More Harm Than Good

The Lord’s Supper

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when 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 also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Jammy Church

Have you ever shown up somewhere and realized you are completely and totally out of place? Under-dressed? Wrongly dressed?

Anyone recognize this place? It used to be St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Now? It’s “The Church Nightclub.”

Years ago I was invited out “clubbing” for a friends birthday. You can tell I’m super into “clubbing” because I put in quotes… and because of my sweet sweet dance moves.

After practicing my Napoleon Dynamite dance I was ready and got dressed up in my fanciest clothes. Shirt (with buttons, tucked in). Nice shoes, nice slacks.

I carpooled into Denver with friends and got in line… and realized that somewhere along the line we had missed the memo. Literally everyone else was there, everyone, was wearing footed pajamas.

It was like they had all gotten together and decided that today was footed jammie day, and just didn’t tell us. We went… and we danced… but I never lost that feeling of displacement. Of exclusion. That I was doing it wrong.

Have you ever felt that… especially in church? Show up, and everyone’s singing songs you don’t know and you can’t follow along? Or like some high church services where there are things you’re “supposed to” say and do at the right time and place. And you stick out if you do or say it wrong.

Some of you don’t need to imagine what that might feel like, you feel it today. Out of place. Out of the “in” crowd.

Today we return again to Paul’s teaching on Communion. I have preached on this text four times, last time was just six months ago. We return to this again and again because 1) it’s the next text in our series but 2) the church does this wrong again and again. Communion should be the ultimate symbol of our unity. The place where all our divisions and dissensions fall away.

Instead, it is a symbol of disunity… and if we can’t get this right, we shouldn’t be doing church. We are doing more harm than good.

The Corinthian church was doing it wrong.

Doing it Wrong

1 Corinthians 11:17 ESV

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.

I do NOT commend you.

Not for the better… but for the worse! In your “coming together”… in your “assemblies.” Maybe this is all the house churches coming together. But maybe this is just in their regular gatherings.

Gathering Christians together is not inherently helpful.

Going to church is making things worse! Why?

Because they are divided!

1 Corinthians 11:18–19 ESV

18 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, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

I believe it… in part.

We have heard a lot about the divisions.

Divisions about whose the best pastor.

Divisions about sexual immorality in the church.

Divisions about food sacrificed to idols, and other matters of conscience.

Divisions about head coverings and hair lengths.

This last verse… maybe Paul is serious here and that God is working all things for good… in the midst of divisions He is showing that some are “genuine.”

But maybe he is sarcastic here. Oh “at least some among you are genuine… the good ones...” and everyone goes back to arguing about who the “good” ones are.

He’s been clear. If he is serious, the “good ones” are already eager and looking for opportunity to show love to their “weaker” brothers and sisters, to be “all things to all people in order that they might save some.”

If he’s being sarcastic, he is pointing out the way divisions feel so right when your focus is on “the issue”…

But in either case, there is something that should blow all the differences out of the water.

At the foot of the cross, all our other differences disappear.

All class, all race, all gender, all the deatils of theology and preference… it all disappears. All denomination, all leaders and worship style… it all disappears at the foot of the cross.

That isn’t what the Corinthians were practicing. They were bringing class and wealth into play. The “like us people” got an entirely different experience than the rest of the rabble.

1 Corinthians 11:20–22 ESV

20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 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.

Picture that. The rich folks were coming to the table first. “First among equals.” And they were feasting!

On the one hand, awesome model of church. They weren’t gathering for 1-2 hours Sabbath morning. This was an extended affair, come and stay for the day. Eat lunch, linger, table fellowship.

And that part is fully in the model of Jesus. How often do we find him serving and teaching at the table. It is “table fellowship.” With good food and wine, symbols of life and joy and happiness and blessing and fulfillment. This is good. This is church, should be part of church… it’s missing from our current practice.

(In fact, let’s do that today, let’s party!!!)

That is good.

But not everyone is invited in this scenario. Some Christians are more equal than others. The rich were feasting and leaving the poor outside. You can call it something nice like “Bring Your Own Sack Lunch!”

But if it means the wealthy are feasting and the poor are starving or scraping by… or in any way feeling 2nd class… that’s an absolute fail!

Paul doesn’t condemn the feast, but do it in your own house. This isn’t Christan fellowship, it certainly isn’t communion or the “Lord Supper.”

You “humiliate those who have nothing.”

I don’t think they thought of it this way. They probably didn’t think too far beyond “I'm having food with my friends.” That’s how this scenario feels from the inside. I’m just enjoying life with people like me.

And it’s really easy if we can just build a church where only people like me come. Then it’s not so obvious that we are “humiliating those who have nothing.”

Paul calls them out. Shall I commend you in this? NO. I willl not.” Absolutely not.

The Earliest Last Supper

Instead, we have this recollection. Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he repeatedly claims that he received additional direct instruction from Jesus.

Recall, this is written before any of the gospels. So this may be the first written account of the “Last Supper.” The Corinthians may have heard some of this before, and indeed they are “keeping the traditions” as Paul had taught them. But this is the first written record of these familiar actions, familiar words, familiar patterns.

Perhaps, to us, too familiar.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when 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 also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Powerful words, these words of remembrance.

