October 5, 2025 · Rev. Derek van Gulden · 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Psalm 133:1; John 17:21-23
On World Communion Sunday, Rev. Derek van Gulden remembers a physician in El Salvador who took communion every day through months of earthquake aftershocks, and finds three things at the table: connection, reconciliation, and creation itself, since there's no bread without the whole world God called good.
Transcript
People of God, would you join me in a moment of prayer? Gracious and holy God, this morning I ask you to move the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts by your loving hand. And help me this day not to be the instrument of my own or anyone else's oppression, but to learn to be an instrument of peace in every step, in every breath, and in every moment of every day. Amen.
So World Communion Sunday. Celebrated throughout the world in Christian communities. For me, one of the things I learned early on about communion was that it is a meal, a celebration of connection, of reconciliation, of love. I learned the connection part when I was working at different parts of the world and watched people in different cultures. Celebrate communion in so many different ways. But one of them, a friend of mine by the name of Oscar, who was a physician in El Salvador, shared with me that the way he got through every day, every day, and this was during a time when they were having they had a huge earthquake and they were having many aftershocks. And I'm sure you've heard me tell this story again and again and again. But to me, it's so powerful because I asked, Oscar, how do you get through every day? How do you come out and do what you do in these communities? And he said, my father is a Presbyterian minister. We celebrate communion every day. Every day. So when I go into the day, I feel at peace. When I go into the day, I know that the people that I have loved, the people that I have known, the people that I have met, and those to come in my future are with me that day. They're there in everything I experience, not just in communion, but because of that, I feel that around me.
For myself. That was when I started to learn what it truly meant. The connection. A chance also for reconciliation. How do you sit around a meal? I'm asking this as a question, to sit down to a meal with people when you're angry with them. Question. I very well, not very well. Some might not even sit down. They might take their plate and go somewhere else or they might just leave. I mean, I'm sharing those because I've known I've done it before too many times.
And Jesus, throughout his ministry, we learned through the Gospels that wherever Jesus was, he ate with people. No matter who they were, no matter where they were, no matter what they had to share. He sat down and he ate with them. Sharing whatever was there in that beautiful way that people come together around food.
Now we've been talking about creation. Don't worry. I'll pull it all back together again. Here soon. We've been talking about creation and we will continue to talk about creation justice up until, well, advent. And I love that piece in one of our prayers. God created everything and said it was good. And that includes us. I think I forget most of the time that humans are a part of creation. We're actually the part that God said here. Live within it, be part of it, and care for it. Everything we do, creation is a part of. And I truly believe that when we sit down at a meal, when we celebrate communion, when we're out with friends, when you're down at the beach trying to have a sandwich, the seagulls won't get that. Creation is there in all its ways. As I said during the liturgy, we can't have bread without all the aspects of creation. And somebody said to me once, well, what about the creepy things, the worms and the bugs and those things? And I said, it's all an ecosystem that God created, and it has that balance and everything comes from it and gives to it.
Today we celebrate being a part of the body of Christ. And I think today. People throughout the world are Christians throughout the world who profess that they are a part of that body, are but need to pick their game up a little bit. Need to come and sit at the table, share the resources they have, not limit them or take them to share just in being together, to listening to each other's stories, to sharing their stories. As we break bread and we eat together, that's the reconciliation aspect of communion. May we be so blessed this week when we sit down to break bread, no matter who we're with. And remember, we're all part of the one body, all creation. We need each other. All. And when we come together, that's what communion community is all about. Amen.