Deeper Love, New Maps and More Bread
Deeper Love, New Maps and More Bread
Psalm 36:5-10, I Corinthians 10:16-17
October 4, 2026 World Communion Sunday
Rev. Cynthia Cochran-Carney, First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael, CA
PDF OF SERMON AVAILABLE BELOW
Your steadfast love, O Holy One, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep.
You preserve both people and animals.
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
O continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
and your righteousness to the upright in heart. Psalm 36:5-10
Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf. I Corinthians 10:16-17
Who reads maps in your family? Do you have memories of summer vacations or trips with the map unfolded in the front seat and discussing who would be the navigator to find the best route? Maps don’t tell you how long it is going to take or how windy the roads are or the distance to the next gas station. Remember long before GPS and Google maps.
I love maps. I like seeing the big picture when we are driving or traveling. My dad loved maps too. He had those Thomas Guide maps for the freeways and streets in OC and Los Angeles.
What I realize as I look back is that I assumed maps were always factual. They were non-biased documents about the layout of a town, streets, boundaries of cities, counties, states and countries. Of course, that is not always true. Maps are political documents. It depends who makes them and for whom they are made. Maps can reflect or change our perception in some comical and some very serious ways.
Maps can shape our perceptions of who we are and how we see the world.
Here is map of how some Californians see the United States. I have to admit there is some truth for me at different times in my life.
And then there are world maps. The more we learn, the more there is to learn about how maps have changed, borders have changed. We begin to see that we look at maps and nations and peoples from a particular perspective. And how that may change as we deepen our connection the Holy One and to all creation and cosmos. And it reminds us to examine our internal maps, our inner spiritual geography.
Now look at this map. If you immediately thought, “It’s upside down,” then I invite you to think again. Can a map of the world really be upside down? We know the world cannot be upside down, as there is no ‘up’ in space.
The new UN Map was approved in September 4, 2026. Called the Equal Earth Projection. First published in 2018. In Favor: 164 nations Against: 1 nation (United States), calling it “superfluous.” Status: Non-binding, meaning countries and groups are not legally forced to change their maps. Why the Old Map Changed - The 16th-century Mercator projection stretches areas near the poles. It makes North America, Europe, and Greenland look much bigger than they are. It shrinks regions near the equator. Africa looks similar in size to Greenland on a Mercator map, even though Africa is 14 times larger.
What if we look at the world and one another with different lenses? As we hear the words of the Psalms and Paul as he writes to the early followers of Jesus’ way, how might our inner maps change?
Verses 5-9 express the heart of the psalm and the grounds for hope. In contrast to human selfishness and greed, we hear of the God’s amazing grace (“steadfast love”) and faithfulness. In contrast to deceit and iniquity, we hear of God’s righteousness which is high as the mountains and deep as the seas (5-6). This amazing grace is not limited to a small group of people. There’s a wideness to God’s love which extends to all peoples.
The words of verses 5-9 are words of praise and of trust in the wideness of God’s mercy which extends not only to all peoples of the world but also to the animals (verse 6)! The imagery describing God here is imaginative and stunning: God’s steadfast love is “precious” (Hebrew, yakar, verse 7a) like a whole collection of precious stones. God is like a bird providing shelter for her young or God is a fountain that provides life (verse 9a). God is the light in a world of shadows.
Paul wanted those in the church of Corinth to experience this deep love of Christ that overcame divisions. The love was deep and wide. He implored them to live this out, including in the midst of celebrating the sacred meal.
He discovered something terrible was happening in the Corinthian Church concerning the sacred meal. The wealthy in the Christian community in Corinth would arrive first at a house church or they would be the hosts of a house church. They’d eat their own food and get drunk before other people could even come to the table.
He reminds them they must see the world and each person from Christ’s perspective
• The Cup of Blessing (Verse 16): The wine cup used during communion represents a koinonia (a sharing, fellowship, or participation) in the blood of Christ. Love poured out for all people.
• The Broken Bread (Verse 16): Breaking and eating the bread represents a shared participation in Christ’s body. An embodied love.
• One Body (Verse 17): Because believers all eat from the single loaf of bread, they are joined together into one unified spiritual community, despite being many distinct individuals.
The Holy One calls us to rethink – who is the insider and who is the outsider? Clean and unclean? Acceptable and unacceptable? How are these boundaries shifting?
All are welcome to the table. How is the Holy One shaping us and inviting us to a deeper, broader love for ourselves, for all people, for creatures and all living things?
Close with a story. In Normandy during World War Two, there were two GIs who took their dead comrade to be buried in a cemetery. They knew he was Christian. They went to the cemetery and asked the Roman Catholic priest for permission to bury him inside the walls of the cemetery. The priest said, "Well, the rule is that you've got to be Roman Catholic; you've got to be a member of the parish. I just can't allow it. I wish I could, but I just can't allow it."
And they begged him. They said, "It would mean so much to us to bury our friend inside the fence." "I'm so sorry," the priest said. "I just can't allow it, but bury him outside the fence, just anywhere outside the fence." The two GIs reluctantly dug the grave, said a prayer and buried their comrade.
They finished after nightfall. The next morning, the entire unit was ordered to move on, and the group raced back to the little church for one final goodbye to their friend. When they arrived, they couldn’t find the grave site. And they walked all up and down the fence, and they couldn't find where they'd dug the grave. They knew they'd dug it. They walked all around the cemetery, all around that fence, and they couldn't find it.
They went in to see the priest. "Father, we were the ones who came yesterday. Forgive us for bothering you, but we asked for permission to bury our comrade inside the fence, and you said 'Bury him outside,' and we did, but we can't find the grave. Do you know what might have happened to it?"
And the priest said, "Oh, yes. I know what happened. I was so upset about your visit yesterday that I spent half the night worrying about what I said to you. And I spent the other half of the night moving the fence."
The Holy One moves fences and colors outside the lines and invites all to the table to be fed. May we be willing to move fences, may we work for peace, and may we be willing to change our maps. Amen
Resources
How Californians See American Map https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/How-Californians-see-America
Carl Jennings, “What’s Wrong With This Picture,” 11/2/21 Medium.com https://medium.com/illumination/whats-wrong-with-this-picture-91bd19956088
“UN adopts new world map to amend Mercator distortion,” September 7, 2026 https://www.thedailyaus.com.au/world/un-new-world-map-07-09-2026
WWII Story Rev. Thomas Tewell, “Coloring Outside the Lines,” Covenant Network of Presbyterians, 11.3.2000 https://covnetpres.org/2000/11/03/coloring-outside-the-lines/