John 15:13
For ten years straight I helped lead
High School age trail camps in the Eagle Cap Wilderness of the Wallowa
Mountains of Northeastern Oregon for the Christian Churches. After several
years, during an evaluation session with other leaders, we concluded that our
most successful camps took place when the weather was the poorest. The
difficulties presented by rain and snow led the campers to depend on each other
more, and work together better, resulting in a stronger sense of community.
In a much greater way, the danger
and difficulties that soldiers face in military conflicts have led soldiers to
develop a closeness they would have never known otherwise. On June 6, 1944, a
mighty armada crossed a narrow strip of sea from England to Normandy and
cracked the Nazi grip on Western Europe. The men who landed at Normandy and
survived developed an extremely strong bond.
One of the most remarkable stories
to come out of the 2nd World War of how community was created
through the sacrifice made by one man was told by Ernest Gordon, a British army
officer who was captured by the Japanese and assigned to building the
Burma-Siam railway. In his book, To End All Wars, he tells of joining a
detail of prisoners to build a track bed through low lying swamp land. If a
prisoner appeared to lag, a guard would beat him to death or decapitate him.
Most of the war, the prison camp had served as a laboratory of survival of the
fittest, with every man for himself. Men lived like animals, and for a long time
hate was the main motivation for staying alive.
But something happened to cause a
change. One morning a guard discovered that a shovel was missing. When no one
confessed to the theft, he screamed, “All die! All die!” and raised his rifle
to fire at the first man in line. At that instant an enlisted man stepped forward
and said, “I did it.” Enraged, the guard raised his rifle high in the air and brought
the butt down upon his head in a crushing blow, killing him.
That evening when tools were
inventoried again, the work crew discovered a mistake had been made; no shovel
was missing. One of the prisoners remembered the words of Jesus in John 15:13, “Greater love has no
one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Attitudes in
the camp began to shift. With no prompting, prisoners began looking out for
each other rather than themselves. It was the beginning of community, a band of
brothers (Phillip
Yancey, Christianity Today, September 2003).
“Communion” and “community” have the same
root meaning. They mean fellowship, oneness, and imply a group of people who
work, laugh and cry together – and sometimes, it is crying together that
creates the strongest bonds. People who look out for each other, people who, as
Paul says, “bear one another’s burdens,” become a band of brothers and
sisters in Christ. Of course, it was the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf that
created our community of faith. Like that guard, Sin said, “ALL DIE!” but Jesus
said, “NO, I WILL DIE FOR ALL.”
His sacrifice has brought us
together into this fellowship we call church, and we stay together only as we
take up our cross and follow him. As a
band of brothers and sisters in Christ, We come together and express our community in the
act of communion.
Words
of institution and partaking of bread and cup.
Prayer:
Thank you Lord for the sustaining fellowship of your church which you created
by the sacrifice of your son.
June
6, 2004; Revised and used June 3, 2007; last used June 12, 2022.
