October 4, 2009 Des Moines

World Communion Sunday/Bicentennial of the Declaration & Address

Invitation to the Table

Thomas Campbell had this crazy notion that scripture is important. An Irish Presbyterian pastor, Campbell was already coming to the opinion that the New Testament had somehow become overshadowed in the life and understanding of the church by all the church doctrines and creeds by the time he immigrated to the United States near the turn of the 19^th century. His experience once on American soil only deepened this conviction, which led him to delve more deeply into the pages of the Bible for some reorientation and fresh direction.

And who knows exactly what caught his attention. Maybe it was his reading of Paul’s chastisement of the Corinthian church over the way they were observing the Lord’s Supper – with some having the leisure to arrive early and eat their fill and have too much to drink, while others necessarily arrived later after work, only to find the pickings slim – creating in effect two churches instead of one.

Or maybe it was his reading of Paul’s metaphor of the body to describe the church, taught to both the Romans and the Corinthians – a body comprised of many members, but all working in harmony as a single, organic whole.

Or maybe Campbell was deeply moved by Paul’s plea to the Philippians that “If there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

Or maybe he was moved by Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane that all of his disciples “be one” just as Jesus and the one who had sent him were one.

Or maybe it was all of these and still more that convinced Campbell that despite its various locations and styles and nuances of practice and belief, the church of Jesus Christ on earth is “essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one,” and that divisions within that one body are a “horrid evil...anti-Christian, anti-scriptural, and anti-natural...” Indeed, he went on to assert, such division within Christ’s church is “productive of confusion, and of every evil work.”

Which, I think, makes it safe to say that Campbell considered it a bad idea and was against it. And why, looking out over the landscape of Christianity and seeing all these denominations holed up amongst themselves as if they were the only true believers, he could only shake his head. The church, he was passionately convinced, ought to be united. It’s no surprise, then, that those in the movement that Campbell and his son Alexander and other preachers like Barton Stone nudged forward have ever since been in the thick of ecumenical conversations and initiatives – like the Des Moines Area Religious Council locally, Church Women United, AMOS and the Interfaith Alliance.

And the truth is that the church has come a long way since Campbell’s time. Why, even in our own lifetime we have seen many of those prejudices and segregations dissolve away, replaced by a more fraternal co-existence. That said, the church has hardly been made one. The divisions may no longer be between Baptists and Presbyterians and Catholics and Lutherans; but like gophers who, when flushed out of one back yard, simply start digging holes next door, divisions have simply shifted to other ground. Animosities once held against other denominations now build dividing fences between liberals and conservatives, between “contemporary” styles and more “traditional,” between pietists and social gospelists.

I suppose it is some part of human nature to always need someone to put down, disparage, or otherwise push off against; and if we manage to make peace with one adversary we always manage to set our sights on another.

Which is precisely why an observance like “World Communion Sunday” still has relevance – a day set aside to recognize the oneness of Christ’s church. I’ll admit that it has felt a little odd combining the celebration of a distinctly denominational document – the Declaration and Address – with an observance of a call to Christian unity in the face of partisan sectarianism. Indeed, the combination would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that that denominational document is itself a clarion call for precisely that larger unity.

So, we gather at the table as one single expression of that one church of Jesus Christ which expresses itself in so many different ways. Precisely because of that wonderful diversity we always try to remember to pull extra chairs up to the table, figuratively speaking, just to remind ourselves that no matter how many there are of us, we aren’t all here, and we aren’t all there is. The Body of Christ reaches out from horizon to horizon, and as deep as the human spirit; it steps high above the circumstantial divisions that sometimes color it but never define it; high enough to discern that wherever it is and whatever it looks likes; whatever its local rhythms and sounds, it is one body.

One church – essentially, intentionally, constitutionally one.

Welcome, then, to the one table; hosted by Christ himself, by whose invitation all are invited and made welcome.