Offered to the congregation at Mine Hill Presbyterian Church on World Communion Sunday October 5, 2025
John 17: 20-24 / 1 Corinthians 12 [selected verses]
World Communion Sunday is meant to be a special day in the life of our denomination and for Christians around the world. It is meant to symbolize a gathering together of all the different and varied parts of the Body of Christ, his Church, into one unified offering of “self” by Christians that universally joins us all at his Table.
Did you know that the idea of a World Communion Sunday came out of the Presbyterian Church back in 1933? Yeah, at the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburg, PA, the Rev Dr. Hugh Thompson Kerr came up with the idea as a way to promote unity and cooperation between Christian denominations. It was later adopted by the National Council of Churches in 1936. Just a bit of a history lesson.
Think of it. During the same era that the Presbyterian Church gave us Prohibition, we also came up with the idea of World Communion Sunday – with juice though, not wine.
Their intention was [and ours should be, also] that on this day we come to the Table to offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving to God by sharing in this meal that Jesus has provided for us – but not only that we also come to submit ourselves to the notion that this Body of Christ is wide and diverse. And that diversity is unified in one Body. Though its parts may be different and unique in every way possible, we make a conscious effort to reach out and join hands at this Table with those other widely separated members of the Body so that we may join as one church universal.
In his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul makes his case regarding the unity of the Body of Christ. Paul speaks of the many varied parts of the Body. Individually, our Bodies are one single unit made up of the most unlikely assortment of parts. If you laid them out on a table without a biology book to guide you, you would be hard pressed to reconstruct them into a functioning whole. The Spleen and the Liver look nothing alike and give no indication of their functions. There are two Bladders each with differing functions. There are Muscles, two kinds of Bowels. And what could the Appendix possible be used for? And, laid out in front of you, it can look like a disgusting mess. How can this all possible fit together as a functioning whole – as one Body? Yet it does.
Paul compares the church in all the far-flung places it has been established and all the differing ways those churches have learned to worship Jesus as Lord – to a messy functioning human body. Paul tells us that the church in all its varying disjointed parts may look like a mess but that it all should come together and function as our bodies do – as one church of Christ.
Paul tells us that the Spirit’s has a role to play here. The church, like our bodies, has feet, hands, eyes, ears and a nose; it has internal organs and outer layers of our skin and these all have specific functions. No one part looks anything like the other but yet when assembled by the Spirit they knit together tightly functioning with a single beating heart.
That is the way Paul sees the Church of Jesus Christ working. He tells us, “whether we be Jews or Greeks”, – meaning whether his listening believers were Jews or anyone else in the world who was not a Jew; “whether we are slaves or free” – meaning anyone who is still held captive to the bondage of sin or those who have answered the Spirit’s call to be drawn to the Christ and have been saved by the grace of God; – however, we are drawn to Jesus through the work of the Spirit – we are all baptized by the same Spirit into one Body in Christ. And Paul tells us that all of this is tightly knit together for the common good of the Body.
Paul makes the case that if it were not this way, the Body could not function at all. “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? …If all were a single member, where would the body be?” No, God made it so the differing parts of the body, each one of them with a specific talent and purpose could come together so that the Body can do the work in the Harvest field that God’s needs it to do.
No. “The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” Paul continues, “On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.”
And so, it is with the Church Universal. It may seem that an individual part of the Body may think that it can function on its own to represent the whole, but it cannot. The Roman Catholic Church, the PCUSA, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Church of England, the United Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Pentecostal Church – any denomination that comes to mind, may think it can speak solely on behalf of the Christ; but that would be like the eye claiming it can function as the Body and is not in need of the hand, or the head denying its need of the foot.
No. Paul asserts that only when all of those seemingly disjointed parts are pulled together and unified can they speak with a voice representative of the whole Body.
Now perhaps you may say that the sound of all of those voices speaking as one may be like a deafening noise and that it would be counterproductive. You may say with all those different voices saying things that don’t seem to jive is not the way for the church to speak the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. But through God’s plan, Paul says that is exactly how it should work.
I will point you back to the story of the first Pentecost when the Spirit infused the disciples driving them out into the marketplace. Think of those eleven voices speaking out simultaneously that morning. When the Spirit pushed them out of their locked upper room to walk among the diverse crowds gathered in Jerusalem, to speak in the native tongues of those travelers so that all the world could hear and understand, all that noise rang true to each person listening. From out of that symphony of noise, the voice of God could be heard.
Shouldn’t some voices speak with greater authority than others? No. Not according to Paul. No one part of the Body can function for the whole unless it is joined together with all its supporting parts.
And so, it is with us. We as Presbyterians have worked out our individual jobs and tasks quite neatly in the Book of Order so that we can function as a church. We have the General Assembly providing its overall leadership. We have the Synods and Presbyteries that assist us in providing structure for our organization. You may think that the Synod can be cast off as a non-essential part of the Body, but it too is necessary for the working of the Body. And so, it flows right down to you at the local church level. You have a Session made up of people of various capabilities and talents. You keep worship going. You keep your mission projects up and running. You have a fellowship that joins you together in worship and in the caring and praying for each other. You are all different but yet you are meant to come together and function as one church. And it works quite well.
But as successful as we are at our individual tasks, we are incomplete. The PCUSA is incomplete. Any single denomination by itself is incomplete. We need more body parts to help us speak in diverse tongues so that the Good News of Jesus’ Gospels can be heard the world over. That is one reason for the importance of Presbyterian Mission. It takes us out into the world to gather in and join together with Christians of diverse talents to work together to spread the word – and the love of the Word, Jesus.
The talents that we bring to the world as Presbyterians mesh with other parts of the Body of Christ so that together we can be the hands and feet of God work in the Harvest.
Parts that look marginalized or that appear weak and of little value are vital to the good health of the Body. You may think that your eyes are beautiful to gaze upon or that your nose is so masterfully constructed that it should be lifted up high onto Mount Rushmore but without hands and feet you cannot step out into the world to serve it. We as a church of Christ need more Body parts.
We need to reach out to other parts of the Body of Christ and find a way for us all to work together. Our doors and hearts have to be opened to the idea that though other Christians may not look or sound or speak the same languages as we do, or may not worship in much the same manner that we do – that they are still a part of the Body of Christ and we need to join with them – not to make them the same as us but to bring with them their diverse ways of worshiping and to share their diversity with us and we in turn with them. That diversity makes our Bodies stronger, more healthy, better able to speak and share the Good News.
This may seem a daunting task. But remember that you have an ace in the hole. Remember that Jesus has prayed over you concerning this. Yes. That’s right. You have none other than the Christ bowing in prayer before the Father and asking for God’s blessings upon you.
In John’s Gospel today we heard Jesus say to the Father, “I ask not only on behalf of these [meaning his disciples], but also on behalf of those [meaning you] who will believe in me through their word.” That is how you have come to believe isn’t it – through the sharing of the testimony by Jesus’ initial witnesses in the Gospels, the stories in Acts, Paul’s letters along with those of other writers in our New Testament and then again through all those Saints that have come before us since then. Jesus continues “that they [you all] may be all one in me.” Jesus has prayed over you that you and every other believer that has been drawn to him by the Holy Spirit that we will be made part of the whole that is his body at work in the world. Jesus has prayed to the Father that you can make that happen – that we all – the varied members of the Body can be joined together by the Spirit as one universal Body in Christ. And this World Communion Sunday is our opportunity to recognize the beauty of that diversity and take a step on our journey in making it all come together.
I pray to God that God’s Spirit will guide you to make this happen.
