Please turn to 1 Corinthians 11. This is the first week of Advent, when we remember Christ’s first coming as we await His second appearing. We can’t wait to be with, to see Jesus Christ.
Of course, one of the important ways we keep Jesus in front of us during this time in-between the first and second appearing is by gathering at His Table. And at this Table, as we say “thanks” to God for our Savior Jesus, we do so in concert…together saying thanks. Yes, this thanksgiving is a communal event.
The Church gives thanks in harmony with each other for the Lord who has made us collectively a partner, one Body, in a renewed covenant cut open in His broken body and shed blood. In bonds that are more permanent than biological or legal, we eat and drink together in Christ. We are a new humanity that is joined together – not by blood or shared national concerns or anything other than our common participation into the second Adam, Jesus Christ.
As we gather at this Table in the in-between time, we are urged to be alive to the fact that Christ has made us one Body. Gathering to say thanks and look ahead, each of us is charged with respecting that fact – – that we are not isolated individuals or merely part of this or that biological clan, but joined in Christ. Being sensitive to that reality is a matter of life and death.
1 Corinthians 11: 28-30 – Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
You heard that? One of the instructions when we gather at the Lord’s Table is to discern the body. That is, to respect the fact that at this table we are not only in communion with Jesus Christ, but with His body, one another in Jesus Christ. To help us remember that and thus prepare for the Lord’s Supper, let’s look back earlier in 1 Corinthians 11, wherein Paul finds fault with the Corinthian congregation for failing to discern the body:
1 Corinthians 11: 17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
Just a few verses earlier in v. 2 Paul had commended the Corinthians church for holding fast to the apostolic tradition regarding gender distinction and not succumbing to pressure to alter that tradition.
But even though he’d like to continue his positive tone, he has sharp words with the church because of the shape of their gatherings.
In v. 17 he says that their gatherings are not for the better but for the worse.
Church gatherings should be a help and way of improvement – that’s a no-brainer. When the Church gathers there is a lot of potential good: God is worshiped. The people are built up and encouraged. The path to love and good works is once again made clear.
Yes, there’s a lot of good that can happen in church gatherings, but Paul says that the Corinthians church gatherings are for the worse.
So what were the Corinthians doing wrong, that made their meetings worse than pointless?
First of all, or fundamentally, I hear there are divisions among you. Earlier in the letter we’ve heard of various schisms, “I am of Paul; I am of Peter, I am of Christ” – people aligning themselves under different teachers and, at least in their minds, setting them in opposition to each other.
But here we learn there were other divisions too – including socioeconomic divisions. In the gatherings the lines were clearly drawn between those who had money and didn’t; those who were slave and those who were freedmen.
V. 19 is a notoriously difficult verse to interpret. There are two options:
- Divisions are evil, but a kind of necessary evil; necessary because they will eventually mark off genuine believers from those who are simply using the church for some personal advancement.
- Or, Paul is being sarcastic here – of course you’re divided into your little schisms and cliques – – in these smaller groups the really important people can be front and center!
In finding the fault with the Corinthian gatherings, in v.20 Paul turns to their practice of eating the Lord’s Supper… because that meal trains a spotlight on the problem.
One note: to understand Paul’s point better, we should know that there’s a difference between the way we eat the Lord’s Supper now and how the early church commonly ate it. For the earliest Church, the Lord’s Supper was an actual meal, which included the ceremonial breaking of the bread and pouring of the wine. When we take Communion we’re not full afterward.
So, why does he make so much of their practice of this ordinance? Because the Lord’s Supper represents and summarizes and even enacts Christian fellowship. There are all kinds of truths connected to this simple sacrament, especially these two basics: the truth of our union with Christ; the truth our bond with each other in Christ.
Which brings us to the fault. Paul puts it crisply: when they eat the Lord’s Supper, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat. They’re missing the point of the Lord’s Supper. They’re missing the point by such a wide mark that they can’t even be said to be eating the Lord’s Supper.
And, as we suggested above, when you get the Lord’s Supper wrong, you’re getting a lot of basic Christianity wrong.
In what way are they missing the point of the Lord’s Supper, and more generally the Church? Each goes ahead with his own meal. Rather than patiently waiting for the whole church to arrive and then eating the meal consciously together – each person starts eating right away…each is watching out for #1.
Impatience. Selfishness. No sense of one another. Not discerning the Body – they’re not alive to the fact of their connection in Christ.
