Sunday, October 5, 2025

Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-6

Sermon Title: One in Christ

The year was 1933. The US and really the entire world were 4 years into the Great Depression. FDR was in his first year of his presidency, and Hitler that same year had been appointed as Germany’s new chancellor. It was a rough time in our country’s history, and the world’s history. And in this same year, the Rev. Dr. Hugh Thomson Kerr was serving as the pastor at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

My Nana, who is still alive, was born in 1937. And she had an older brother, maybe 6 or 7 years older, so his earliest years were at the height of the Great Depression. And my Nana would share how her mother would laugh at the difference between my Nana and her brother. My Nana, who came along later, had no trouble asking for new toys, candy, whatever she wanted when they were out shopping. Where her brother often never asked for things or would tell his sister “we can’t afford that” even after they could in fact afford it since he had grown up hearing these words often during those Great Depression Years.

This Great Depression World was the context in which Rev. Kerr found himself pastoring and preaching. A world of unemployment, breadlines, and worries. A world in which children didn’t dare ask for things because they knew their families couldn’t afford it. I imagine many in Rev. Kerr’s congregation were thinking, will times ever get better?

In the midst of this, Rev. Kerr decided to celebrate the first ever World Communion Sunday. It was originally called World Wide Communion Sunday. And I imagine,that he was inspired in large part by the state of the country and the world at that time.

This was the intent of that first World Communion Sunday - “It was their attempt to bring churches together in a service of Christian unity—in which everyone might receive both inspiration and information, and above all, to know how important the Church of Jesus Christ is, and how each congregation is interconnected one with another.” (Shadyside Presbyterian Church website)

3 years later, in 1936, World Communion Sunday was adopted as a denominational practice in the Presbyterian Church. And 4 years later, “in 1940, the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, which included all the predecessor denominations of The United Methodist Church, adopted World-Wide Communion Sunday.” (Resource UMC)

Again, think about what was going on in 1940 both in our country and around the world. World War 2 was raging in Europe. Hitler had invaded Poland in 1939, and France had fallen to Germany in 1940. The US was not yet in the war, that would not happen until 1941 with the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. But even though the US was not in the war yet, I imagine for even Americans it felt like the world was spinning out of control. I imagine there was worry, will we be joining in this war soon as well? Will my husband, sons, or brothers be drafted?

It makes sense, that during this time in our world history that the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America would choose to adopt World Communion Sunday as a Sunday to promote unity across various denominations, unity with our Christian Brothers and Sisters all around the world.

And I would argue, today in 2025, our world is not too different. Praise the Lord, we are not in a World War, but there are many countries at war. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and Russia and Ukraine are still at war. Israel and Palestine are at war. Here in our own country, it seems like we are more politically polarized than ever before. We had a political assassination a few weeks ago, earlier this year we had an assassination of a Minnesota Lawmaker and her husband, and the governor of Pennsylvania’s home was set on fire on Passover. And I should be clear, he was Jewish. Just this week there was a shooting at a church in Michigan.

When we watch the news on tv, or get the alerts on our phone, or see posts while we scroll through social media, it can feel like the world is absolutely falling apart. The world can feel hopeless and depressing. It can feel very similar to the world of the 1930s and 1940s.

And yet, we are called, as followers of Jesus Christ, to remember that we are One. We are called to remember that we are One in Christ. In a world that is so polarized, today as Christians we are coming together to celebrate unity in the Body of Christ.

Through World Communion Sunday, we are reminded that the Christian faith, this life of following Jesus, is so much larger than just the United Methodist Church. We are reminded that Christianity is so much bigger than America as well.

Today, there are Christians all around the world, citizens of all different countries, members of all different denominations celebrating World Communion Sunday. Today, we remember that for followers of Jesus Christ, our citizenship is in heaven. For followers of Jesus Christ, our membership is in the Body of Christ.

The scripture we heard today was from Ephesians. This is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Ephesus. Paul would often write letters when there were problems. Kind of like a teacher sending a note home to a parent. So often parents only hear from teachers when students are misbehaving, not when they are doing well. And in some ways, Paul was the same – writing to correct churches.

