Hospitality at the Table and Beyond

This is my sermon text from July 8, 2018. The focus of my message was 1Corinthians 11:17-31. This is the last of our lessons focusing on the Corinthian correspondence. You can listen to the message from St. Mark here.

Please join me prayer from our Psalm: Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us. Our eyes look to the Lord our God, until They have mercy upon us. AMEN.

Grace, peace and mercy to you, from God, our Creator, and Jesus Christ, God’s Son and our Redeemer.  AMEN.

Parts of this passage from 1Corinthians may be familiar to you. I am using verses 23 through 26 as part of our Communion liturgy while we have been focusing on the Corinthian correspondence.

The part that may be more familiar, or more influential, is verses 27 to 29. 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. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. (1Corinthians 11:27-29)

These three verses are the justification many traditions use to have what they call Close Communion. I’m referring to the Missouri and Wisconsin synods, the Catholic Church and others. They cite verses 27 through 29 as why they don’t share open Communion. It is for your own good. Because they believe others who have a different understanding of the Lord’s Supper to have a wrong understanding, by not offering you to participate, they are keeping you from bringing judgment against yourself.

But by reading the whole passage, and not a couple of verses, you see there is a different situation Paul is blaming the Corinthians for.

At this time, the primary worship gathering was done on Sunday evening. But Sunday was a workday. Imagine if we gathered to worship on Monday night, and not here, but at someone’s home. It would probably be at whomever had the largest home, and that means one of the wealthier people.

People would come when their work was done. If you were wealthy, or self-employed, you could come earlier. If you worked for someone, you were done when they said you were done. And in Corinth, you were bringing your own food to this meal. When the poorer members arrived, they found the more well off member having already eaten, and as Paul says, some are drunk.

They were not sharing a meal. They were eating and drinking individually, but in a common setting. It is a cafeteria, not communion.

The unworthy manner that Paul condemns is not having a common meal, not having a meal together. He points out that Christ explained what was going to happen to him using bread and wine. That just as he was giving bread and wine to his friends, he would be giving up his body and blood for the sake of the world.

I want to take a moment to point out something you may have noticed that when I preside over Communion, I don’t say the word “betrayed.” It is here in verse 23, “on the night when he was betrayed.” The verb in Greek is a form of παραδίδωμι paradidomi. Time after time, in the New Testament paradidomi is translated as handed over, except when it describes what happened to Jesus on the night before he went to the Cross. It is then that many translations choose translate paradidomi as betray. As an example, in verse 23, a form of the verb paradidomi is used twice; translated as handed over in what Paul handed over to the Corinthians, and translated as betrayed when describing what happened to Jesus.

I use handed over because God handed over Jesus to the authorities of the world, not Judas. That is why I don’t, and won’t, use the word betrayed during Communion, because this was all an act by God.

Back to hospitality, another act of God.

In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God gives of God’s abundant grace, mercy and love to all of humanity. God does not charge for it, nor does God require anything from us. God’s grace is a gift.

We receive as much as we need. If I need more, that does not mean you get less. God’s grace is freely and abundantly given. We are given as much as we need. But at the Lord’s Table, we all receive the same thing. We all receive bread. We all receive wine. God’s love is for all.

We have to decide what we do with this abundance. With the excessive blessings of grace, mercy and forgiveness, what will we do with the abundance? Pardon me referring to God’s grace in this way, but what will we do with the leftovers? We don’t need to store it or freeze it; we have enough for ourselves and then some. Rather we should give it away to anyone and everyone we can. That is why my invitation to receive Holy Communion is for All.

The unworthy manner in which the Corinthians approached the Lord’s Supper was to laud the abundance and blessings they had over one another. One would dine on the finest fish and foul on fabulous flatware, while another a sandwich made of government issued cheese after they cut the mold off of both bread and cheese.

The discernment that we each need to make before receiving this feast of faith is to ask ourselves what have we done with the blessings that God has given us? We should judge ourselves. Have we shared our faith? Have we helped the least, the last, the lost, the little ones and those who are alone? Have we forgiven as we have been forgiven? Have we loved our neighbors as we love ourselves?

There is a popular Internet meme; a thought provoking statement, I have posted on my accounts, which I think speaks to what Paul is calling on us, and the Corinthians, to do. It says, “If you are more fortunate than others, build a longer table, not a taller fence.”

May God strengthen us to discern and do God’s will, having been blessed to be a blessing to others, and provide hospitality to all of our neighbors. AMEN.

 
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