intimate

friends, like the history of all humanity, was to be one long tale of wars,

* Co rm
strife; *men fighting nen. it was to be a story of Reformation and Reformation,
al en ae

_——— es,

of sects, and orders, od denominations and branches. |ang i think our Lord
——, —. =

——a,

knew this as he prayed that his disciples be one when he prayed for unity

he was striking an essential, amiali tod rare chord in the whole history
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of the Christian Faith.

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And so today when Unity is in the air we rejoice: \But we also do well

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to stop and define what we mean, bina do we mean by Christian Unity # of
Ecumenici ty?|what do we want when we labor for Unity?

| think one of the serious failing of the Ecumenical Movement, and even

of such ecumenical celebrations as World Wide Communion, is that it has caused

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us to overshoot \To draw an analogy,we are léke the hunter who zealously

fires away at a whole flock of Geese, and in his zeal fails to hit a single
—

goose.\1 think that in our headlong pursuit of Ecumenicity ##, in our

enthusiastic desire for Christian Unity, we perhaps bypass and miss a very

essential understanding: i.e. that Christian Unity begins af a very unsensaftional

level -- at the level of relationships between individual persond The practice

of Christianity goes on between man and man: Christian love is love for

another man: Christian Charity is an act of sacrifice for another person:

— Se

Christian forgivenness is a forgiving of another person who has wronged us.

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But modern Christianity seems bent upon elliminating this iportant inter~
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persoan! aspect form the faith \ one of the great ironies of the modern faith

is that we delight in broad sweeping generalities, while our Lord dealt in

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harsh specétics.| Jesus worked with interpersonal relations. He preached

kindnegg and concern #6/¥ for the downtrodden and rejected: and then he went
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out and helped a prostitute up off the street.\ He preached charity to the

poor, and then he went out and rubbed elbows with them, fed them and aye in
a ~~
their homes: He preached forgiveness and then he forgave Peter who had denied

even knowing him, and he forgeve the men who drove the nails through his feet.

But we are satisified to be charitable, and concerned and forgiving at a

distance \we are content to love mankind, while hating_a lot of nen.) We
are content to be Ecumenical minded about the whole Christian Church: but when
our Lord prayed for unity and onesess he referred to a very specific relationship

Seal SS
between very specific men.\He didn't pray for a vague unity among mankind:

he prayed for a precise relationship between this man and this man.
——

The early Christians are History's shining example of Christian unity.

And yet they had no other alternative:| their existence demended on their unity.
a Se wee

They met in secret: their clandestine meetings, and symbols and sacraments
[a ey

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b ound them together in a relationship that was a true brotherhood. \They

knew what it meant to be of one mind and spirit with a brother.\ Sut contrary
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fo the adverse conditions under which C hristian unity flowered, we live in

anf age when every one is, or thinks he is , a Christian.\ {In our day the Church
ns cae —

is not only tolerated, but an essential part of the total cultural structure.
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In this environment we cannot depend on adverse circumgyances to drive us to

unity.

We live also, in a culture that has made unity even more distant, because
= .

—=Es,

of the forces of isolationism and alignation\Soctologists and Psychologists
en ee ell eS

tell us that we are isolated from our fellow men, that we are alienated from
eee eee eli

each orner: |e are a Lonely Crowd, say those who write books about us:
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and we are told that the day of concrete, give-and-take, person-to-person

relationships is fast disappearing. \ And in and through it all we have all but

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lost the essential understanding that the Christian faith operates between me

and my neighbor: that things between men are different because of what Jesus

Christ has done,\ Theoretical ly, Christian men who are strangers, are brothers.

ee ne

bound to each other by a bond of faith and love.\Bibligally, Christian men are
a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a true brothernood.\ And yet do these
Biblical concepts fit the situation as we live it? Do the Biblical ideas of

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unity bear up under close self examination and scrutiny?” tttsinieces. | Does

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our faith make any @ifference in the way we freat another man Are we, in this

aoe =——

congregation, any more to each other than good irisniel bas a stranger in our

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church, or in any church, know and feel that he is amidst a community of brofthers:

a community that is one in thought, mind and spirit: a community of which

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he is a welcome memeber because of his common faith in Jesus christ? me

- SSS are si

Ecumenigal movement begins here, at this humble level: Christian unity —
— *

even World Wide Communion, derive their significance and meaning from our

7 TS

feeling and understanding here,
————

We can do no bettee today, then,to recover the basic understanding to

which | have been referring: that Christianity begins wlth our relationships

with each other: that World Wide Communion is World Wide only after it is

Communion with each other. | vietrick Bonhoeffer has called this recovery

the "Breakthrough to Fellowship." TMg//7¢/7¥ This it i$ - a true break—

through: a breaking through all the silly and unimportant things that separate

aes meet a confrontation with our brother: the one for whom our Lord died.

= —

a

“ Ouf Lord’prayed for unity between his disciples: jand shortly before he

prayed he sat with them around a supper table iis words on that occassion
——— ———

again dealt with specific inter-personal relations. (mis cup is the New

Covenant in my Blood,") Because of what | am about to do on the cross’ You

and God may eneter info a new relationship.| Because of, what | go out now fo

2

do ~ you around this table are bound to each other in a new covenant: a covenant
a_i,

that is sealed with my own biood,| Evevry time you sift down together, remeber

this covenant: remember your. unity in my blood.

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lt is fitting that on Worid Wide Communion Sunday we be aware of the

5. mr
——

cosmic and universal dimension of the Christian srotner hood. | ut it is even

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more fitting thet we realize that our Communion is first of all with each

orner \ Today we celebrate and reenact the establishing of a new covenat btween
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Se rem

God and man, and between man and man:\1t is an agreement, sealed with the Blood
eens

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of Jesus Christ, that binds you_and me, and you and the person sitting nert

to you, together In a new fellowship.

May God granft_us his Holy Spirit that our celebration todgy be World

Wide: but more importantly that it clarify ang ilfumine the royal brotherhood ;

1 - , , {

Li
,oOnr
<<

The Enovitat

Now let us humbly confess our sins unto S&lmighty God, in the UNISON PRAYER

t ” ‘ i \ Ad <p
OF CONFESSION , Keeping IM mind +\,e¥ we hei
i . ‘ \ \ r m §
Sand pe For: (ood not as WwediuiBuals, bry as
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: b ot a 5 Woo a ' Qwiare ro| ae oa i a | “1 a
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