Discern the body

Has anyone had communion recently? When I say communion, I'd like to say I was talking about good friends getting together and drinking good coffee just having good times. But good coffee is hard to come by in the current climate; which is slightly muggy, but sunny and warm.

I'm talking about the religious communion, or eucharist, or the Lord's supper, or something. The bit that, if you've ever been to a church service, has men in robes handing out free alcohol. I was reading the bit in the Bible where Paul is talking about the Lord's supper, communion. 1 Corinthians 11 for those desperate to know what on earth I'm talking about. Paul has been trying to correct this church because it has gone off the rails, somewhat. At least in this first letter. By the time the second letter arrives they appear to have sorted out some of their issues and have other ones instead. But Paul in the first letter is instructing the church on how to actually do church. It's a telling point when Paul, out of sheer desperation, tells them 'When you meet together, you are doing more harm than good.' Not a particularly good review of a church, which it's main object is to meet together.

So they must be feeling a little silly. Or worse. And Paul brings up the subject of the Lord's supper, the meal Jesus shared with His disciples right before He was tried, crucified, buried, and was raised; the meal Jesus told His disciples to keep doing in remembrance of Him. Broken bread and poured wine; Jesus' broken body and gushing blood. There's a definite parallel, which is probably why He did it.

Paul is encouraging the Corinthians, to sort out their meetings so they go back to how it was supposed to be. The main thing being that it is important for them to eat together. The point of eating together is having everyone together. The point is not, as Paul tells them quite straightforwardly, for the rich people to arrive and eat as much as they can and get exceedingly drunk, and then the poor to turn up and eat scraps. The main reason for this is this distinction of rich and poor is not relevant in the new identity they are celebrating with this supper. The new identity they have is actually that of Jesus Himself.

In Ephesians Paul states that through the death of Jesus the 'wall of hostility' between rich, poor, slave, free, man woman, young, old, black, white, Jew, and other has been removed so there is no need to hold to your own 'kind' as it were. In Galatians Paul goes further, and says that anyone found in Christ (that is found to have faith in the Jewish Saviour, Jesus, and therefore in Him; to have whatever is true of Jesus is true of the believer) there is no distinction between male and female, Jew or Greek, slave or free. That's more than simply people not being hostile anymore. There is no distinction between them. Why? Because they are not identified by their own birth, work, occupation, etc. They are defined by Jesus.

So back to this Special Supper: They are doing more harm than good. They are segregating off these various types of people for the sake of food. Later on in the letter, Paul describes this new set of believers as a body: that is they are all parts of the same thing, rather than lots of different things coming together to see what can happen. They are joined by Jesus. They are part of one another, and part of Christ; mysterious and true.

But Paul tells them this stark statement: 'Anyone who eat and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgement on himself.' Wow. What is this judgement? Does that apply to me? Well, if we understand that when Paul says 'the body' he means the church, of which they are all a part and joined together, then this is not merely looking at yourself and thinking 'Hmm... Are my hands clean today?' It's about discerning that you yourself are a part of something bigger. You are a part of everyone else. To miss this is to assume that Jesus mainly died for you on your own and this supper was made specially for you, and that does something terrible.

To miss the fact that anyone who believes in Jesus is part of something bigger of which Jesus is one with them and they are One with everyone else and Jesus (in a weird, but true, way), is to diminish the work of Christ. Jesus didn't die so you could have something to eat. Jesus died and rose again to bring all of these people to the same place, regardless of who they are, race, sex, class, aside. Through Jesus this diverse group of people is brought together to celebrate in the death that brought them together, and enjoy the resurrection life that brings into communion with one another and communion with Christ.

The one question you might still be thinking about:

Why does this mean judgement? If you diminish the work of Christ, His work wasn't fully sufficient for the history of the church. And that's bad news.