St John the Beloved
Sermon and teaching audio from St John Church in Cincinnati Ohio.
St John the Beloved
Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers: How the Lord's Supper Dissolves Our Divisions
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Step through the veil between worlds as we explore the revolutionary meaning of the Lord's Supper. Far more than a ritual or tradition, communion represents that extraordinary moment where heaven and earth intersect, where the kingdom of God breaks into our divided reality.
The Corinthian church struggled with this concept, allowing social hierarchies to corrupt their practice. The wealthy feasted while the poor went hungry—transforming what should have been a demonstration of radical equality into just another Roman banquet. Paul's rebuke cuts deep: "When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat."
Three essential elements make communion truly meaningful: seeing ourselves honestly, seeing one another as equals, and seeing the King who makes it all possible. Like a black light revealing what normal light conceals, the gospel exposes our hidden selfishness and pride—not to condemn us but to heal us. At the table, we discover our radical equality as sinners in need of grace.
The Christmas Truce of 1914 gives us a glimpse of what communion represents—enemies laying down weapons to celebrate together in no-man's land. Similarly, at the Lord's table, all divisions dissolve. We participate not as master and slave, rich and poor, but as brothers and sisters united in Christ. This sacred feast reminds us that underneath our worldly roles lies a deeper reality: we are one family in Jesus.
As we receive the bread and cup, we bind ourselves to Christ like partners in a three-legged race—our success dependent not on our strength but on his commitment to carry us. We cannot approach the table while clutching grudges or ignoring others' burdens. True communion demands forgiveness and sharing in one another's struggles.
Join us in rediscovering how this ancient practice challenges the divisions of our world and proclaims a coming kingdom where all are one in Christ. Let the reality of communion transform not just our Sunday worship but our Monday through Saturday lives.
1 Corinthians, chapter 11, beginning in verse 17,. The Word of God reads this way, but 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 in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat, for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup, for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment About the other things. I will give directions when I come. This is God's Word. Thanks be to God and you may be seated, and may God bless this reading and preaching of His Word.
Speaker 1:This past weekend is the opening weekend for the Ohio State Renaissance Festival. We already have two weekends that we have tickets that we plan to go. I don't know if anyone else in here has bought their tickets yet, or maybe you're all season pass holders, but since you may not know this, if you go to Ren Faire or if you have gone for a number of years, I'm sure that you noticed that since COVID, renaissance festivals around the country have absolutely exploded in popularity. What was once sort of this quirky niche event it has is now mainstream in every way Massive crowds, long lines to get turkey legs and more people than ever making merry. Our family first went. It took us a long time, we were late to the party. We first discovered Ren Faire in 2021, just right after COVID, and every year since that we've gone, it has gotten bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1:Why the surge of interest in recent years, especially since 2020? I think it's because there may be a lot of reasons, but one reason is I think it's because COVID left us all a little weary of the world that we live in and longing for another world, a better world, a world of fairies and dragons and maybe just a little bit of magic. The world that we live in feels tired, divided and broken, but the Ren Faire gives all of us a chance. It's one place that gives us a chance, just for a day, to step out of our ordinary lives and into something fantastic and magical For a day. The accountant who's chained to his desk can be the brave knight that he knows that he is deep down. The college student can be a cunning rogue picking pockets. Don't do that, you'll get kicked out. The mom of three can be a tavern wench or a powerful wizard, or whatever it is she wants to be. It's a place where, just for a while, we can step out of the usual roles and rules of life and inhabit a different story. And the reason that I share that is because what Paul is talking about in our passage today is actually something very similar, but it's infinitely more important.
