One Bread, One Body

Sermon Text for Oct. 1: John 17:6-11; Ephesians 4:1-6
World Communion Sunday is one of the most special days in the Christian year. It is on this day that we celebrate the essential unity of believers in Christ. On this day the faithful from every nation and every denomination join in celebrating the Lord’s Supper. The hymn that we will sing to close our worship speaks the sentiment of World Communion Sunday very well. It says, “One bread, one body, one Lord of all, one cup of blessing which we bless. And we, though many, throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord.” Today we affirm that beyond all of our differences, we are in reality one body, one family in the one Lord.

A few years ago when I was visiting Jerusalem I was in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Roman Catholics and the various Orthodox faiths consider this cathedral one of the most holy sites in all of Christendom. They believe that the church is built over the biblical Golgotha – the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and his tomb. Under one of the altars is a boulder on which they believe the cross was placed and on which Jesus died. Not too far away is a first century tomb in which they believe that Jesus was buried.

The cathedral is very ornate and not to the liking of most protestants. Yet I was genuinely touched by the devotion of others. As I wandered around I heard the sound of chanting which grew louder and louder. It soon became apparent that a worship service was in progress, but it was a service unlike anything I had ever experienced. As I watched and listened I saw a procession of Armenian Orthodox monks processing from one altar to another, chanting and praying. One monk carried a large crucifix and another a bible, yet another a worship book. Each one was dressed in identical black robes. They wore head coverings that wrapped around their faces partially obscuring their jet black beards.

My first reaction was academic fascination. I have read many orthodox liturgies, but only rarely experienced one. I noticed the strange clothing, the strange language, and the even stranger practice of the leader bowing to kiss the various altars. But almost imperceptibly my detached, academic interest was replaced by an intense desire to join them in the procession and in singing the liturgy. They were no longer an object of dispassionate observation, but brothers in Christ.

We were separated by language, culture, liturgy, geography and more. They expressed their devotion in ways that I could never do, like kissing stones that made up the altars, that thousands of others had kissed or walked on. Yet I found something compelling, I became convinced that worship has its own language and that it speaks directly to the heart. And I felt a kinship with these strange people who also named the name of Jesus.

As I thought about all of our differences I remembered Paul’s analogy comparing the Church to the human body. Each part he says functions in a different way and each is essential for health. And I realized that even as the heart and lungs function differently, and each are essential to the body, so do Presbyterians and Orthodox worship differently, and each of us is essential to the Body.

Paul tells us in Ephesians that there “is one body and one Spirit, …One faith, one hope, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

The different expressions of faith in Christ offer different ways of relating to different people, so all might be touched. At first glance it appears that Presbyterians and Armenian Orthodox are completely unrelated – not doing the same thing at all. Yet when we are open to one another we discover that in faith we are joined together in one body with Christ as the head.

Sometimes we forget that the Spirit of Christ binds us together. We threaten, argue, and sometimes we even separate ourselves from the rest of the Body, because we value our differences more than we value the One who calls us together. That is why I rejoice in a day like World Communion Sunday when we celebrate our oneness in Christ. When we recognize our unity in Christ we become the answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17. In this prayer Jesus prayed that we might all be one as he and God are one. Tomorrow we might remember our differences but today we celebrate our unity within the family of Christ. Today we gather around the family table and share the family meal. It is around the table of the Lord that our differences fade away, and those things that tear us apart grow dim in the light of Jesus who has knit us together in one body.

There is indeed one bread, one body, one Lord of all. Thanks be to God!

Copyright © 2006 by Dwight R. Blackstock