Savage communion
This week is on 1 Corinthians 11:12-34:
These verses are Paul's rebuke to the wild Corinthian church about their savage mishandling of communion. Part of the gathering would be to come together and eat a meal and share communion, except that not everyone had something. Poor people and timid people got the raw end of the deal.
It's a bit like school lunches. I was always lucky that my parents would pack me a good sensible lunch, but there were some kids who didn't have as much and others whose parents would even give them bags of chips and little cakes and things. The lunch room was full of envy and extortion and all of the sorts of things Paul describes, other than drunkenness. We see this dynamic play out in our adult lives when a group of people decide at the last minute to eat at a restaurant that's not in everyone's price range and some people are getting cocktails, appetisers, side dishes and dessert with their meals while others are sipping ice water and having a small bowl of chili. It's the way of the world for things to be that way, but Paul's point is that this is no ordinary meal. This is something sacred.
Paul then shares the verses that every pastor in history has ever used when orchestrating communion. He describes the first communion with Jesus, and reminds us that it's not just a meal, but a reminder of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Paul's point is that you can't celebrate an act of supreme love with a spectacle of selfishness.
There are three things going on with communion in the church. There is a meal, which is the level the Corinthians are seeing it on, but then there's an act of intimate fellowship with one another, and a remembrance of Christ's life, death, and victory. Paul's advice is practical: If you're so hungry that you can't see it as anything but a meal, eat something beforehand.
This is advice I've had to take. In my church, they put out a simple breakfast buffet before the service, with little cakes and pieces of cheese and meat and bread. Often I would show up starving and be like pac man gobbling up all of the pieces of food. Sometimes I would eat more than a tenth of the food meant for a hundred people. I was like a machine. Now I try to get some food in my stomach before I go, so I can enjoy conversations with people and leave enough for everyone else. And that's just for an ordinary meal.
After eating first so that you can be dainty, Paul recommends that we be aware of others. When Jesus broke bread with his disciples, it was an intimate family setting amongst close friends. The bread and the wine was shared between them. On a fellowship level, if it was the modern day, Jesus might have passed around a bowl of popcorn and poured soda for everyone, or ordered a giant plate of appetisers. Bread and wine were what people had back then. But if you're sharing a meal from a common plate, and you're thinking of someone other than yourself, you wait for each other and make sure everyone gets some. It's not pigs on a trough.
Finally, Paul recommends that we remember Jesus and examine ourselves. Are we better than the others? Worse? Or has his blood made us equals? Do we love the others taking communion with us the way that he loved his disciples and the way that he loves us? Once you've sorted all of that out, then it's time to gobble down your bread and drink your wine, not right away.
We don't really take communion like this in the church anymore. Usually it's little wafers for the bread, or broken up crackers, or neatly diced bread or rice cakes. The wine is usually little plastic cups, filled identically with some kind of store brand grape juice. Nobody eats like that at home. The closest I've seen to homestyle communion in a place of worship was in a little French church a bit over ten years ago, where they passed a small basket of bread slices down each row and then a big silver chalice of red wine, which each person would gulp in turn.
Paul's advice about not gorging yourself doesn't vibe with a church that eats tiny crackers and drinks thimbles of grape juice. But it does speak to the church that has food as part of its meetings or events. We have to be compassionate towards one another, and aware of our own physical and spiritual state when joining in, as well being mindful of whether others have had enough to eat too.
The rest of the advice could apply to us today, whether we do bread in a basket, rice cakes, little hermetically sealed wafers of an unknown cardboard-like substance, like they use at big Christian conferences as part of the communion kit, or whatever it is we use, wine or grape juice or both. We're all part of one body, and the whole point is to do it in remembrance of Jesus, not to gorge our flesh or punch the "church" card for the week before bolting out the door.
Next time you have a chance to do communion, think about these verses and what they mean.
Now in giving the following instruction I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church I hear there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must in fact be divisions among you, so that those of you who are approved may be evident. Now when you come together at the same place, you are not really eating the Lord’s Supper. For when it is time to eat, everyone proceeds with his own supper. One is hungry and another becomes drunk. Do you not have houses so that you can eat and drink? Or are you trying to show contempt for the church of God by shaming those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I will not praise you for this!
