DATE: October 7, 2012 — World Communion Sunday
SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 55; 1 Corinthians 12:12-26
© Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
Saugatuck Church front lawn
Isaiah 55: the Word of God as spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
1 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, [says the Lord].
1 Corinthians 12:12-26:
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.
Imagine if food was free…didn’t cost a penny. Imagine going to a county fair without your wallet, just walking up to your favorite food stand and ordering piping hot corn dogs; massive, juicy burgers; ice cream shakes and fried dough the size of your head; imagine limitless refills of fresh-squeezed lemonade …
Or, if just thinking about fairground food makes your stomach lurch…Imagine strolling through your local farmers’ market, packing your reusable bags with pumpkins, kale and acorn squash; the last of the season’s sweet, rosy heirloom tomatoes; still-warm loaves of mouthwatering bread and cinnamon topped apple pies… Imagine “Help yourself” signs hanging from every awning. “There’s more than enough…and everything is free!”
My son Tobey and I read the entire Harry Potter series together. There’s a scene in the fourth book, when all the students are seated in the great hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the New Year’s ball. Candles hang suspended in the air, and the tables are set but there’s no food. Then the headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore, consults a small menu next to his fork, leans in and speaks to his empty plate: “Pork chops.” He says. And pork chops just appear on the plate!
Can you imagine? Of course, in real life, things are much more complicated and not everyone gets fed. Many of us, maybe most of us, still have access to all kinds of food. And while none of us can conjure up a meal out of thin air, some of us are lucky enough to have family members who cook for us, so the food really does seem to appear just when we’re getting really hungry… If that’s true for you: take a moment right now to turn to the person who cooks for you and say thank you! (or thank them when you get home!).
Now consider this: More than 800 million people won’t eat at all today– Not a bowl of rice. Not a crust of bread. That’s like everyone in the United States, Canada, Central America and most of South America… or about 9% of the entire world’s population will go hungry today.
Every two seconds — about the time it takes for us to take a breath — someone in the world dies of hunger. [Take a breath]…. That’s one. [take a breath]…. That’s two [take a breath]…. That’s three. Three people who may have died without ever tasting a ripe tomato or a bite of sweet, greasy fried dough.
It’s not that the resources don’t exist to end hunger. The cost of providing water, basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world has been estimated at $20 billion — the same amount that we Americans spend in one year on ice cream. We have what it takes — the knowledge, the technology, the money… and yet we live in a hungry world — a world hungry for food, hungry also for justice, freedom, peace, healing and hope.
A few months back, I attended a gathering with Michael Joseph, former United Church of Christ missionary in Columbia (supported in part by money our own congregation gives to Our Church’s Wider Mission). Think Columbia, and you probably think drug war — coca and poppies and Hollywood-style, sinister-looking men in dark glasses…But Michael told us that one of the root causes of the decades-long civil war in that country is actually farm land — who controls it and who doesn’t. Who can plant food — to eat or to sell, and who can’t.
Michael was with us for a couple hours; not nearly enough time to grasp all the complex causes of the conflict in Columbia. But here’s one thing I did get: Columbians are hungry, for food, but also for company. Our company. The Columbians that Michael knows asked us in the United States to please pay attention, to bear witness, to put pressure on our own government to send less military aid and more money to help them reclaim their land, plant legal crops and defend human rights. They asked us to accompany them in their struggle. What does that mean, we asked? What can we possibly do? “Pray,” said Michael. “Learn more. Write letters to Congress. Maybe even visit Columbia to meet the people we saw in the videos and see the ways our churches are working together for peace. Don’t turn away.”
It’s tempting, when we hear about the turmoil in another place, to do that: to turn away. Since we can’t wave a wand to make it right, to conclude that there’s really nothing we can do, that it’s more than we can handle and not ours to solve. But the Gospel calls us down a different road — one that leads toward our neighbor, not away, because, in the words of the apostle Paul, we are all members of the same body.
Like so many ankles and eyebrows, elbows and earlobes, we are bound together with landless farmers in Columbia and families on food stamps in Westport; with hungry children in Mumbai and kids in Connecticut classrooms who get free lunch and probably didn’t eat breakfast today … If one suffers, we all suffer; when one is honored, we all rejoice.
Paul was addressing an early Christian community in the city of Corinth, a thriving urban center. The Corinthians (a group as diverse as the city they lived in) had begun to squabble with each other, to argue about who was smartest and whose gifts were greatest; and who deserved (or didn’t deserve) honor. In short, they had gotten a bit full of themselves. So Paul wanted to remind those folks about what it means to belong to Christ. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,” he wrote. “Jews or Greeks, slaves or free: at one moment or another, we all went down in the same muddy river, got water in our eyes and up our noses, then came up spluttering into new life…all those differences of status rendered irrelevant, washed clean away.”
So stop squabbling, Paul said. In the waters of baptism we are made one. It’s a powerful claim for Christians around the world. But standing here, worshipping as guests of Temple Israel, it feels important to ask: what about our non-baptized sisters and brothers? What about our Muslim and Jewish cousins? What about those who do not share our faith or any faith? Are we bound to them as well? Yes. Most certainly: yes. Because here’s the thing: Baptism isn’t so much about setting us apart as it is about opening us up, clearing our vision, breaking open our hearts and helping us to see what Christ has seen all along: the truth that my life is bound up in yours, and yours in mine, because we all belong to God.
The Lakota peoples of South Dakota say, “Mitakuye Oyasin: We are all related.” In the Bantu language of South Africa, it’s called “Ubuntu.” I am because you are. You contribute to my ‘me-ness’, and I to your ‘you-ness’. Archbishop Desmond Tutu explains, “You can’t be human all by yourself.” Ubuntu. We are One.
Of course, saying that we are all members of one body is one thing; living that way is another. It can be easy to get caught up in our own lives, can’t it? To eat the dinner that’s set in front of us and forget the value of a dish of ice cream. To overrate our independence and declare to the other parts of the body, “I have no need of you.” It’s easy to forget…
On another hand: You’ve felt it, haven’t you, in your gut? The pain of someone else’s suffering, even someone you’ve never met? The death of another hungry child? The cry of a country at war? Haven’t you felt your stomach tighten and your heart ache? That’s the Waters-of-baptism/fire-of-Spirit/heart-of-Christ working in us and through us, sowing in us a persistent “We’re not there yet” feeling; a deep sadness we may not always notice, but which is there none-the-less, like a tremor or an irregular heartbeat. It is the disease, the ‘dis-ease’ that comes with realizing: “All is not well with the body…my body…OUR body.” It may leave us feeling a little empty inside, or weepy, or temporarily paralyzed, or determined to make a difference, or it may send us to our knees in prayer. “Oh God: Help us! Us: Ubuntu…For we are living in a hungry world.”
Maybe, after all, it is our hunger that we all have in common… a yearning for food, yes, but also for something more: a word of hope, an act of healing, a dose of courage, a sign of God’s blessing. So, Sisters and Brothers, hear the Good News: Christ Jesus is in our midst, and he has set a table: It overflows with good food: all-you-can-eat, life-restoring bread and a cup of blessing with unlimited refills! At this table we’ll find everything we need: hope and grace and courage for the journey, healing for wounds and extravagant love … and it’s free, all completely, incredibly free.
So come! Buy wine without money and bread without price. Come and eat, and together we will re-member Christ’s body. Here we will know what it’s like to be filled. Here also may we remember what it’s like to be hungry.