VOICES FROM THE PAST

( A Sermon Synopsis by The Rev. Ernest R. D. Smart)

Scriptural references:  Isaiah 2:1-5 and St. John 14:15-17, 25-31

St. Andrew’s Christian Community, Sunday, October 7, 2007

 

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INTRODUCTION

 

          Do you love history as much as I do?  More specifically, I love reading and even hearing of great speeches of great leaders of the past.  I have a set of four CD’s called GREAT SPEECHES of the 20th Century, gathered from radio recordings.

 

          This past week I was also recalling the name of Wendell Wilkie.  In the midst of the Second World War (1941-45), he was asked by President Roosevelt to conduct a survey of the main countries of the world and report on his findings for the purposes of establishing some measure of world peace.  He met with Montgomery, with DeGaule, with Stalin, plus many army leaders, politicians, farmers, business leaders, etc.  His conclusion?  There is ONE WORLD, and we have to be committed to living as respectful neighbors.  And this was in 1942!

 

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

 

          As Christians we are invited to reflect on One World, especially on this World Wide Communion Sunday.  Things are happening globally which were considered impossible before Sputnik.  Remember the reactions?  Some thought it was exciting.  Some were fearful because it was the product of the Communist regime of the USSR.  We can also now travel around the world at ease.  How easy it is, for example, to spend a day in Iraq!

 

          Sometimes I would wish that everyone could spend a week on a satellite in outer space.  Such an experience would surely challenge all or most of us on our sense of priorities for this ONE beautiful world which God has given us as our home.

 

          But there are voices from the past who also felt this way.  Psalms 9, 22, and 33 all reflect on God’s will for all of humanity.  Jesus calls His followers “The salt of the earth” and “The light of the world.”  (St. Matthew 5:13, 14).  Equally familiar are Jesus’ words in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”

 

          God’s desire for ONENESS is our theme for today, and naturally it is the call for us to think and act with oneness in this World Wide Communion Sunday.  A call to ONENESS would rule out forevermore the need for war and threats of war.  Recall Isaiah’s vision when people “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”

 

          Human efforts towards creating peace in the world never last.  But the peace that does last comes from above.  See John 14:27, where Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.”

 

          TODAY we are all called to THINK GLOBALLY, THINK COURAGEOUSLY and THINK FAITHFULLY.

 

          The Chalice before us sitting on the round COMMUNION TABLE BECOMES THE WORLD CUP!  As we drink from this cup, we are participating in the bringing in of the KINGDOM OF GOD.

 

          To seal this message in contemporary terms – WWW is the WORLD-WIDE WEB.  Today let WWC become WORLD-WIDE COMMUNION.