Keeping Communion Holy – August 13, 2023
Psalm 116, I Corinthians 11:17-29
August 13, 2023
Churches can have problems. I’m sure that’s not saying anything you didn’t already know. (“Oh really???”) Churches can have ecclesiastical problems, they can have financial problems, and of course, they can have interpersonal problems.
Well, the early church had problems, too. I’ll never forget something a guy once said in my College fellowship group. He said, “It would be so much better if we could only get back to what it was like in the early church.” His thought was that, if we could do that, there would be no problems, we would have no arguments over theology, there’d be no politics – church politics or government politics, and we’d all treat each other the right way!
Well, my studies of the early church taught me that’s not the way it was. You don’t have to read very far into the letters of Paul in the New Testament to know that they had their issues. We talked about one of them a few weeks ago. They had a disagreement over the inclusion of the Gentiles. Would they be part of the new church? And if so, there was a big question as to whether or not Gentiles had to become Jewish first – before they could become Christians. (That was a particularly touchy subject when it came to the Gentile men!)
In another case, at the beginning of his letter to the Corinthians, Paul laments that there were factions growing within that church! There were little competing groups – little cliques, that were disrupting the church’s life! Some said they were followers of Paul, some of Peter – that sort of thing.
So, there were a number of things the church was struggling with in the early days. That’s one of the reasons I love the 13th chapter. That’s the chapter about love. Paul had just spent 12 chapters trying to solve all these little problems and controversies they were having. And then I picture him pausing, putting down his pen, taking a deep breath, and then writing, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal!” In other words, I can give you all the solutions, to all of your problems, but without love, they aren’t worth the parchment they’re written on!
Well, here today we’re only in the 11th chapter, and Paul was addressing some problems they were having, that had to do with the sacrament we call Holy Communion. Remember, this was early on, and they were still learning a lot about many things in this new faith! And they didn’t have the scriptures we have. All they had was the authority of the Apostles, their teaching, and the letters they wrote e‘splainin’ things!
Remember also, that in the early church, they celebrated the Resurrection every week. They celebrated it on the first day of the week, because that’s when the Resurrection happened. That’s why their Sabbath became Sunday instead of Saturday. Well they also celebrated the Lord’s Supper every week. And it wasn’t a “ceremony,” using symbolic elements like we use. It was more of a community meal – sort of like our Agape feast.
And they had problems. People were bringing their own food, and apparently they weren’t sharing like they were supposed to. So the wealthy had plenty to eat while others were going hungry. Paul explained all that in the part we read. And he saw that as dishonoring the very event – the very “sacrament” – they were commemorating! So he was calling them out about all that. And he was being quite firm about it! And in doing so, he wrote some things that have worried believers ever since.
He starts by saying, “I have received of the Lord, that which I delivered unto you,” which always seemed a bit strange to me since he, of all the Apostles, was not there at the Last Supper! So we have to assume that he “received of the Lord” through prayer and revelation. But, regardless of what happened, what he was saying here, is that, “This is serious stuff!” “This is important stuff!” “We shouldn’t take this lightly!”
And then in verse 27 he gives us these words – words, as I said, have worried believers ever since. He wrote, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.” That sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it? Have you ever worried about that? I know I have! I don’t ever want to take communion in an unworthy manner!
And if that wasn’t worrisome enough, look at what he says in verse 29! “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment upon himself!” I don’t want that either!
In a way, that threatens to take away from the beauty and power of what Paul was telling them about this sacrament. But I think it also adds to it in terms of seriousness! And I think it’s helped people over the years to take this seriously! And we should do that. We should take this seriously! We should “discern the body” as Paul said here. In simple terms, that means we should think about what we’re doing!
Part of the problem they were having with Communion was that it had become routine. To a certain extent, they were just going through the motions. They didn’t really think about and understand what they were doing. And remember also, things like Baptism and Communion were not actually called “sacraments” until much later. We have 2,000 years of church thought and understanding behind what we do here. They didn’t. They were just learning.
So, we need to be thinking about what we’re doing here. We don’t ever want this to be so routine that we forget it’s meaning! That’s why it’s important to pause and think about what we’re saying in things like “The Lord’s Prayer.” (Thanks for doing that with us a few weeks ago, Kari!)
The other thing that happens, when we read the strong warnings that Paul gave the Corinthians, is that we worry about not being “holy enough.” There was a time when the church used to have “communion tokens.” I talked about this once before. There are actually a couple of those tokens in a picture frame in the other building. The idea was that you had to “qualify” for communion! You had to do certain things and keep certain traditions in order to get a token.
And I know, that was a different age. But I think the intent is a good one! It was intended as a way of reminding people that we need to take this seriously. We need to keep communion holy! But then again, where concern about being holy is important, we always need to remember that we can never be “holy enough.”
That’s the good news! We don’t have to worry about being “holy enough” because we cannot be “holy enough. That’s the nature of this sacrament! It’s about the grace of God, which we cannot deserve! If you think about it, if we were “holy enough,” we wouldn’t need this sacrament!
The liturgies we use are designed to remind us of all that. They’re designed to speak to us of the seriousness and the Grace in what we do here. Jesus said, “This is my body broken for you.” “This is the New Covenant sealed in my blood.”
So, Invite you to this sacrament. And more importantly, I invite you to think about what we do here. Maybe even picture Jesus and his disciples in that Upper Room. And by the way, they didn’t “get this,” either! Not at first. But eventually they would! And I’m glad they did, and I’m glad they passed this sacrament down through the ages, to us!
So come to this table. Come with full confidence in the redeeming body and blood of our Savior. Come knowing of his amazing Grace. Come to this table, and here find refreshing and rest unto your souls.
Prayer
Eternal God, we thank you for the forgiveness and grace we find here at this table. Help each of us to think seriously about what we do here. Help us to understand a little more the mystery of the body and blood of our Lord, and the sacrifice he made to bring us back to you. All of these things we pray in his name, and for the sake of his kingdom in our midst, Amen.