Whose Meal Is This?

Transcript

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[0:00] that. So our sermon today is from 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 17 through 34. That's our reading for today. And there we go. That's nice. Okay. Today we're going to look at, how's that? Okay. Today we're going to take a look at how the people in Corinth are doing the Lord's Supper incorrectly. There's always something going on with this church. And among everything else they're doing wrong, they're doing the Lord's Supper wrong. They're bringing their class distinctions with them into the church. That's a problem. And a note here, which I think is an interesting piece that we find in biblical theology, is that sometimes it's an error that a group makes that prompts Paul or someone else to write something to clarify and correct the teaching. And it's in one of the only, that's only one of the places where, that happens, where he does that. So in a way, this is a weird thing to do, is we need to thank churches like the church of Corinth for all their dysfunction, because it became an opportunity for us to learn something that we might not have known. If they hadn't made this mistake, Paul wouldn't have needed to correct it. We wouldn't have had this teaching that is actually quite valuable to us. So in a way we need to thank them for being so messed up. And that clarity then is

[1:21] a gift to us. I want you to be thinking as we're reading, what does servanthood look like in the Bible? How this meal would look different if individuals cared about others before themselves, or what if they cared about the church and its mission before themselves? A little bit of what Pastor Victoria was talking about last week in her children's sermon. So think about how that meal, this meal that he describes would have been different if they cared about other people more than themselves. So let's go to our reading. It's 1 Corinthians 11, and I'll start at verse 17.

[1:56] In the following directives, I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. And to some extent, I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't you have homes 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 praise you for this? Certainly not.

[2:43] For I receive from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance. 1. me. In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

[3:47] But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together, it may not result in judgment.

[4:10] And when I come, I will give further instructions. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word, and we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I want to... I want to look at two things this morning. I'm going to sort of line them out for you very clearly, in case you're taking notes at home. Two things that we want to look at this morning. One is that the meal became an opportunity for those with wealth to humiliate those without wealth. So that's a very important issue that Paul is dealing with, that the dysfunction of the community also exhibited itself at this meal, which was supposed to be about something very different. Now, that's part two.

[4:57] And then the correction. What the meal is really about. So one is that the meal is a problem, the way they're doing it. And two is that Paul now needs to teach about what the meal is really about. And for that, we thank him. So for one, there were problems, and Paul lists them out. He says this.

[5:17] For one thing, the meal wasn't started for everybody at the same time. People kind of just brought their food with them to this meal. It didn't really look... like how we do communion now. It probably looked a little bit more like a potluck, but instead of putting all the food on a table to share evenly, they just kind of had it in a bag or some kind of basket that they would bring with them. And maybe some of them were hungry. Maybe some of them just didn't care about what other people saw or did. They just started eating their food right away. So they didn't start at the same time. That kind of showed a lack of awareness of the larger body. What's everybody else's? And so Paul says, well, we're going to have to do this in this room doing right now. And there was that lack of awareness, not discerning the body.

[6:03] Maybe they were hungry, and it's possible. It could have been that, you know, they thought, this is my one meal of the day. Maybe the pastor's preaching too long. Maybe, you know, maybe they're singing too long. They start to get hungry. They start to eat this meal. But the meal has a different purpose than actually just to feed your hunger, as Paul says. You know, if you're hungry, eat at home first. This meal is a different kind of meal. It's not to fuel your body. It's not to fuel your body. It's not to fuel your body. It's not to fuel your body. It's not to fuel your body as much as it is to fuel something completely different. We'll get into that. So some people drank too much at the meal. And I don't know. You know, they drank too much, and they got drunk at the meal. And this was a problem. Again, losing track of what's going on in this larger room. Is this a place where you get drunk? You know, is this a pub? Is this one of those feasts that they have outside in the world where, of course, you would get drunk at a feast like that? It's not. It's different. So people were basically bringing with them into this feast their own social status. They were bringing in their habits from other feasts. And really,

[7:15] when you look at it, the church has to stand apart. And Paul says this in so many words. The church, when it does something like this, it looks different from the world. It stands apart from the world. And it does it in a way that's more of a spiritual thing. It's not just a community thing. It's more focused on remembering what Jesus has done for them on the cross.

