Lent: 3/24/09
March 24, 2009
Genesis 49:29-50:14
1 Corinthians 11:2-34
Mark 8:1-10
“Discerning the Body”
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. – 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 (NRSV)
Whenever I have presided at the Lord’s Table, I have always witnessed some who are hesitant to come forward and receive and there are almost always a few who never come at all. This is a shame, because Communion is a major means of extraordinary grace that God has provided for the spiritual nourishment of God’s people. Communion is how we re-member (put back together or recreate) the body of Christ. The Eucharistic celebration is one of the most evident ways in which we are transformed from being a crowd of individuals into a single community of faith. It is the sharing of the cup and bread that unites us with all other Christians around the world and across time.
The obvious question becomes, “why are so many hesitant to receive?” When I have had the opportunity to ask the answers given usually involve some feeling of unworthiness or lack of understand as to what the sacrament means. On the rare occasion I have heard a direct reference to the passage from I Corinthians that we read today. Such feelings of unworthiness and confusion are understandable. Who is truly worthy of God’s acts of self-giving? Who is truly able to understand this Holy Mystery in which we come into the real presence of Christ? Having said that, I do not think that Paul would have envisioned people abstaining from Holy Communion on these grounds alone.
The problem that Paul is addressing is the failure of certain individuals to discern or recognize the difference between a collection of individuals and the corporate identity of the community together as the body of Christ. The Corinthians were unworthy because they were partaking as individuals. They were not considering others who were being excluded by their greed and excess. There is little danger of someone showing up hours before our services of Word and Table and eating and drinking all the elements and thus causing the rest of the congregation to go hungry and empty.
There is a cautionary word for us in this however. We should not try to make the Eucharistic celebration a private matter. This is not the time for “me and Jesus” time as some might assume. This is a very public and (surprise!) communal moment in the life of the church. As a confession, the celebration of Holy Communion is something that many Protestants had done poorly for a long time. There has been an ongoing renewal movement over the past forty years in the Church to rediscover and reclaim both the communal and celebratory (Eucharist means “Thanksgiving”) nature of the sacrament. This is why most mainline churches no longer exclusively use the shot glasses and indigestible pellets in favor of a common cup and bread that looks and smells and taste like bread. It is a celebration of sharing and extravagance and hospitality and welcome and love.
We discern the body when we allow the experience to transform us into a restored people. We discern the body when we become connected and united together. We discern the body when we allow the experience of God’s grace and real presence to re-member us into the body of Christ for the world, redeemed by his blood.
There is no fear or sorrow that should separate us from experiencing God’s gift in the breaking of the bread or in the taking in the cup. It is after all the only remedy that such fear and sorrow needs.
Let us pray…
We bless you for the signs of your love
revealed in the bread and cup.
By these gifts, grant us not only hope
until we gather at the heavenly banquet,
but also graciousness that we may share with others
among us the fruits of this earth.
Bind into one company of hope
and one community of service
all that you have made and redeemed
by the sacrificial life and death of Jesus,
our risen Lord. Amen.
-Laurence Hull Stookey
This Day: A Wesleyan Way of Prayer