Do You See What I See?
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
Cascades Fellowship CRC, JX MI
March 1, 2009
Series: The Church in Crisis
When I was in high school, there was this girl – let’s call her “Edith”. Everyone called her Big “Ed” because she was on the heavy side. She was the youngest of four sisters, the three older ones being very attractive. Edith accepted the nickname, showed no real signs of being injured by it and went through her sophomore and junior years quietly. She didn’t get invited to parties – she was a little socially awkward, after all. No one asked her to attend homecoming or prom. She was simply written off as one of those background people who are pleasant most of the time, but peculiar – could be prickly. She was considered by most as unattractive, and athletically proved to be ungraceful as well – which didn’t help. Her sisters were all 1st team athletes.
As you might guess, Edith lived a very lonely existence. Although loved by her family, that’s not always a comfort when you are ridiculed by everybody else – especially those you look up to as popular or cool. In just about every social circle Edith was on the outside looking in.
She disappeared the summer between her junior and senior years. In a town as small as ours was it is hard to remain unseen all summer long – even if you are a social misfit in frumpy clothes. But Edith was a ghost throughout the summer and where she had gone to was something of a mystery.
The first day of school rolled around and suddenly a buzz began to hum in the hallways of Elkins High School – there was a new hot girl in school. Except, this wasn’t a new girl – it was Edith and no one was going to call her “Big Ed” anymore. It was never clear where Edith went, but what is clear is that wherever it was, she got into shape. She blossomed into this drop-dead, gorgeous girl that was now driving all the young men crazy. Suddenly, everybody who was somebody wanted a piece of Edith.
To her credit, Edith never accepted one invitation to a dance or a date. She kept her head with the newfound popularity. She once said in a conversation that I was privy to that none of these people could see who she was when she was overweight and what they want now is not who she is, but what they think she can do for them. Guys wanted her for the bragging rights of dating and sleeping with such an attractive young woman, the girls wanted her for a hunk-magnet. Since that was the case, they would get none of her, just as they gave none of themselves to her when she was less than desirable.
I tell this story this morning for two reasons; first, because I have always liked the story. Edith was a friend of mine, a teammate on the tennis team – and I have always thought it was great the way she refused to allow herself to be used. She had a good sense of self.
The second reason, and more to the point this morning, is to bring the issue of discrimination and separation on the basis of some artificial criteria into the light. Edith was mistreated by a community because she had some excess body fat. Assumptions were made about her on that basis and she was rejected and neglected on that basis alone.
There is something about human nature – something certainly brought on by the fall – that actively seeks to discriminate. We separate on the basis of skin tone, on the basis of music preference, on the basis of how much money we make, or what our body-type is or… we could think of thousand such criteria. We are constantly trying to distinguish ourselves by devaluing others, elevating our own self-image by diminishing someone else.
And unfortunately, in the church we are not immune to this. Even though we are bought with a price and indwelt by the Spirit, we still seek sometimes to push people to the margins who do not meet our approval in looks or money or standing in the community. We build a core of beautiful people around which all the others orbit as satellites rather than enfolding each one as unique and fearfully and wonderfully made.
Now some would describe this as simply being human and shrug their shoulders as if to say, “What am I supposed to do about it?” But let’s remember what Paul wrote to us in 1 Corinthians 3, exhorting us to be more than merely human. We are supposed to form our opinions of people based on a different standard – the image of God is our reference point now. And within the church we are to have a certain vision in view – the Body of Christ. And there is no time in the life and practice of the church where that vision should be more evident than during the Lord’s Supper.
Now why would that be so? Because according to Paul in our text this morning, the Lord’s Supper is all about what you see. Okay, maybe “see” is too simplistic – what Paul actually talks about is what you recognize or discern in the Supper.
In our study of 1 Corinthians, we have come to that section where Paul deals with the theology and practice of the church – how the Gospel is coming to expression in Corinth. Now if you remember from two weeks ago, in the first part of this chapter, Paul dealt with the issue of headship – that as a matter of creation order God made man to be the head and that the practices of the church should reflect that. He now turns his attention to the matter of the Lord’s Supper and the Corinthians abhorrent practice.
Now, I think I should point out something here – to my knowledge there is really no other place in Scripture that Paul deals with this topic, which should tell us something – everyone else got it. There was no secret knowledge to master, no spiritual formula to memorize, no deeper level of spirituality that needed to be attained before one could experience and appreciate the significance of communion. Of all the churches Paul started, the Corinthian church seems to be the only one that had problems with their practice of the Lord’s Supper; which, of course, fits with what we know of these people who were forever seeking to simply merge their pagan practices with their faith in Christ.
And what they were apparently doing in this case was combining the pagan practice of feasting with that of the Lord’s Supper. Now, it wasn’t so much that they were having a full meal with the communion. If you look in the Book of Acts, you’ll find that the early church did much the same thing, but always in a spirit of fellowship and unity. Their practice remained faithful to the purpose and intention of the Lord’s Supper. In the case of the Corinthians, their practice was violating that purpose and intention.
How?
Well, if you read our text carefully Paul gives us a few clues as to what was going on.
