Today is a day that we think about the world. World Communion Sunday. It hasn’t been around a long time. The Presbyterians invented it in 1936 as the world looked like it would prepare for war. By 1940, many denominations decided to join in the special worship, but war came anyway.
In the 70 years of World Communion, the world has become common. If we opened your refrigerator, the food literally comes 
from around the world. I discovered in Guatemala a couple of years ago that many of
the poinsettias that we buy at Christmas are first planted in Guatemala in old coffee plantations and then shipped to the USA at the end of their preparation.
It is likely that your clothes this morning are from several different countries. We wish the American jobs would stay in America and of course they do not because we also want to pay cheap prices for our clothes. Cambodian garment factories are huge outside Phnom Penh. And yet a pastor told me that 13 hour shifts are common 6 days a week.
So we like to think of America patriotically, but really our involvement with the world gets larger and larger. Are you really going to go to war with Japan and lose your Ipod or war with Norway and lose your cell phone?
Communion means holding in common. We are linked to the world like never before. People in middle age and younger probably have friends online around the world. We are more aware of these common moments than most people, because we ourselves are connected to people around the globe. At one time, it was said that the sun never sets on the British Empire. Now for some of us, we have so many scattered acquaintances and family that the sun never sets on all our friends.
So we join the 24 hour period of celebration and prayer – a commitment among the Christians of the world to remember our bond with each other for the cause of Christ. We gather to sing of God’s power to bring justice, peace, and salvation to all the world. We gather to pray for friends far away. And we gather in commitment to speak the grace of Christ to all the world until Christ comes for the final heavenly banquet. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up unto the Lord . We are joined around the globe. We have a story to tell to the nations,
There are only three parables that are recorded in each of the gospels. You have just heard one of those three parables, the parable of the Wicked Tenants. If you have ever rented to other people, then any story of the Wicked Tenant is easy to believe. And of course, if you rent, there is the story of the Wicked Landlord which we will look at later.
A friend of mine has a speech each time he rents to a new tenant. It starts out, ‘in this lease, I want to be fair, but I will not be your father or your banker.’ In terms of success, I would say the speech has worked occasionally. But he also realized later that the new tenants have to be sober when they hear the speech. He had rented to two guys who gave drug parties and wrecked the place.
In this allegory, the landlord is the hero. He builds a new vineyard that is guarded and easy to maintain. The only thing that the tenants need to do is be fruitful. The tenants immediately see that they can make more money if they do not give the wine to the owner. So the tenants work. They are not lazy. But they will not give the wine to the owner when his servants come for it. They beat one servant and killed two others, hoping to send a message.
So the landowner sent more servants. The tenants beat and killed them too. So the
landowner sent his son, expecting that they would respect his son. Now by this time, you are probably thinking that the landowner is not very smart. Why would he, after
the tenants mistreated his servants, send more servants? Above all, if the tenants were violent twice, why would he think they would treat his son with respect? Was this landowner a bit 
thick in the head? The answer is that the landowner was not thick in the head but was thick in the heart. God repeats grace over and over in life.
But this is not a story about grace, but about the message of salvation being transferred from the temple to the church. Until the time of Christ, the message of salvation was to draw the nations of the earth to Mount Zion. Now the message was transferred to groups of faithful people scattered all over the world and God says, the Spirit of God will no longer be in the Holy of Holies in the temple, it will be in the hearts of those who are fruitful and faithful.
This parable is one of the three key parables because we see the judgment of God on what is closest to the heart of God. The issues of this parable are greed and violence. The people of God are sent out to interrupt the violence that has plagued the world since Cain and Abel. That story also was about greed and violence. We are the people who keep saying to the world, to our president, to our leaders, and to our community – come to the one sovereign of the world who will bring peace into our violence and cause our hungry souls to be filled.
Who does God abandon? God abandons those who will not be fruitful. The great leaders of Scripture sinned all the time as they sought for holiness. But the direction of their lives with wandering steps and slow was peace and generosity.
How does God abandon us? It is not that God has so much patience and when we have done enough bad things, God lowers the boom. It is more like the law of gravity.
We all know the law of gravity. If you ignore it, there comes a time when you will feel this keenly. Eighty-four years ago (Nov. 21, 1921), the first air-to-air refueling took place over Long Beach, California. Wing walker Wesley May walked across the top wing of a biplane with a five-gallon can of gas strapped to his back. A second plane flew near, and May caught its wing and hoisted himself aboard. Then he poured the gas from the can into the second plane while in flight. It was a historic moment -- but a dangerous one. Wesley May was toying with gravity.
May was a brave man, but a foolish one. When another wing walker barely escaped a fatal fall, May sent a telegraph that said, "When present wing walker is killed, I want the job." The other wing walker fell and was killed, so they hired May -- but he didn't last long. His chute malfunctioned, and he was killed when he hit the ground in -- of all places -- a cemetery. (Justin Hardy, "Legacy of Flight," Aviation History, Nov. 2005).
The people of Israel were caught by Rome. And their leaders were more interested in protecting their own status and wealth with the Romans. It looked shrewd but ended with the destruction of the temple predicted in this passage.
The churches of North Africa were the early leaders of Christianity, now gone. Then
the churches of Europe became the leaders but could not prevent wars after 1600. The political leaders cleverly accepted either 
Protestant or Catholic views on baptism and the Pope and so the churches tended to support the political powers in struggle. So European churches today stand more empty than full.
After World War 2, it was the US churches that paid for and directed the modern missionary movement. As we face a world of terrorism and war today, our survival is linked to our fruitfulness. There are now Christians in every nation. Is our relationship only with God, or are we a world communion, dedicated to finding peace with each other?
Jesus invites us first to accept peace into our own lives. How many of you have been in conflict this past week? You have been attacked in your family or criticized on the job or followed by gossip at school. Lord, I accept the peace that Jesus offers through his death for me and I want to be a person of peace. Show me how to interrupt the violence in my life.
Let us then accept peace with the Christians most connected to us. In this building since Friday night, we have had church services from the United States, Spanish speaking countries, Mandarin speaking countries, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia. Add in other nations represented by your family. What if just the Christians that use this building promised to bear each other’s burdens? When I heard of the bombing in Bali yesterday, Indonesia is no longer just a nation that is far away and mysterious. I thought instead of Anitje and wondered if her family is safe. Many people may get their coat from Cambodia and their shoes from Italy, but they do not understand the interdependence of the world.
In churches like ours is where World Communion starts. Your family, friends and mine. In all the ministries that we want to have this coming year, I yearn to see a prayer meeting start where we try to bear each other’s burdens and so fulfill the law of love.
And lastly, let us accept the peace of the Holy Spirit as we come to communion. There is so much debate over whether the bread and wine you see today are a remembrance, a power, or the real presence of Christ. What I can say is that being a person who rejects violence and greed requires more than human effort. You may be a good person, but you’re not that good. We need the power of God in our lives if we want true change. That power of God is represented on this table today. Millions have already come this day to say to God that we will try one more time to be faithful until Christ returns. When the table is opened this morning – you come. Join the world communion with your own life and commitment to peace instead of war, to generosity instead of greed, and to salvation through Jesus Christ.