[7:34] So we're beginning to see a pattern emerging here. People not really paying attention to anything outside their own little bubble. So some of them had food, but some of them were too poor to even bring food with them to this meal. And so they would eat this meal while somebody else who was perfectly hungry just was kind of watching them. Can you imagine being like in a restaurant and just a very hungry person is watching you through the window and you're trying to enjoy your meal? And of course, you would probably want to go and give that person some food. But in this meal at the church, they'd be like, oh, that guy looks hungry. Maybe he should bring some food next time. That just wasn't really connecting. So Paul says you eat. And when you do that, you're actually humiliating another member of the body who's poor. And so you're bringing your wealth differential into this equation. And you're reintegrating. reenacting every pattern that's out there in the world, you're reenacting it in the church, and this is a problem. So, you know, it didn't occur to them, I think, to cut their sandwich in half, you know, and just give the other half to somebody else. It didn't occur to them. So, Paul has a lot of work to do with this church. The church, and this is kind of the thing that

[8:56] Paul kind of gets at in many places, is that the church is supposed to be what we would call a right now representation of what the future coming kingdom of God will look like on the earth. So, if you go, you know, you go to the movies and you see a preview or a trailer for a coming movie, and you're like, ah, I really want to see that movie. It looks exciting. So, the church, think of it that way. The church is like a trailer or a preview, and it's a preview to the rest of the world looking at the church. It's a preview to the rest of the world looking at the church. Of what the kingdom of God will look like when that comes in its fullness. And thus, it necessarily has to look different. It has to look like a place where people are not in want, where people don't lord their status over each other. They're not humiliated. They don't lose control and get drunk. They don't argue all the time. They don't have hierarchies amongst themselves over how much they know or how spiritual they think they are. The church looks different like that. The church has to look like a place of peace. And so, I think that's a great way to look at the future. The church has to look like a place of peace and unity, where the lowest are brought up and the

[10:00] highest are brought down so that people are on the same level with each other. The first are last. The last are first. Jesus talks about this all the time. If you want to think about what the kingdom of God looks like, you look at the Sermon on the Mount, for example. He talks about that.

[10:17] So, I think the church of today still has a lot to learn about this. About not discerning the body, kind of living in our own bubble, and serving ourselves, even in the church. Serving ourselves and our own interests and our own needs, instead of discerning the larger body. And so, I have one example, which is kind of funny, kind of interesting. I went to a Lutheran church in Minnesota. This is before I converted to the Covenant Church. I went to a Lutheran church. And there was a family. I think they had grown up on a dairy farm. Maybe they still owned a dairy farm. And they wanted to make a donation to the church. Which is great, but it was a very specific donation. They wanted to donate a milk dispensing machine to the church. Because kids love milk, they thought, they think. Well, and it's true. Kids do love milk. And kids need milk, and it helps their bones grow. And of course, you don't have to sell anybody on milk. It's a great product, right? And these are very specific kinds of milk delivery machines. And maybe you've seen them before. You open them up, and there's this giant bag of milk. It's several gallons of milk. And you have to kind of stick it in there, and you have to cut the end

[11:31] off with a pair of scissors, and you have to close it again. It's a refrigerated machine. Then you close it up. You dispense all the milk. And then when it's done, you've got to clean this machine. There's some sort of health codes associated with machines like this. There's a lot of work involved. The machine requires power to keep the milk refrigerated. And so, you know, it was interesting. They wanted to donate this milk machine. But some questions came up. You're going to donate this machine, but who's going to clean it? You know? Who's going to keep it stocked? Also, do kids really, do they really want a glass of tall milk, a tall glass of milk, when they come to church? Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. So then the church went to this family, and they said, just logistically, we don't think we need a milk machine. It's very generous. Thank you. Would you rather? Take whatever it was going to cost and donate that towards something that we do need help with, which is a scholarship fund to send kids to camp so they can meet Jesus. And the answer was no.

[12:42] We just want to donate the milk machine. And you kind of see what's going on. You get the sense that somebody's really not discerning the body. They're in their bubble. And yes, generous, for sure. And yes, they love the milk. But they're not really willing to do it. And they love milk. And who doesn't, right? And I love, I actually like those milk machines. If I could have one in my house, I would have one in my house. It's so convenient. But in a way, they were using their wealth to try to push the church to take a course of action that the church hadn't even decided it really wanted to do. And then when the church thought about it, it didn't really want to do that because just it was a lot of extra work. And they didn't see the need of it compared to this other need that they thought was higher. And so generally, the church should often decide, first of all, I want to do this. I want to do this. I want to do this. I And so they decided to do it first if it really wants to do a thing, right? Does it benefit the whole church? Does it move the mission of the church forward in some way? But this family, they just only wanted to give the milk machine. So what they said was, we would like you to take your milk machine

[13:39] and put it on the horse that you rode in on. No, I'm kidding. And then just keep riding until you get to Stillwater and then don't look back. No. They thanked them, but they just said, well, you don't have to give anything, but we don't want the milk machine. And I don't think they got the money for the camp fund either. We love just the milk machine. We don't want the milk machine. We don't want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk machine. So we want the milk

[14:26] Can you let go of what that money is used for and just give it as a free gift? Can you do that or not? And sometimes people say yes. They say, I had no idea that these other priorities were higher on the list. Absolutely do that with it.

