Dr. Rodney Plunket

Please follow along as I read 1 Corinthians (1Cor) 10:16-17:

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?  Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

This is our third and final Sunday morning worship assembly focused upon the Lord’s supper, the communion meal of Christians.  In the first assembly in this series, we focused upon the fact that, throughout the Bible, items offered on altars as sacrifices were then eaten as a way to celebrate and demonstrate the effects of those sacrifices.  Last week we focused upon Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s supper as that event is reported in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  In all of those Gospel accounts, Jesus refers to the bread of the Lord’s supper as “my body” (Matthew [Mt] 26:26; Mark [Mk] 14:22; Luke [Lk] 22:19).  In Matthew and Mark, Jesus refers to the contents of the cup as “my blood” (Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24).  Luke’s wording is only slightly different; there we hear Jesus say, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Lk 22:20).  It is interesting to hear the apostle Paul, in 1Cor 10:16, say, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?”  Just like Jesus, Paul connects the bread and the cup to the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  Both Jesus and Paul make clear that the Lord’s supper is our way of eating and drinking the sacrifice that was offered on that cross-shaped altar.

Just as the sacrifices of the Old Testament were eaten to demonstrate the effects of those sacrifices, the sacrifice of Jesus is as well.  Paul notes one effect of Jesus’ sacrifice that is celebrated and demonstrated in the supper when, in 1Cor 10:17, he writes, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”  Paul is making clear that in the supper we celebrate and demonstrate the oneness, the fellowship, the unity brought about by Jesus’ sacrifice.  In the past two Sundays I have referred often to the book by John Mark Hicks entitled, Come to the Table:  Revisioning the Lord’s Supper.  I do so again now.  Dr. Hicks is focused upon Paul’s words here in 1Cor 10:17 when he writes,

The unity of the church is rooted in the “common union” the church shares in Christ who has made the church one.  When the church eats and drinks it shares the same body and blood.  By visibly eating and drinking together the church exhibits the unity of the body in Christ.  When we sit at the same table, we testify to our shared experience of the shared reality of Jesus Christ.

. . .  The covenant meal is a communal meal where the people of God are united to each other by their covenant with the one God.[1]

What I want us to see is that the Lord’s supper is a time when the unity generated by our common faith in Jesus Christ is celebrated and demonstrated.  It is celebrated in that common meal; and it is also demonstrated by the eating together of that meal, that meal which connects us all back to the body and blood of Jesus, the supreme sacrifice given us by God on that cross-shaped altar.  The way we participate in this meal should make that clear.

Now please follow along as I read 1Cor 11:17-34:

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.  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.  Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine.  When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper.  For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk.  What!  Do you not have homes 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!

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, 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.”  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.”  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

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.  For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.  But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.  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.

In this passage Paul is highly critical of the way that the Corinthian church was partaking of the Lord’s Supper.  I want to point out only one thing for which Paul criticizes these believers.  The way they were eating of the Supper was very self-centered.  As a result, not only did it not build up the fellowship, the sense of community that existed; it actually damaged community.  As one commentator says regarding this passage, “The Corinthians who are abusing the Lord’s supper have minimized or lost the basic Pauline sense that the life of faith is a life of community.”[2]

However, the criticism is not all that is important to note here.  Another noteworthy item is the fact that the Lord’s Supper clearly was eaten as part of a communal meal that all of the Christians were supposed to share in together.  Yes, some had lost the communal purpose of that meal.  They were using it as an opportunity to eat and drink as much as they could.  Those who got there later, to use the words of the commentator again, “find, along with tipsy coworshippers, leftover food at best.”[3]  So Paul instructs them to eat at home before coming if they are so hungry they will be unable to wait for everyone else.

How different our partaking of the meal today.  We eat it in splendid isolation.  Again I refer to the book by John Mark Hicks.  In the second paragraph of the “Preface” of that book, Hicks writes, “The premise of this book is that our practice of the supper as a silent, solemn, individualistic eating of bread and drinking of wine is radically dissimilar from the joyous communal meal that united Christians in first century house churches.”[4]  Chapter 8 of his book is exclusively devoted to 1 Corinthians 11:17-34.  In that chapter he comments on an expression used by Paul here.  The expression is “discern the body.”  Hicks briefly notes some of the interpretations of this expression but then comes to the one that he and most scholars support:

To “discern the body” means to discern the church as a community.  It is a directive regarding the communal meaning of the Lord’s Supper.  To discern the body is to partake of the supper in a way that bears witness to not only the unity of the body of Christ (church) but also to the koinonia (fellowship) of that body which transcends all social and economic barriers.  Thus, Paul’s statement is directly linked to the specific problem in the Corinthian assembly.  The problem is not that the Corinthians did not think about the cross, but rather the problem was that they did not embody the cross in a communal way at the table.[5]

How does this relate to us?  It should cause us to note what has been done to the Supper.  The eating of the Supper for us is not communal.  We all just happen to be in the same place when we do it.  If the person we are sitting by is unknown to us when the communion is passed, then that person is still unknown to us after it is passed.  No fellowship is exchanged.  Community is not created, celebrated, or demonstrated.