Speaker 1:Something had gone horribly wrong with how the Corinthians were practicing the Lord's Supper, and in verse 18, paul names the significant problem that is underlying all of the other issues with how they're celebrating the Lord's Supper. The problem is divisions. The Corinthians, like us, lived in a deeply divided world, in a deeply divided city, but for them, their biggest division in the city of Corinth was between the wealthy elite and the working poor, between the rich merchants who had been successful in Corinth, and the retired Roman military who had been given land there and were wealthy, and the working poor In that division, the same one that shaped their daily lives and that defined their rules and roles for life, had infected their worship, and it had infected even the Lord's Supper in the way that they practiced it. And Paul tells them very bluntly. He says when you come together, it's not for everyone's good, but it's actually for the worse, and what you're celebrating is not the Lord's Supper at all. Instead of building up the body of Christ, they were tearing it apart.
Speaker 1:Now, why is that such a big deal? Isn't the Lord's Supper just a sort of a quasi-meaningless ritual or a tradition that we do and it's? You know, it's just a few moments, with a little bit of bread and a little bit of wine. Why is Paul making such a big deal about this? It's because the Lord's Supper is not just a powerless ritual, but it is a meal unlike any other meal, and it is a sacred moment where heaven and earth meet in the veil between the kingdom of Jesus, the heavenly kingdom of God and the kingdom of man that we live in. That veil is thinnest at the Lord's Supper and if we celebrate it rightly, we actually get a glimpse of another world. We step out of our world into another world, into the kingdom of God which is breaking into our own world, and in that moment all of the divisions that mark our daily lives, all of the things that separate us, fall away. And at the Lord's table there is this radical equality where there's only one guest of honor, or host rather, and that's Jesus, and all of us are equals, sons and daughters of the living God, children of God, one in Jesus Christ, and we all sit at the king's table.
Speaker 1:But, unlike the Ren Faire, the Lord's Supper is not just a temporary escape into some kind of fantasy land, but it's a foretaste of the coming kingdom. We are stepping into the world that is breaking in to our own, and when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, it is meant to infuse the reality of the kingdom into the life that we live here and now. All of that sounds very lofty and maybe intellectual, but what does it mean? Well, three things happen that make the Lord's Supper the Lord's Supper and give it its kingdom power. And without these things it is not the Lord's Supper at all.
Speaker 1:So in the Lord's Supper we must do three things we must see ourselves, we must see one another and we must see the King. Those three things must happen in the Lord's Supper to see ourselves, to see one another and to see the King. So first, see ourselves. In order to celebrate the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. Paul says that we must see ourselves accurately, or in other words we must see ourselves as unworthy. We have to see ourselves understand that we are unworthy. We have to see ourselves understand that we are unworthy in order to worthily celebrate the Lord's Supper. First we need to understand, as we get into this, that the Corinthians did church a little bit differently than how we do it, and if you went to Corinth and went to one of their church services, you might not like it very much. It's pretty different from how the western church has imagined what worship should be.
Speaker 1:But I'll just give you a few examples. So they probably met in the home of a wealthy patron, because they almost certainly did not own their own property. So they met in a large home of a wealthy patron or a church member. They likely met on Sunday evening because in the Lord's Supper they are sharing supper together. So they probably met at supper time and their worship gathering was likely several hours long, maybe even going long into the evening, and had a meal included, as we'll see in coming weeks. There were probably multiple preachers, so you guys just have to sit through one. You know 35 minute sermon. They probably had multiple, maybe hour long sermons.
Speaker 1:From this passage with the Lord's supper, it appears that the Corinthians imitated the last supper, so bread would be set apart and broken and served as the body of Christ. Then they would all eat dinner together. They would eat supper together and then after supper, at the end of the meal, wine would be served as the blood of Christ, very similar to what the last supper would have been like. That's something what their worship service might have been like. So you know, if you're interested in that, maybe we can talk to us. The session can discuss, maybe giving it a try sometime. But that context helps us see the problem that was happening in Corinth. The problem again Paul says, is divisions. The problem is that divisions that existed in the world made their way into the Lord's Supper. Paul says that in verse 18.
