Pastor's Blog: "We Are the World"
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Some years ago, 46 famous musicians from across the musical spectrum all came together to do a music video to raise money for famine relief in Africa. Their video, “We Are the World,” was an immediate hit, most likely because it involved celebrities from every musical genre. If it had been a video that drew from one solitary genre, it wouldn’t have been nearly as successful.
What I remember best from the backstory of the video was the opening instructions given by the producer, Quincy Jones, to the artists who had gathered for the taping. It was simple and to the point. “Check your egos at the door.” You know that must have been easier said than done for the artists, but the success of the video points to their success in implementing those simple instructions.
That story came to mind as I thought about our preparations to celebrate World Communion Sunday this coming Sunday at Mountain Brook Baptist Church. Always celebrated on the first Sunday in October, World Communion Sunday affirms our understanding that our congregation is a part of a much larger communion and that despite our distinctives as Baptists, we value our participation in the Church Universal. Think of this Sunday as a way for us to “check our egos at the Lord’s Table,” as we commit ourselves to the unity Jesus envisioned for his disciples.
The instructions our Lord and Savior gave us for his meal are simple. “Do this in remembrance of me.” Indeed, obeying those instructions is the only way we can keep ourselves out of the celebration so that the focus might be fully on Jesus himself – his death and his resurrection, his sacrifice and our salvation.
In a divided world doing this observance in this spirit is one step we can take toward alleviating the spiritual impoverishment from which our world suffers because of the tendency of too many local congregations to hoard grace for themselves instead of being the conduits for it to the world that Jesus has called us to be. As the original music video put it, “There comes a time when we heed a certain call when the world must come together as one. There are people dying. Oh, and it’s time to lend a helping hand to life, the greatest gift of all.”
What a gift Jesus has given us, this gift of life. Now is our time to share it with one another, and with everyone everywhere, all around the world. See you Sunday. We won’t be alone.
“My prayer is…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).