"Several years ago popular church of Christ author Carl Ketcherside told of two elders who shattered the morning worship service when the got into a fist fight at the communion table. They not only belonged to the same central Missouri church, but they were sons of the same parents. Theirs was a classic case of sibling rivalry gone amok. They had been growing angrier with each other for several months as each man accused his brother of pressuring their aged mother to change her will in favor of himself.
On this Sunday, when one went forward to serve at the Lord's Table, the other also went forward -- to accuse him of being unfit and to order him to sit down. Before the members could quite grasp what was happening the brothers' fists were flying. They had to be physically separated. The church chose up sides, some favoring one brother, some the other. It took a generation to repair the damage."*
Paul doesn't mention fist fights in his letter to the Corinthians but he is dealing with a similar situation. He refers in chapter one to how they were choosing up sides and pleads with them to be united in one mind. Their divisions were bound to affect their observance of the Lord's Supper. It was their custom to observe it as part of a communal meal but they had robbed it of any meaning by their divisions. Thus, he wrote in 11:20, Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. The way they conducted the meal and the communion actually perpetuated the divisions. Consequently, he drew a radical conclusion in 11:27, Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. To partake in an unworthy manner is to join with those who are guilty of crucifying the Lord.
He goes on to give this urgent advice to all who would escape being guilty of crucifying the Lord, Let a person examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup, for he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not discern the body rightly.
His use of the word "body" here does not refer to the physical body of Christ but to the church as the body of Christ. To discern the body rightly is to see it in its beautiful unity and harmony. One of the founders of the Christian Churches, Thomas Campbell, back in 1809, used this imagery of the body in a foundational document to describe the effect of division in the church of his day. He saw the divisions as a sword thrust into the body of Christ mangling and rending it to shreds. He too was pleading for the unity of Christ's body.
The divided, warring world we live in today needs a model of unity, of peace and harmony. May it see this in us when we gather around this table as the body of Christ.
*Carl Ketcherside related this story in Christian Standard (Oct 30, 1977). LeRoy Lawson used it in a communion meditation in Christian Standard (Feb 4, 2007).
No comments:
Post a Comment