So extensive is their selfishness, (v.21) One goes hungry/ another gets drunk – By the time latecomers arrive, the food and wine are gone. The Corinthians aren’t just falling a little short. Their practice is the exact opposite of what you should see among church: unity, looking out for one another’s interests, putting others first…BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE BOUGHT INTO THE REALITY OF THIS NEW CORPORATE HUMANITY IN CHRIST.
Rather than the church finding commonality in Jesus Christ, so much so that among the church many of the normal distinctions are erased…
…there is in the Corinthian gatherings a bright line between different categories of people. There are those who can afford to arrive there early, find the best seats and begin eating.
And then there are those – probably slaves – who can arrive only after their master releases them. And when they do get there they find the bigshots reclining on couches, enjoying the last bit of a really splendid meal.
V. 21B: What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?
It’s an interesting question. If the Lord Supper is really only about eating a meal, do that at home.
You could push that thought further along: if you want to be egocentric and look out for your natural interests, do that on your own time and in your own place. But that’s certainly not what the Lord’s Supper…the gathering of Christ’s Body is about! This is a new humanity in a new creation that is alive toward God!
Simply put, there should be a difference between what happens among the church and at the Lord’s Table and what happens everywhere else.
Or do you despise the church of God?
Wait, hold on Paul, who said anything about despising? Who said anything at all? We’re just eating some food.
But, no! Paul says, when you don’t care to go below the surface of this meal and see what it represents, you’re being careless with it. When you treat the church as just another population among whom to pursue your own interests, you’re trivializing it.
Being casual and careless with spiritual things – you might as well as openly mock them.
And humiliate those who have nothing
Rather than taking the trouble to honor those who are co-inheritors with Jesus, who are fellow members of the family of God, with whom you’re joined in covenant, you make them to feel as outsiders. You’re not important enough to wait for. I don’t see you.
I once read an article on the topic of loneliness in which the writer recalls an experiment:
Researchers created a [common] scenario: a group of people would play a frivolous game of catch, tossing the ball to one another to pass the time, trying to keep it aloft. But the scientists set up the game with one condition: unbeknownst to her, one member of the group would never have the ball tossed her way. Try to put yourself in her shoes: you’re in a group that starts a game of catch; the ball popcorns randomly around the group; giggling and frivolity ensue; you keep waiting for your chance to join in the fun. But the ball never comes your way. You’re patient at first. You smile when others smile. You inch a little further into the circle to try to draw attention. Your smile is becoming more forced now. There’s still a sliver of hope that your exclusion is random. Until eventually you conclude: the ball is never coming your way. This game isn’t for you. You pretend you didn’t want to play anyway. You stop trying.
Imagine someone coming into the Corinthian church feeling isolated, trapped in himself…and leaving with the same cold sense of alienation. With no assurance that he is part of – not an assembly line or school or corporation but an organic living Body that is energized by God’s ancient Spirit and warm in the love of the Trinity.
Ok, so that’s our passage. May I list a few summary points and make application:
When God saves someone He places him/her among a people.
107 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble
3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
4 Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
5 hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
9 For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
Not isolated in a remote mountain cabin. But Gathered into a city.
In the life with God, there’s more to do than watching out for your own stuff – physical, emotional, spiritual.
I was with someone not part of this congregation. I’m pretty sure he’s a Christian – he’s an avid bible reader, he watches a lot of YouTube sermons. But ever since I’ve known him, he approached Christianity as simply a self-help tutorial. He’ll put search terms in YouTube: sermons on handling storms of life. Finding peace. Finding meaning.
His entire idea of Christianity is quite small and atomized: God helps me live the life I want.
He doesn’t see the truth that the Table points to, that the Church of Jesus Christ – that assembly and assembling of saints led by elders and served by deacons and observing the sacraments – is today the outworking of the renewed covenant with Abraham and David, the intersection of heaven and earth, an outpost of God’s new creation, a fortress of truth in a world of lies, God’s victory over the chaotic evil, God’s power asserted over celestial darkness.
His thinking is tragically self-centered and small: why would I be a member of a church? How would that help me? That’s Adam 1.0 thinking!
There is an objective unity among all in the Church of Jesus Christ, regardless of our socioeconomic status or age or ethnic origins or other distinguishers.
We are all creatures of the Creator God. The rich and the poor meet together, the LORD is maker of them all.
