Worldwide Communion Sunday

 10/2

the heron

S S

On Worldwide Communion Sunday, I am once again with my friends from Beverley Church. And still meeting virtually, as we have since March of 2020....

So here we are. It’s officially fall now. And today is World Wide Communion Sunday, And as we look out across the world today, what do we see?  Covid continues to plague the world. We are in this weird in between place where there are different rules everywhere you go. You don’t need anything to get into the ballpark but you have to show vaccination to get into their club. To see my mom in her assisted care facility, it’s been fairly simple  recently but Friday I had to be tested. The concert I attended last night required vaccination proof, contact information and masks. And you’ve got to wear a mask to take any transportation….train, buys, plane or taxi…yes and Uber too.We are still living in coronavirusworld. And in a country where we ended polio and childhood measles with mandated vaccinations, all of a sudden vaccinations are controversial. I literally heard someone outside my window last week talking to a friend convinced that the covid vaccination shot was the mark of the beast. I got my booster Thursday  and spent all day Friday in bed. 

The weather gets wilder and the water gets deeper.  And it’s not just Louisiana and Haiti. I’ve got friends in Brooklyn and the Upper West Side who have lost a life’s worth of papers and records and art work and other  irreplaceable items in our last big storm.  

Weather is part of what drives people from their homes and we’ve now got more people in motion than any other time in history. And migrants die in the desert and die in the Mediterranean and we still don’t seem to know what we’re doing on our border. 

After 20 years, we are finally out of Afghanistan but after that the less said the better. 

In politics, we are hopefully divided, one side won’t talk to the other and that’s just the Democrats. 

And today people all round the world are gathered around the communion table to celebrate our sharing in our own expression of the worldwide community of those who follow Jesus and by so doing participate, become the living body of the risen Lord.

So what is Jesus talking about today? Our gospel, Mark 10: 2-16, finds Jesus in another tricky conversation with the Pharisees and he spends most of his time talking about divorce with a little about children tacked on at the end. And how does that connect with Worldwide Communion Sunday? Well, let’s see….

First, a word or two about the Pharisees. They are always coming off as the bad guys, but hey, maybe not always so. When it says they were testing Jesus, that’s not necessarily mean spirited.  That’s just what they do. They would do it to each other.  My Jewish rabbi friends do this all the time. It’s like a trip to the gym for your head. A theological mental workout.  And Jesus always gives a good as he gets. 

And let’s admit right upfront that what Jesus says here has caused much pain for many people over the eons. For this reason, the Catholic Church still forbids divorce to this day.. and goes though all kinds of ecclesiastical gymnastics to make annulments work. What happens to the children of an annulment? A friend asked when we discussed this text, And by this scripture, up until recently even divorced Presbyterian pastors would find it next to impossible to find a call.

And due to this passage, we resisted marriage equality, though the fact is, once we bent on divorce, there was no more reason to oppose marriage equality.

And why does a story about children come up next? Well, just hold on…

First, what’s up with Jesus and divorce? Remember ….in Jesus 'world, marriage was essentially a property transaction. That’s why if a man had sex with another man’s wife, it was the man he had hurt. Not the woman. That’s why only men could declare divorce, not just for infidelity, but even simple displeasure, the burning the dinner angle. And leaving a woman divorced was to leave her ….and her children…vulnerable and unprotected.

Jesus’ first point is marriage is not just about property rights. It’s about relationship….and marriage….and sex itself…are to be taken very seriously … Jesus wants us to be intentional about what we do.  And he begins to even the  playing field among men and women as to divorce.  And adultery. It’s moved beyond patriarchal property discussions to talking about honoring relationships….

Now just having talked about divorce, Jesus finds his disciples shooing away children who had been brought to him for blessings….so Jesus comes off on them. So when Jesus says:

"Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." 

I want you to be clear what’s going on here. This is not one of those romanticizing ah the innocence of children moments. He’s into a something deeper.  And here’s our connection…

In Jesus society, if women were lesser than, then children were the least . And in a world where Jesus always shows preference for the least of these our brothers and sisters, then children are the least of the least. You see what the connection here is? Both women and children are those who we must stand in solidarity with. 

I will add though…there is this ….when I watch my grandchildren discovering the world, I see in the eyes something we have  often forgotten…a sense of wonder.., like everything they see for the first time is amazing.

My mom is in hospice now. Thankfully, there is a beautiful little lake behind her facility, a little less than a mile around. Her favorite time of day is when one of her children wheels her around the lake.  We look for where the ducks and geese are and try to get close if they come up on shore. There’s one heron who if we are lucky will make an appearance. We notice the wide variety of trees and realize that like so much of creation, the variety is not necessary, it just is.  We see all the neighborhood dogs with their owners. And because my mom bene knows when will be the last time, she looks at everything like it was the first time and I try to see to with her eyes.  That’s how Jesus wants us to see his kingdom with awe and wonder…and on a day like world communion Sunday, as if for the very first time.

A kingdom where the least of these matter…are welcome and taken care of and we do this just because that’s who we are …and why we are…

So on this world wide communion Sunday, when our moment of sharing bread and cup comes, let us look into our savior's eyes, each other’s eyes as if  for the very  first time. 

In Jesus name, Amen.

2Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" 4They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her." 5But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

10Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

13People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." 16And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.