conn MEDITATION
OHR 17:20-23
CTGBER 7, 1973

During the Battle of Britain in 1940, one of Germany's priority targets was the city

of Coventry, a major English industrial center. \ The blitz there was very effective and one of

of Xhe Deming
the casualties ws Coventry Cathedral, seat of the Anglican Diocese, a marvelous historic

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butiding erected in the middle ages. \ The cathedral took a direct incindiery bomb hit and

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was totally devastated with the exception of the ioe and part of the exterior walls.

After the war, as Caventry - along with every other major English city - was clearing
the rubble and beginning to rebuild, a significant decisbn was made in regard to the cathedral.
Instead of clearing the bombed out ruins, they were left. to stand ana new modern and magni-

ficient cathedral was erected beside the remains of the old. | The ideawis that people ought

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to be reminded of the destruction and inhumanity of var:\ ame that out of the ashes and blood

of human conflict, Ope sre and resurrection can happen.\ The theme of the new

Cathedral is reconciliation:\ out of its own tragic experience the parish lipes with a special

sensitivity to human conflict and as part of its mission sends out “reconciliation teams"

to any place in the world where conflict is causing suffering: Northern Ireland, the Middle
East it, for instance.
But the most impressive thing about the Cathedral complex ‘ts the ruins of the old

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buitding. | Where the high altar once stood, a plain vectangular altar has been constructed

out of pieces of old masonry. \ ie ot
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On the wall behind is a lexger cross made of two charred pieces of tinber.| novos the

Tront_of the altar two.words are inscribed: "Father Forgive."

I had heard the story of Coventry:\1 hed seen pictures | But standing in front of that
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altar and cross-seeing those two plain words inscribed I was deeply moved. | I had a sense of

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the healing power of the Gospel - the reality of the resurrection ~ but more than anything

else, a feeling of urgency about brotherhood, reconciliation - oneness - unitys| thag rare

phenomenon men have tried so hard to elliminate, but which keeps showing up in human history
usually in times of “Crna It is, as you know, what we are about when we observe something

called World Conmunion:\nore than the simultaneous eating of bread and drinking of wine by
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several hundred million people on seyencontinents: |the mechanics are academic really \ What's

In the air today is the unity of mankind - and the urgent need for reconciliation among men.
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Now thereare a lot of things abenimoumehiuaiten that mitigate against the unity of Many) 60)
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kind ever getting on the agenda of a typical American church ie have been nurtured on the *

milk of self-sufficiency.| Even though we can't seem to produée enough fuel to last throug s

the winter, there remaings_deep in our hearts a trust that this nation& is self-sufficient.
It can stand al one: \we need no one.
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» the conflicts that have torn the rest of the world apart in our generation
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have left_us - here - in this place - relatively unscathed | One of the advantages of ee \iving

in this community is a splendid isolation from the life and death problems of humanity in

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1973. \ not only have we reer had bombs dropping on our homes, schools, amd churches, we have

been spared the urban crisi s3\the racial explosion, even the campus revolt. \ I'm not com-'
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plaining: \it's jsut that Christians here - and churches here feel_that there is nothing more
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urgent to do in the world in the name of Jesus Christ than’rail against a topless bar.

That's not just silly; it's tragic.\ Because the first item on God's agenda is the
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unity of nankcind:| the bringing together of the whole human family.\And we _- we who would

call ourselves Christians - are the ones he has assigned to pull it off.
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The B iblical concern for unity is there from the beginning @sheugh-mest—ohurches
Gheseutemignevents. The very basis of the Old Testament - and the faith_of Israel - is that

there is one God who is the creator and father of all nen.\ Historically, a major corner

in civilization was tucned when the idea that every nation had its own God died, and
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monothism - one God fr all men - gained currency. \ That makes a family of mankind.
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The tower of Babel - the disruption - is the great human tragedy against which the

rest of Biblical history must be read,| Jesus came calling God father: \reminding his people

that there is ‘we God who longs to see his children reunited.\ on the night of his betryal

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and afest that is the idea he held up before them.\\ He prayed for them - that they might be

one. \ And theva he prayed for a lot of people - including us -

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"I do not pray for these only, but also for those who are to believe
in me through their word, that they may all be one."

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So, part of tte witness of this day is tereaporinacentod' s judgenent..\\ after twenty_cen-

turies the human family is still badly divided.| And the church - still resembles that noisy

crowd milling around the Tower of Babel - unable even to speak a common language. | Called

to be the instrument of reconciliation among men, the-etrarth continues to allow political
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COMMUNION MEDITATION OCTOBER 7, 1973 -3-

national, racial, econgmjc and social barriers to divide it. Part of the obervance of this

day is to witness to a God who weeps because his children refuse to get along with each other.