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and after he had given thanks he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
For this reason, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself. That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dead. But if we examined ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you assemble it does not lead to judgment. I will give directions about other matters when I come.
These verses are Paul's rebuke to the wild Corinthian church about their savage mishandling of communion. Part of the gathering would be to come together and eat a meal and share communion, except that not everyone had something. Poor people and timid people got the raw end of the deal.
It's a bit like school lunches. I was always lucky that my parents would pack me a good sensible lunch, but there were some kids who didn't have as much and others whose parents would even give them bags of chips and little cakes and things. The lunch room was full of envy and extortion and all of the sorts of things Paul describes, other than drunkenness. We see this dynamic play out in our adult lives when a group of people decide at the last minute to eat at a restaurant that's not in everyone's price range and some people are getting cocktails, appetisers, side dishes and dessert with their meals while others are sipping ice water and having a small bowl of chili. It's the way of the world for things to be that way, but Paul's point is that this is no ordinary meal. This is something sacred.
Paul then shares the verses that every pastor in history has ever used when orchestrating communion. He describes the first communion with Jesus, and reminds us that it's not just a meal, but a reminder of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Paul's point is that you can't celebrate an act of supreme love with a spectacle of selfishness.
There are three things going on with communion in the church. There is a meal, which is the level the Corinthians are seeing it on, but then there's an act of intimate fellowship with one another, and a remembrance of Christ's life, death, and victory. Paul's advice is practical: If you're so hungry that you can't see it as anything but a meal, eat something beforehand.
This is advice I've had to take. In my church, they put out a simple breakfast buffet before the service, with little cakes and pieces of cheese and meat and bread. Often I would show up starving and be like pac man gobbling up all of the pieces of food. Sometimes I would eat more than a tenth of the food meant for a hundred people. I was like a machine. Now I try to get some food in my stomach before I go, so I can enjoy conversations with people and leave enough for everyone else. And that's just for an ordinary meal.
After eating first so that you can be dainty, Paul recommends that we be aware of others. When Jesus broke bread with his disciples, it was an intimate family setting amongst close friends. The bread and the wine was shared between them. On a fellowship level, if it was the modern day, Jesus might have passed around a bowl of popcorn and poured soda for everyone, or ordered a giant plate of appetisers. Bread and wine were what people had back then. But if you're sharing a meal from a common plate, and you're thinking of someone other than yourself, you wait for each other and make sure everyone gets some. It's not pigs on a trough.
Finally, Paul recommends that we remember Jesus and examine ourselves. Are we better than the others? Worse? Or has his blood made us equals? Do we love the others taking communion with us the way that he loved his disciples and the way that he loves us? Once you've sorted all of that out, then it's time to gobble down your bread and drink your wine, not right away.
We don't really take communion like this in the church anymore. Usually it's little wafers for the bread, or broken up crackers, or neatly diced bread or rice cakes. The wine is usually little plastic cups, filled identically with some kind of store brand grape juice. Nobody eats like that at home. The closest I've seen to homestyle communion in a place of worship was in a little French church a bit over ten years ago, where they passed a small basket of bread slices down each row and then a big silver chalice of red wine, which each person would gulp in turn.
Paul's advice about not gorging yourself doesn't vibe with a church that eats tiny crackers and drinks thimbles of grape juice. But it does speak to the church that has food as part of its meetings or events. We have to be compassionate towards one another, and aware of our own physical and spiritual state when joining in, as well being mindful of whether others have had enough to eat too.
The rest of the advice could apply to us today, whether we do bread in a basket, rice cakes, little hermetically sealed wafers of an unknown cardboard-like substance, like they use at big Christian conferences as part of the communion kit, or whatever it is we use, wine or grape juice or both. We're all part of one body, and the whole point is to do it in remembrance of Jesus, not to gorge our flesh or punch the "church" card for the week before bolting out the door.
Next time you have a chance to do communion, think about these verses and what they mean.
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