Instituting the Lord's Supper
January 1, 2012 | Patrick Preheim | 1st Corinthians 11:23-34

We pause for prayer. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations...from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You are God of the generations and our God; the God of 2011 and 2012. Let this approaching meal and our meditation upon it help us remember. Amen.

When putting together the worship calendar for 2012 I became modestly excited. What good fortune to have Sunday fall on New Year's Day! I signed up for this service as quickly as I could. Why? A couple of reasons. First, responsibilities this morning exempted me from late night parties. It is not so much that I don't enjoy a good party as is the debilitating effect which staying up late has on me. Last evening I celebrated the New Year on Newfoundland time which allowed me to tuck into bed at my normal hour of sleep. A pastors sleep is important, but…

More importantly, the opportunity to celebrate communion on New Year's Day brought back memories of my home community. Back at Bethesda Mennonites we didn't partake of the bread and cup often, but New Years along with Pentecost were deemed acceptable days for the Lord's supper. Our service today connects me with the generations of my people and others of our Christian tradition who have lived and died seeking to bring honour to God and Christ. Remembering the people from which we come is a good way to begin the year.
In addition to the past, Communion also brings us face to face with the Divine in this moment and prepares us for the days ahead. The self reflection and rededication which Paul writes of in 1st Corinthians 11 is perfect for New Year's Day. At this time of year there is much talk of New Year's resolutions. Communion, as Paul understands it, is a Christian form of a New Year's resolution. Rededication comes through self reflection. I will take a few moments to work with these themes of memory and rededication which appear in the text.

Paul uses the term “remember” twice in his institution of the Lord's Supper. He claims these words came to him from Jesus. And it must have been direct communication from the risen Christ because the Eucharistic accounts in Matthew, Mark, and John do not use the term "remember", and Luke only uses it once. In Paul Christ clarifies that this meal is one of remembering. Remembering what, though?

Remember the old story. I think Paul pursued a vein of remembering found in many Jewish rituals. In the Passover story the people remembered God's deliverance of us from Egypt; not them, but us. The story is told as if it happened to us. Similarly the litany to be intoned at presentation of the first fruits begins with the familiar words “a wandering Aramean was my ancestor” (Dt 26). Abraham's story is my story, our story. Gratitude in presenting the offering was tied to God's story with the ancestors. In this meal we give thanks for God's presence with us, but the story begins long before us. We remember that God preserved our people in the midst of revolutions in foreign lands. We remember that God led them new places in the 17th century. We remember the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon uneducated souls in the 16th century. We remember the Benedictines, Carmelites, Franciscans who preserved the faith in dark ages. We remember the courage of those initial Christians to follow a Lord other than Cesar. We remember Jesus who died so that death, fear, and hostility among us might be put to death. We remember that while Jesus was laid in a tomb with these demons God raised him from the dead. We remember the way in which Jesus healed, embraced, and guided people in his earthly ministry. We remember that he told his disciples to follow after him. We remember that in our baptisms we said yes to his invitation with all the joy, humility, pain, and peace that comes with following the Son of God. This liturgy, communion, connects the old story with our story.

Remembering God's care through the generations, however, is not the fullness of memory. Through the centuries God's people have been preserved to proclaim their faith in word and dead. Paul uses the term "proclaim" in his description of the Lord's supper. In Paul's understanding the bread and cup not only remind us of the past but they propel us into the future. Strengthened by the memories of this table we are sent forth to bind up the broken, to love the enemy, to speak the words that "Jesus is Lord". When Paul says we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again he is referring both to our participation at the table and our participation in the world. This witness to Jesus as Lord begins in community. Life in community, as in the world, is not easy. Inevitably there will be disagreements and hard feelings. This reality takes us to the second major theme in this text—reflection and rededication.

Paul is outraged by the way those of the Corinthian church treat each other. Their disrespect for one another in the body negatively impacts their proclamation. The antidote for these problems is twofold: examine yourself and discern the body. Paul doesn't say, "cut off the bad members." Instead, he says examine and discern. This process is a conscientious reflection on relationships. We are to consider the state of our relationship with Christ and with the other members of his body. Self evaluation at the table becomes an occasion to redirect one's life. It is good to have a structured opportunity to reflect on our relationship with Christ and the body, and then commit ourselves to self correction. Two points here bear clarifying.

In this passage Paul is not arguing for perfection. It is not an imperfect life that leads to judgement. No, it is inadequate discernment that will lead to problems. We don't have to be perfect to partake of the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. We do need, however, to be self reflective and committed to self correction. This table represents an opportunity to acknowledge those things that aren't great, and rededicate ourselves to the love of Christ. That, my friends, is grace. Grace is a good way to begin the year. But this grace is not cheap grace. It comes with reflection and rededication, and that can sometimes be painful.

A second significant point of this text is that this self examination is personal in nature. I shouldn't be telling you where your relationships are frayed and you shouldn't be telling me where I have problems. While we are part of a faith community accountable to the congregation, we each face God and Christ on our own. It is Anita's and my role to ask the question if we are at peace, or at least desire peace, in our relationship with Christ and the body. This is Lord's Table, though, not our table, and those who partake at this table are answerable to the Lord, not us. Even when Paul writes the troubled Corinthian congregation he doesn't tell them to stop partaking of the bread and cup. Rather, he reminds them a worthy participation in communion entails self reflection, consideration of the body, and recommitment to the way of Christ.

The communion table truly is a wonderful place to begin our new year. At the table we are reminded of the continuity of God's redeeming presence through history and in our lives. At the table we are reminded that our proclamation of Jesus begins here and continues into the world. At the table we are given opportunity to reflect on our lives, accept grace, and commit ourselves to right relationships once again. Let us take a moment or two in considering these things as we prepare to participate in the church's ritual of communion in a worthy manner. Amen.

(I was drawn to many of these themes from reading J. Paul Sampley's “First Letter to the Corinthians” which appears in The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary (volume X), pp 934-938).