Looking Ahead to October 4, 2026 -- World Communion Sunday

As this is the first Sunday of a new month it is our regular Communion Sunday. However the first Sunday in October is also marked out as World (or Worldwide) Communion Sunday. This is an idea that grew out of a Presbyterian congregation in the US in the 1930's as a way of fostering Christian Unity.

As always, on the first Sunday of the month we also like to highlight our Local Outreach fund and the tradition of a "Second Offering" where dedicated gifts are given to that fund. This fund is used to work with our partner agencies here in Grande Prairie to support our neighbours in times of need.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Exodus 12:3-4
• 1 Corinthians 11:17-26, 33

The Sermon title is A Banquet for All

A Place at The Table

Early Thoughts: From the beginning one of the markers of Christian worship was to gather at the table. We are told about it in the early chapters of Acts. We are told about it by Paul in 1 Corinthians. They gathered at tables, often a full meal that included what we now call Communion/Eucharist/Lord's Supper weekly. You would think with that sort of history this would be a unifying practice for the church.

Well maybe not. In the end the history of the church consists of many many arguments about communion. Who can receive? Who can serve? What gets served? What does the liturgy look and sound like? How often is the meal celebrated? How should it be served?

Sometimes these arguments take place between different denominations. Sometimes they take place within the same denomination. Sometimes they take place within the same congregation.

Still it is the meal to which Jesus invites us. It is the table where God is the host. I firmly believe that when we gather at the table we are getting a foretaste of the "eschatological banquet", the banquet at the changing of the world when the Reign of God comes to full flower. If that is true then surely it must be a place where all can gather?

Indeed, my preferred words of welcome and invitation to the table is the "all who seek to follow the Way of Jesus Christ are welcome to eat and drink".

One of the things that many of us are proud of in the United Church is that we offer an open table. This wasn't always so. There was a time when only confirmed members in good standing were expected to partake of communion. In my last year of seminary I interviewed a man who had been a visiting elder and remembered making those pre-communion visits to the members in his district. In the early 1980's I remember being at church during communion (I think the Jr. Choir had sung earlier in the service and we had not been taken over to the school where Sunday School was meeting) and my sister and I just automatically going up to be served with the rest of the crowd. Later my father made it clear that this was not proper as we we not yet confirmed.

Times change. In the later 80's many United Church congregations had conversations about children being welcome at the table. There were objections about "they are too young to understand" and counters like "how will they ever understand if they don't take part" or "I don't fully understand but I still take part".

I believe that God is constantly calling us to broaden our understandings, to find a way to make this a banquet for all. the challenge is how do we do that? How do we balance the traditions and traditional understandings that bring people comfort with new ideas, new understandings that open the door a bit wider? How do we mix "the way we always done it"  with "this is how we did it in my last church"? 

There is no one simple way to answer those questions.

This Sunday we will sing "For everyone born, a place at the table". In song we will remind ourselves of a call to "build a longer table...feasting together stranger turns to friend".  As we gather on this World Communion Sunday I invite us all to consider how this meal can become an even better symbol of the whole Body of Christ gathered together. As it happens, in my searching this morning I found some thoughts on the United Church website on that very topic. 

I believe we need to celebrate how we welcome all and how our welcome has broadened over time. I maintain we also need to ask what limits we may have placed (intentionally or not) on who gets to participate fully. When are those limits good to maintain, when do they need to be pushed, when do they need to be dropped? Again the answers are not always clear, and not everyone will answer the same way on any of them.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 5, 2025 --Worldwide Communion Sunday

As this is the first Sunday of the month it is our monthly day to highlight our Local Outreach Fund, the designated gifts which allow us to support our neighbours here in Grande Prairie.

Also as it is the first Sunday of the month we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion this week.

Oh and it is the beginning of Thanktober, so our Tree of Thanks will be up and ready for folk to hang some leaves.

For Worldwide Communion Sunday this year we will be reading John 6:5-14, 35, 48-51 which is from the "Bread of Life Discourse".

The Sermon title is Daily Bread, Daily Thanks.

Early Thoughts: It is one of the most basic of foods. Ground grain, water, a little salt, usually some sort of leavening agent.... bread.

Bread has long been a staple food.  It is energy dense. When made with whole grains it provides a variety of nutrients. It is fairly easy to make.  Here is a list of links about bread as a staple food. Many communities would have had large bread ovens either for communal use or the earliest commercial bakeries.  Bread is a big deal!