Speaker 1:For group meals in their culture in the Lord's Supper, they were that in verse 18. For group meals in their culture in the Lord's Supper they were thinking of it as just one more group meal. But for group meals in their culture it was common for each person or for each family to bring their own food for themselves. So if you were invited to a group meal, you would pack a basket of food for you and for your family and you would bring it. It was not at all like a potluck style where everybody brings food to share. So the wealthy would bring their food, and it would be plenty of rich food that they would enjoy, while the working poor brought the little that they had to eat.
Speaker 1:And Paul puts it this way in verse 21. He says for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. Everyone's bringing their own food. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. And what he means by that is one has very little to eat, doesn't have enough, they go hungry and the other has way more than they need. They gorge themselves. Even they get drunk. They have plenty of wine and plenty of food. And there is this. There is the same reality that existed in their world with wealthy and poor showed itself at the Lord's Supper. It's possible that the wealthy and the prestigious even sat at their own tables in the inner dining rooms while the poor ate out in the courtyard of the house that they were worshiping in, because this would have matched what would typically happen in a Roman banquet.
Speaker 1:But the Lord's table, paul says, should be nothing like that. It should be radically different. It should be the one place in the world where master and slave, where employer and employee, where husband and wife, where father and son, where children and parents sit together as equals and as brothers and as one in Christ. I mean, if you can imagine that in the ancient world, where typically you would have a master-slave relationship, where the master eats first and the servant serves and then eats separately, not at the Lord's table. At the Lord's table they should sit together as brothers. This is why Paul says that they must examine themselves. In verse 28, he says let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. And then, in verse 31 and 32, he says but if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged, but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So Paul is saying that as they examine themselves in the light of the gospel, what they should see is that they are all equally unworthy to sit at the Lord's table. The master and the slave are equally unworthy. The rich and the poor are equally unworthy as they examine themselves In their daily life. There may be those power dynamics, there may be the wealthy merchant in the common field hand, and that is how those are the roles that they play in daily life. But at the Lord's table none of that matters. At the Lord's table there are only sinners in need of grace. No one has an advantage, no one has a disadvantage. All are equally sinners in need of God's grace. If they examined themselves and judged themselves and saw themselves as sinners in need of grace, their feasting should look very different than it does from the stratified Roman banquet that they were used to and sort of importing into the Lord's Supper.
Speaker 1:When I was a kid, I had a black light in my bedroom that I got from Spencer's Gifts. How many of you had a black light in your room when you were a kid? Just the cool ones, as I suspected An ultraviolet light, and everybody knows what a black light does. You know when you turn off all the normal lights and you turn the black light on, the whole room changes. Everything changes. Some things you couldn't see before suddenly become visible. Some things you could't see before suddenly become visible. Some things that some things you could see become invisible. And other things become visible. Dust and dirt that was invisible before now shows clearly Certain chemicals that might be invisible in normal light shine clearly in UV light.
Speaker 1:The gospel is like a UV light. In that sense it's like a black light where in ordinary light we can look pretty clean, or in ordinary light, you know, I can look like a wealthy, successful person, another person can look disheveled or whatever in ordinary light. But when the light of the gospel shines, suddenly hidden things, the selfishness, the pride, the resentments in my own heart show up more clearly in the light of the gospel, and that's good news. We need them to show up because only what is exposed can be healed. Only what's exposed can be recognized and repented of and then healed. So Paul says that as we judge ourselves, as we examine ourselves, as we come to the Lord's Supper, and we allow the gospel to reveal these things in our lives and hearts that need to be repented of, we allow God to discipline us, to heal us and to save us, so that we won't be condemned along with the world.
Speaker 1:So to make an application of that, all who partake of the Lord's Supper must examine themselves. We must see ourselves as we come to the table. And this means that we have to come to the table with humility and with repentance. And I'll put it like this In our celebration of the Lord's Supper if you come to the table with no awareness of your own sin, no need for fresh mercy, no need for repentance, if that's how you come to the table, you have not really examined yourself. Look again, Look again in the light of the gospel.
