October 6, 2002,

Sermon for World Communion Sunday

Onesua Presbyterian College

Bible readings: Ecclesiastes 3: 1-11, Hebrews 12: 1-2.

This is an important day in the church year because it's World Communion Sunday, and it's also an important day in the life of Onesua Presbyterian College and your lives because it's First Communion for the members of the Communicant's Class. I am grateful for the chance to preach the sermon on such an important day, and I'd like to thank the school chaplain for allowing me the opportunity to talk to you this morning.

I have always liked World Communion Sunday, when Christians all around the world celebrate together. I like to think of the line between darkness and daytime going around the earth. The day starts here in the Pacific, with Fiji, and New Zealand, and Vanuatu being the first to start the day. There are Christians here, and we celebrate communion in our morning services. But the morning moves on to new lands. Australia and Japan are next. There are Christians there, and they celebrate communion as the morning reaches them. China, Thailand, India, Russia, East Africa, Europe, West Africa, and the British Isles all have their turn. The light never stops moving. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, and Brazil and the United States take their turns. Morning finally reaches Hawaii, and returns to where it started. For us on the earth, it looks as if the day begins, and then gets older, and then night comes. But if we could look at the earth from out in space, where we could see the whole planet at once, we would see that the light is always shining. It never goes out. The earth turns, but it always turns into day. It's just one long day of sunshine, and we each take our turns sharing it. For everything there is a season, and God makes everything beautiful in its own time.

It's the same way with longer seasons of time. To us it looks as if new people are born, and grow, and join the church, and serve the church when their time comes, and then die at the end of their season. But to God, who can see everything at once, I think it looks as though the light is always shining. Our lives turn, but always into day. We each take our turn sharing the light. For everything there is a season, and God makes everything beautiful in its own time.

Today you take an important step in joining the cloud of witnesses that has formed the church. This church has been developing for two thousand years. There are many, many stories of faith from the past, but I cannot tell you thousands of stories. That would make this sermon very long! I will tell you just four stories. That's enough to think about at one time.

This is the first story. Once long ago there was a small group of islands in the sea. They were very beautiful islands, and they were wonderful places to live, with rich forests and good things to eat. God had made them very good, and God was there, of course, because God is everywhere, but the people of the islands did not know God. They had not heard the good news. They lived in darkness. They fought, and they killed, and sometimes they ate each other. Their lives were short and full of fear. Then missionaries came to the islands, and brought the good news. But the people did not want to hear, and they killed the first missionaries and ate them. More missionaries came. After a long struggle, the people accepted the good news. The light had come to the islands.

You have heard this story many times before, but maybe you do not know what islands I am talking about. This is not the story of Vanuatu. This is the story of the British Isles, of England, and Scotland, and Ireland, of the Hebrides, not the New Hebrides. Jesus was not a white man from Europe. He was from Asia, and this first story is about how the good news came to my ancestors, in Europe, in the British Isles, on the island of Ireland. At first they did not want to hear the story, and it took a long time before they became Christian.

This is the second story. After my ancestors in Ireland became Christian, they became very strong in the faith. They protected the good news and the learning that went with it for one thousand years, while many other places had forgotten it. They faithfully copied the Bible by hand, one letter at a time, so that it would not be forgotten. They were just a little group of islands, but they produced many great scholars and thinkers, and they sent missionaries around the world to share the story with other people in other lands.

So, the first story was about the good news coming to a small group of islands, and the second story was about how the islands became very strong and shared the good news with others.

This is the third story. Once long ago there was a small group of islands in the sea. They were very beautiful islands, and they were wonderful places to live, with rich forests and good things to eat. God had made them very good, and God was there, of course, because God is everywhere, but the people of the islands did not know God. They had not heard the good news. They lived in darkness. They fought, and they killed, and sometimes they ate each other. Their lives were short and full of fear. Then missionaries came to the islands, and brought the good news. But the people did not want to hear, and they killed the first missionaries and ate them. More missionaries came. After a long struggle, the people accepted the good news. The light had come to the islands.

Have you heard that story before? Of course you have. That's the story of Vanuatu, but remember, it's also the story of the British Isles and many other parts of the world. The story does not belong to any one people, not Ireland or Scotland, not America or Vanuatu. The story belongs to all of us, or we belong to the story, and each of us shares the light in our turn.

So, the first story was about the good news coming to a small group of islands, the British Isles, and the second story was about how those islands shared the good news. The third story was about the good news coming to Vanuatu, another small group of islands.

The fourth story is different. It has not been told yet, because it has not been lived yet. It is the story of the future church in Vanuatu. You are the people who will tell that story. You are the people who will live it. Maybe one thousand years from now, people will tell how Vanuatu, just a small group of islands, was strong in the faith and shared that faith as a gift to the world. Maybe other lands will be grateful to you for the story that you tell, the story that you share, the story that you live.

It's your turn now. The daylight is on your face. For everything there is a season, and God makes you beautiful in your time.

Bruce Whearty