Streams of Mercy
Yesterday was World Communion Day, and Christians around the world gathered to break bread and share the cup, in celebration of our oneness in Jesus Christ. The observance began in a small Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania in l933. It was the worst year of the great depression; storms swept across the Midwest dustbowl; Hitler was rising to power; Japan and Germany withdrew from the League of Nations – all provoking fear and anxiety. Wanting to do something real and symbolic to witness to God’s faithfulness in such a time, World Wide Communion Day was planned, and has been celebrated the first Sunday in October ever since.
In many ways, we find ourselves facing such days once again. While the circumstances are not exactly the same and the players in the drama are different, the events of the days in which we are living all provoke fear and anxiety. There are times when we feel lost in the midst of life - separated from the “best of times” and left to wander in what feels like the “worst of times.”
It was important as we came to the table this World Communion Day that we gave voice to the pain and suffering in all of life, that we addressed the unspeakable events of our day. The truth is that God's "vineyard" is troubled. While Jesus is the "vine" and we are the "branches" , there's little evidence of the fruit of caring for the lost, the least and the last among us. We try to explain the terrible suffering in our world today in many ways - global climate change, poverty, fanaticism/greed, unbalanced wealth, fear and violence, inept political decisions, evil in human hearts, mental illness, and on and on in an unending circle of blame. Sometimes there just are no words to address the unspeakable events of life, but in order to be faithful, we struggled to find these words as we gathered to share the Lord’s Supper.
We came to the table, burdened with the cares and sorrows of this world, yet we came in hope, and together we continue to wait in hope, looking forward to gathering around that great banquet table in the Kingdom of God, when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and sorrow and death will be no more, and all will be made new.
As we came to the table with Christians around the world, we affirmed that we are there for and with each other, and none of us is alone. We must move closer to one another, making room for more of our brothers and sisters at the table - moving beyond the things that separate us from one another and from God, and closer to one another.
The memory of what God has done in the past and the hope of what God yet will do rescues us from hopelessness and helps us to find words for the unspeakable sufferings of our world today. God has made us family - a family that stretches around the world; a family that is called to love as we have been loved, and to forgive as we have been forgiven, to give to others what has been given to us. As we shared in our family meal, we gave thanks to God that we are not alone, that we have both each other and the Spirit of Christ with us, and the faithful love of God among us - a love that will never let us go.
Giving thanks for the blessing of World Communion Day and for the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ in the “best of times” and in the “worst of times.
Elizabeth