After saving England from Napoleon’s threats in 1815, the Duke of Wellington achieved hero status. One Sunday as the duke approached the altar for communion, a poor man from London’s streets, wearing rags, knelt beside him. The indignant minister whispered for the vagrant to move away. “Don’t you realize this is the great Duke of Wellington?” he asked.
When the duke overhead, he responded, “Leave him alone. We’re all the same here. The ground is level at the cross.”
That’s the spirit in which we celebrate World Communion Sunday on the first Sunday of October. Paul says believers share the Lord’s Supper by partaking of the “one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17). Everyone at the communion table is equal in God’s sight, needing his forgiveness and grace.