Eucharistic meditation

1 Corinthians 11:18-20: when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.

The Corinthian church was a mess. There were factions. One group sided with Paul, another with Peter, another with Apollos. Some claimed to be spiritual and despised the rest of the church as “fleshly.” There were battles concerning the gifts of the Spirit, and heresies regarding the resurrection. Relationships were broken, and these broken relationships were evident even at the Lord’s table.

The Corinthian church was a mess – just like every community since Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree. All human relationships are corrupted by selfishness and manipulation. People use what power they have, and use whatever system they are in, to get their way.

Employees vie for promotions, and employers frequently work hard to keep talented employees in their subordinate place; husband manipulate wives and wives husbands; academic quarrels are infamous for both their ferocity and their triviality; a child sets a trap to get a sibling in trouble and is gleeful over the consequences; you haven’t seen a fight unless you’ve been close to a church fight.

In the midst of this, God has planted and begun to nurture a different world. The eternal Son became flesh to glorify the Father and the Father the Son, and the Spirit has been sent to impress the divine pattern of life on the new humanity that is the church. This meal is our clearest glimpse of what that looks like: Each of us receives Christ and gives Christ, filled and then filling others, using our hands not to get our own way but to serve and glorify one another.

This Supper is the model, and we don’t measure up. We often resemble Corinth; our family dinners often look more like the Corinthian anti-Eucharist than the Lord’s Supper. But this Supper is not merely a measure designed to convict and condemn and to highlight the disorder we know all too well. This table is also a promise. It assures us week after week that the Father has given His Son to make us suitable table companions for Him and for one another.