The way we have done it for a very long time is not evil.  I do not believe that God-fearing people who participate in the supper in this splendid isolation manner are wicked or faithless.  I do not believe that anyone is going to be damned by God for taking the Lord’s supper in this manner.  But I do think that when believers realize that Jesus instituted the Lord’s supper to celebrate and demonstrate community in Christ then those believers, out of love for Jesus, naturally seek to actualize His will.  They naturally embrace the vision of Jesus because Jesus is our Savior and our Lord!

I know that some have felt called to a splendid isolation mode of Lord’s supper eating because of Paul’s instruction to “examine yourself” in 1Cor 11:28, but we need to note what Paul is really saying there.  Paul gave that instruction because people in Corinth were using the communal mealtime, of which the Lord’s supper was a part, as a time to focus upon their own food and drink desires.  They were not focused upon others.  They were not focused upon all of the believers’ shared unity in Jesus Christ.  Paul wants them to examine themselves before they come to where the meal is to be served.  If they are too hungry to focus upon others when they come to the communal meal, then Paul wants them to examine themselves, realize that, and eat and drink enough at home before they come so they will not be so self-centeredly gluttonous when they get there.  Self-examination is not the purpose of the Lord’s supper time together.  Self-examination is what we need to do before that meal in preparation to share in it together.  We need to determine in advance that we really are discerning that the people with whom we eat are one together in Christ.  We are, in a very real sense, the body of Christ.

We are going to take time now at the table.  No, we do not have a way in this facility to all be seated physically at tables.  But we are going to take time to make clear the connection between communion and commun . . . ity.  It is going to take a bit longer than usual.  Now, I need all of those who will be serving the communion this morning to go to the foyer to get the trays and to go ahead and move to their assigned positions.  While they are doing that, let me tell you what we are going to do.

We are going to station pairs of men near every intersection in this auditorium.  We are also going to have three pairs of men in the Garden Room so that some can take it there and help alleviate the congestion in here.  One man of each pair of servers will have the bread plate and one will have a tray of cups.  We are going to put a schematic up on the screen that uses stars to show you where all of the stations are.  If you are at the back half of a section, please go to a serving pair behind you.

In a moment I will ask you to go together with some of the people whom you greeted during our greeting time earlier in the service.  Go with them and partake together of the bread and the cup with them.  Going together as a family unit will be great.  As you stand in line to receive the bread and the cup, I encourage you to join hands, pray together, and express your faith and your common love for one another.

Some may be unable physically to go to those who are serving.  If a person or persons among the group that you greeted is unable to go and be served, I would like for that group to stay in their seats and partake with that person or persons.  Do not leave them alone.  We will have men who will be watching just for those kinds of groups.  After the prayer for the supper, please raise your hands and they will bring you the bread and the cup at your seats.

If you are a child who does not take communion and your group is going to the stations to be served, please go with them.  Parents, use this time to talk to your children about what this meal means and about your faith in the Christ who set this table a long time ago.

If you are an adult who does not take communion, I hope you also will feel comfortable going with the group that greeted you this morning.  You do not have to partake.  Just go and experience what Christ’s work on that cross-shaped altar means to this church family.  Experience that through our celebration and demonstration of the cross’s power among us.

In a moment, I will be praying a prayer of blessing for both the bread and the cup.  If you feel uncomfortable with just one prayer of blessing, I encourage you to say your own prayer or prayers as you are preparing to receive the supper.  You will not be rushed to take quickly of the cup after taking of the bread.  You will have time to pray your own prayer of blessing before and in between the two elements.

The men who serve the bread will say something to you as you partake.  They will say, “The body of Christ broken for you.”  The men who serve the cup will say to you, “The blood of Christ poured out for you.”  These statements express biblical truths that are clearly connected in the New Testament to the Lord’s Supper.  This is not a Catholic ritual.  This is not a Presbyterian, Methodist, or Episcopalian ritual.  This is our effort to experience a New Testament communal meal.  These statements connect to words that were said around communal tables in the life of the earliest Christian churches.  If I am not mistaken, in the Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopalian churches a person has to have been ordained by the church before they can serve communion.  Not everyone in those churches can serve this meal.  We believe in the priesthood of all believers.  So these men are not elite.  They are not conferring something upon us that only they can confer.  They are actually reminding us of the meaning of this meal.  They are reminding us of this meal’s connection to Jesus.  By so doing, they are reminding us also of the work of Jesus that made us into a community of faith and love.

After I lead a prayer, I encourage you to connect to the group with whom you are going to eat this meal.  Then, stand up and go as a small community to commune with one another and with our God.  Again, I encourage you, as you stand in line to receive the bread and the cup, to join hands, pray together, and express your faith and your common love for one another.

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