Speaker 1:All who come to the table, when we come to the table, what we're saying is me too. All who come to the table must be able to say me too. Do you remember the me too movement In the me too, which, however many years ago that was what it meant back then was I too am a victim, or I too have been abused. I've been through this as well. That's what it meant. The Lord's Supper flips the script on that, because we come saying me too. I am also a perpetrator, I am also one who has inflicted pain, I'm one who is in need of repentance. I too have done wrong. I too am a sinner. I too need mercy, and so all of us are made radically equal at the foot of the cross. At the foot of the cross, there is no rich and poor, there is no male and female, there is no superior and inferior. All of us are sinners in need of God's grace. And here's one practical outworking of that. So just an example of the difference that that makes.
Speaker 1:Suppose you and your spouse get in a fight over the weekend, or maybe you get in a fight on your way to church. Maybe some of you did that this morning. What does the Lord's Supper do to bring healing or to bring grace to that? Maybe even you're sitting here today and you're still mad at each other. Maybe you're not even on speaking terms. When we come to the table, we're no longer thinking about how we have been wronged. We're looking at ourselves and we're thinking about the wrong that we have done. We're thinking about how we have harmed and how we have sinned against God and against our neighbor. So whatever your spouse did to upset you at the Lord's table, you should see yourself and be able to say I too am a sinner, I too have inflicted harm, and I'm no better than anybody else, and I am equally in need of God's grace.
Speaker 1:So to celebrate the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner, we must see ourselves. It should be maybe one of the only places on planet Earth where we can come and see ourselves and sit together as equals at the Lord's table. So we have to do that. We've got to see one another, but secondly, at the Lord's table. So we have to do that. We've got to see one another, but secondly sorry we have to see ourselves. Secondly, we have to see one another. In order to celebrate the Lord's supper in a worthy manner, we must see one another as brothers and sisters, and that flows out of seeing ourselves, but we see one another. Paul makes it plain in verses 20 through 22. He says when you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat, for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
Speaker 1:So in Corinth, like most cities in the ancient Roman world, the church would have been a mix of wealthy landowners, and those would have been retired Roman soldiers who were awarded parcels of land in a place like Corinth, or merchants who had moved to the port city of Corinth and had done well in their businesses and owned land. So you would have these households which owned land, and in ancient economics everything depended on the household. So you were either the master of a household or you belonged to a household, whether you were a son or daughter or a spouse or a servant or a client who would attach yourself to a wealthy household. That was their economic system. If you were not attached to a household, you were economically doomed. It was not a good place to be. So you had these two classes of people, those who own land and the working poor, who were connected to those households In daily life. Those two groups of people did not eat together, they did not meet together. The wealthy would eat first, they would eat the best, they would eat in private rooms and the servants and the clients attached to the household ate separately in a different place, usually after they had finished serving their masters and when the church gathered, there would be still those two kinds of people. When the church gathered, those same social patterns carried over. They still existed. The wealthy sat together, they enjoyed their food and their wine, while the poor either went hungry or just ate the meager food that they had to eat.
Speaker 1:And Paul says that it's not the Lord's Supper that you're eating when you do this. It's just another Roman banquet. But the Lord's table is supposed to proclaim something radically different. It's supposed to proclaim the death of Jesus. Paul says that when you celebrate this, you are proclaiming the death of Jesus, the Son of God, who humbled himself, took the form of a servant and gave his life to make us one family. Who gave his life to humble those who are high and lofty and to lift up those who are poor and needy, to make a level path. That's what it proclaims. To come to the table, then, and to cling to social hierarchies denies the very gospel that the meal proclaims.
Speaker 1:So Paul's solution shows up in verse 33. He says so then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, he says wait for one another. That phrase, wait for one another. The translators have to make a choice there of how they're going to translate this. It can mean wait for one another, but it can also mean share with one another. Share with one another. Either way, the idea is the same. At the Lord's table there's one host and that's Jesus, and everyone else is a guest of honor. Everyone is an equal guest at the Lord's table. The rich don't eat first or best, while the poor wait outside, but everyone sits together and shares together and remember together what the king has done for them all.
