RESOURCING THE CHURCH FOR ECUMENICAL MINISTRy A ...

This is where we usually end the reading, with the
words of institution. But let’s continue:
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks
the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner
will be answerable for the body and blood of
the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then
eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all
who eat and drink without discerning the
body, eat and drink judgement against
themselves. For this reason many of you are
weak and ill, and some have died. But if we
judged ourselves, 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 and sisters, when you come
together to eat, wait for one another.
When the early followers of Jesus would gather for a
meal, they would do so remembering Jesus’ last
supper, the meal in the upper room. In Paul’s first
letter to these early followers in Corinth, he
criticizes them for perverting this ritual act. Some
of them would arrive with full bellies—some even
drunk—at those good old first-century potluck
meals. To show up at the home of one who did not
have much to offer, having already eaten “better” or
more food in their own homes, was an assault on the
impoverished host. Moreover, it was hardly an act of
sharing, of authentic communion. More than
symbolic, the Eucharist, for Paul, was the holy Body
of Christ. To disregard the meal was to disregard not
only the poor who were your sisters and brothers,
but also Christ. “Do you show contempt for the
church of God and humiliate those who have
nothing?” Paul asked. “For all who eat and drink
without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment
against themselves. For this reason many of you are
weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Cor 11:29-30).
It is tempting to convince ourselves that this passage
is merely allegorical. I wonder, however, if this
statement of Paul’s is not metaphorical, but literal.
Because of the lack of compassion, generosity and
hospitality of certain members of the body, others
grew weak, fell ill and died. The gathered body of
Christ had mocked and even defiled the Body of
Christ, introducing death into the community. Not
sharing the common meal in a truly communal way,
where every member of the early church associations
participated and benefited, abused the bodies of
those present. It also abused the Body of Christ and thus the
unity of the church.
Gopp • Understanding the Lord’s Supper for Our Vision and Work
10
In our Disciples tradition, Communion takes
center stage in our worship experience. We claim
that “we gather for the Lord’s Supper as often as
possible,” as one of our twelve principles of identity.
We claim to place priority on the Eucharist among
all other ritual actions. Communion: the Body of
Christ, food and drink of the earth, our common
meal, property of God. But is it really our priority,
if so many in our own churches and communities—
not to mention the world—go without? Are we
Disciples communing in an authentic way with our
sisters and brothers in the Two-Thirds World,
where the majority live in poverty?
Are we Disciples communing in an
authentic way with our sisters and brothers
in the Two-Thirds World?
Is the church in the Global North stuffing ourselves
silly while members of our body of Christ starve in
the Global South? Are some of us still showing up
full, hoping that others will mooch scraps up from
under the t/Table? What about the homeless
community that gathers at the soup kitchen in the
basement of so many of our local churches? We
prepare a meal for them. As we serve the food, we
often talk about them. But we do not eat with them.
Nor do we talk with them. We serve on behalf of the
poor; we do things for them; we speak at them. But
we do not walk with them.
We barely see them because we hide them away in a
dimly lit basement. We relegate them to the bottom
floor, just like we think of them—beneath us. We
don’t welcome them through the front door but
through the back door past the refuse dumpsters,
far from anyone’s view, where their “impurity” will
not infect our sanctuary or anyone sitting in it
preparing to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Yet we
claim that the soup kitchen participants are
members of our community—members of our
church. In reality, many of us have two congregations
assembling in our buildings and never
the twain shall meet. The poor, the marginalized,
wherever they may be, are members of the body of
Christ.
This membership is not up to us; it is offered to us
by Jesus the Christ, through whom we are sanctified
as one, holy body. So when that holiness is defiled,