How To Eat In Church Series

21 years ago (2001), DreamWorks produced the animated film Shreck, in which Shrek, an ogre, falls in love with the beautiful princess Fiona, who turns out to be an ogre herself. They fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after.

Then Shrek 2 comes along three years later (2004), and the “happily ever after” is not so happy. The princess Fiona takes her new husband to the kingdom of Far Far Away to meet her parents. The King and Queen of Far Far Away receive a shock when they discover their new son-in-law is a big, green ogre, and Fiona now looks just like him.

The family sits down to a royal meal where personalities and prejudices begin to clash. A faceoff between in-laws escalates into name-calling and then a food fight. Take a look (show video: Shrek 2—An Awkward Dinner Scene).

The king and his son-in-law glower at one another from opposite ends of a long, ornate table.

“What kind of children can we expect from you?” shouts the king.

“Ogres!” Shrek yells in return.

Attempting to keep the peace, the queen adds, “Not that there's anything wrong with that.”

“Not unless you eat your young!” shouts the king.

As classical music plays in the background, any illusion of family togetherness is buried under a barrage of harsh words. The anger spreads to husband and wife as Fiona screams at Shrek, and the queen shouts at the king. Suddenly the battle breaks out in earnest, and food becomes the weapon, completely ruining the feast. The crackers are crushed, the lobster is cracked, Shrek shreds the chicken, the king filets the fish, and a roasted pig sails high into the air.

Sarcastically, the queen says, “It's so nice to have the family together for dinner” (Shrek 2, DreamWorks, DVD chapter 4, 2004, directed by Andrew Adamson and Kelly Asbury, 00:17:15 to 00:18:31, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmpFmJfEZXs).

When families come together, they’re not always together, are they? Tensions arise because of differences in class, culture, and/or convictions. And the same can happen even when the family of God comes together.

God in His grace brought Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, male and female, black and white, Hispanic and Caucasian, and oh my, He even brought Republicans and Democrats together in one family (Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:14-16). It makes the family meals, to say the least, “very interesting.”

So how does such a diverse group of people learn to get along to go along to advance the gospel together? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians 11, where the Bible again addresses the issue of unity within the church.

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 (ESV).

In 1 Corinthians 11:2, Paul commended the church at Corinth because of the way they dressed in church. Here, Paul cannot commend the church at Corinth because of the way they acted in church.

1 Corinthians 11:18-19 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 (ESV).

When they came together, they were not together. They were divided, which made the genuine believers stand out among the rest. You see, a genuine believer loves people despite their differences. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, [if you have the right theology, if you have the right politics, if you have health and wealth. No!] Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you if you have love for one another” (John 13:35) despite your differences.

Love is the mark of a genuine follower of Christ, but the Corinthian believers were dividing themselves by class. It was part of their Greek and Roman Culture.

One commentator says, “Ancient seating at public events was arranged according to rank. The churches in Corinth met especially in well-to-do patrons’ homes. [There, it was customary for the] patrons to seat members of their own high social class in the special triclinium (the best room), ideally reclining about nine diners… [The rest were] served in a larger atrium, which might comfortably seat an estimated 40 persons (Keener, C. S., 2014, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Second Edition, p. 483-484, IVP Academic).

Those with higher rank got the best seats, and those with lower rank got the worst seats. On top of that, those with lower rank got little or no food.

1 Corinthians 11:20-21 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 (ESV).