1 Corinthians 11:17-22 (NRSV)
Abuses at the Lord’s Supper
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!
The abuses of the Lord’s supper in Corinth were severe. People were neglecting their call to look out for the least, the forgotten. They were looking out for themselves. Eating all of the bread before others arrived and drinking all the communion wine and getting drunk. But is that really all there is to this passage?
Paul says a whole lot more here. We gather as a body of believers not for ourselves or for the betterment of the better off, but the worse off. (This includes all of us, because better and worse off is in the eyes off God not man) We are to gather for others not our own good. We gather as a Christian community for the other not so we get something out of it. You may go to worship and get nothing, but be the one thing someone struggling needed that day.
Divisions in the gathering? Never! As believers we agree 100% of the time, that is why there are so many different denominations with different beliefs… Paul says it is ok for there to be factions otherwise we are not genuine. And do you want to know why there are not as many young people in our gatherings today? It is because they know we are not genuine. We are fake hen we go to worship because we think if we do not agree with everybody else and completely follow along we will be removed from the gathering. Genuine people disagree and that is the way life is and the way our gatherings should be. We are freed in the love of God to disagree with each other and still move ahead in God’s ministry and mission in the world.
So gather together as genuine people. Discussing your thoughts and ideas and dreams and do not neglect the last, lost, least or little among you, because we are all lost and last and little and least at some point.
aSacredRebel 