[14:42] So it's a challenge. It's a time for discernment, no doubt. But there are some people who have missed kind of what's going on in the body. And in some ways, perhaps flaunting their wealth over those who don't have wealth. Much as like the people who had a meal were humiliating those who didn't have a meal back in the church in Corinth. One thing I would say about our church in particular is that our meals together have been very good. I want to give us sort of high marks for that. We're doing better than the Corinthians when we have a community meal like a potluck. I remember a few potlucks where we were light on the main course. We kind of figured it out. We looked at how many people were there. We looked at how many people brought a main course. Far more people had brought a dessert or whatever. That probably was my fault. I don't have a problem saying it might have been my fault.

[15:30] And what I saw people do just naturally was they took smaller helpings to start with so that it could stretch out for everybody. And you know, for me, a smaller helping is not a bad idea anyway. You know, it's just a good idea. But even on those Sundays when that potluck happened, I saw, you know what? This is good. We made it stretch out. We made sure everybody had at least something in the house.

[16:04] We were able to get some for them. So if you remember some great recipes for some great recipes for some great recipes for recipes for some recipes for some recipes do with the church's witness in the world it also has to do with the community and the body so second paul says well now let's give you an opportunity to teach about what this meal should look like it's not a potluck it's something else all right it's a memory and so he uses it to talk about what we call the lord's supper we also call it the eucharist this is just a point of teaching if you want to take a note eucharist is spelled e u c h a r i s t e u c h a r i s d eucharist and that means thanksgiving or to offer grace that's a greek word but we use it in english all the time so eucharist or the lord's supper or holy communion that's the meal we do here once a month and paul says it has to look different than all these other meals that they saw in the world and so paul for one thing says that this meal is a reminder of the death of jesus until he returns again and so there's this commandment that we see in luke there's a commandment that we see here in first corinthians that we are indeed to celebrate this meal together with some frequency we don't know how often

[17:36] but with some frequency some churches do it every week some do it every month some do it every quarter that's okay it doesn't say how often but just that we should do it so we remember the lord remember the lord remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember his life remember remember his life remember his life remember remember his life remember remember his life remember his life remember remember his life most powerful one. You know, my purpose when I was with you was to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's the theme message for 1 Corinthians. It's about the crucifixions, about the cross of Jesus. From that flows all these other things, even about community, even about community together. But also, Paul points to the resurrection and the hope that we have for the future. So when you take the meal, you're remembering the death of Jesus, but you're also looking forward to the hope of salvation and resurrection. It's all tied up in there. Now, if you want to go back and you want to look at starting at verse 27,

[19:00] we get to a section that has puzzled people a lot and maybe frightened some people over the years. He says that people ought not to take the elements or the meal in an unworthy manner. Now, this is important.

[19:15] Prior warning that some of the people in Corinth evidently had taken the meal in an unworthy manner. In what ways? Well, he just listed them. Getting drunk, not sharing their food, starting before everybody else, not being aware of the body of Christ and of the community that they're in. And he says that some people have gotten sick and some people have fallen asleep because they took the meal wrong. Now, this gets really challenging.

[19:45] From an interpretation point of view, because to fall asleep almost always in the New Testament is a euphemism for somebody actually died. Okay. So it's not like they ate the meal and they got really sleepy and they said, I'm going to go to bed early tonight and fall asleep. Paul is saying that some of the people who took the meal in an unworthy manner in Corinth actually died as a result of that. And that's scary. Like, well, maybe we shouldn't even touch that meal if there's a chance that it could happen. But he says that people ought not to take the elements or the meal that would kill us if we take it in the wrong way. And it should scare us because Paul is saying, in essence, this is serious stuff. You're walking on holy ground when you take this meal. And so to take it in an unworthy manner has some consequences. Now, this is what I believe personally, and you can definitely disagree with me, and I'm sure other people have different views of this, is that people did die, but that they died belongs more in the time that it was written. Okay. At the time when people, there was so much going on, right? There was, remember Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts, they lied to the apostles about a donation of land that they had made to the church.