Remember Jesus

Reorient yourself and your life to the Master.

Remember his death

Remember salvation and forgiveness… and that it didn’t come for free.

Not just “remember” though.

1 Corinthians 11:26 ESV

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Jesus’ death is victory. It is finished. It is mercy - not getting what we deserve - and grace - getting what we don’t deserve — and victory over sin and death.

What’s the word there? Proclaim! Announce, same root word as the “angels”. Preach!!! Announce it. Shout it!!!

Remember He is Coming

We remember Jesus, we remember his death… until he comes.

We look forward with eager expectation to the 2nd coming of Jesus. When he returns on the clouds, visible to all creation. He comes with judgment on the earth… but redemption and recreation to all who believe.

Then every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Then there will be a new heaven and a new earth, in new bodies, the dead will be raised and we will be whole and perfect.

All of this is what we remember, what we celebrate, and what we re-enact when we eat the bread and drink the wine.

How DARE we approach it frivolously. Casually. Contemptuously.

Dangerously Unworthy

There is a sober warning here.

This was a great debate in centuries past. Mostly quiet now, thought it still underlies many of our “denominational” divides. After all, there are indeed divisions among us, and with great irony, many of those are rooted in this question.

What is communion?

Is it the literal body and blood of Jesus? Catholics would claim so. So much so that in the early days of the Reformation they paid some folks to sneak wafers of “the body of Christ” out of communion under their tongue so they could run chemical analysis on it. Meat or break. Ridiculous. Those results didn’t count, because they weren’t truly “by faith.”

Is it “consubstantiation” as the Lutherans hold. Both literally body and blood of Jesus and spiritually metaphor at the same time. As Luther said, Christ is “in with and under” the elements.

(I don’t find that helpful. Sometimes “religious” language obscurs truth rather than reveals it.)

The “reformed” view and that held by Baptists in general and us in particular: these are symbols of Jesus.

Jesus taught that he “is” the bread of life. A metaphor for being the stuff of life, the substance and the substinence. He didn’t literally mean to bite him.

Jesus taught he is the vine and we are the branches, the cup is the new covenant we partake in his blood, symbolic of him pouring out his life blood in sacrifice, in substitution for us.

It is a symbol… but a POWERFUL symbol. We trivialize it at our own risk.

We can be entirely too casual about this:

1 Corinthians 11:27 ESV

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

What is an “unworthy” manner?

In immediate context: certainly selfish indulgence. Gluttony and feasting in front of those who don’t have enough is an “unworthy” manner.

Casual disregard? That’s an unworthy manner.

How about with unrepentant sin? Secret sin and shame? That sounds unworthy?

In fact… there’s only way to come to the cross. As Indiana Jones would say, “the penitent man shall pass.”

We only ever come to the cross in confession of our sin, in repentance, in humility, and in worship.

This requires careful and sober self-examination of the heart:

1 Corinthians 11:28–29 ESV

28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Examination of yourself.

Examination of the “the body.” I have preached before, I think this is in reference to the larger body of Christ. As far as it is up to you, to live at peace with everyone. This is the “moment at the altar” Jesus refers to when you seek out the one who “has something against you” and you seek reconciliation. Or you bring forgiveness to that person you are holding a grudge against.

Whatever it takes, confessing your sin, seeking peace, you consider yourself and “the body of Christ” before you eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Lest, this is the warning, you “drink judgment on himself.”

Can you imagine that for a moment? If you drank the win and immediately keeled over if something was off in your heart. Really helpful and obvious for the rest of us.

But, perhaps in subtler ways, this was in fat happening. And I believe still happens today.

1 Corinthians 11:30 ESV

30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

There is a real spiritual and even physical danger in here for not taking this seriously.

Is this the reason for all weakness and illness and death? Nope. Doesn’t say that. Can you work backward from “weakness and illness and death” to this as the root cause? Not without a Word from God.

But Paul is clear. This is the cause of physical illness unto death among the Corinthians. God disciplines those He loves. He says that over and over and over again. We can pretend that doesn’t happen to our detriment… or we can listen and repent.

1 Corinthians 11:31–32 ESV

31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

God disciplines us so that we might not get in the real trouble.

1 Corinthians 11:33–34 ESV

33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

Examine Yourself, Examine the Body

So, I invite you to communion. We are going to take some time in communion. And you have opportunity to take this absolutely seriously.

First, consider yourself. You don’t have to be perfect to take communion. This is for sinners. But be honest, bring your sins and your self before the cross. Confess your sins to Jesus, He is faithful to forgive and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Remember Jesus.

Remember his death.

Remember that He is coming… either for your judgment or your salvation.

And judge the Body. Is there anyone you need to seek reconciliation with? You can start that, even in the next few minutes. You have your cell, maybe you have it out now, open to definitely-not-Facebook. You can start the conversation of reconciliation with a text. “I’m sorry.” “Please forgive me.” “I love you.” Do it now. You don’t even have to run across town, how easy is that?

Let God bring to mind anything and everything… and lay it all down before the cross.

Here everything else disappears. This is our unity. This is our community. This is our communion. That we are all humbled, sinners before our Savior, saved and rescued and redeemed.

Take, enjoy, eat of the bread of life.

Take, enjoy, drink the blood of the New Covenant.