Will Rice - Sermon #30 - One Body

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

1 Corinthians 11:17-29

“One Body”

On this Sunday, while we were still sleeping, Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo left their homes for places of worship to see their pastors take bread in their hands and declare, “This is my body.” In the Church of the Holy Resurrection in Jerusalem were heard the words, “This is my body.” In Saint Paul’s in London a hush fell across the congregation as the pastor declared, “This is my body.” In churches and cathedrals across the United States today pastors take bread into their hands and declare, “This is my body.” In thatched-roof mission stations across the islands of the Pacific this afternoon will be uttered, “This is my body.”

This is World Communion Sunday. Throughout the world churches of all denominations, in all nations, in many languages, are celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Today, as I lift the bread and say these words,

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

we are reminded that I don’t just mean “we” all of us in the room, but “we” all of us in the body of Christ, in this body that we call Grace United Methodist Church, in this community of Annaville and CalAllen and Corpus Christi, in this state we call Texas, in this country we call America, and around this great a varied world.

At least, in the moment that we break the bread and in that wondrous time when we file forward to receive the Holy Mystery, we can get that part that “we” in the room are one. I think that, at least for the moment we are able to put aside our differences and celebrate our oneness in Christ.

I was personally challenged on this the other day. I was at a clergy gathering and serving this particular day was a member of the clergy that I honestly don’t much like. I think she is mean. However there she was holding the cup. And I am hearing Paul screaming in my head:

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

Now I had three choices, especially remembering some guidance from Matthew’s Gospel:

²³So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

So, first, I could have just left. But that would not have really fixed anything. So, choice two, I could have asked everyone to hold on a moment while I had a chat with my sister there holding the cup. Which, being a clergy gathering, may have worked, had it not been just before lunch. Or three, which I went with, I could take the chance to ask God to work on my heart so that I could truly see that moment and a moment of reconciliation and see our oneness through the sharing of the bread and cup.

Now, my clergy sister and I are still not chummy, but I cannot help but see her in a different light, the light of Christ.

That should and does happen all the time in the church. We come here from so many different backgrounds with different understandings and different calls and claim on our lives. If we are really true, authentic people of God, we will annoy, perturb, frustrate and generally get on each other’s nerves sometimes. Here at the table we are called to remember our oneness in Christ and God’s abundant, healing grace helps make that happen. At the Lord ’s Table our differences can be reconciled or at least softened in the warm light of Christ.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

But, especially on this World Communion Sunday, we remember that the “we” carries far beyond the walls of this church, past the safe community of people, who although we differ with in background, and political affiliation and other details, we hold much in common. But outside these walls in sometimes a different story.

I may be the luckiest person on the planet, because nearly every day, I get to stare into the eyes of a reminder of vastness of our oneness. In my house lives a little boy who looks nothing like me, a little boy who wasn’t, like me born, to two loving parents in a sleepy little Western New York town. The very presence of our foster child reminds me of our oneness in Christ and what a struggle that is for us. I am reminded that it wasn’t too many years ago that had I brought that little black boy to church with me, it would have been scandalous!

I can look in the crib at my home and see a glimpse of the body of Christ, but even that is limited.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

Especially on this World Communion Sunday, we remember that the “we” carries far beyond the walls of this church, beyond Annaville, beyond CalAllen, beyond Texas, beyond The United States of America. We, who are very many, and seemingly so different, are one.

The hands that are held open to receive the loaf this morning will all look very similar, but the hands that will partake of the one body of Christ around the world will look very different. As we reconcile with each other, the limited “we” of this congregation, so does God call for the reconciliation of all the world as we all share from the one loaf, as we are truly one body.

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

Paul’s words are harsh when I think how short I have fallen in being truly reconciled with my brothers and sisters here in the church and even in the community; they downright sting when I think of how unaware I even am of those other hands open to receive the bread this day.

2^nd Corinthians5 ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

When we come to the table of Grace it is just a little snapshot of the kingdom that God has in mind for us. I am not talking about the heavenly kingdom we all seek at our death. I am talking about the kingdom of God that God is working to make present in this world. That kingdom we get a glimpse of at the Lord’s Table. As our differences are reconciled or softened, at least for the moment as we share together at this table, so is God leading us to a broader reconciliation, not just in this room, but around the world.

¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

If World Communion Sunday is nothing else, it is a reminder of the global nature of our oneness in Christ. It is a day that, when we receive the bread in our hands, we can close our eyes and picture a deeply dark, black woman in sub Saharan Africa dressed in a hand made, tattered gown, a woman who didn’t have any breakfast so that she might have enough to feed her children, a woman who walked ten miles to a place that we would hardly call a church. We can picture her kneeling, holding our her hands to receive from the same body we receive, trembling at the promise of love and transformation contained in those simple grains and the juice of the fruit of God’s creation.

Today is a day that, when we receive the bread in our hands, we can close our eyes and picture a tiny gathering of believers in China who are actually risking arrest by gathering in an “unregistered” group. We can picture a Chinese man sitting in a small room, holding out his hands to receive the same body we receive, trembling at the power of the sacrament and perhaps the fear of being discovered.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

Today as we receive the bread on our hands and dip it in the cup we can close our eyes and picture our brothers and sisters in Iraq, who although the look so different are very much one in the body of Christ. Maybe they are only with us in thought today as it the tiny minority of Christians there (around 3%) take their lives into their hands just going outside, let alone trying to be Christian while rival Muslim factions struggle for control.

When I come to the tables with these brothers and sisters can we still feel that transcendent love of God that binds us together. Are we all truly one in the body of Christ?

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

When I think of how little I even know about my brothers and sisters around the world, their struggles, their joys, how some of their lives are actually affected simply by the food I choose to buy or where I shop or who I vote for, when I think of how little attention I pay, I instantly feel like I did sitting in that clergy gathering getting ready to receive communion from someone I didn’t much like.

Here is the good news of the communion table. None of us are worthy, but all of us are welcome. However, that doesn’t let us off the hook. As I invite you to the table, I invite you to think about all of our brothers and sister around this room, around town and around the globe. They are truly at this table with you.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”