[20:59] And when it was discovered that they lied about it, they died pretty much on the spot. Nobody killed them. They just died on the spot. And the apostles were not surprised at this at all, right? And so is it also possible that the apostles were not surprised at this at all? Somebody who, in the church of Corinth, who took this meal in an unworthy manner also died. And in my mind, this is my personal belief, that it was a raw spiritual time back then. It was a dynamic time. The spirit was moving about with this huge amount of activity. People were coming to faith in huge numbers because of the preaching of the apostles. Everything was so full of energy and life. And so people really, when they were in the church, they were not surprised at this at all. And so when they made these mistakes, they didn't just sort of fall into them backwards. They knew what, they kind of knew that they were dealing with something really powerful and they were playing with something powerful. And I think that time in some ways has passed. In a way, that's sad, but I do think that that time could come again. When there was so much spiritual energy in the church in the first century of the church's life, there was intense opposition to the church. There

[22:12] was persecution of Christians. Christians were, you know, they were, you know, they were, you know, they were crucified. Christians were thrown into the arena and fed to wild animals. They had to fight, you know. I wish sometimes that we could see those times again when the spirit moves with such energy, right? That there's such opposition to what we're doing and there's such movement in the world. So many people coming to new faith. So that could be a prayer for us, is that those wild, sort of wild west days, those wild west days of the first century of the church could come back and we could be filled with that kind of fervor that the first apostles had. So let's leave it there. It sounds like some people died because they took the meal in an unworthy manner. We don't need to dwell on it too much, but I think it was a sign that the spirit was just on fire and active at that time. And so they kind of should have known better. Some people, to move on now, have thought that unworthy manner meant that someone themselves was unworthy to take the meal. And we have to reject that. So let's be clear. To take something in an unworthy manner means how you take it, the manner in which you take it. It does not mean that you yourselves are unworthy to receive it because we're all sinners. We could

[23:34] never look God in the eye in the state that we're in. We could not look him in the face in the state we're in. We come to the meal, and indeed we come to Jesus. We come to the meal because, we're broken, and because we're filthy, and because we're wretched, and we're poor. And we return from that meal and from our encounter with Jesus, and we've been made whole, and we've been made clean, and we're right with God, and we're rich in God's grace. So we start in the most unworthy of places. But the meal and our encounter with Jesus turns us into something else. So you never mistake that this means that somebody else is unworthy to receive it. And so we start in the great end. So if you remember how we started off with our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our first meal for our is being mindful of your unworthy state, but not your unworthy manner. You examine yourself first. You make sure you know that you are indeed broken and filthy and wretched and poor. You examine yourself. And then you also have to come to the meal in faith, truly believing that God wants to

[25:04] change you. So there's actually some work involved ahead of time when it comes to communion. And this isn't something we've taught a lot on, but I want us to be thinking about that. In fact, there's going to be an opportunity to respond about this. We sometimes do it as part of our communion readings. We say a corporate confession of sin, and that's good. But a personal confession of sin is quite good too. It prepares us so that we can receive the meal knowing who we truly are before God and trusting that God will change us when we receive it. There's this inner attitude that I think we're asked to cultivate when we're in communion. And I think that's what we're asking for when it comes to communion. In some traditions, Lutheran, Catholic, Episcopalian others. There's a requirement. This is interesting. There's a requirement to confess your sins personal to the pastor or the priest before you can receive communion. And they'll give you a card or something that proves that you've done it. And often you would do this on a Saturday. And then the next day you would receive communion. Now, Now, as for us, and just so you know, we're in the Covenant Church. We're in the Protestant Reformation Movement.

[26:16] We believe in freedom, so we would never sort of command something like that. That's a matter of personal spiritual exercise. We also believe in the priesthood of all believers, so we think you can confess your sins directly to God. You don't need somebody like me or Victoria or some priest in between you and God making the confession. Although Martin Luther always said that some people, because of their conscience, find it easier to confess to another human being in faith that that human being will relay that confession to God, and then that human being, like a priest, would then graciously proclaim God's forgiveness to them in words that they can hear. So there is a place for a confessor. There is a place for that, and that could become part of your own personal spiritual, and that's up to you, though. There's that freedom that we have. Now, I would say that we offer it. We offer confession. And we don't talk about it enough, maybe, but we offer confession. So if you would like to confess your sins to another person, and there's value in this. There's great value in this. You could confess to me. You could confess to Victoria. You could confess to a member of the deacon board. You could confess to another believer.

