From time to time at coffee hour on a Sunday morning someone will say to me, “I am a member of the Methodist Church in Payton, Ohio, but while I have been in Boston I have been attending Old South. What do you think of that?”  I point out the importance of the ecumenical spirit and the wisdom of expanding spiritual horizons by becoming involved in another denomination.

Then again, in the course of my travels I will meet someone who will say, “I am a member of a United Church of Christ Congregational in ... Ohio, but while in Boston I have been visiting a Methodist church.  What do you think of that?”  Then I point out the importance of denominational loyalty and being committed to one’s own faith community.

Today we gather about the table where Jesus Christ is host - a table which transcends all denominations - a table which is a link in a chain of tables which circles the globe.  Thanks be to God for God’s inclusive love revealed in Jesus Christ, which calls us to this table this morning.

In the Gospel of Saint John we find Jesus on the last evening of his life praying for his disciples, “that they may all be one. . .so that the world might believe . .” (John 17:21a, 23a).  Those words, “that they may all be one,” are the motto of the United Church of Christ.

Jesus is preparing his disciples for his absence, to carry on his work and mission.  At the heart of it is love: the love God has for the world, the love God has for them.  God so loved the world. . .one cannot love God who is not seen, without first loving his or her brother or sister who are seen.  Love another, Jesus tells his disciples and us,  because the best way to tell the world about God’s love is to show what it looks like in the quality of your life together.  “Look at how those Christians love one another!” was a charge leveled against those first century Christians.

Wouldn’t Jesus be heart-broken at the way his followers have chosen over and over again throughout the history of the church and the world, to ignore one of the clearest things he ever said about how they were to live and serve together.  This is not a “feel good,” superficial, “the more we get together and share our stories the happier we will all be” sort of unity.  The unity to which Jesus calls us is for a greater end - “that they may all be one and that the world may believe.”

How important is this unity - the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ?  Hans Kung, the theologian, has written, “There will be no peace among the peoples of the world without peace among world religions.  There will be no peace among world religions without peace among the Christian churches.”  A starting place is what has been called “theological modesty.”  It is to confess that there is more to God than I can or ever will understand.  Again, Hans Kung, who is always in trouble with the Vatican for saying things like this, said, “No religion has the whole truth, only God alone has the whole truth.  Only God is the truth.”

The churches are called to confess their brokenness, turn aside from internal conflict and show the world what respect, tolerance, compassion and love look like.  Wouldn’t it be tremendous if instead of condemning one another’s position on abortion, same sex marriage, doctrine, and who should and who should not be ordained, consigning those who do not agree to eternal damnation, the churches decided that their most urgent task was to embody the love of God expressed in love for one another.  Jesus promised that the world would find that compelling: “the world might believe what we say if we showed what it looks like in our love.”

Recent international events have been powerful reminder that as a nation, as a church, as Christian citizens, we must live in the world, not in the splendid isolation of our military power, which is awesome (we have more military power than the next seventeen nations in the world combined), but learn to live in the world as a partner, as a friend, as a nation among nations.

Richard Hollbrooke, former American Ambassador to the United Nations, wrote in last Sunday’s New York Times book review:  “President Truman who presided over the creation of the U.N., correctly called the United Nations ‘imperfect’ but his challenge to future generations was to improve on their creation, not weaken it. . A strong United nations is in America’s national interests, a demeaned, weakened and underfunded United Nations only undermines American diplomacy.”

It is grace which calls us to this table this morning to share bread and cup with our sisters and brothers throughout the world.  Grace - the mystery that God loves you and me, and all our sisters and brothers, not because of anything about us, but because God is God.  This is the grace and love we see in Jesus Christ and which we are to share with the world.

Jesus Christ, who included everyone in the open-armed embrace of his love, who turned no one away from his friendship and his table.  Grace which finally invites you and me, regardless of who we are, to a table set in the world by God, a table whose host is none other than Jesus Christ.  A grace and love which calls and challenges us to be gracious and loving.  it is at this table we find the strength so to live!

As Saint Paul says,   “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of y our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in all.

We do well when we pray the prayer of Jesus: “That they may all be one. . .so the world might believe!”  Let all the people say amen and amen.
 

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Scripture Readings
Ephesians 4: 1-7; 11-16

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.  We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.  But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.