COMMUNION MEDITATTON
John 17:20-26
October 6, 1974

During the Battle of Britain in 1940, one of the Third Reich's
[Se — —_—_—— Saas

major targets was the English industrial city of Coventry .\ The blitz was

heavy and efficient and one of the casualties was Coventry Cathedral, seat

of the Anglican Diocese, a marvelous old structure built in the Middle Ages,
——
The Cathedral was totally devastated with the exception of the tower and a

portion of the exterior walls.
— SSE

After the war, Coventry, along with every other major British city,

began to clear the rubble and rebuild \sue instead of levelling the bombed
ef standing,
abowedmitmtinnind §

I
out skeleton of the old church, the tower and walls were

and a magnificent modern cathedral was erected immediately adjacent \:me idea
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was that people ought to be reminded visually, of the destruction and inhumanity
ae —S Ss — ow

of war:\but also that out of the ashes and blood of human conflict te

& healin
Tops wet ged Lae happen tepemianizeen . The theological theme that informed the

architecture of the new building is "reconciliation" | setmsatemommeneyse

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ig

ey = = ee SS ie ee So aS ek

It's a magnificent edifice and a magnificent iden | ne the most

impressive visual experience for me was to stand inside the ruins of the old
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sanctuary Where the high altar once stood, a plain rectangular altar has been
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constructed out of clunks of old pasonry \on the wall_behind is a large cross
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made of two charred pieces of roof timber./And across the front of the altar

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two words are ingeribed:|"pather Forgive,'"!

I had heard the story of coventry: had seen the pictures { But
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standing in front of the altar - looking at that cross and the two simple
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words, one could not help but experience a sense of urgency about the idea
—— —

of reconciliation - brotherhood - unity - oneness | that glori ision of
uhvey mew Wave refesed +o alban ™ , SO Whick
one human fentty: [ene vision theme has fared _so cel human history,

As you know, it is what we_are about today as we celebrate something
called World Communion .\ several hundred million people on seven continents
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are eating the bread and drinking the wine of the Lord's Supper today.
—— Gack

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Academically that's interesting and impressive /But more to the point is the
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idea - the vision - the concept of the unity of mankind.
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Regardless of the mechanics, it is an idea that is not ordinarily
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a priority item for most of us - or for our church \ Individually we have
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been nurtured on the milk of selt-suttictency \ we would like to feel that we
—— =— SS

need no one.\Culturally - nationally - we are having a difficult time making

peace with the fact that we are a small minority within the human family, and
that what is good for the United States may not be good for the rest of the
world, [Retigiousty nore frequently than it is comfortable to admit, men have

used the Christian faith in order to deepen divisions between them or to

create new ones \he tragic story of Northern Ireland is simply the most recent
=e ————s ———

expression of a dynamic that has brought us the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition,

the Religious Wars of Europe and Ku Klux Klan.
‘ee ty

Phylis McGinley has incorporated that sad reality into a deoltebtiet charming

poem entitled: How to Start a war. burtng the Reformation there was a division
ee] ae

over the practice of Baption (a man by the name of Zwingli favored sprinkling:

another leader by the name of Muntzer favored total immersion.
— ee Saree

Said Zwingli ta Muntzer
"T'21 have to be blunt, sir
I don't like your version

Of Total Immersion,

And since God's on my side
And I'm on the dry side,
You'd better swing ovah

to me and Jehovah."

Cried Muntzer, "Te schism,

Is Infant Baptism!

Since I've had a sign sir,
That God's will is mine, sir,
Let all men agree

With Jehovah and me,

Or go to hell, singly,"

Said Muntzer to Zwingli.

And each drew his sword

On the side of the Lord.

We have made progress in our say \we are no longer hurling insults,

at least officially, across the theological divides \pue we are a long way

from unity - structurally or spiritually. \When the world looks at the Church

Le |

it does not, obviously, see a demonstration of the miracle of reconciliation.

