February 5, 2012
Together Around One Table
- 1 Corinthians 11:23-24
- Rev. Jim Capps
Through the years, I have often asked one of what are called the Quaker Questions to break the ice for small groups. “What was the center of warmth in the first home you remember living in?” While there are all kinds of answers like the furnace or the fire place or various rooms, the great majority of people respond that it is the kitchen table.
Certainly it is at the kitchen table where most family meals are eaten with conversation about what is happening in each person’s life. I’m afraid we have lost something more important than we realize when we don’t share meals together as families because of school, sports, or work schedules. It’s also the place where snacks are eaten and conversations take place after busy school or work days. It can be a key time for processing life with people who love you.
Because kitchen tables are often the place where the most meaningful conversations take place, I had a dining room table placed in my office when I was a pastor in Southport. It seemed like the best place for all kinds of happenings: Committees, study groups, leadership teams, and more than any other meetings with couples who were preparing for marriage or who were working through issues in their lives.
Meals around tables are a wonderful place for the Family of Faith to meet. I deeply appreciate the fellowship brunches we have here at ZPC whenever we have a 5th Sunday. It’s such a great place for not only enjoying poached preacher under glass if you have just attended the worship service, or more importantly to meet and/or grow in your relationship with other members of the Family of Faith. In our busy, hurried lives, we have lost something when we no longer have potluck meals together with people bringing their specialties.
In Acts 2, the passage from which Pat Smith preached a couple of weeks back, the fellowship which took place at meals was essential in the development of the Early Church. This morning we are going to look briefly at Communion or the Lord’s Supper, which along with Baptism make up the two sacraments we regularly celebrate as Presbyterians.
A sacrament is an outward, visible symbol of an inward, invisible truth. It is a kind of living drama which helps us remember the life and ministry of Jesus. But more than that, a sacrament also calls us to new and renewed commitment to Jesus as our Savior and Lord. God wants us to be renewed by the Spirit as we gather together around one table.
Today as I read the familiar words from I Corinthians 11:23-34, I want us to visualize 3 tables around which Christ Followers have and still gather today- the Passover Table in the Upper Room, the communion table for the Family of Faith there in Corinth and our table here at ZPC this morning. Read.
LET’S TAKE A QUICK GLIMPSE AT THE PASSOVER TABLE A IN THE UPPER ROOM.
It’s important to go back to that Passover Thursday night before Jesus’ crucifixion the next day. Jesus and His disciples were in the upper room there in the heart of Jerusalem. After an action-packed week, with the Triumphal Entry into the City on Sunday, the days were filled with run-ins with the religious leaders as well teaching moments for Jesus. After raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus popularity had grown greatly. There were many who thought this would be the kairos moment when Jesus would prove himself to be the Messiah, in the Line of David, by setting up His kingdom.
Jesus had emptied Himself in loving service to His disciples when He washed their feet. They had sacrificed a lamb and remembered the death angel passing over Israel just before the Exodus when God led Israel out of Egyptian bondage. They had gone through all the rituals of the Passover meal when Jesus stood before the table.
Did you realize that many would say that Jesus’ disciples were older teen-agers. It was a heady thing for them to have been with Him over those three years of His ministry. They were expecting Him to be the New Moses or better yet, the New David who would take control and set up His kingdom. In their immaturity, they must of all be wondering who would get the best positions in His new regime.
As Jesus looked into the eyes of each of these young men who had become so special to Him, He knew that they had no idea what was about to happen next. Can’t you imagine the tears of compassion welling up in His eyes as He knew that each one of them except John would die violent deaths. John, who would care for Jesus’ mother, would be exiled to the Island of Patmos.
As He begins to speak, talking about His body being broken and blood shed, they thought Jesus had gone paranoid on them. He needed to get some rest. This week had taken its toll. The next day, Jesus would become the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” just as John said He would when he first pointed them to Jesus.
In a graphic way Jesus sets up the sacrament by breaking bread which was to symbolize His broken body and pouring the wine to be like His blood that would be poured out for them. They really wouldn’t understand until later when they remembered Jesus’ words and actions, what had really happened around the table that evening.
As we reflect upon that Passover table and Jesus with His disciples, like them, there still may be a lot that we are processing here today.
LET’S NEXT MOVE TO TABLE WHERE THE LORD’S SUPPER WAS SERVED IN CORINTH.
Unlike the way we usually celebrate the Lord’s Supper today, the early Christ Followers in Corinth probably had a pot-luck dinner ahead of time. Really they were probably closer to Jesus’ upper room experience at the end of the Passover meal than we are at the end of a worship service.
