Getting Ready for Supper
Passage: I Corinthians 11:17-34
We have received a very important dinner invitation. Jesus requests the pleasure of our company next Sunday morning.
Let’s talk about table manners. Table manners are among the first cultural habits we learn. You get to move from the high chair to the big table when you can eat without smearing spaghetti in your hair and throwing Jell-O everywhere. And when you get really adept at the finer art of dining you are let out into public and maybe even to a nice restaurant (see Peter Leithart, Blessed are the Hungry, p. 117ff.).
Some of you have heard me quote that rather unkind phrase, “no one is useless, they can always serve as a bad example.” Well, the Corinthians are chosen to be that for us. Here is a great example of really bad table manners that is recorded in Scripture to be a warning to us. If we will pay heed to this counsel it will help us get ready for supper.
Paul uses very strong language to admonish the Corinthians. He is especially upset because not only are they abusing and showing contempt for the less fortunate, but in the process, they are desecrating the sacrament of our Lord’s Supper. They are sinning against the body of Christ, the church; and against the body and blood of Christ Himself. They are forgetting their manners and how to act at the family meal.
Do you remember supper time at your house as a child? Remember the days when you were called in from play or work. Mom or dad would call out, “suppertime,” and the family came running. For me growing up, suppertime was very faithfully kept. Unfortunately for many of us the experience of suppertime is a fading memory. I want to use the image of suppertime to remind us of what communion is all about and how we should come to it next week.