Tn fact it still sees competition, divisiveness and sometimes bigotry.
Wee EE

And it may be that - that is precisely why the world so often seems to turn

a deaf ear toward our pontifications about love and recongitiation | se least,
El i ———— Fiat nmin | —

that is what is suggested to me by our text this morning.
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The Biblical concern for unity is there from the beginning. |e
— siaaamel

very basis of the faith of Israel is that there is one God who is the creator
and father of all nen. [in the Old Testament, the Tower of Babel - the great
. ‘Pieridae re, eee

disruption - is the tragedy against which the rest of the story must be read,

Jesus came calling God father:| reminding his people that there is

one God who longs to see all of his children reunited ~ reconciled to him and

to each ather.| on the very night of his arrest and betrayal that is the idea
a TS nel Sl —

he held up before chen | Around the Table of the Last Supper he prayed for his

diseiples:] not for their health or welfare or success - or even their slavation:

but for their unity,

"Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou
hast given me, that they may be one, even as

we are one." | John 17:11.

And then he looked down through the centuries, and out of his own

—

sensitivity to human sin, prayed for _us.....

"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...so that the world may believe

that Thou hast sent me." John 17-20-21,

That is how important the idea which this day celebrates was for
ae ee

Jesus Christ \coats will for us is that we be one: \rhat we display in

our common life the truth of the Gospel \ sat people see in us - our
el

relationships in the Church - a quality of Love so conspicuous and unmistakable
sian iin. eel

that the very love of God will shine through it. Sometings Wut \appous te Yk .
— re NA himel “Vroterbeuat parsl,-
We eu

Not long ago I read an article by Benest Ackerman, a Presbyterian

Fraternal Worker among the Seminole Indians, about their practice of communion.
Ee

It is customary, after the service, for the worshippers to gather on the

Church lawn and for each person to shake the hand of every other person there.
aera — re

Then, with the minister and an Elder in the center, an individual may work
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hound
ene Aa ere
his or her way through the group to shake the hand of a particular person. Wv*
Dateien ———EeEEeeeee

7,
(the first time I saw this, Sir, Ackerman writes, Cr turned to the Elder and

asked what they were doing. |e whispered in my ear, (mey have had bad feeling. =
— Sinha iad eb ne rs,

But this is Communion, * )

Weta pi ang, Crador “Ake ausher cawkinds ++

"On those rare occasions when I may sit in the pew of a fine Church

and receive the elements in the Sacrament my mind is naturally on reconciliation.

ire,

But what kind of a nut would people say I am if I were to submit to the urge

—

to shake the hand of every other person there, with the certainty that each

of them, too, had found fresh reconciliation with the Lord of all mankind,.™ We staid

“Rresbuderians Vou gomedia de \cace fram our peo. *

Today, we celebrate Communion on a grand scale:\a Communion that
ine a ed

extends across the centuries and that transcends every division of nation, race
Cea e eee mamma —_— —

—

or station.| Today we celebrate God's process of reconciliation whereby He is

bringing together the whole family of nan.{ And yet, one can get lost in 2B of
a CO en] ne ———n

that \reconestiation, as Jesus_knew, begins rather modestly-between Peter and

John: | Andrew and James {| between you and the person sitting next to you,

Frederick Buechner advises: |"The next time you walk down the
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street, take a good look at every face you pass and in your mind say,
- — ermal

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"Christ died for sheei\ raat girt\ rhat_ slot slob \ - That phony. That Wcrook.

That saint \ That dammed fool.\Christ died for thee \ mwa €at this in

—_— ei

remembrance that Christ died for thee,"

So, today, World Communion Sunday, is a grand and glorious vision
of God's plan for his cxestion:|a promise of what could be and what will be:
‘eich | Oe a) Le |

a foretaste of what God is new doing among men,
ee ——

But it begins modestly, personally, between individuats| Take ~
—_— oo eet —_—
eat - Christ died for me - and thee. { ana that makes us members of one
— a Ld DI «9
family.

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Amen,

Father, stretch our minds with a new vision of your kingdem:
a kingdom in which all people belong to one family. And then be with us
as we calebrate that vision - as we commune with each other: Through Jesus

Christ our Lord. Arson

eVyme- ge hoeEE

+ Creed