World Communion Sunday

This coming Sunday, we are celebrating a day in the Church calendar called World Communion Sunday. My memories of this day from growing up include huge choral pieces filling every corner of the Sanctuary and a Communion table overflowing with every type of bread you can imagine - from Hawaiian sweet rolls to pieces of pita bread. My favorite vivid memory of World Communion Sunday, however, was always the seemingly infinite number of world flags that lined the front of the Sanctuary.
 
I would spend the entire Worship service memorizing those flags and their colors and their symbols. Every time I thought I had seen all of them, another one caught my eye for what seemed like the first time. It always humbled me to think about all the countries in our vast world that I didn’t know or couldn’t name or had never met anyone from.
 
World Communion Sunday is one of my favorite days because it celebrates individuality, diversity, heritage, and the need for growing multicultural understanding. In the midst of division, worry, fear, or unknown, this day seeks to unite and harmonize in one simple yet holy act - the breaking of the bread of life and the drinking of the cup of grace.
 
No distance of time or land can separate us from the Communion table. For this table was made, set, and created so that all God’s children could be fed and nourished. My vision of the Kingdom of God looks a lot like World Communion Sunday - with grand music, endless amounts of bread, and a space for every person from every nation at the table.
 
May we seek to make it so.