October 5, 2025 – World Communion Sunday

Matthew 26.20-30

I Corinthians 12.12-27

Let No One Put Asunder

World Communion Sunday

Never having been justly accused of standing on the cutting edge of contemporary culture, when I heard the news this week about February’s Super Bowl halftime show, basically I shrugged.  While I have heard of Bad Bunny, I could not tell you anything about him, and if you were to ask me, I would refer you to someone, anyone, much younger than I.  So boy was I in for an education this week.  For example, I learned that he is not an American citizen, except he is an American citizen.  I learned he only sings in Spanish, except he is multi-lingual and sings in both Spanish and English.   I learned that a large swath of Americans are ready to pass judgement on his choice as the Super Bowl headliner without knowing much more than I do about him.  And I learned that somehow I too have to have an opinion of him, even though I know next to nothing about him.  The fact that so many people are ready, if not outright eager, to stake a claim and dive into an argument with little basis in fact is a sad testimony to the ideological division in which our society presently finds itself.  And I found myself wondering, How did we learn to be so divisive?

On Wednesday the United States government shut down.  And in the days following it has become clear that the two major parties, instead of searching for solutions, would rather spend their time blaming each other for the impasse that has caused the White House, Supreme Court, US Treasury and FBI to be closed to the public.  Some National Parks and monuments, museums, and federal agencies are either closed or have furloughed workers, Veterans’ services are reduced, air traffic controllers and Transportation Security workers remain on the job in reduced force and without pay. And rather than getting together to work toward solutions, all we hear is whose fault it is and why the other side is so out-of-touch with folks like you and me.  It seems like the only thing they can agree on is to disagree with little to no attempt at negotiation or compromise.

And in the world of sports, the Great Connecticut Divide was on full display this week as the Boston Red Sox took on the New York Yankees in the first round of the baseball playoffs.  And while the series did not work out the way God intended, it was a good series and hats off to the Bronx bombers for their two games to one victory.  (Let’s go Blue Jays.)

Today is World Communion Sunday.  On the first Sunday in October, Christians around the world come to the table and celebrate our unity, the ways that being in Christ make us one with each other.  It does not matter what denomination we are, nor where we live, nor the color of our skin, nor our economic status, nor whom we love, nor our physical abilities, nor what languages we speak, nor our opinions on contemporary topics, nor our political persuasion.  When we come together around the table, we are One.  We belong to one another, because we belong to God.

Michele reminded us this morning of that very first communion table, of Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper.  Consider the people around that table.  There were people who made their living fishing, a tax collector, a couple of carpenters, a far-left radical, an accountant, and an itinerant preacher.  You and I often think of the disciples as a homogeneous merry band of evangelists, but they came from different backgrounds and social strata, and we might say one of the few things they had in common was that Jesus called them to follow him, and to their own surprise, they did.  They were a varied bunch, but around the table that night, they were one singular and diverse body.

And this is not a bad description of who we are as the body of Christ.  You and I, all of us may have heard the calling of God in different ways, very likely we have different ideas about who God is, about who we are as children of God, about what is most important in the ways we live out our faith, whatever that faith may look like.  But in this moment, members and friends alike, we have chosen to be part of this expression of the body of Christ regardless of whatever differences we may have.  Or to get theological about it, we have been called to be part of this expression of the body of Christ regardless of whatever differences we may have.  This is who God has called us to be, and here we are once more, at the table of our common communion.

And this body of Christ needs every one of us.  I have to think the apostle Paul was having a bit of fun with his choice of metaphor in his letter to the Corinthian church.

“If the foot should say Because I am not a hand I don’t belong to the body, it would not cease to be a part of the body.  If the ear should say Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body…  The eye cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you, and the head cannot say to the feet, I don’t need you.  If you are the body of Christ, each one of you is a part of it.”

Or, I wonder if he were writing today to the American church today he might say, Because I am not a Yankee fan, I would not cease to be a baseball fan.  Because I am not a partisan Republican or Democrat I am still part of the body politic.  Because I may or may not know anything about Bad Bunny, I am still a music lover who listens to and makes music every chance I get.  The near-reflexive divisiveness that seems to permeate today’s culture is at the end of the day a fabricated division.  It is not who were really are; it is a hurtful, misguided, self-centered frame of mind that shuts out and shouts down our neighbor.  And at the end of the day, it closes us off from genuine relationships.  It leaves no room for love.

Those of us of a certain age will recognize the words of this morning’s sermon title, Let No One Put Asunder, as part of the closing words of our wedding ceremonies.  “Those whom God has joined together,” the sentence reads, “let no one put asunder.”  The phrase appears in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, the Presbyterian Book of Worship, the Lutheran Book of Worship, the United Methodist Book of Worship, the Roman Missal…  even our own United Church of Christ, which is allergic to much that is liturgical, employs a slightly altered, “Those whom God has joined together, let no one separate.” I borrowed the phrase this morning because it serves as a reminder that God created humanity in a way that knits us together, that reminds us of the many ways we are similar and belong together, both because of and in spite of whatever may be our differences.  And it is here at the communion table, on World Communion Sunday in particular, that you and I together declare that unity, that oneness in Christ Jesus.  When Jesus saw someone who was broken, he healed them.  When the early church was little more than a scattered and random gaggle of faith communities, the Holy Spirit brought them together.  When you and I encounter a broken world, we mend it, we don’t amplify its brokenness.  This is what communion both reminds us and equips us to do.

You read about the shooting and arson at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormon Church in Grand Blanc, Michigan last week that left four worshipers dead.  Thomas Jacob Sanford, the assailant, also perished in the attack.  What you may not have read about is what happened next.  Sanford was a deeply disturbed individual who was survived by a wife and child.  A member of a neighboring Mormon Church, seeing the outpouring of support for the members of the congregation and the families of the victims, saw two other victims most others didn’t notice:  Sanford’s family.  His wife and child had nothing to do with the shooting, but they too suffered as a kind of collateral damage of the terror.  So the neighbor set up the equivalent of a Go Fund Me page, and the outpouring of generosity, in particular among the Mormon community, was amazing.  Donations flowed in from all over the country, and donors cited themes of forgiveness and reconciliation, and one cited the words of Jesus, “As I loved you, love one another.”  To be sure, the families of Sanford’s victims are receiving abundant donations, monetary and otherwise.  But the compassion of one individual, who remembered the biblical admonition to care for the widow and orphan, drew a circle of compassion that included all the victims and survivors, not just the obvious ones.  This is what community looks like.  This is what inclusion looks like.  This is what healing looks like.  This is what forgiving, compassionate love looks like.  On this World Communions Sunday, this is what the table looks like.