Today we begin this year’s fifth sermon series titled 40 Days of Community. This morning we are here to celebrate “World Communion Sunday” with our brothers and sisters in God. Observing this special assembly while launching a new study regarding community is quite the coincidence. Over the next six Sundays, we will study the importance of building a loving community. With the concept of “Better Together,” we will also explore God’s five purposes, taken from The Purpose Driven Life by Pastor Rick Warren. These divine objectives are to “get to know and love God [called] (Worship), to learn to love each other (Fellowship), to grow in becoming like Jesus (Discipleship), to practice using our talents in serving God (Ministry), and to share the Good News with others (Evangelism).”

Today we will look at the value of community – Why we need each other. In the beginning, God created Adam. After this creation, the Lord said, “It is not good for the man to be alone…” (Genesis 2:18). And then God made a woman, formed a little community termed family between Adam and Eve, and commanded them to “be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:28, 9:7). Later, God scattered their descendants to build various communities in the whole earth (Genesis 11:9). During those sacred ministries, the Genesis author describes God as a plural pronoun, “us.” God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26); “Come, let us go down and confuse their language…” (Genesis 11:7). When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, were all present at the Jordan River. During Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ like a dove, and the voice of God came down from heaven (Matthew 3:13-17). The Triune Lord demonstrated an excellent example of perfect cooperation. This morning I want us to think about three reasons why we are better together through our God-given holy texts.

The first reason is that we need others to WALK with us. In other words, we need other believers to help us grow spiritually. In our Epistle for today, the Apostle Paul compared church to our human body. We have one body and many organs which have different functions. Likewise, in Christ Church, every disciple is given various gifts and asked to use them for the glory of God. One interesting point I have found in this scripture is the verb “belong” – “In Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:5). We can understand that we, as diverse instruments, build one holy structure in Jesus. As members and/or friends of St. Andrew’s Fenelon Falls, we belong to Christ Church. What does that mean by each of us belonging to all other followers of Christ? The simple answer I can present is that we need each other. In other words, without you, I cannot serve the Lord properly in our church. We cannot do the Lord’s mission appropriately without the other members and friends. We, as a church, need one another.

Once again, think about our precious body and all of the priceless organs. Do you know when we can live well with full of strength and happiness? One brief response to this question is that all of the agencies in our physical body should function well. We can be strong and happy if all of them work as they are supposed to. That is why the Apostle Paul also made the following statement in another epistle: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). During a couple of lockdown periods due to the global pandemic in the last few years, we all missed the time of being together as a community without fear and restrictions. According to the Bible, our spiritual life can be described as our walk. We cannot learn what it means to love if we live our lives in isolation. We are encouraged to journey with others in love. We need them to enable us in our spiritual race.

Secondly, we need others to WORK with us. The Apostle Paul said that God put us on earth to do “good works” for His glory (Ephesians 2:10). In our Old Testament for today, King Solomon, known as the wisest in those days, advised his audience to work together while introducing a cord of strands. He stated that two strings are better than one and three strands are more powerful than two. Today, I brought some pieces of yarn with me. I am going to make a couple of ropes by using these strands. And then, I want to pull on these braided strings until I break them. In my first attempt, I will use only a single strand. Let us see how strong this rope can be. Oh, no! It was quickly cut. What about two pieces of yarn mixed? Let me break this rope. This time I feel a bit of resistance from those strings. It was harder than my first try, but that rope was also disconnected. Now, let me put these three strands braided together. I will break this yarn by pulling on it with my full strength. Oops! It is much more challenging than the second attempt. If I use five strings or even more and make them one bonded rope, I may not be able to break them.

Through this experiment, we can learn about the significance of working with one another. Doing something together can bring better results. While having teamwork, we can make exemplary accomplishments and learn valuable lessons from each other. God has blessed Knox Glenarm and St Andrew’s Fenelon Falls over the one hundred fifty-five years. Almost a month ago, with His marvellous plan, God amalgamated both churches to form one new congregation named St. Andrew’s, Fenelon Falls. As Christ church, we need to continue doing God’s ministry together while remembering the beautiful things God has done for both religious gatherings over the years. Like you, I am convinced that God will continuously provide all necessary resources and spiritual strength to fulfill His new ministry in our community if we keep doing the right things together as a Heavenly team.

The third reason we need each other is: we need others to WATCH OUT for us. In our Gospel for today, we can discover one of Jesus’ disciples being left alone even though they were all together at the same table. When Jesus shared an illustration of the bread with them, He indicated that one follower would betray the Lord. Later, Jesus dipped a piece of bread in a dish and gave it to Judas. However, nobody else recognized that he would soon be the one disowning Christ. Jesus was so sad when He witnessed one of His loved disciples, Judas, who was tempted by Satan. Jesus was also very upset when He saw the others who did not care for their fellow believer with God’s brotherly love. After Judas was outside the sacred fellowship, Jesus gave His disciples a new command in the following statement. “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). One critical fact we can recognize from this godly instruction is loving one another based on Christ’s love for the disciples. Jesus knew that they could not care for each other on their own. Like the disciples, we may have one dilemma between the two realities. On the one hand, as socialized human beings, we are eager to belong to a community. On the other hand, as fragile humans, we are afraid to be involved in a community. For instance, believing in God seems acceptable for many believers; however, belonging to a church appears hesitant. From my pastoral ministerial experiences, I have heard and seen those who had been hurt at a church and struggled with unpleasant memories. We need to remember that we, as spiritual descendants of Adam and Eve, cannot love others with our own strength. We also need to remember that as recipients of Christ’s love, we are asked to love one another as He loves us.

Think about how much God has cared for us. He loved us until He sacrificed His one and only Son Jesus Christ for us who have repeatedly made mistakes, particularly the same hang-up, and failed in doing righteous things. Jesus has forgiven us so many times, more than seventy-seven times, in our faith Journey. Even today, Christ invites us to come to this Holy communion table as we are. Jesus is always ready to cleanse our sins from our hearts and make our minds pure again. With remembering Christ’s steadfast love and mercy, Jesus wants us to care for others, especially those close to us in our family, church, and community, as He loves us. We cannot change the whole world on our own. We can make a difference when we all do our part with the help of the Holy Spirit. The late Anne Fernley talked to me about the benefit of showing God’s love in various ways. She tried to make phone calls, send cards, and have visits with the people who would be isolated. She believed God would bless our church and community through those godly activities when we did them together. Our loved ones can be beneficiaries of some other people’s loving exercises. Someday we each may be blessed by those friendly visits. One of the best witnesses of God is to start showing His love within God’s family, Christ Church. That is what Jesus said in this Gospel: “By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:35). That is what God wants us as St. Andrew’s to be known for. The thing that proves to the people outside of the church that we are Christ’s followers is not our gorgeous building, our Sunday service, our long history, or our wonderful tradition. The thing that attracts to the community that we are Christ’s followers is our love for each other!

To conclude, our theme, 40 Days of Community, reminds us of what our church can be – a loving community – where we learn and serve the Lord together. God did not call us to this church at this time to watch it happen. He brought us together to be a part of what will happen. By the grace of God, we belong to this church for His divine work. We are all important no matter how much or little we appear to function in this sacred assembly. Each one of us is equal and significant. We all need each other. May God pour out His Spirit on all of us so that we might be better together as Christ followers and church!

* In this message, I have used some thoughts and material from the sermons Rick Warren prepared for “40 Days of Community.”