Speaker 1:This practice would have had radical world upending effects for ancient Corinth, and it should for us as well, because at the Lord's table they were no longer master and slave. It was the one moment in their whole week where that dynamic disappeared. They're no longer master and slave. At the Lord's table, they're brothers and sisters. And stepping into that kingdom reality, every Lord's day would begin to transform how they saw one another every other day of the week In their daily lives. There would still be roles. They would go back to master of the house and servant. They would go back to husband and wife. They would go back to parent and child. Those things don't disappear, but those roles get transformed by the gospel and by the Lord's table. They no longer define our deepest reality.
Speaker 1:Paul says this in Galatians 3. He says there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now Paul's not saying there that, because of the gospel, that we no longer play these roles or inhabit these roles in daily life, but he's saying underneath all of that, deep down, none of those things matter. There is a radical equality in Jesus Christ. The table reminds us of that deeper reality. And when they went back to their homes and their fields and their lives, they had to remember that, yes, I have a servant, but he's not my inferior, he's my brother. Or yes, I have a master, but he's not the inferior, he's my brother. Or yes, I have a master, but he's not the one I'm really serving. I'm really serving Jesus as I serve him, so I'm going to serve him well, but he is my brother in Christ. At the Lord's table, every barrier comes down. There is no rich or poor, there is no powerful or powerless, no first class and second class Christians. There are only brothers and sisters, equal recipients of mercy, equal members of the family of God. And so we come to the table as that, and when we leave the table we carry that reality with us back into our homes and our workplaces and our neighborhoods and we begin to see one another not through the eyes of the world but through the eyes of the kingdom. So to partake worthily of the Lord's Supper, we have to see everyone at the table as brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1:By December of 1914, world War II or sorry, world War I had been underway for several months and on the front lines in Europe the Allies dug in against the Germans in trench warfare On Christmas Eve. Some of you know this story. On Christmas Eve the front was quiet but over the waste of no man's land the Allies could hear the Germans begin to sing Christmas carols like Stille Nacht, which is Silent Night. So they would sing that, and then the Allies would respond and they would sing some of their own Christmas carols. And throughout the night little lights began to appear across the trenches, little Christmas trees went up along the front line. And on the next morning, christmas day, this was completely grassroots. This was not organized from generals or from above, but soldiers from both sides tentatively put down their weapons and they met one another in no man's land and they initiated a temporary truce on that Christmas day and for that day they stopped their fighting. They exchanged what small gifts they could on the front lines cigarettes and whatever else that they had, and they shared in some places, christmas, christmas dinner together, and some of them even played soccer against one another. The famous Christmas truce of 1914 only lasted a day before they returned to their fighting.
Speaker 1:But this gives us just a little picture of what the Lord's Supper is supposed to be and what it is supposed to do At the Lord's table. All divisions, all things that normally divide us, whether it's rich and poor, or superior, inferior, power dynamics, whether it's racial tensions or tensions between men and women, everything that divides us dissolves. All sins are forgiven, enemies are reconciled and we are brought together by the master of the feast into one body. So to partake of the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner, we've got to see ourselves, but we also have to see one another as brothers and sisters. And here are some implications of that, just two.
Speaker 1:Number one when you come to the Lord's table. One when you come to the Lord's table, forgive. When you come to the Lord's table, forgive. You cannot receive the body and blood of our Lord and hold on to a grudge at the same time. If you come to the table with a grudge and you leave the table with a grudge, you have not received the Lord's supper, you have not received the body and blood of our Lord. You have to let go Lord's Supper. You have not received the body and blood of our Lord. You have to let go of the one in order to receive the other. Jesus teaches us to pray. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. You cannot come to the table with a grudge and leave with that same grudge. So when you come to the table, consider these questions what pain am I holding on to, that I need to let go of, that I need to be healed of, or who has offended me that I need to forgive and I need to release. Think about that and then receive the Lord's Supper. But also go and seek to be reconciled with your brother or sister. When you come to the Lord's table, forgive. And then number two, reconciled with your brother or sister, when you come to the Lord's table, forgive. And then, number two when you come to the Lord's table, give, because Jesus has made us into one body.
