Streams of Mercy

Yesterday was World Communion Sunday, 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 1933. It was the worst year of the great depression; storms swept across the mid-west dustbowl; Hitler was rising to power, and 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 the same and the players in the drama are different, the events of the days in which we are living provoke fear, anxiety and uncertainty.

Often we feel lost in the mist of life, separated from the “best of times” and left to wander in what sometimes feels like the “worst of times.” It’s important that we came to the table on World Communion Day, and that in coming, we tried to give voice to the pain and suffering in all of life.

I came across this wonderful poem for our celebration in Jackson Springs this year:

And the Table Will Be Wide: A Blessing for World Communion Sunday

And the table will be wide. And the welcome will be wide. And the arms will open wide to gather us in. And our hearts will open wide to receive.

And we will come as children who trust there is enough. And we will come unhindered and free. And our aching will be met with bread. And our sorrow will be met with wine.

And we will open our hands to the feast without shame. And we will turn toward each other without fear. And we will give up our appetite for despair. And we will taste and know of delight.

And we will become bread for a hungering world. And we will become drink for those who thirst. And the blessed will become the blessing. And everywhere will be the feast.

– Jan Richardson

The final verse touched my heart with its challenge to “become bread” for a hungering world and “drink” for those who thirst. As “the blessed” we are to become “the blessing” and when that happens, “everywhere will be the feast.”

After the benediction in worship yesterday, we sang “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” and in that moment our faith was strengthened. We are so blessed. May we become the blessing in all of God’s good creation.

Elizabeth