Part of it is to sense hig call to sacrifice some of our precious self-sutficienty and
to acknowledge that we do need other people, not anly to survive, but to fulfill God's will
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for his creation. n) qe he Mee angiion ~ ak go

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Modestly - tentatively - the church has tried to say tht, “particula rly as it gathers

around the Table of our Lord.\ By reinstating the “passing of the Peace’s that time during

communion when we greet each other we are affirming that we are one_in Christs\ that our commun-
Hut be Perens’ vl baa Gt oh be Petewe led MMe Wma,
jon is horizontal as well as vertical | A friend told me that a man in his church stays away
been

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on communton Sunday for that reason:\in hig word -(% don't come to church on Sunday to

meet peqle.") people ws nove suG ered os feces Aw i
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I read, a while ago, an account of how the Seminole Indians practice communion - and I'd

like to share tt with you. | The story was told by the Reverend Ernest Ackerman, one of our

National Missions Workers.
Four small congregations come together regularly for. conmunion.\ Mr. Ackerman faces them -

men and older boys on one side:\ women and children on the other. \the service itself is not

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significantly different from ours here - except for what happens just before the benediction.
The men and women file out of the church in two parallel Vines onto the lawn, singing in
Seminole as they so.| Throughout what follows they continue to sing, going from_one hymn to

another,
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a | capella, of course.

"when all are out of the chuech and the two lines are facing each other about six feet

apart, the lead man turns to the man next to him, shakes his hand and goes down the line

shaking the hand of each.\ Each man in turn follows him, shaking the hands of ait.\ When the lead

man comes to the end of the line of men, he crosses over and, beginning at the end of the

women's 1 line,he shakes the hand of each woran. \ Every man an follows, doing the sane. \ When the

head of of the women's Jine is reached, the lead man crosses back ‘to standin his place; there
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he receives the handshake of each other hen, sc=nbonGuandabekeetrremmate, lheneiic

“The symbolism - no, the _fact ~ is that each person who had the privilege of the Lord's

grace in the sacrament by now has offered his or her own hand to every other who_shared the

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COMMUNION MEDITATION OCTOBER 7, 1973 oh

Communion - and has received the hand of each cf the others.

Still singing, they then bunch together ina conglomerate mass of worshippers, an
elder and me in the center. \ Now an individual may work his or her way through the closely

grouped singers to shake the hand of a particular person, then_stand beside that person.
The first time I saw this, I turned to Elder Tom Fife and asked what they wre doing. | He

whispered in ay ear, (They have had bad feeling. \ But this is communion. have seen

men stand with moist eyes. \ I have seen women weep on each other's shoulders \ therg, I always
say to myself, is reconciliation in its next to highest form, for there they stand, singing
their hearts out, together, Facing the church, the world, and life itself.

“When ali has been done, the benediction is pronounced.

‘see, "On those rare occasions nowadays when I may sit in the pew of a fine church and recete

the elements in the Sacrament, my mind naturally is on recongiliation. \sut what kind of a

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nut wouldpeopie say I am if I were to submit to the urge to shake the hand of every other

person thre, with the certainty that each of them, too, had found fresh reconciliation

with the Lord of ali markind?.....
"I dare suggest that some staid and rock-ribbed Presbyteriahs might jearn a iesson ot

i 3 i "Trail of Tears.'"
from our Seminole brethren, decendants of those driven fron Florida along the "Trail of Te Ss.
#The human family is reunital in smatl, modest ways like that encounter.\\ We need, today,
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to be aware of communion on a grand ssale, a communion that does extend across the centuries

Celelarte Gods Wriaais, suger eF all wea be} . .
and across divisions of nationa and race\ And yet one can get lost in the gradness of it all.

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Reconciliation - brotherhood - unity: begins more. modestly - between me and the person sitting

next to me.

“—S Frederick Beuckner advises: \"the next time you walk down the street, take a good look

at every face you pass and in your mind say, Christ died for thee .) That girt.\That slob.
That phony. \ That crook.\ That saint.\ That dammned fool \ Christ died for thee.\ Take and

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east this in remembrance that Christ died for thee."\

So, today lecomes a vision of God's plan for his creation:\a promise of_ what could be -

but more than that - a break+through, albeit temporary, of the unity and reconciliation he

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intends for us.

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Take - eat - Christ died for me - and thee ~ and ali nen. \ And that makes us members of
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one family. AMEN.

COMMUNION MEDITATION OCTOBER 7, 1973 -5-
Father ~ stretch our minds with a new vision of your kingdom: a kingdom in which allpeople
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belong to one family. And then help us to celebrate that vision as we commune with each

other. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN