World Communion Sunday is that one day out of the year when the Christian Church tries to embody is some small way the unity for which Christ prayed just prior to his arrest and crucifixion.  After praying for his disciples he said, My prayer is not for them alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me (John 17:20-21).  While the effective witness of the Christian faith is furthered by Christian unity, it is vastly diminished by contention and strife within the body of Christ.

On at least one day of the year Christians from many denominations and no denominations arrange to have communion on the same day to kind of suggest a unity of sorts…maybe.  While it is a nice gesture that we all have communion at the same time, it remains a scandal that we cannot have communion with one another—because many denominations to not accept other denominations as legitimate Christians and therefore do not welcome them to the Lord’s Table.

I am reminded of a story about a man who was walking across a bridge and came upon another man standing right on the edge, about to plunge to his death.  The first man shouted, "Stop!  Are you a Christian?"  "Yes, as a matter of fact I am."  "Well so am I.  Are you Catholic or Protestant?"  "I'm Protestant," "Well so am I.  Are you Episcopal or Baptist?"  "I'm Baptist."  "Wow... I am too.  Are you Southern Baptist or American Baptist?  "I'm Southern Baptist,"  "Me too, that's amazing!  Are you original Southern Baptist or Southern Baptist reformed?"  "I'm Southern Baptist reformed." "I can't believe it, so am I.  But tell me are you Reformed Southern Baptist of the reformation of 1879, or reformed Southern Baptist of the Reformation of 1915?"  He answered, "Reformed Baptist, reformation of 1915."  The first man said, "Die you heretic," and he pushed him off the bridge.

That is probably not a true story, but it is not all that far from the truth.  Christians have killed Christians throughout Church history.  The Roman Catholic Church put a death warrant out on Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutherans.  John Calvin, the founder of the Presbyterians, consented to a death sentence for a former friend, Michael Servetus, over a doctrinal disagreement (although to Calvin’s credit he did recommend, unsuccessfully, for a merciful beheading instead of burning at the stake).  Christians killed Christians throughout the Inquisition and they continue to do so in places like Northern Ireland today where Catholics and Protestants have been going at it for the past 30 years.

The International Council of Community Churches in general, and The Church in Aurora in particular, believe there is a better alternative.  Christian Unity is one of our specialties.  The International Council of Community Churches is a small fellowship of churches, but it is a big player on the ecumenical scene.  For example, our Executive Director, Michael Livingston, is currently the President of the National Council of Churches, which is comprised of 35 Christian denominations representing 100,000 local congregations and 45 million church members.

Likewise, I happen to be in the middle of a 4-year term as a voting delegate to the National Council of Churches General Assembly.  I have also represented Community Churches at sanctioned meetings of the World Council of Churches and other ecumenical gatherings.  By the way, our local C.R.O.P. Walk today is sponsored by the National Council of Churches and will involve members from several local Aurora Churches.  Next week’s Blanket Sunday is also an allied ministry of the National Council of Churches.

In one sense, this is not a very special day in a Community Church such as ours, because we observe World Communion Sunday every time we come to the Lord’s Table.  We welcome all to this table whether members of this congregation or not, whether members of any denomination or not, whether young or old.  If you are a living, breathing human being, you are welcome to this table.  It is the Lord’s Table.  It is the Lord who invites you here.  Who are we to turn you away?

In our text for this morning, and many others in Holy Scripture, we find Jesus being much more willing than his followers to welcome those who were different.  Maybe it was because Jesus had so often been on the receiving end of excessively judgmental religious elitism as embodied by the Pharisees, Sadducees, Chief Priests and Scribes of his Jewish faith tradition.  Or maybe it was because Jesus was the Son of God and this is just one way divine nature departs from human nature.

From sinners to Samaritans, from tax collectors to lepers, Jesus welcomed those who were otherwise socially marginalized.  Sometimes Jesus’ brand of inclusiveness challenged his own rag-tag band of disciples who, as once marginalized themselves, should have known better.  Let us listen in to an interesting exchange Jesus is having with his disciples as he seeks to stretch their capacity for inclusiveness.  "Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us" (Verse 38).

Apparently delivering people from their demons is not the point here.  Healing people’s hurts is not the point.  Helping those in need is not the point.  The point is to be in "the inner circle."  As was already alluded to, the 12 disciples had been common, ordinary folks before meeting Jesus.  Several were fishermen, which was nothing special.  One was a tax collector, which was less than nothing special.  But then these fellows met Jesus, and all of a sudden they were "The Twelve."  They were insiders.  They were players.  They were somebody special.

