Discerning The Body Of Christ (World Communion Sunday)

1 Corinthians 11: 17-28

Roger Lynn

October 6, 2019

World Communion Sunday

(click here for the audio of this sermon on YouTube)

The church at Corinth was a difficult group of people to deal with. We have two books in the New Testament to prove it. Over and over again the apostle Paul found himself struggling to help them understand what it meant to be followers of Jesus. And over and over again they found new ways to misunderstand. Not unlike the Church today, I suppose. Faithful living is an ongoing process of growing and learning and changing. 

For the Corinthian church, the business of the Lord’s Supper is a prime example. When Paul writes to them about what is going on it is clear that he is not pleased with what he has been hearing. They had taken the very heart of Christian worship and mutilated it almost beyond recognition. They had lost sight of what they were doing and why. 

In those early days of the Church, worship centered around the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. They sang some songs, read some scripture, prayed with each other, but mostly they ate together. The roots of the church potluck can be traced all the way back to the first century. Communion was a holy feast – sometimes even called a Love Feast. It was the gathering of the community of faith around a common table to break bread, share wine, and feed both body and soul together. They took very seriously Christ’s words, “As often as you do this, remember me.” This was a holy meal.

But the Corinthians had managed to corrupt this wonderful tradition. It had ceased to be an event which gathered the church together and bound them to each other. Instead it had become a divisive practice which separated the community into factions. The rich members of the church, who could get off work early or didn’t have to work at all, would arrive at church early and start partying. They ate good food and drank good wine and celebrated. And that would have been OK. The problem was they did this without waiting for the other members of the church who were not so well-off and had to work later into the day. By the time these working class folks arrived, the food was all gone, the wine had all been consumed, and the rich folks were well on their way to being drunk. And the church was divided. To this situation Paul speaks plainly. “If that is the way you are going to act, then you might as well just stay home because you are not being the Church.” 

As it turns out, Paul sees in the Lord’s Supper a characteristic which is part of the very essence of what it means to be Church – community. The language he uses to talk about this reality is “the Body of Christ.” In sharing together in the bread and the cup of the Lord’s Supper, which represent Christ’s essential self, the community of faith participates in a ritual reminder that the Church is literally the Body of Christ – the manifestation of Christ’s presence in the world. And when that body is divided, we are less than we are created, called, and empowered to be. So when Paul hears about some rich Corinthian Christians eating all the good food before others even have a chance to get to church, he understands it to be a far more serious matter than merely bad table manners. It strikes at the very fabric of the faith. 

In his comments to the church at Corinth, Paul encourages them to “discern the body” before participating in the Lord’s Supper. In other words, pay attention to the rest of the community of faith. Faith is not a solitary endeavor. We are in it together. For Paul there is no such thing as an individual Christian – only Christians in community. We forget that not only at our own peril, but at the peril of the whole church.

And so, on this day which we have set aside as World Communion Sunday, Paul’s words come to us. It is a powerful thing to reflect on the fact that today in countless thousands of places around the planet, in a wide variety of different ways, millions of people speaking of host of different languages will be gathering together to share in the same mysterious feast of grace which we will share in just a few moments. It is healthy to be reminded from time to time that we are not alone – that the Church extends far beyond the walls of this sanctuary, or the membership lists of the United Church of Christ, or the boundaries of the United States. God’s love, which we find revealed in Jesus Christ, binds us together with the whole world. But do we always recognize this reality? Do we always act as if it is true? Do we always “discern the Body of Christ”? 

In many ways I believe the answer to such questions is yes. Through our participation in the United Church of Christ we support a wide variety of work around the world, because we recognize that we are connected to them in the community of faith which is the Church. The same is true for all the outreach efforts we participate in here in our own community. We support such efforts, both locally and globally, because we understand that God’s love both calls us and empowers us to touch the lives of our neighbors (and everyone is our neighbor). Within the congregation we express in both words and actions a genuine openness and acceptance of others, even when their skin color or their economic status or their theology differ from our own. Figuratively and literally, when we gather as a community of faith around the Table of the Lord, we do, indeed, discern the Body of Christ. 

And it is also important to keep the question before us, so that we can always be on the lookout for other ways to genuinely celebrate the community of faith in which we are privileged to participate. We may not eat all the food before others can get to the table (although sometimes at potluck meals it is tempting), but are there others ways in which we separate ourselves from our sisters and brothers in faith? Globally and nationally, do we encourage our elected representatives to develop policies which promote just and equitable living conditions for all citizens of this planet? Do we practice personal lifestyle choices which support such conditions as well? And here within our own congregation, are we intentional about reaching out to include others, even when they aren’t a part of our usual group of friends? Do we remember to speak to visitors when we see them, and invite them to sit with us? Do we make an effort to do those little extra things which help to include and involve everyone in our community? Discerning the Body of Christ doesn’t just happen. We must continually strive to make it a priority for our life together.

May we remember that whether we are gathered around the communion table sharing in the bread and the cup, or gathered around the potluck table sharing in fried chicken and coleslaw, we are the Body of Christ eating and drinking together within the context of community. It is a community which stretches around the planet and across the span of time. We are bound together in Christ. May our lives continue to reflect that reality as we discern the Body of Christ in each other.