Speaker 1:Not only are we reconciled with one another, but we share one another's burdens. We all have our own responsibilities that we need to deal with personally, but some of us have burdens that are too heavy for us to lift, and we need to share one another's burdens In Christ. Your problem is my problem and my problem is your problem. If your marriage is struggling and you're part of my church, that's my problem too. Now I might not share the same responsibilities that you do, but that might be a burden that's heavy for you to lift, and so I have to share in that and you share in mine as well.
Speaker 1:As members of the same body, we need to get involved and to help one another. Our financial giving is one way that we practically share with one another and contribute toward a pool of resources that's for the common good. In some traditions we don't do this, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to do it. But in some traditions, churches pass around a basket and they take up an offering right before the Lord's Supper, and then they come and they lay that offering on the table. So, as we receive the Lord's Supper, our gifts that we give for the advance of the gospel and for the care of the church are given, and it's a good tradition. It honors what the Lord's Supper is supposed to be. It reminds us that we share our burdens together. Jesus has made us into one body and the Lord's Supper should submerse us into that reality. So that's point two. We've got to see one another. But point three, we have to see the King. In order to celebrate the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner, we must see the King who makes the feast possible. We see the King who makes our forgiveness possible and see the King who makes our reconciliation with one another possible.
Speaker 1:In the Lord's Supper, what happened on the cross, what Jesus did, is represented. What happened 2,000 years ago, before any of us were ever born, at the place of the skull outside of Jerusalem. The death of Jesus is actually represented here in these sacramental symbols of bread and wine, so that we can remember what he has done for us and that we can participate in it. Look again at verses 23 through 26. Paul says for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, and I think, just as an aside, I think that's a very interesting thing for Paul to say. We know that Jesus met with Paul on the road to Damascus. We don't know how many times or when Paul met directly with the risen Christ, but at some point Jesus told Paul about the Lord's Supper and how it should be celebrated, because Paul says I received this from the Lord. So it must be pretty important to Jesus if that's one of the things that he gave to Paul.
Speaker 1:I received from the Lord, what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance. So in the Lord's Supper, the two most important elements, we set apart bread and wine, as Jesus instructed. The bread and the wine represent I'm not just saying represent, but represent, make present what happened on the cross. The bread is a symbol of Jesus' body is broken. The wine is a symbol of Jesus' blood is poured out. And then what happens? What happens after the bread is broken and the wine is poured out? What happens then is that all of God's people get fed and nourished because Jesus' body was broken and his blood was poured out. We are given life and refreshment and we're welcomed to the table as members of the family. We're united with Jesus and we become participants in his body and blood, and we are in him and he is in us. That's what the supper proclaims, and we are in him and he is in us. That's what the supper proclaims. Every part of the supper preaches the gospel, and you cannot partake of it in a worthy way without understanding what the supper is saying, without understanding the gospel.
Speaker 1:The Lord's Supper has many names in scripture. This is actually the singular place in the Bible where it is called the Lord's Supper, here in first Corinthians 11. But it has many names in Scripture. All of them are interesting to look at, but one that we all know well is communion. It's called communion also. Communion is the Greek word. We talked about this a few weeks ago. It's the Greek word koinonia and it means fellowship or participation. The most important thing about the Lord's Supper is not just that it binds us together in fellowship, but that it binds us to the most glorious member of our church, the richest member of our church, the one who has the most resources, the one who has the most to offer, which is Jesus Christ, our head. It binds us to him. When you come up to receive communion, you must understand that you are coming to be bound to Jesus Christ, to be united with him, that everything that belongs to you becomes his, including your sin, and everything that belongs to him, including the new heavens and the new earth, becomes yours, including his righteousness and his standing before God. That's the participation that we have in the Lord's Supper.
