Message: Moving Toward Christ / Philippians 3:12-14

In today’s first reading, Paul does not say that he has already arrived at the goal. He says, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal.” Paul did not deny his past or what he had accomplished. But he no longer saw these things as proof that his life was complete. He was still on the way, and he was not afraid of that.

Paul reminds us that Christian faith is not about proving that we are perfect. It is about humility. It is about being willing to admit that we still have more to learn and more room to grow. Our worth does not depend on being perfect. Humility gives us the courage to keep learning and growing.

Paul also shows that Christian faith is not about speed. It is about direction. Christians are people who move toward Christ. But it is important to remember that we move toward Christ with Christ. Paul says, “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”

This is not a journey we make alone. Christ is already with us. Christ is not with us because we are complete. Christ calls us first, like a good shepherd calling the sheep. And when we turn toward Christ, we discover that grace has already been there to receive us. So, the Christian life is our response to the grace that has already been given to us in Christ.

If so, what does it mean to go with Christ? It means walking the way Christ walked, learning to see the people Christ loved, and making room for the people Christ made room for. One of the places we see this in the Gospels is at the table. Jesus’ table was never just a place to eat. It was a place where social boundaries were challenged. The distance between the powerful and the powerless, men and women, Jews and Gentiles began to break down. Jesus especially shared meals with people who were avoided, including the sick, the excluded, the sinners, and those judged as unworthy. His table was not about deciding who deserved a place. It was about making room for everyone.

Today we celebrate World Communion Sunday. We come to Christ’s table together with Christians around the world. Together, we speak different languages, live in different cultures, and worship in different ways, but we move toward the same centre. Unity does not mean that everyone becomes the same. It begins when we move toward the same Christ. If each person tries to pull everyone else toward their own place, conflict follows. But when all of us move toward the centre, the closer we come to the centre, the closer we also come to one another.

The unity of the Church grows as we keep moving toward Christ, who is at the centre. And moving toward Christ means welcoming into the community people Christ considered precious. In that sense, the Healing Our Borders Vigil in Douglas, Arizona, near the U.S.-Mexico border, shows how unity can become more than an idea. It can become an act of remembering and making room for people.

This vigil began in 2000 and has continued on Tuesday afternoons for more than twenty years. It remembers migrants who died while crossing the border, especially those who died in the desert near the border. Participants carry wooden crosses with the names of the dead and walk beside the border wall. One person reads a name from a cross, and the gathered community responds, “¡Presente!” which means “Present” or “Here among us.” Each time a name is spoken and the response is heard, the cross points to the life of a person deeply loved by God.

The community keeps hundreds of these crosses. Each one represents a life loved by God. Even when the people gathered never knew that person, they declare together that the life mattered and the death mattered. Speaking the names becomes more than an act of remembering. It brings back into the community’s memory people who could easily have been forgotten or reduced to statistics.

In this way, the vigil becomes a kind of re-membering. The border wall divides one side from the other, but beside that wall, people call out the names of the dead and answer, “¡Presente!” When human-made boundaries break relationships apart, the vigil declares that these lives are still remembered and still belong to the community’s story. Re-membering means receiving again as members those who have been pushed out or erased.

This vigil helps us think more deeply about what Communion means. Communion is a way of remembering Jesus Christ. It also calls us to remember the people Jesus welcomed to his table. This memory helps us see again who we are connected to as one body. Communion reminds us that we are not alone. We belong to one another in Christ.

That is why Communion is not a closed table, but an open table. Here we move toward the crucified and risen Christ. We move with Christ toward Christ, and at the table, we learn to see again the people Christ loves. As we move toward Christ, we also move toward one another.

We do not come to this table because we are perfect or complete. We come because there is still more in us to change, more to learn, and more room to love. That does not discourage us. It humbles us, gives us courage to begin again, and opens us to the Spirit’s leading. Most of all, we do not come alone. Christ has already taken hold of us, and Christ is calling us to this table with people from around the world.

May the table we share today draw us closer to Christ and, at the same time, closer to one another. And through that unity, may God’s love for the whole world be made visible in peace and hope.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Min Hwang