Coming to the Table Worthily

1 Corinthians 11:17–34 NIV

17 In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18 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. 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter! 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 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.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 So then, 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 of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. 33 So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. 34 Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I come I will give further directions.

This morning in this part of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians we are all invited to consider how we come to the Table of our Lord.

At this point in the letter once again, Paul takes on a much stronger, more critical, tone. “in the following directive I have no praise for you.” He’s responding to oral reports that he has heard (v. 18, “I hear...”) and he’s deeply concerned about what’s been shared with him. And his concern has to do with how the congregation in Corinth is coming together to partake of the Lord’s supper.

How we come to the Table is important. How we participate in the meal is important.

As we begin I want to invite us to think about how we come to a different table… and now I’m thinking about the dinner table at home.... how do we come to the dinner table at home? Maybe many of us don’t really give that question much thought. In fact more and more studies are revealing that lots of people spend less and less time appropriately around a dinner table.

Several years ago, a medical doctor by the name of Samantha Brown, who also happens to be a psychologist, wrote a piece about our practices around the table, around eating food, and how that affects our experience of the food that we’re eating. Her piece was titled, “Focus and Food: How Multitasking Affects What we Eat and How it Tastes”. Here’s what she wrote:

An estimated sixty six percent of Americans watch TV while eating dinner. Sixty five percent eat lunch at their desk. Twenty percent of meals are eaten in the car. What other things do people do while eating? Walking, riding the subway, talking on the phone, reading a magazine or book, putting on makeup, and walking the dog are common pursuits of those who eat while juggling other tasks.

What's the price tag for our insane busyness and constant multitasking? At least two dozen research studies have shown that eating while distracted leads to overindulgence. But according to a recent study (2014) published in a journal called Psychological Science, eating while multitasking also dampens our perception of taste. Food tastes blander, we crave stronger flavors (like salt and sugar), and we end up eating more.

The bottom line: when it's time to eat, it's time to eat. Turn off the computer, the iPhone, and the TV. Enjoy the meal, savor every bite, family and friends. Light a candle, put some flowers in a vase and use cloth napkins. Not only will it taste better, you'll eat less.

All this seems to be saying, the way we come to the table is important. And the Bible says the same is true for the way we come to the Lord’s Table.

Let’s consider more specifically what Paul is concerned about in Corinth. And to do that, we will follow Paul’s train of thought as he lays it out for us in our passage.

Paul’s train of thought is actually fairly clear. You can divide up this passage into 4 sections and that’s what we’ll do this morning....and I’d like to acknowledge that this outline comes from my Seminary professor, Jeffrey Wiema, who many years ago taught a class on 1 Corinthians that I attended when I was in Seminary.

The first section from vv. 17-22, we’ll call:

The Immediate Pastoral Problem: Abuse of the Poor (vv. 17-22)

Divisions among the Corinthian church.

1 Corinthians 11:18 NIV

18 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.

And because of these divisions Paul says that when they come together, they are not really celebrating the Lord’s Supper, even though they think they are.

1 Corinthians 11:20 NIV

20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat,

So what’s actually going on? What is the cause of these divisions? And how are they coming together so that in fact there not really celebrating the Lord’s Supper?

Well Paul is aluding to the problem in vv.21-22:

1 Corinthians 11:21–22 NIV

21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!

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First we need to remind ourselves that in the early church the Lord’s Supper was until the 2nd centurey always observed in the context of a larger meal. Cultic meals were a common part of the culture. That is people were very accustomed to sharing a large meal together where part of the meal had some relgious or cultic significance; maybe a toast or an offering to some pagan god, remember the whole discussion around food sacrificed to idols. So early Christian practice adopted a similar custom. In the context of a full meal, at one point the host or church leader would invoke the words of Jesus and the bread and the cup would be shared.

Now what seems to be happening is that some, likely the wealthier members of the church—just a small group of people—would come together first for a more elaborate meal, fine food and wine—while the poor or less well to do would come later, for a much simpler menu, maybe just bread and water. Moreover, likely the wealthier would gather in a more formal dining room in the home where the church would meet, while the less well-to-do would meet in a larger open courtyard.

we know from 1 Cor.1:26

1 Corinthians 1:26 NIV

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

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that most of the folks in the Corinthian congregation were not that well to do.

