In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
1 Corinthians 11:17-22 NIVUK
For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and ill, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I come I will give further instructions.
1 Corinthians 11:29-34 NIVUK
The church in Corinth had a problem. And it's a very modern problem: something many churches struggle with even today.
It's the problem of inequality.
Let me give you a perfect illustration. I go to church in a building that's over a hundred and thirty years old. The downstairs portion has been modernised, with removable seats and carpets and under-floor heating and a nice stage area, with a nice, modern pulpit and a huge projection screen in the back. But upstairs, the balcony, apart from the area where the tech people work their wonders, is largely unchanged. In fact, if you look carefully, you can see generations of etchings in its varnished fixed wooden pews.
But, rather more amusingly to the modern eye, you can also see fading numbers painted in the side of the pews. The reason for this is simple. In days of yore, churches were treated almost like theatres or cinemas or sporting venues. Rich people could pay a fee to reserve a pew where they would sit. If someone else sat there, a steward would assist in their removal so that their "betters" could get what they paid for: a good view of the pulpit.
Quite amazing, isn't it?
Yet right from the beginning churches were told in quite the strongest terms that this kind of behaviour is utterly unacceptable:
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’ you are doing right. But if you show favouritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as law-breakers.
James 2:1-9 NIVUK
Yet church history is littered with shameful segregationalism: whether in the American Deep South or South Africa or even on European soil against Irish or Germans or the poor (in general), churches have had groups of people who either 'aren't like us' or are just plain not welcome.
That is fundamentally wrong. It is anti-Gospel.
I have even been in churches where cliques have driven out seekers, where political power-plays have driven out young people, where members have looked down on and cast out those who do not conform to their picture of what a Christian should be.
This has nothing to do with the church. This is wrong. It is utterly sinful. If we have been involved in this disgusting, anti-Christian, anti-Gospel behaviour, we must confess it and repent. There can be no place for it in the church. None at all.
You see, just as in the days of the Corinthian church, our society has sneezed and Christendom has caught the cold. And we must utterly renounce it.
But how can I say this with any certainty?
Because of what the Bible says:
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:26-28 NIVUK
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
Ephesians 4:1-7 NIVUK
And more fundamentally, elsewhere in 1 Corinthians:
Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:15-27 NIVUK
You see, every Christian has exactly the same rights to be part of the Body of Christ. Every Christian has exactly the same claims to grace. Every Christian has the same standing before the Lord. No-one is greater. No-one is less. On the most important measure and metric this life will ever have, we are all the same.
And do you know what that is?
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 3:23 NIVUK
We have no rights to be part of the Body of Christ. We have no claim to grace outside of Christ. Our standing before the Lord is the same because we are all sinners.
The Lord's Supper ought to be the greatest cure for pride and the greatest promoter of humility. How can you boast of your own achievements and be proud of your own successes when on that table lie the elements that remind us of the cold, hard fact that Jesus needed to die to save you from yourself?
If we can stand before God and base our defence against the charge of sinner by claiming to be better than our fellow human being then we have badly missed the point. We are all sinners. We all stand condemned. We have all failed. It doesn't matter by how much or by how little. There are no prizes for trying. Because we have all failed, Jesus Christ had to die on the cross to save us. So where is our boasting now? Isn't it completely and utterly out of place?
This is why Paul had to be so harsh with the Corinthians. He wasn't against them having a good time. He was dead against them refusing to share with their brothers and sisters during a so-called "love feast" and decadently flaunting their wealth in front of the less well off. Later on in his correspondence with them, he wrote these words about giving:
Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: ‘The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.’
2 Corinthians 8:13-15 NIVUK
Every believer is equal before God and Paul wanted the Lord's Supper to reflect that.
Of course, it could be argued that we've taken it too far. The original Lord's Supper was a communal meal, not a few meagre morsels at the end of a church service. It stemmed from the Passover which, while a sombre occasion, was also joyous as it reminded the Israelites of their Divine deliverance from Egypt. It was a feast, not a famine.
However, the equality principle must remain a key part of the celebration. We must acknowledge before God that the elements remind us of our equality on the basis of the most fundamental measure of humankind: that of our sin and our desperate need of grace.
I have journeyed through several former (and at least one current) communist nations. Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, Communism in its many forms, has always promised equality for everyone. It has never delivered. It has instead provided 'more equality' for the chosen few and 'less equality' for the many.
For all its talk about 'trickling down' and 'levelling up', capitalism can never and will never deliver equality. By definition it favours the wealth generators and neglects the poor.
Liberal economies also can never deliver equality, no matter how hard they try.
Every other religious and philosophical and economical and political system can try as hard as it likes - equality will forever be beyond its grasp.
There is only one place where deep, fundamental equality is possible. And that place is at the foot of the cross. The Lord's Supper stands as a reminder of that fact and offers a stern, chastening rebuke to those who try to set themselves above other people.
Or it would, if we would only listen.
But the Lord's Supper is not just about the memory and equality of the church, it is also about THE CHURCH'S UNITY.
One day, maybe one day the church will wake up to this. We are all one in Christ Jesus. No one ought to be looking down on anyone else. If you love the Lord and have received him as Lord and saviour then you should be welcome to participate in communion and welcomed into the church.