The Golden Cord

Gordon E. Ellis
October 7, 2007
World Communion Sunday

THE GOLDEN CORD

When you woke UP this morning, how MANY of you said: WOW! I just can’t WAIT to get to CHURCH today? It’s World COMMUNION Sunday! Probably not too MANY of you! But, I have to confess that I DID wake up SAYING that today! You see: for ME, next to EASTER, Christmas and Pentecost, THIS is my FAVORITE Sunday of the year! Even if I DO have to put up with the INCONVENIENCES of the Apple HARVEST Festival, I just LOVE World COMMUNION Sunday! To ME, there’s something very SPECIAL about the THOUGHT that, ALL around the GLOBE today, HOUR after HOUR in this SAME 24-hour PERIOD, in EVERY country under the sun where the story of Jesus Christ has EVER been HEARD, people of every COLOR and CHARACTERISTIC and SEXUAL orientation, every NATIONALITY and Christian DENOMINATION, the RICH and the POOR, the OLD and the YOUNG, are ALL gathering around their respective COMMUNION tables to SHARE the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. And EVERYWHERE in the world, the same WORDS will be spoken as SAINTS and sinners ALIKE receive the BREAD of life and the CUP of salvation! Yes, TODAY this holy table CONNECTS us, AS if it were a table MILLIONS of miles long, WRAPPING itself around the earth over and over again! And JUST as it says in the HYMN that Christians are singing nearly EVERYWHERE today, there IS a GOLDEN cord CONNECTING humankind. There IS a CHRIST-connection ALL across the GLOBE! And you and I, my friends, are PART of it!

And that hymn is ALSO something that CONNECTS us today! It’s called, In CHRIST There Is No East or West. The CHOIR just sang PART of it for us, but we’ll ALL sing the ENTIRE hymn in just a few MOMENTS. And, I may be STRANGE, but WHENEVER we SING this hymn, I can almost FEEL that golden cord CONNECTING us with Christian people EVERYWHERE. And I THINK I can almost FEEL it because of a TRUE story that I once heard ABOUT this hymn. It was told by my prep school CHAPLAIN, Glyn Jones, who was a retired NAVY Chaplain. He TOLD it on a World COMMUNION Sunday in our school CHAPEL at Northfield Mount Hermon School, BACK when I was a TEENAGER. And I THINK of it EVERY time we sing In CHRIST There Is No EAST or West.

It seems that IMMEDIATELY following World War 2, there were 2 SHIPS anchored NEXT to each other in a harbor. ONE was JAPANESE, waiting to return to JAPAN. The OTHER was AMERICAN, waiting to return to the U.S. And for an entire DAY, the RAILS of BOTH ships were lined with anxious SAILORS, recent ENEMIES, GLARING at each other, just FILLED with hostility and anger. And THEN, all of a sudden, as the SUN was setting, some DARING sailor on the AMERICAN ship began singing, In Christ There Is No East or West. And JUST as suddenly, a JAPANESE sailor JOINED him. And even though only a FEW of the Japanese soldiers were CHRISTIAN, pretty soon everyone on BOTH ships had learned the TUNE, and the WORDS in their respective languages. And before long, there RANG out in that harbor an AMAZING chorus, with these former ENEMIES now CONNECTED in SONG, and mysteriously BOUND together by CHRIST and that GOLDEN cord. And you know: EVER since I first HEARD that story, this HYMN has become SYNONYMOUS for me with World Communion Sunday. And whenever I SING it, I actually feel CONNECTED with Christians EVERYWHERE! I actually FEEL that golden cord BINDING us together, and making us SISTERS and BROTHERS in Christ.

I ALSO want to tell you about ANOTHER experience I had once, a time when I FELT that SAME mysterious kind of CONNECTION. Believe it or not, it was in a MOVIE theater filled with teenage BOYS, PREPIES from 2 private schools on their class TRIPS to Boston. We’d been studying VALUES and HOW they are portrayed in FILMS. And NOW, we’d come to Boston to see a new FOREIGN film, an ITALIAN film called, La Dolce VITA. And, AS the picture BEGAN, we watched a HELICOPTER flying slowly through the sky, not very HIGH off the ground. And, HANGING from that HELICOPTER in a kind of HALTER, was a life-size STATUE of a man dressed in ROBES with OUTSTRETCHED arms, so that he ALMOST looked like he was flying HIMSELF. And that was ESPECIALLY true every once-in-a-while when the camera cut out the HELICOPTER, so that ALL you could SEE was the STATUE.