But this is not the case in the case of Ephesians. Paul had spent 3 years with the church in Ephesus; he had a great relationship with the church in Ephesus and was writing to encourage the church in Ephesus. And a major theme in the Letter to the Ephesians is unity.

Paul tells the Ephesians, and truly all of us who are reading this letter two thousand years later, to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. As I shared my first month here, we all have a calling. And here Paul is telling us to live a life worthy of that calling.

How are you living a life worthy of the calling you have received?

Then Paul tells us to “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:2, NIV)

You know, these instructions of Paul are easier to follow when it comes to people we like and get along with. It’s easier when it’s someone we love, someone we agree with, someone who looks and thinks and acts like we do, isn’t it? We can be humble, gentle, and patient with the people we like.

But in our polarized country, a country facing a Government Shutdown because of not knowing how to work together across the aisle, maybe we all need to hear these instructions for interacting with people on the “other” side, whatever that might be for you. How are we humble and gentle, patient, and bearing with one another in love, especially the people we disagree with? Maybe we need to ask, how are we gentle toward Republicans? How are we patient with Democrats? How do we bear with the “other” side in love?

Paul then closes today’s scripture with these words, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6, NIV)

When a teacher or a parent wants you to really understand something, or do something, what do they do? They repeat themselves. Over and Over and Overagain.

Look both ways before you cross the street. Say thank you. Wash your hands. Turn off the lights. Don’t let the AC out of the house. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

And here in these last few verses, Paul repeats the word “One” seven times.  One Body, One Spirit, One Hope, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, and One God. Seven times! I think Paul wants us to get it:

Because of Jesus Christ, we are one.

In the Gospel of John, John chapters 14-17 are what is known as Jesus’s Farewell Discourse. This is right after the Last Supper, and Jesus is basically telling his disciples goodbye. He is telling them everything he wants to make sure they know.

If you knew that you were going to be dying soon, what last words would you want to leave behind to your family? Probably something like how much you love them, and you want them to love others and show others the love of God.

Jesus is doing this as well in these chapters. He knows he’s going to die. He knows this is his last meal, his last night with his disciples, and so he tells them all sorts of things that are important to him.

And he ends with a prayer in John 17. And what’s so amazing is that Jesus doesn’t end with a prayer for only those disciples gathered there that night. Jesus ends with a prayer for all future believers, all future disciples. That’s all of us. Did you know 2,000 years ago, Jesus prayed for you?

And what did Jesus pray? Jesus prays that we would be One, and for our unity.

Hear this prayer of Jesus, praying for all of us, long ago.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:20-23)

Jesus prays for us to be one, and for us to be brought to complete unity.

Maybe we need to pray that same prayer for ourselves as well. “Lord, help us to be one, as you and the Father are one. May we be brought to complete unity.” Maybe that’s the prayer for our country and our world right now. Help us to be one. Help us to be united in our love for you Lord.

Every week we receive the Sacrament of Communion; you hear me say the same thing. This is not my table, this is not a United Methodist Table, this is not Tomoka’s table, this is the Table of Jesus Christ.

Where Paul said the words, “one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God,” I think Paul left out one more thing: One Table.

At the Communion Table, at the Table of Jesus Christ, we are all one. It doesn’t matter who we are, what country we’re from, what we’ve done, what denomination we’re a member of, how we vote, we are one.

This World Communion Sunday, may we know we are one with Ukrainian Christians hiding from bombs in underground subways, may we know that we are one with Russian Christians being forced to attack people they don’t want to, may we know that we are one with Palestinian Christians hiding in the rubble, may we know that we are one with Christians in Israel, Nigeria, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Cuba, you name it. The Church of Jesus Christ is Global. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all Children of God, made in the image of God.

At the Communion Table, there is no hierarchy, no person who is better or worse than someone else. At the Communion Table, we are all one, united in our hunger to receive God’s forgiveness and grace.

So may we come to the table hungry for grace, and may we leave so full of grace, that we can’t help but leave this place and share God’s grace, with all people, no matter who they are, no matter what they look like, no matter how they vote, no matter where they’re from.

May we live out Jesus’s prayer, and Paul’s instructions to be One.

Amen