Each of us shares with the other the common predicament of guilt because of sin. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
And we are all delivered from our sin and brought back into a proper image-bearing by the free grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. For all of our sakes, God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor 5:21
There is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4: 4-6)
It is vital that we hold these truths as more fundamental than whether we’re an introvert or an extrovert, whether we’re city-dwellers or suburbanites, whether we’re urbane or rubes, whether we’re well read or illiterate or something in-between, whether we’re young or old…
But it’s not enough for the unity to be objectively present; the Church should demonstrate this unity
Philippians 4:2- I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of the fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Two facts about these women: 1) Open up the book of life and you’ll find both of their names listed. 2) They don’t like each other.
Ok, Paul, let it go. This is how life works. People don’t get along. Women are chilly toward each other.
And Paul replies, no. I won’t let it rest. There should be visible unity. I’ll even grovel a little bit: I entreat. Come awn, Good Women… Consider all you have in common. And then…. Say hello.
Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? There’s nothing wrong (and a lot right!) with eating at home with your own family. There’s nothing wrong with “ordinary life.” But your church life and your away from church life should be of a different quality because they mean different things. One points to common grace; one points to special grace.
Your relationships among the church should be more than simply an extension of the type of people you hang around outside of the church. There should be something atypical…arresting, surprising… in your church relationships.
Maybe you’re a 20 something who normally, of course, hangs out with 20 somethings. Well among the church you should be consciously reaching out to those who are senior saints and teenagers. You should be modeling the truth that in Jesus Christ we have a bond that goes underneath age.
There’s nothing wrong with finding like-minded, social peers among the church and enjoying fellowship with them. But you should broaden your fellowship among the church so that it extends to those who fall outside of your normal orbit.
So, yes: eating with your family is good and makes sense. But there’s a family-in-Christ too – take time to fellowship with them.
Here’s an idea I’ll raise again: begin using the Lord’s Supper Sundays to systematically reach out over time to all in the Church, including those whom you don’t naturally connect with.
Brothers and sisters, the fellowship of the Church is supposed to be, upon second thought, a little surprising. Hmm, I’m surprised they’re eating together. What do they have in common?
We behave like the church when we are conscious of one another, and not just of ourselves. And we behave commendably when we discipline ourselves to be in fellowship with all of each other, particularly those with whom, outside of Christ, we probably would never associate with.
And at the Lord’s Supper we should especially be conscious of this genuine, permanent unity inaugurated by the death of our Lord Jesus
It’s been wonderful to sit around the dining table with all of our family this week. What a privilege – thank God. Yesterday morning Ben, Kai, Paul and I met in my office and discussed Psalm 89. At home the womenfolk did a theological study. Oh man, I won’t ever forget that, reading Scripture with children… thank you God.
But there’s another unity, a unity that goes even deeper than biology, the bond we have with the Church in Jesus Christ. Gathering around this Table with each other brings to mind those spiritual, permanent realities. As we remember the Lord and see the light of Jesus Christ in each other’s faces, we are being transformed slowly – from one degree of glory to another – to be like our Lord and Savior.
Brothers and sisters, this is the table of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because it is His table, we extend an invitation to every baptized Christian believer in healthy submission to a local church to join us in this sacred remembrance of the Lord’s death for us and for our salvation.
I’d like us to come into the Lord’s Supper with this liturgy by Doug McKelvey printed on the back of your bulletin.
In gathering as God’s holy ones and celebrating this meal we declare that evil and death, suffering and loss, sorrow and tears, will not have the final word. But the joy of fellowship, and the welcome and comfort of friends in Christ new and old…and the celebration of these blessings are the true evidences of things eternal and are the first fruits of that great glad joy that is to come and that will be unending.
So let our meal this day be joined to those sure victories secured by Christ.
Let it be to us now a delight, and a glad foretaste of his eternal kingdom.
Bless us, O Lord, in this meal.
May this shared meal, and our pleasure in it, bear witness against the artifice and deceptions of the prince of the darkness that would blind this world to hope.
May it strike at the root of the lie that would drain life of meaning, and the world of joy, and suffering of redemption.
May this our meal fall like a great hammer blow against that brittle night, Shattering the gloom, reawakening our hearts, stirring our imaginations, focusing our vision
On the kingdom of heaven that is to come.
On the kingdom that is promised.
On the kingdom that is already, indeed, among us.
By our eating this meal, let battle be joined!
Let battle be joined!
Now you who are loved by the Father, prepare your hearts and give yourselves wholly to this celebration of joy, to the glad company of saints, to the comforting fellowship of the Spirit, and to the abiding presence of Christ who is seated among us both as our host and as our honored guest, and still yet as our conquering king.
Amen.
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