As I said last week, Corinth was a major seaport in southern Greece known for its immoral ways. Many of them were used to going to the Temple of Aphrodite, where there was a really pagan celebration. Following the example of the early believers they would gather for fellowship in what was called an Agape Meal. The problem came with the rich bringing lots of food for their family and friends and not sharing it with the poor who had little to eat. As was true of the misuse of gifts of the Spirit, which we talked about last week, there must have been a sense of superiority with those who ate too much. To go a step further it was BYOB and many of the rich also drank too much wine. They were more filled with the spirits than they were the Spirit.
Can you imagine the divisions that this caused between the “haves and the have-nots?” Both sides were critical of the other. If this is the way they are going to behave, Paul instructs them to eat and drink in their homes ahead of time. It is not God’s purpose that the rich humiliate the poor.
He then harkens back to that first Lord’s Supper around the Passover table in the upper room. Instead of dividing them, the Lord’s Table should draw them together in fellowship and unity as they together remember the Lord’s death until He come again. The Greek word for fellowship is koinonia which means sharing all things, “common-union,” “common-unity.” It was a fellowship brought about by the Holy Spirit.
Paul goes on to say that the Lord’s Supper was a Holy meal not to be taken lightly. All who gather around this table should examine themselves before God, realizing that they bring judgment on themselves if they take it lightly and demean others. When genuine examination took place, the Spirit would convict them or their abuses.
What Jesus had intended to bring them together in the deepest of ways, had caused them to be divided. Renewed by the Spirit, the table was meant to bring them “common-union,” but because of their selfish ways, it brought chaos and separation. For that to take place, they needed the mind of Jesus which meant a willing to be broken and poured out for others. If that took place their differences and divisions would melt away naturally.
Sounds familiar as we think of all the ways the church through the ages has been divided and fought with each other. Often those vicious arguments have centered around things meant to be holy like the Lord’s Supper.
NOW, LET US MOVE TO THIS TABLE AROUND WHICH WE HAVE GATHERED TODAY.
While 2000 years separate us from the first two tables, there is an amazing similarity. Granted, we live in an entirely different age than Jesus and His disciples there in the upper room in Jerusalem. We may be a little bit closer to the setting of that second table in Corinth.
There is a sense, like both of those tables, that Jesus is the host who set the table for us. He looks at each one of with eyes of love just as he looked upon his disciples and those believers in Corinth. Jesus was willing to prove that love by having his body broken and blood outpoured for us. The elements of this sacrament of Communion or The Lord’s Supper, the bread and the cup, are vividly tangible symbols as we gather around this table of remembrance this morning.
As was true for them, we are living in a world filled with uncertainty and sometimes hostility. This table calls us to place our ultimate trust in the Christ who was willing to go to this extent to show His love and loyalty to us. We can find peace and hope in the fact that the Risen Lord has been faithful in every situation since those first two tables.
Like them, aided by the same Holy Spirit, we are called to examine our lives as we gather around this table today. As we view the signs of God’s grace visually demonstrated in the bread and juice and then we look at ourselves, maybe you feel unclean and unworthy. Possibly, it’s because, if the truth be known, you have never entered into a relationship with the loving Lord who gave Himself. This table serves as a living invitation to come and taste of the One who called Himself the Bread of Life. Are you hungry for that relationship which brings forgiveness for our past, joy and peace in the present, and hope for the future. If that’s you, come!
Maybe as you examine yourself, you feel unworthy because you have entered into a relationship with this Christ, have found Him to be faithful, but you know you have not lived upon to your commitment. You have been unfaithful. If, as you view the symbols of Christ’s love and grace, you are genuinely sorry for your unfaithfulness, don’t stay away, but run to this table of forgiveness and experience the relief and joy of reconciliation.
Maybe this table has become commonplace. You can almost go on “auto pilot” when we get to the words of institution or eating and drinking the meal. If that’s you, could it be that God wants to bring new meaning for you. Possibly it’s getting a fresh glimpse of Jesus and what He did to give us something to remember.
Maybe like the people at Corinth, you realize that you are holding a grudge or in some way feel separated from someone here or someone in your sphere of acquaintances. This table calls you to confess that to God and commit what you can do to offer reconciliation. Maybe it will be a conversation and an embraced after the service; possibly a phone call or a visit this week. That’s a crucial action if you and I are faithful followers of the One who set this table.
To go one step further, as we, renewed by the Spirit, gather around this, Jesus is calling us to be willing to be broken and poured out for others, like He was for us. Using the gifts of the Spirit, which we talked about last week, He is calling each of as individuals and us as a church to empty ourselves in loving service to the world around us that needs in so many ways what we have to offer. That’s what it means to follow Christ.
Dear friends, Jesus, the Risen and Reigning Lord, who was present as the Host of the first two tables, stands before us today at the head of this table. His arms are open as He invites us to come to the table. As His eyes meet each one of ours, He knows each one of us better than we know ourselves. He was willing to have His body broken and blood shed so that you and I, renewed by the Spirit would gather around this table. He invites us to come.