Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean ... (v. 22a)

... Stir up one another to love and good works. (v. 24b)

It’s right there, in the name itself: communion - that which makes for unity, oneness. But if this Christian sacrament of unity has been anything through twenty centuries, it has been a sacrament of division.

Let’s move backward quickly through those centuries, taking snapshots as we go.

Frame 1. Christians visit in the parish of a sister congregation whose denominational roots are identical to their own. But they are forbidden to come to the altar because "there is doctrinal divergence between us."

Frame 2. A stormy meeting of the congregation ends by silencing members of the worship committee who hoped to offer the Sacrament of th…