We also know from ancient letters and records that we have discovered that it was a common practice to separate the poor from the rich when a large meal was shared, and even to show that class separation in the kind of food that was served.

So let’s imagine a Corinthian church member named Gaius. He’s referenced in ch.1.

Gaius is the host, he’s wealthy because he has a home that can host the whole church, which we could estimate is about 40-50 people (get that number from the 14 men that are explicitly named in the letter, assume they are married, some have children, perhaps even some have slaves....say 50 people). Gaius hosts the worship service and meal at his home on a Sunday afternoon and evening. Perhaps a few of the wealthier come in the afternoon, they don’t have jobs to attend to, they come for some nice food, some wine, meet in the smaller nicer dining room....the rest of the folks come later....after they finish their jobs....by the time they come the smaller group is in high spirits....and this larger, less well-to-do group meets in a separate room, eating mostly leftover food. Now if we are imagining correctly, you can see how divisions and bitterness would surface in this kind of Lord’s Supper celebration.

You have different groups, maybe meeting at different times, perhaps even in different rooms, and even eating different food!

And that takes us to Paul’s second section, where he addresses

The Ultimate Theological Problem: Abuse of the Lord (vv. 23-26)

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Paul’s gone over the immediate pastoral problem, neglecting or abusing the poor, now he addresses a deeper theological problem…what we might call abusing the Lord

Paul reminds them of the Lord’s Supper tradition that began with Jesus Himself during the Passover meal that he hosted the night before his crucifixion. Now often we think Paul must be quoting one of the Gospel writers, Matt., Mark, or Luke, as each of them have similar words of Jesus in their Gospel account. But what is interesting is that this letter of Paul was written likely 10 or more years before the earliest Gospel, which is Mark. So Paul is quoting a tradition that had been passed down from Jesus and was practiced in all of the churches, even before the Gospels themselves had been written.

And Paul seems to be saying that by allowing for these divisions among you, you are failing to reflect the very kind of unity that Jesus’ death on the cross made possible.

In v. 26 Paul says that this supper is intended to proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

The issue of divisions and the theme of unity in Christ have already been significant topics in this letter and Paul highlights them again.

Let’s recall what Paul writes in ch. 10:

1 Corinthians 10:16–17 NIV

16 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? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.

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You are one Body, Paul writes in chap. 10....and the death of Christ in the cross destroyed and put an end to all those things that divide humanity, age, ethnicity, gender, social status..... we are one in Christ.....

The Lord’s Supper is a tangible reminder of how the new covenant that God made with his people through Jesus Christ....a new covenant that involved both a fellowship with God and also with other believers.

Remember, the Corinthian church is an expression of the Body of Christ. Is Christ divided? No! So how can the remembrance and proclamation of his death be celebration with such divisions?

That brings us to the third section in Paul’s outline: We’ve looked at the pastoral problem, then the deeper theological problem, now Paul writes about the:

The Theological Solution: “Discern the Body” (vv 27-32)

So then, he writes.

1 Corinthians 11:27 NIV

27 So then, 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 of the Lord.

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[Talk about how often this verse has been interpreted in our tradition - mention my dad’s experience growing up in the Netherlands]

Having considered the historical context of this passage we can see that when Paul speaks of coming to the Table in an unworthy manner he is not first of all refering to one’s sinful relationship with the Lord, but rather one’s divided relationship with other believers, specifically in this case the way the RICH are behaving towards the poor.

Let’s read v. 28

1 Corinthians 11:28 NIV

28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.

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Here too in this verse, the call to examine themselves is less about doing some internal spiritual evaluation, and more about an external check on one’s relationship with other believers.

