1 Corinthians 11:17-33 The Lord’s Supper

Abuses at the Lord’s Supper

¹⁷ Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. ¹⁸ For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. ¹⁹ Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine. ²⁰ When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. ²¹ For when the time comes to eat, each of you proceeds to eat your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. ²² What! Do you not have households to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!

I love that opening line of this piece. When you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.

This Lenten season we have journeyed together in what I like to call somber celebration. In the journey of celebration that is our lives in Christ, we are not promised perpetual happiness. To become a Christian does not mean that you will get everything you want in this world, that you will never feel pain, of that you will never feel sorrow or that you will be gleefully happy all the time. The journey of Christianity is about living life to its fullest and appreciating all that life has to offer.

To do that, you must actually experience all that life has to offer which means everything from the occasional traumatic experience to the incredible elation that is the love of God. It means we separate ourselves from society in that we do not live by a great many of their platitudes and attitudes.

We are different. We are not to seek selfish gain but communal gain. But most importantly of all, we try our very best to be genuine people and love through it all.

Genuine people love more than anything else. They experience all the world has to offer, every emotion on the spectrum, and pair each and every one of them with love.

Genuine people love while They worship. They love while They pray.

They love their family and friends whether they are doing what they want them to do or are going against their wishes. They love through it all.

They love through anger. They love through frustration. They love through fear. They love through sadness. They love through laughter. They love through pain. They love through differences and they love through similarities. They love through hope and they love through loss. They love through it all.

And… They acknowledge when they experience things in life and when they fail to love their way through them. They seek to know God through knowing themselves and knowing others completely, not just the parts they want to see.

When you come together, it is not for the better but for the worse.

What do we do about a church that is not being genuine? That is not filled with genuine people? What do we do about a church that is doing more harm than good to the world and to one another? A church that is judging and condescending with a false sense of right and wrong? A church that fails to understand that if we can just uphold one simple commandment to love one another, it’s all going to be okay. As a church and community, we must understand that if we fail to do that… if we fail to love through it, we fail as a church.

The church is not a place of judgment. The church is a place of unconditional acceptance. Our job as a church is to work with all of God’s people wherever they are in their spiritual journey because the truth is that we have no idea where anyone is along that path, including ourselves. Our days are numbered. That sinner next to you that you have judged so harshly as unworthy may be much further along than you who sitting here every Sunday.

We do not form factions, cliques, or closed groups. Ouch. But they’re our friends, we cry out! We’ve been together forever! Forever is just another word for always. In the church, we are challenged to do something that society cannot do. We are challenged to form open groups.

This doesn’t mean we can’t do things together with our close friends. It means we pay attention to our surroundings. We notice when someone is not included and we go out of our way to make space for them and extend invitations to them. We notice when someone amongst us seems hungry and we discreetly provide them with food, friendship, and presence. We notice when someone amongst us appears to be in need, and we extend help as we are able.

We do not divide ourselves into haves and have-nots. We see everyone as those who have, they just have something different than you do. It is your job to discover what that may be. We empower not embarrass. We are no better and no worse than anyone else. We are all, children of God and must love one another as such, through it all. And it must be genuine. It must be real. It must be not an outward motion but must extend inward clean through to our souls. It must be a pure and simple reflection of the God whom we have given our lives to.

Throughout this Lenten Season, I have encouraged you to think long and hard and to be honest about yourself. In this passage, Jesus calls into question why the people are gathering together. Why are you here this evening? Why do you come to church on Sunday?

Is it a social obligation? Are you here to see your friends whom you only see on Sunday? If you only see them on Sunday, why is that? Are you not friends? Why are you not also gathering together outside of this building if that is so?

When we only see our So-called “friends” at church, it makes it really difficult for us to be open to visiting with others because we want to spend all our time catching up with those whom we already know. So why are we not seeing them outside of church? Calling them? Texting them? Engaging in fellowship with them outside this building, so that our hearts are more open to meeting and engaging with new people? Blasphemous idea, I know. Don’t worry, pastors do the same thing, I see it every year at Annual Conference for the once-a-year gathering of pastoral colleagues and friends. It’s a struggle to reach outside our friend circle.

Which is why I tell you it is our job to notice. Notice, that if these are our friends, we should be doing things with them so that we don’t miss them so much. So that this time of sacred worship and sacred gathering is a time to include all people, not just the ones we already know.

We are being told in this epistle that the church, while a social occasion, is supposed to be a time of fellowship for all. A time of welcoming and getting to know new people, and time making them feel comfortable.

Church is a place to go against societal expectations and ideals to create a space where someone who has never been to this building before feels like that seat has been sitting there waiting just for them. To make them feel as if we, their newly found family, has been expecting their arrival at any time because they belong here with us, not as a stranger but as a member of our family.

We are being called out on our B.S. We are being told that we have households to eat and drink in! We are being told that we have lives and time to meet our friends and family in, outside of this building and this time which has been set aside for God’s worship, for all God’s children.

We are not here to show off how many friends we have in this congregation. We are here to show that everyone who is invited to this table is on equal footing. We are here to live as a demonstration that everyone is eating at the same table, the same meal, the same cup, the same loaf, the same stature, the same gift.

On Sunday morning, we will gather together again for a meal. This is your challenge. Remember this sermon for there are factions among you. I challenge you at that breakfast to make sure no one goes hungry, not just for food but that they not go hungry for friendship, companionship, or a sense of belonging. 

When we come together may we do everything in our power that it is for the better not the worse. May we come together to eat the Lord’s Supper, not to have food and drink coffee or juice or sit with our “friends”. May we strive to not humiliate anyone, embarrass someone who may have nothing, or leave someone lonely. May we heed this Maundy Thursday warning that we are currently coming to getter not for the better but for the worse. May we receive this Maundy Thursday blessing as hope that we can change that.

By changing our reason for gathering to be with God’s family means we must also change the time we spend outside of this building and these times of worship. Our homes and our secular lives are to be spent not just in work but in times of gathering together with family and friends. We shouldn’t be missing those who live two doors down. We shouldn’t be missing those whom we only see on Sunday. We shouldn’t be missing those whom we only see once a year. We should be making time for them and the relationships that we claim to have with them. We have been warned that our priorities are not where they should be making ourselves unworthy of that which we have been offered.

Heed this warning as we break bread together this night. Remember it as we gather together tomorrow. Live it not just when we gather together on Easter morning, but each and every day.

Partaking of the Supper Unworthily

²⁷ Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For all who eat and drink without discerning the body eat and drink judgment against themselves. ³⁰ For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. ³¹ But if we judged ourselves, 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.

³³ So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴ If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation. About the other things I will give instructions when I come.

The Institution of the Lord’s Supper

²³ For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way he took the cup also, 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.