Well SOON, the helicopter was flying over a field where some FARMERS were working. And the STATUE caused a good deal of EXCITEMENT among those farmers. They WAVED their hats and hopped around SHOUTING. Then ONE farmer RECOGNIZED the statue, and SHOUTED in Italian: HEY! It’s JESUS! And MANY of them began running UNDER the helicopter, WAVING and calling OUT to Jesus! But of course, the HELICOPTER kept GOING. Pretty soon it reached the outskirts of ROME, where it passed over a rooftop SWIMMING pool, SURROUNDED by young, beautiful, BIKINI-CLAD sun-bathers! And of course, THEY looked up TOO! And they TOO began WAVING and SHOUTING and jumping up and down! Only THIS time, MUCH to the DELIGHT of us young theater-goers, the helicopter circled BACK and HOVERED over the pool so those young PILOTS could get a better LOOK at the GIRLS! And EVERYONE in the theater was LAUGHING hysterically.

SOON however, the helicopter CONTINUED, and the great DOME of St. Peter’s Cathedral loomed UP from below. And at THAT moment, the camera began ZOOMING in on the STATUE itself: JESUS with OUTSTRETCHED arms! And it zoomed in closer and closer, until the GIANT screen was FILLED with the bearded face of JESUS. And AT that moment, ALL of a sudden, and almost MIRACULOUSLY, a HUSH fell over that theater full of teenage BOYS. And a reverent STILLNESS seemed to FILL the theater! Oh, it was JUST for a MOMENT, but IN that reverent SILENCE, I had a very STRANGE sensation. ALL of a sudden, I felt as if EVERYONE in that theater was SOMEHOW mysteriously CONNECTED with one another! And, it was the AWESOME, powerful face of JESUS, ENGULFING the screen and STARING at us, that somehow CONNECTED us! Yes, that IMAGE became like a GOLDEN cord, MYSTERIOUSLY tying us together in CHRIST! And STRANGELY enough, I EVEN felt it BINDING us together with the FARMERS in the fields and the GIRLS on the ROOFTOP. YES, it was a POWERFUL feeling of CONNECTION. And though I couldn’t EXPLAIN it back THEN, it’s become CLEARER to me SINCE then.

And I would explain it to YOU by saying that you and I are not ALONE! You and I are UNITED! We are ONE, because we are ALL part of a FAITH community, whose very CORE, whose very CENTER, is the RISEN Christ. And His SPIRIT is what BINDS us together and makes us a FAITH community that is BIGGER than any CLUB or UNION, any TOWN or CITY, any NATION or ETHNIC GROUP or RACE! Yes, the Risen Christ is that GOLDEN cord that encircles EACH of us and ALSO encircles the GLOBE! No, friends: we are NOT alone! The RISEN Christ is WITHIN us and AMONG us! WE are united BY and IN Christ! WE are SISTERS and BROTHERS through Christ -- and through our SERVICE in HIS name!

And THEREFORE, we are called to BE a FAMILY all around the GLOBE. We are called to CELEBRATE each other’s JOYS; to BEAR each other’s BURDENS; to LIVE with one another in PEACE and HARMONY; to CARE for the REST of God’s CREATION, Brother Sun and Sister Moon; to STAND for the things that are important to GOD; to DO the work of LOVE and ministry that God is CALLING us to DO; and to SHARE, with ALL people everywhere, the hope-filled GOOD news of Jesus Christ! Yes, THAT is the golden cord that BINDS us together with Christians ALL across the globe!

And TODAY, on this World COMMUNION Sunday, we have the JOY and privilege of CELEBRATING that golden cord, CELEBRATING our connectedness IN and THROUGH the Risen Christ! And we DO that by gathering at this TABLE of communion TOGETHER. We come to this table today with our SISTERS and BROTHERS, who are Roman Catholic and Episcopal, Methodist and Presbyterian, Baptist and Lutheran, and NO denomination at all; who are RUSSIAN and LEBANESE, English and Indian, Ethiopian and Iraqi, Palestinian and Italian, Ecuadorian and Israeli, and every OTHER nationality. And HERE at this table, we are ONE great FAMILY of faith, ALL around the globe, and ALL connected, as the HYMN says, by that golden cord closebinding humankind: the Risen Christ and our SERVICE in HIS name.

You know: I was thinking, ONE year from TODAY, when we celebrate World Communion Sunday NEXT year, you and I will be celebrating in different churches, different towns and different STATES. And yet, we’ll STILL be at the SAME table. And I HOPE that you will be thinking about ME that day, because I PROMISE you that I will be thinking about YOU. You see: EVEN in different towns and states, we will STILL be ONE in Christ! YOU will STILL be my sisters and brothers, whom I LOVE, because the RISEN Christ and our SERVICE in HIS name is like a golden cord encircling us and BINDING us in LOVE! So, LET’S plan to MEET for communion together NEXT year, on World Communion Sunday. And let’s try to remember to SING together that MARVELOUS and glorious HYMN: In Christ There Is No East or West, that great hymn that I’d like us all to STAND and SING right NOW. Amen.

HYMN: In Christ There Is No East or West