One commentor summarizes this section well in this extended quote:

"Unfortunately verse 27-28 have often been taken out of context and seriously misinterpreted: the statement in verse 27 about eating the bread and drinking the cup 'unworthily' has often been misunderstood to mean that only the perfectly righteous can partake of the Lord's Supper, and the call for self-examination in verse 28 has been heard as a call for intense introspection. This is, however, a grave misreading. Paul's words must be understood in the context of the specific situation that he is addressing.

The more affluent Corinthians are consuming their own food and shaming the poorer members (wv. 20-22). In this context, to eat the meal unworthily means to eat it in a way that provokes divisions (v. 19), with contemptuous disregard for the needs of others in the community. Paul's call to self-scrutiny (v. 28) must therefore be understood not as an invitation for the Corinthians to probe the inner recesses of their consciences but as a straightforward call to consider how their actions at the supper are affecting brothers and sisters in the church, the body of Christ" (Hays, First Corinthians, p. 200)

That brings us to Paul’s pastoral solution, his final section:

The Pastoral Solution: “Wait for / Accept One Another” (vv 33-34)

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Let’s recall how Paul began with the Pastoral Problem....there are divisions among you on account of the manner in which the Lord’s Supper is being practiced. Then he showed how this pointed to a deeply theological problem....neglecting / abusing the poor, was actually neglecting / abusing the Lord Jesus. His theological solution was that they recognize that they are the Body of Christ and because of that, when they take the bread, which is a sign of the Body of Jesus, they must do so in a way that expresses they are ONE in Him.

So now Paul comes back to the pastoral question again....having identified the problem at the beginning, he offers the solution here at the end.

1 Corinthians 11:33 NIV

33 So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together.

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Although we don’t know exactly what was occurring in the Corinthian context, we can at least know this: If the RICH were gathering earlier in the day as a small group and enjoying the finer food before the POORER members were able to come later in the day, then they must wait for them. If the RICH were having a hard time accepting and eating with those who came from a lower social class, then they needed to accept them as equal members of the Body of Christ. There’s no room for divisions within the church of Jesus Christ.

And that it strikes me is at the heart of what the Word of the Lord is saying to us today.... There’s no room for divisions within the church of Jesus Christ. Now it may be true that we don’t really experience divisions due to rich versus poor.... perhaps there are other things that might cause us to look down upon our fellow brothers and sisters in the church.

More than once I’ve encountered people in the congregation who tell me about some negative experience they’ve had with another person and they’ll tell me how they simply cannot talk to or face that person. I think a passage like this one gives us a very strong encouragement to work through these kinds of divisions.

The Table of our Lord should be that place where not only do we experience our unity and reconciliation with our Father in heaven, through our Lord Jesus Christ, but also were we experience our unity and fellowship with each other.

Perhaps the Lord is prompting you this morning to address whatever division may exist between you and another person....

So, who may come to the Table of our Lord?

Well let me quote from one of our old forms, that at one time we would read together before coming to the table:

“We do not come to the supper as though we were righteous in ourselves but rather to testify that we are sinners and that we look to Jesus Christ for our salvation. We are confident that the Saviour accepts us at his table when we come in humble faith, with sorrow for our sins, and with a will to follow him as he commands.” (Form for the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper, 1964)

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In his Letters to a Young Evangelical, Tony Campolo shares a story from his youth about taking Communion:

Sitting with my parents at a Communion service when I was very young, perhaps six or seven years old, I became aware of a young woman in the pew in front of us who was sobbing and shaking. The minister had just finished reading the passage of Scripture written by Paul that says, "Whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27). As the Communion plate with its small pieces of bread was passed to the crying woman before me, she waved it away and then lowered her head in despair. It was then that my Sicilian father leaned over her shoulder and, in his broken English, said sternly, "Take it, girl! It was meant for you. Do you hear me?"

She raised her head and nodded—and then she took the bread and ate it. I knew that at that moment some kind of heavy burden was lifted from her heart and mind. Since then, I have always known that a church that could offer Communion to hurting people was a special gift from God.

Source: "Why the Church Is Important," www.christianitytoday.com (5-1-07); excerpted from Tony Campolo's Letters to a Young Evangelical (Perseus Books Group, 2006)