Speaker 1:When I was a boy, I attended a family reunion that was also a rodeo and I got signed up to participate in a three-legged race. Some of you have heard this illustration before, but for those of you who haven't, I got signed up to be in this three-legged race. Some of you have heard this illustration before, but for those of you who haven't, I got signed up to be in this three-legged race and I found myself tied to a grown man that I did not know, who had a mullet that he was very proud of, and the mulleted man must have had some kind of relationship with the rodeo clown who was running the event, because the clown announced in front of everybody that if Randy, this man lost to the race that he would have to cut off his mullet, which apparently this guy didn't want to do. And this was lucky for me because the stakes were high for this man and as soon as the race began he just picked me up. I was a lad back then and he ran the race basically all by himself. I was just dead weight as fast as he could all the while. I was a lad back then and he ran the race basically all by himself. I was just dead weight as fast as he could All the while. I was tied to his leg. I came home with the trophy that day. I won the race, but it wasn't because I did anything. As a matter of fact, if anything I slowed him down, it was because I was bound to the right person. It's because I was bound to a person who was absolutely committed to winning that race.
Speaker 1:The Lord's Supper is all about remembering and representing the race that Jesus has run for us, what he has done for us, and reminding us that we are bound to him. And Bonhoeffer puts it this way. He says if you're looking for the evidence of God's salvation and redemption in your own life story, he says you're not going to find it there. Where you're going to find it is in the life and the death of Jesus Christ, because his life is your life and his death is given to you and you participate in that, and that is. It's not that God's not going to work in your life he certainly is but the surest evidence of God's salvation is found in the life of Jesus Christ, the life and death of Jesus Christ. The Lord's Supper reminds us that we're bound to him. So what does that mean for the Lord's Supper?
Speaker 1:When you come to the table, as I've said, you should come with repentance. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. But if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus. His son cleanses us from all sin. When you come to the table, you should come ready to forgive and ready to give, as I said that. When you come to the table, you should come ready to forgive and ready to give, as I said that. But all of that is only possible because the main focus of the table is not you and it's not even the body, it's not one another. The main focus of the table is Jesus himself. You will never repent enough to cover all of your sins and to be made right with God. You will never grieve enough over your own sin to make up for it, and that's why we need Jesus. He suffered, he was made miserable for us. He was the one that appropriately and properly grieved and suffered for our sin. We're never going to be able to do it so that now all we need is him, and it's only through being reminded of what we have in Jesus that we are able then to be generous with one another and to forgive one another, and even to recognize and repent of our own sin.
Speaker 1:The Lord's Supper is a unique moment. It is a place where the veil between heaven and earth is most thin, where we step out of the divisions of the world that we live in and we step into another world. We step into the kingdom of God, and as we do that, it is meant to infuse the reality of that kingdom into the way that we live here and now. When we come to the table, when you come to the table today, here in just a minute, examine yourself. Examine yourself in the light of the gospel. If you don't see anything that you need repentance and healing for, look again, examine yourself. We must see one another. Don't come to the table with a grudge that you're not willing to let go of. We have to forgive one another and we must see the King who makes the feast possible, who died so that we can be forgiven and so that we can be guaranteed a place in His eternal kingdom.
Speaker 1:To these ends, let us pray. Lord, we thank you that you have given these mysteries to us to steward and to handle. And we confess, lord, that we don't know what we have and we often approach these things and handle these things irreverently or mindlessly or arrogantly. And, lord, there is a warning here in this text that we didn't really touch on that if we approach these things without any kind of discernment, that it's bad for us that we incur your judgment, that we can suffer your judgment because of that. And we don't want to do that, lord. We want to judge ourselves rightly, we want to handle these things well and we can only do that through your mercy and grace, which we have in Jesus Christ. So, as we come to the table today, help us to do these things and may these things transform the way that we live as we go into our week, and we ask all of this in Jesus' name Amen.