October 7, 2007

Today we celebrate world communion Sunday, this is a time when we know that we are united with Christians all over the world in a common task- and we can think of the power that we have to build God’s kingdom and celebrate that it is working – the world is changing. The power of transformation is in our unity – in what we are able to do together.
But while preparing for sermon on unity in world communion, I was struck with an email that I received from another pastor. She was asking for prayers for her cousin, Danny – who felt isolated and alone in Thailand. She says,
Dannie is an American and a cousin of a friend of mine. His wife is Thai(she isn't a Christian). She became homesick for her village in Thailandso Dannie agreed to move. I spoke of Dannie last year on World CommunionSunday because he had sent an e-mail that touched my heart so very much. It read, "Keep me in your prayers. Believe me, I need it. It's so hardto be alone as a Christian. But I do talk to my Lord a lot." Because ofhis request for prayers, members of my church committed to praying forhim. When I relayed that to Dannie, his response was, "I am sitting herein tears. I can feel the prayers of my brothers and sisters. I praiseGod and I give Him the glory. Now the prayers that I and so many otherChristians who are alone need are coming to fill us with the joy of JesusChrist. Please let the people who are praying for me know that they arealso in my prayers." That was a year ago. The e-mail I just received read, "I will takeCommunion 'with you'. I will be alone, but not alone in spirit. Jesus iswith me everywhere I go. There are no churches in the mountain villagewhere I live. No missionaries either. Your prayers are important to me. I do try to 'walk the walk' and I have been able to witness several times. This is a hard land for Christians, but it is full of wonderful people." Let us not forget that as we greet each other and embrace each other asone community of faith to another throughout this world, and as wecelebrate Communion together on this very special of days, there are thoseChristians who are alone. As Dannie's sister in Christ, I will pray fordaily focus for him, for steadfastness and for opportunities for him toreflect the love of Jesus Christ to his neighbors. Thank you again for your wonderful blessings and greetings. They will beframed and in our windowsills, on our altars and yes, on the Table. Wewill truly be surrounded by your fellowship and love. I was touched by the email – because I think that it is important to always remember the other side of unity – isolation. I always tell people that it is impossible to be a Christian on our own. When people tell me that they are Christian, but not spiritual, that they are religious, but they don’t want to go to church- I truly believe that the only way to be a Christian is to go to church – to be in community. Our faith is only challenged, and thus only grows when we are around people- people that we don’t understand, people that we don’t agree with, people that we have to learn to love. And yet we have all had those moments in our lives when we have felt like Danny – we felt lonely and alone – not necessarily by chance – but by situation. We have all had our moments when life didn’t make sense. Times when the normal things in life that gave us so much comfort – are painful because they bring back memories of the way things used to be- when they are no more. All summer, we have been following the plight of the isrealites. They have been threatened with exile from their land because of their sin. Well the moment happened – the Babylonians have led some of them away. They are fed, they are taken care of, the young are even educated – but as they sit by the canals of Babylon – dreaming of the rivers of Isreal – they become keenly aware that they are not at home – God has broken the promise to them – that they would always have a home. They got such joy in singing songs of praise- songs that celebrated God’s promise to them. To make a bad situation worse – their captors taunt them – seeing their grief by asking them to sing. But how can we sing the songs of zion in a foreign land. There are many people in the world today – who are just like Danny, just like the isrealites – wondering how to maintain their faith in a foreign land. On this world communion Sunday – let us remember those who are in exile from their countries – like those from Darfur, in Africa who are escaping famine and a government who are killing them. There are many in Africa who have to escape widescale genocide. There are those who are in Pakistan who are still trying to escape the effects of an earthquake. Those from Cuba, who come to America seeking a life of freedom. We remember these and many more today – because they are a part of the Christian family – when we take communion – we are solidarity with their situations and we pray for God’s healing of their situations. Exile is a physical situation, but it is also a spiritual situation. There are times when we can feel cut off from God and what God has called us to do. Many years later, when the isrealites were able to return to community, jesus was on the way to Jerusalem with his disciples. Jesus was reminding them of the importance of forgiveness. No matter what happens to us – it is okay to feel our grief. To refuse to sing the songs of praise. But as some point we have to move on, and the only way to move on is to forgive our brothers and sisters. The disciples were a lot like we are – how do you just forgive, when someone has done you wrong. We are faitfhful people – but reality always challenges our belief of the way things are supposed to be. They asks Jesus a question that we have to ask everyday. Can you increase our faith – because as it stands – we are not able to do what you asks of us. We want to be able to forgive and forget, but we just cant. We are inadequate, there are still things that we need to learn and understand, it will be a minute before we have the energy to move on, right now – we are still in our grief and we still need time to heal. Jesus tells the disciples – that they don’t need to increase their faith. Any amount of faith at all with make a difference. Jesus tell them that the faith of a mustard seed can move a mountain into the sea. A friend of mine says that she used to go outside and try to will the mountains in her back yard to move. Of course nothing would ever happen. Yet he real focus of he story is the power of our faith. Jesus is telling us that we don’t need to increase our faith – we can witness the power of God with what we have – even if it is just a small glimmer of hope. That glimmer can change our life – and is enough to change the world. Faith is not about our positive thoughts – faith is our willingness to trust that God will take care of us. God always does all of the work. Faith is a willingness to let God do the work without us needing to be in control. A small congregation on the smoky mountains built a new church on a piece of land willed to them by a member. Before the church opened, the building inspector came to the church to tell them that they could not open because the parking lot was not sufficient. The only way to expand the parking lot was to move a mountain behind the church. We all know by now that mountains don’t move. The pastor was determined to see the church opened. So she held prayer meetings every day. After the last amen on Friday – she told them that the church would be open on Sunday. Later that day – some men came to the church, explaining that they were building a shopping mall and they needed some dirt to build the foundation. They needed to get started immediately, if they could just take the dirt from the mountain. The mountain was literally moved, so that the parking lot could be built and the church could be opened. It only takes a little – to make a big difference. Most of us – in this area of the country it would be safe to say that none of us have a mountain in our back yard that needs to be moved. But all of us have prayers, all of us have dreams, all of us have hopes that something in the world will be different. We don’t know how things will change, we don’t know what we need to do to change things. We just have a little bit of faith – that things should change. It is that small glimmer of hope that will make a difference-God will do the rest. God wants us to remember that each and everything that we do in life is about God. Every situation that we find ourselves in, we need to ask – what does this have to do with God. Every challenge that we have we need to ask – how is God at work in this situation. We don’t need to increase our faith – we just need to use the little that we have. Even in the toughest of situations, remember that all things are possible with God. As we celebrate world communion Sunday, we are all keenly aware that unity amongst all Christians is not a reality – our differences still separate us. Even in our own church family – we all can’t work together on everything. There are many people who are not in exile from the Christian community, we still feel alone in a crowd. Who feel that no one is listening to them, no one cares for them. There are those who are suffering from grief. There are those who ask - how can I sing the songs of Zion, when I am amongst strangers. How can I praise God – when I hve nothing to celebrate. Jesus request to us all – is to just sing, just pray, just hope, just go forward, just celebrate our unity – God will do the rest! Amen.