In the sixth chapter of John's Gospel we hear a lot about bread. First we have the feeding of thousands with five loaves and two fish --staples that turn a hungry crowd into a giant picnic, with leftovers to boot. Then Jesus spends almost 40 verses talking about the bread of heaven. Twice in this discourse Jesus describes himself as the Bread of Life, and then also the living bread that comes from heaven.

Jesus, in this passage, links himself with a daily staple, a basic part of life. Jesus is part of maintaining life, and that in abundance.

Sometimes I think we might take bread for granted. It is a danger for those of us who seldom have to worry about it being there. At most when we think about bread it is more "what kind of bread do I prefer?" (white, whole wheat, sourdough, naan...). But what does it mean when we pray "Give us this day our daily bread"? What does it mean to stop and give thanks for that daily bread?

AS we enter into October, the month when we will celebrate Thanksgiving, I invite us all to reflect on this common staple food.  Why are we thankful for bread? I also invite us to consider what it means to give thanks daily, to look for things that make us thankful on a daily basis. How might that feed our souls?

AS we gather at the table of faith I invite us to consider what it means to hold up a loaf and say "the body of Christ, broken for you. What does it mean to consider Jesus as the bread of life, broken and shared? How are we fed at the table, how are we fed by Jesus' presence in our lives?

--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 1, 2023 -- Worldwide Communion Sunday

 

For many years now the 1st Sunday of October has been called Worldwide Communion Sunday. The spirit of the designation is that on that Sunday Christians all over the world will celebrate communion on the same day as a sign of unity. Practically speaking it appears that it may be more of a North American thing, with maybe some European buy in. Also it really speaks more to those traditions (such as Presbyterianism) that do not already gather at the table of faith every week (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran for example).

At any rate, many United Churches, including St. Paul's, have made a concerted effort to mark Worldwide Communion Sunday over the years. Which mean that this Sunday we will gather together at the table of faith to eat and drink together. If you are joining us online you are invited, or even encouraged, to have bread and juice available so we can all eat and drink together across the electrons and miles.

The Scripture Reading this week is 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

The Sermon title is Table Fellowship

Early Thoughts: There is something special about eating together. It can be a great way to create and build community. Discussion over food has a slightly different feel to it somehow.

When done well that is.

Paul has heard that the people in Corinth have got the idea of table fellowship all wrong. The old class distinctions are showing up at the table of faith. Privilege is leading some to eat really well while others get the crumbs. And he is a little bit annoyed about it!

From the beginning of the Jesus movement eating together has been a key feature of the community. Indeed Jesus was routinely criticized for eating and drinking with the 'wrong sorts of people'. Table fellowship in the early church appears to have included that piece we now call Communion/Eucharist/Lord's Supper but also a whole meal where the community gathered, likely in the evening after the day's work was done, to eat at the same table. And this is where the Corinthians have gotten it wrong.

All evidence suggests that the Corinthian church had a mixture of free folk and slaves, wealthy folk and those who served them. From what Paul says it seems that the wealthy, those who have a more leisure-filled life, show up early and start the feast. Then those who have to work longer show up and the best food and wine are already gone. Paul has been trying to bring the Corinthians into a vision of the Kingdom, where there is no longer slave or free, Jew or Greek, man or woman (to borrow from his letter to the Galatians). In the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and Paul shares there is no place for some to feast and others get crumbs. Table fellowship in the church needs to mean that all are welcome to eat and all have an equal share in what is served.

In part this is why I see it as so important that we have what is called an open table. In some traditions only members of that denomination, or even of that congregation, can be served when communion comes around. Indeed within United Church history this has been the case. When I was growing up the expectation was that only confirmed members would take communion (though I don't think there were gatekeepers standing there with lists), with some people having memories of the Elder coming to visit before the quarterly communion service and leaving a communion card or token showing that one was in fact a ember in good standing. But our understanding of communion has changed over time and by the time I was a young adult the common language of United Church invitations tot he table reminded us that the table belongs to God, not to the church. Because it is God's table and God is the host all who seek to live in God's way are welcome to eat and drink at it. The gatekeeper is the person making the choice, not some church official. Paul exhorts the Corinthians about those who partake in an unworthy fashion (it is my understanding that this is part of why Roman Catholics are supposed to go to Confession before being served at Mass) but the determination is left up to the people themselves.

There is something special about gathering with friends at the table of faith. It might be an intricately carved high altar in a medieval cathedral, or a rickety table in a mud hut, or a flat rock along the riverside, or even a folded down tailgate. The flat surface itself is less important than the fact that people of faith gather together, share prayers, remember Christ, and eat together as beloved children of God.

Shall we gather at the table?
--Gord