As I write this article, I am midway into my first week back after recovering from surgery. I am grateful for the prayers, the cards, and the well-wishes that have been offered on my behalf and behalf of our family during this time. The surgery went well and the recovery continues as it should. God is good.
Two weeks out at the beginning of the church programming year seems like a long time and a very odd time to be away. Soon enough, October will be here, and I haven’t experienced much of September around these parts. So it goes.
Sunday, October 7 is World Communion Sunday (as well the date to receive the all-church offering, Neighbors in Need). Our celebration of Holy Communion on that day reminds us that we are in fellowship, at the table, with all kinds of Christians all around the world. Christians can be a pretty diverse bunch of people, world-wide. Some of us come from the first-world countries, and others of us come from the developing world. Some of us handle snakes and don’t have instrumental music in church, and others of us like high church liturgy and chants. Some of us are right-of-center in our politics and others of us are left-of-center. Yet, the one thing that draws the diverse bunch of us together is our confession of the sovereignty of Jesus and our belief in God’s saving work through him. When we gather around the table, we put aside the differences in background, age, and social status and join together as family.
Do I always see eye-to-eye with members of my extended family? No, but I still love them and want to remain with them whenever we have the chance to gather. Picnics and reunions give us the chance to do that with our families and the celebration of the Lord’s Table gives us the chance to do this with our church family. The gatherings on communion Sundays gives us the chance to love and be loved, to feed others and be fed, ourselves, and to forgive and be forgiven. All of us need those things to live spiritually fulfilled lives.
I hope that all of you take advantage of the opportunity to be nourished and to fellowship on this particular celebration of Communion.
Your servant in Christ,
Rev. James Hoppert