[27:31] You could even confess to a nonbeliever, because it's important just to get it out. But I suggest, as somebody who believes, you can confess to another person and get it out of your system. You know, get it off your chest so that God can truly sort of enter in and clean things out. And we're going to make this available. Nobody knows this. Victoria, you're just hearing this now, but I know you'd be okay with it.

[27:56] We're going to have communion again on August, sorry, September 6th. I wrote August here, but that's wrong. September 6th is our next communion. We're going to have communion service. That's two weeks from today. If you would like to make a confession of your sins to me or Victoria or one of the deacons or to somebody else, I recommend that so that you can then receive this meal with all of that sort of brought out of you, sort of off your chest, off your back. And we will listen. And that's the sort of things, especially as pastors, there's definitely an understanding and a vow that whatever you confess to us, we will never, under any circumstances, even in a court of law, and there's protection for us not to, we will never repeat that again. And we'll take it to the grave with us. And there are many personal confessions that I've heard that I will never tell you about. And I will never tell anyone about ever. And I will go to my own grave with them or I'll go to heaven with them intact. So there's perfect confidentiality on things like that.

[29:01] But we'll listen. So finally, Paul is pointing in all of this and what he's saying, he's pointing to what Jesus did, pointing to how Jesus is explaining this meal to his disciples before he gives it to him, is he's pointing to servanthood. And this is a theme that keeps coming up again and again in Corinthians, servanthood towards other people. Do you remember that at the Last Supper, Jesus took a towel and he started washing his disciples' feet? That's the last supper. That's the model. He was actually pointing forward to the cross when he did that. He says, I'm washing you here. I'm washing your feet in person here in just a few hours. I'm going to be on the cross and I'm going to be doing the same thing there. I'm going to be serving you as your servant. I'm going to be washing your sins clean with my blood.

[29:54] So that's the model of the meal. And that's the spirit that we take the meal together in is that that's a meal that invites us also to servanthood. It's not about making a meal. It's about making us proud. It's about making us humble. It levels us with each other because at the end we all need the grace of God equally.

[30:14] So your homework, and I want to give you a homework for the next two weeks, and there's going to be a little way to interact with this in just a minute. Your homework in the next two weeks is to be in contemplation about this meal. In two weeks, we're going to receive the meal again on September 6th. And I want you to be thinking in the next two weeks, how would you prepare yourselves for communion? On September 6th? How do you want to prepare yourself for communion on September 6th? One is you could examine your own conscience.

[30:44] Think about your own life, what you want to change, what you need to stop doing, what is getting in the way of your relationship with God, what is getting in the way of your relationship with your neighbors.

[30:57] Or do you want to make confession to another person, an actual in-person confession to another person, so that they can hear your sins? Or do you want to discern the larger body and its needs? Do you want to discern what our larger body is about, what direction it's going in, being aware of the larger body and what that looks like? I would leave that up to you, but that's an option, right? Or by becoming a servant to another in the next two weeks, becoming a servant to somebody else without them expecting it. I'm going to make, I'm going to keep making my kids breakfast, regardless. I'm not going to count that. I would have to pick something else, some other way that I'm serving some other person as a preparation to go to the meal. Or would you center yourselves and your thoughts on the cross of Jesus and on his suffering? Center yourselves and your thoughts on the cross of Jesus and his suffering. Or some other way, some other way that God is calling you into. In just a moment after I pray, I'm going to ask you, the offertory will start, but on the offertory screen that you're going to see is that list that I just gave you. And I'm going to ask you to be a little transparent. I'm going to ask you to step out a little bit and maybe ask in a way you're asking other people to come alongside you in this is if you feel led,

[32:20] would you put in the chat log? What is it that you think you want to do in the next two weeks to prepare yourselves for communion on September 6th and just type it in there? Type it in there. Or you could tell us personally, it doesn't matter. But if you want to be transparent, you want to let the congregation sort of hold you in that hope, then I invite you to type it in during the offertory. And there's about four or five minutes of the offertory. So there's plenty of time for you to type it in there. Put a note in there, how you want to respond in the next two weeks, and then encourage each other and try to keep each other accountable. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you for this meal that you give us, and we've barely scratched the surface on all the things it means. But Lord, thank you that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and gives us eternal life through his sacrifice. Father, help us in these next two weeks to be mindful of the body, mindful of the cross. Help us to pick one way in which we want to respond before the next meal. And Lord, into your hands, we commit, we commit all of this, and we trust in your goodness. In Jesus name. Amen.