World Communion Message: One God, One People
Galatians 3:23-29
by Rev. Frank Schaefer
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So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.   Galatians 3:26-29

When I think of World Communion Sunday, I get excited about the fact that tens of thousands of Christian brothers and sisters around the world are coming to the Lord's Table to remember our Lord and to proclaim his final victory to the world.

It doesn't matter what part of the world we're hailing from, because from God's perspective there are no political, ethnic, cultural or national boundaries. From God's perspective we are One people, the People of God! 
 

One of the things that excites my about church history is that the first-century church believed that Christ’s church stands for a radical inclusion of all of God's children. They believed that all those barriers we as humans work so hard to build, God in Christ broke through. In an anonymous letter that survived from the early 2nd century addressed to Diognetus, a Roman official, the author actually speaks about Christianity as a "new race:"

The Mystery of the New People
To His Excellency, Diognetus: I understand, sir, that you are really interested in learning about the religion of the Christians, and that you are making an accurate and careful investigation of the subject....

... You would also like to know the source of the loving affection that they have for each other. You wonder, too, why this new race or way of life has appeared on earth now and not earlier. These three questions are dealt with in the text, more or less in order, but with some overlapping. The reference to the "New [third] Race" calls attention to an issue of great importance for the life of the Early Church, which concerned such varied questions as the Church's understanding of its vocation in history and the Roman world's attitude toward the Church.

And that should be the message of the church worldwide “You are welcome here—every single one of you! For God's grace is enough for all! God's love is poured out to all, and whosoever believes shall be saved” (John 3.16). Whosoever!

With the arrival of the church of Jesus Christ a new age has dawned. Nobody ever needs to feel excluded again; for, as St. Paul says it: “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Brothers and sisters, Paul clearly declares to us that there are no second-class Christians; if you are a baptized believer you’re all the way in the inner sanctum; you are in the holy of holies; the veil has been torn. Everyone is welcome and everyone is equal in God’s eyes. We are all children of God. We are to be one in Christ; we are to be the new race made up of a multitude of diverse people.

We are one and in our oneness lies our strength; in our oneness will the world see the difference in us—through our love with the world see the love and grace of Jesus Christ.  Happy World Communion Sunday!