Becoming a follower of Jesus can affect us that way.  Maybe we did not feel all that special before.  Maybe we had even made a real mess of our lives B.C. (before Christ).  But then we heard about Jesus and made a decision to follow him.  All of a sudden we had a new identity.  All of a sudden we were Christians.  All of a sudden we were legitimate children of God and hope for a better life had been restored.  All this is true, but sometime we can get a big head about it.

You may have encountered Christians who were a bit "holier-than-thou?"  You may have encountered Christians who were excessively judgmental.  You may have encountered Christians who were just a bit exclusive about who was in and who was out.  Sometimes believers can even turn on each other in a game of spiritual one-upmanship, just as the disciples are doing in the verses immediately preceding ours.  Jesus hears the disciples arguing with one another and he asks them about it.  But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest 9:34).

Clearly a little humility is in order, and Jesus finds a way to provide it.  Again, in the same chapter from which our text comes, Jesus overhears an argument involving his disciples.  Upon inquiring about it, A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech.  Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground.  He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid.  I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not" (9:17-18).

Jesus goes on to cast the demon out of the boy, and his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn’t we drive it out?" (9:28).  The reason they asked him privately is because they had been publicly embarrassed by their own limitations.  The disciples are exhibiting all the classic signs of "inadequacy issues."  They argue about who is the greatest.  They are overly sensitive about their public image.  And if their failure to cast out a boy’s demon is not humiliating enough, along comes some fellow nobody knows who is successfully driving out demons in Jesus’ name.

So what do the disciples do about it?  They tell him to stop it.  They tell him to stop helping hurting people.  Why?  Because, they say, he was not one of us.  "Don’t do that.  Who gave you the authority to do that?  We’re going to tell on you."  When Jesus is told, he has another view entirely.  "Do not stop him," Jesus said.  "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us (Verses 39-40).

What does it mean to do something in Jesus’ name?  You will recall that one of Jesus’ names is Immanuel, meaning, "God with us."  Jesus is God incarnate in human form.  In the verse immediately preceding our text Jesus says, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me (Verse37).  For a Christian, to do something in Jesus’ name is equivalent to doing something in God’s name.

We believe in God and that is why we are here, to worship him.  But does everybody have to be like "one of us" to believe in God?  Do they have to worship like us?  Do they have to be card-carrying Community Church members?  Do they have to be official church members at all to do good and godly things in his name?  By the same token, is being a church member here or anywhere else a guarantee that we are kingdom insiders?  Or are we like the disciples and capable of petty turf wars, religious elitism and other thinly veiled inadequacy issues?

Jesus does not waste his time arguing doctrinal minutia with his detractors.  He goes around healing and helping the hurting.  Anybody who does that is okay in Jesus’ book.  He tells his disciples to feed the hungry.  He tells a rich young ruler to give to the poor.  He allows for the possibility of heretical Samaritans, of all people, to meet the needs of the needy.  Jesus commends those who do such things regardless of their religious affiliations.

I think that all of us who have taken Christ’s name as Christians would do well to heed his example in this regard.  If we look beyond all the religious labels and trappings that typically cloud our vision, we might be surprised where we find the good deeds and caring ways and extravagant generosity in this world.  If Jesus was preaching and teaching today, would we find ourselves offended by his parable of the good Sunni Muslim?

I do not think that Jesus would write off all Sunni Muslims as terrorist extremists.  I think he would hold out the possibility that there are good and decent people everywhere doing helpful and not hurtful things in God’s name under very trying circumstances and often at great risk to themselves.  I know that we do not like it when terrorist leaders collectively write us off as the "Great Satan."  Perhaps we would do well to extend to others the same courtesy we would like to have extended to ourselves.

Let us begin with this family of faith as we come to the Lord’s Table on this World Communion Sunday.  The words of institution that we recite each time we partake of Holy Communion come from a letter St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians.  Just after those words he continues: A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself (I Corinthians 11:28-29).

Will we recognize the body of the Lord in that person sitting next to us in the pew?  Will we recognize the body of the Lord in that person sitting in the pew at that other church down the street?  Will we recognize the body of the Lord in that person who is not one of us?  Let us examine ourselves as we come to this table lest we eat and drink judgment upon ourselves.  Let us judge not lest we be judged.  Let the sins we focus upon be our own, that in our confession of them we may find forgiveness and mercy and another chance to be part of the body of the Lord—one of the many and varied parts of the body of the Lord.