"COMMUNION" and "COMMUNITY"

 

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 2^nd 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.