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…. 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…? So then, my brothers, 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.
The problem in Corinth with the Supper was the same they were experience elsewhere – division; but this time it was happening along economic lines.
In the Corinthian culture it was common for communal feasts to be held in the homes of wealthy patrons and for the attendees to be ranked according to social status. The wealthy or more prominent members would eat in a dining hall with a table heavy-laden with food and wine. They would gorge themselves with food. Meanwhile, the less prominent would be left in the courtyard or some other part of the house and would receive what were essentially the leftovers. It is also quite possible that some of the less prominent were servants of the more prominent, which would mean that they would attend to their employers needs during the feasting and eat whatever was left in the kitchen afterwards.
It would be kind of like if we had a fellowship dinner here at Cascades Fellowship, but only set enough places for the members who had been here more than fifteen years. To everyone else we said, “You may either stand outside in the parking lot or in the kitchen. Make sure those seated have had enough before you help yourself.” Do you think that kind of dinner would go over well? Would it promote the unity and fellowship of believers in the church? And then imagine that we wanted to join hands and enjoy communion afterwards.
This is essentially what was happening in the Corinthian church. That’s why Paul says to them – and I paraphrase here – “I don’t know what in blazes you’re doing, but it isn’t the Lord’s Supper. Here, let me tell you what the Supper is supposed to be.”
So how does Paul describe the Lord’s Supper to them? Well, the first thing he does is he reminds them of the tradition that was passed on to him. Now, some question whether Paul actually heard this from Jesus in his vision on the road to Damascus or some other vision or whether it was an oral tradition passed on to him from the other apostles. Let me end the debate this morning – it does not matter. Either way he received as though it came from Christ himself.
What matters is that he repeats the tradition in the oral style – word for word, without variation. Now why is that important? Dr. Roger Hahn, Professor of New Testament at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri provides us some insight here in his article on our passage this morning.
Thus 1 Corinthians 11:23 describes the process by which the story and words of Jesus' last supper with his disciples were carefully told and re-told in the life of the church. Paul received this oral "package" of words and events and passed it on to the Corinthians….Within Greek culture a memorial was often given in honor of a dead person. In Hebrew thought remembrance made the deceased present and real again in the lives of those who remembered. The Lord's Supper does not memorialize a dead hero. It makes the presence and memory of Christ alive and real in our midst every time we celebrate the Eucharist.
Paul reinstitutes the sacrament among the Corinthians because what was lacking from their celebrations was an understanding of the real presence of Christ during the Supper. They were treating it like a feast for the dead, essentially reveling in a life well-lived, but without any sense of the presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit. They were missing the point of the Supper because they were importing their own cultural meaning.
So how do the Corinthians avoid such a thing in the future? Paul says, “Examine yourselves. Make sure that your practice is meeting up with the tradition as I passed it on to you.”
So what is required in examining yourself? What is Paul calling for here? What are we to look for when we examine ourselves? That is a question that has troubled the church for a number of years. How do we answer such a question when there has been so many different answers given over the years?
Traditionally, there has been an emphasis on navel-gazing. Okay, that term is a little crass – a little too self-indulgent. So let’s say that there is a tradition of introspection with the Supper. In fact, the practice in the church of the past has been to read a formulary in church the week before communion to help us prepare for taking the Supper. Those formularies call us to look for the signs of genuine faith; faith, hope, and love. Unfortunately, this practice led to a more narrow practice of using the Supper as simply another opportunity to confess sin.
Now, don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with repentance. I’m all for it! But when Paul calls for an examination of ourselves, I don’t think he is issuing a general call to repentance – he wants us to recognize, to discern- the term he uses means to make distinctions or judge – the Body of Christ in the Supper. In other words, he wants us to see the bigger picture – to even draw the focus away from ourselves and our own relationship with Christ and to see our union with him in the context of the Body.
When Paul says we are to examine ourselves he issuing a call for unity – to realize that Christ is present in the Supper and that presence is manifested most fully in our oneness. Now, is there a sense in which we are to examine our hearts for the signs of genuine faith – faith in Christ alone, hope in his return and love of God and neighbor? Yes, but genuine faith will always recognize the Body of Christ and his presence in the Supper. It will always see, love and strive for the unity of the Body.
So what does this mean for our practice here at Cascades Fellowship? Well, we have already worked hard at developing formularies that reflect Scripture’s instruction to us concerning the Supper. We strive hard to see Christ manifested through our unity in taking the Supper. But there is one thing that remains for us and there are no easy solutions.
Because we have two services running concurrently, our unity is not fully manifested when we celebrate the Supper. Now, this is a choice that has been made with an understanding of the difficulties and ramifications – so there is no issuing of blame this morning. We were trying to enfold families with special needs children – quite the opposite of rejecting or neglecting them. Contrary to devaluing them, we were trying to show love and have succeeded to a degree no one could have imagined six years ago. But I think it is time we recognized – acknowledged openly – that our unity is only partly manifested and we need to do something about it. Do you see what I see?
If we need to make accommodations – so long as they do not compromise the Spirit of the Supper and our worship – then let’s make them. Let’s make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace and what leads mutual edification.
