“World Communion Sunday”

Luke 1:68-79

Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, October 5, 2025

This is a true story. A fellow pastor of mine in Zambia, who had a small church, with meager funds for communion supplies, went to the liquor store to buy the cheapest communion wine he could find. He was happy to find a bottle for under $3. That Sunday. when he poured it into the cups, he was a bit surprised, because it had kind of a yellowish-green color. Some kind of white wine, maybe? This was the only time in my life I ever had Margarita Mix for communion!

The Zambian churches we attended generally preferred to use sparkling grape juice and some lovely communion wafers baked by nuns who lived in a convent just a mile or so from our house. In Puerto Rico, the Presbyterian Church used plain old slices of white bread, cut into rounds using a small communion cup as a cookie cutter. Also in Puerto Rico,  someone once bought garlic bread by mistake! I think that has happened here, too. Regardless of the bread, wine, or juice, Christians all over the world are celebrating World Communion Sunday today.

This observance began back in 1933 when the Rev. Hugh Thomson Kerr, pastor of Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, held the first World Communion Sunday. As a moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., his objective was to bring congregations together in a spirit of Christian unity. At first, it was only a Presbyterian observance, but in 1940, World Communion Sunday was adopted by the National Council of Churches, which included other denominations. The celebration of World Communion Sunday gradually became more widespread, not only throughout the U.S., but across the globe. It is held the first Sunday of October, as we are doing today.

Christians have shared the Lord’s Supper ever since the night Jesus was betrayed into the hands of his enemies, as is told in the gospels and by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians. Originally this was a Passover meal, sometimes called a Seder. As commanded by God back in Exodus, Jews were to commemorate their liberation from slavery in Egypt each year during Passover. It was a time to remember how Moses led them to freedom after Pharaoh had refused to let them go.

Jesus and all of his disciples were Jews, so they, too, ate the ceremonial Passover meal. Among the items traditionally served were unleavened bread and wine. At the Last Supper, Jesus took these common foods and invested them with new meaning, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” For nearly 2000 years now, Christians of all denominations have observed this sacrament, obeying Jesus’ words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” As Paul adds in his letter to the Corinthians: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

From the earliest days, the followers of Christ carried on this tradition. The reference to “the breaking of bread” in Acts 2 is thought to refer to Holy Communion. Christian writings from the first century, such as the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, and the Didache, a kind of early catechism, both mention believers celebrating Holy Communion.

Protestants commonly refer to this sacrament as “the Lord’s Supper” or “Communion. ”

Catholics, Orthodox, and Episcopalians often prefer “Eucharist,” from the Greek word eucharistia, meaning “thanksgiving,” reflecting our gratitude to Jesus for his sacrifice. The word “Communion” is also used, emphasizing our spiritual union with God and with all Christians everywhere. So it is appropriate that on this World Communion Sunday we think of our brothers and sisters in other countries and other denominations. Even though we are separated by geography, and perhaps some details of doctrine, we are still one in Christ.

Despite this invisible unity, our world seems fractured. Last week a  poll by The New York Times and Siena University found that 64 percent of U.S. registered voters think that our nation is too sharply divided to solve our political problems. Instead of bringing us together, many of our leaders – national and international - seem determined to tear us apart. War and violence are all around us. While our leaders seek money and power; once trusted institutions are failing, and the truth is hard to come by.

The words of the prophet Jeremiah could have been written today:

For from the least to the greatest of them,
    everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
    saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

Indeed, peace seems an unattainable goal. Yet, as I was reading recently, people thought that “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics would never end. But in 1998, after thirty years of conflict, the Good Friday Agreement was signed. People thought Apartheid in South African would never be abolished, yet in March 1992, white South Africans voted overwhelmingly to end minority rule, and in 1994, South Africa held its first free and nonracial election. Nelson Mandela, who had spent 27 years in prison for his opposition to apartheid, became the first Black president of the country.

Throughout most of the 20th century, it was thought that communism held an iron grip on the nations of Eastern Europe. In the 1980’s, St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig, in what was then East Germany, held meetings to pray for peace. These prayer meetings led to pro-democracy actions in the church square, sparking the larger, nonviolent Monday Demonstrations, accompanied by candlelight prayer vigils. These in turn spread to other cities, and in 1989 the Berlin Wall came down, the beginning of democracy in eastern Europe.

Many prayed for an end to these injustices. I also prayed, but never thought I would see the end of them in my lifetime. Yet those prayers were answered. As we pray for an end to the wars, conflicts, and injustices in our world today, let’s remember these examples. Through our prayers and actions, things can change for the better in our world.

After all, the world did not look so bright when Jesus ate his Last Supper with his disciples. Evil and injustice did their worst that night, as Jesus was betrayed, arrested, tried on false charges, beaten, mocked, and, finally, crucified between two thieves. But throughout history Christians have remembered Christ’s sacrificial love for us as they broke bread and drank wine together. Just as the Apostle Paul wrote, “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you…,”

as this bread and wine is handed on to us, we become part of an unbroken chain, stretching back 2000 years, receiving bread from the hands of one who received bread from the hands of someone else, who received bread from the hands of another, all the way back to the first disciples. We are part of a living chain of remembrance, reminding us that we are all part of one body, the body of Christ. And we will pass this sacrament on to our children, our grandchildren, and all who come after them, until we all feast together in the great banquet of heaven, when peace will reign at last. May this World Communion Sunday be a foretaste of that glorious day! Amen.

Sermon ©Deborah Troester 2025