Examine Yourself — question 205
Here is a follow up question that came into tentpegsquestions@yahoo.com.
I was wondering if you can explain to me about 1 Cor. 11:27-29. Before we have the Lord’s supper we have a member speak about communion. Usually, out of nervousness, they read 1 Cor. 11-23-26. I have no problem with that because I’m always nervous when I’m before the congregation. It’s my turn to speak on the Lord’s supper and when I was reading these passages the latter part (27-29) of 1 Cor.11 stood out.I It isn’t mentioned as much as the first part and it seems to me that we don’t pay enough attention to it’s importance. I’m confused, because if we are to examine ourselves and commune with God, partaking of this communion with the seriousness that versus 27 & 28 express, how does your Question #149 fit in this service.
I enjoy Tentpegs everyday. Your opinions really matter when one’s mind stays in the shallow end. Thank you for you input.
Thank you for your kind words and for reading Tentpegs. Remember, though — I am just Bill and Kitty’s little boy.
In my response to question 149, I mentioned that our children are allowed to take the Lord’s Supper and that, in one service here on Sunday morning, the Lord’s Supper is a rather noisy, festive event. How, then, can we deal with the passage that warns us to take the Lord’s Supper after examining ourselves? Shouldn’t there be a time of quiet reflection first?
For some people the answer is, obviously, yes. Some people need quiet moments to focus their thoughts. But that really begs the question: when were we told to “focus our thoughts”? When I was younger, I feared that should my mind stray from an intense concentration on Jesus dying on the cross, my soul would be in jeopardy as I took the Lord’s Supper. Where did I get that idea? From a generation of devotionals at the table, not from Scripture.
The Corinthians were told to remember the Lord’s body as they took. Was that his body on the cross? No. The whole context of the passage deals with how we treat each other. WE are the body of Christ, remember. If I take the Lord’s Supper while mistreating other believers or while engaging in division and hatred against other believers, I condemn myself for I hate and mistreat the very ones Jesus died for.
And notice what else we assume in this passage: that the examination is to take place in the few seconds before we take the Supper. Again, where did we get that idea? Our examination of our attitudes and actions is to be a daily occurrence. The three words we use at Rochester are “Connect, Grow, Serve.” Each day, we are to ask ourselves if we helped connect anyone to Jesus or to each other, if we grew any in our spiritual life or faith, and if we serve another in Jesus’ name. We do NOT require everyone to do that — it is a suggestion only. Far be it from us to make a law Jesus did not! It is a useful tool, however, to see how we are acting towards those in and out of the Body.
Another issue here: I’ve seen believers who said they couldn’t take the Supper until they got some faith or practical issue out of the way. That is NOT an option. We are to examine
then take
. If you find a problem in the way you have acted or in the way you have treated (or ignored) other believers, take the Supper and use that as your reminder — your impetus — to action.
I would submit to you that taking the Supper as we do in second service — moving around each other, serving each other, breaking into songs or prayers, talking with the children and hugging the parents — is exactly what Paul had in mind in First Corinthians 11. He wanted us to be engaged in each other’s lives, to care about each other, and to put each other first. In short, he wanted us to “discern the Body of Christ” before and as we took that symbol of our unity, salvation, and hope — the Lord’s Supper.
September 6th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Thank you, Patrick, for such a wonderful reponse. This is really helpful for me in my thinking. Probably because it so reflects my own attitudes about how communtion with God, Jesus Christ and each other, should ever be.
Dee
September 7th, 2009 at 4:40 am
Patrick,
For the first time I must disagree. The focus of the instructions and warning is not the body (church), but rather Jesus’ physical body.
“This is my body broken for you.” “This is the new covenant in my blood.” “Do this in remeberance of me.” These are all clearly not in reference to the church (body) but Jesus’ body given for the church.
The self examination is not in regard to personal worthiness since not one of us ourselves is worthy, but every one of us who is trusting Christ has been made worthy by his blood. The offence is doing it in a “unworth manner”. It’s not that you do it but your motive for doing it.
The failure to think about his body broken and blood shed is the danger. I see no problem with your church doing the supper as you do with members serving each other and even children participating but never should it just be done in a light way not remembering the Lord.
“This is my body” and “remember me” is very clear.
Thanks for your teaching and great example to so many.
Royce
September 7th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
This is not the first time I have agreed with Royce,but it is rare. I believe our disagreements are of our own choosing, because of the subjects he and I choose to talk about. I see communion as a personal thing, it is one of the many times when I give thanks to God for the gift of his Son.
September 7th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Thank you for point out the issue with “before” not just being a few seconds before (or as many practice it and mistakenly teach it, that we are to examine ourselves “during”, which the text doesn’t say). We should have come together already, daily, examining ourselves and our walk with God.
It seems to me that this misunderstanding has been a large part of what has contributed to the idea that the Supper is an individual “act of worship” rather than a communal meal…we think we’re supposed to be thinking about just ourselves…and that is contrary to the purpose of the meal in the first place.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Royce and Laymond, I think it’s a stretch to conclude Patrick is proposing we don’t recognize the physical sacrifice of Jesus. Surely we remember that, but 1 Corinthians 11, in its context, is clearly talking about the assembled body of believers. If communion were an individual time, it would be completely unneccesary to gather together. I can sit at home and ignore my brothers and sisters.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Part of the problem we run into is those devotionals get too long and turn into sermonettes, which is the exact opposite of what Jesus did. He took each emblem, told them to take it to remember him, and said a prayer. Then you get confusion around the simplist act of worship (as an engineer, the design of the Lord’s Supper is beyond brilliant). When someone drones on and on about some abstract earthly thing that if deconstructed six ways reminds us of some small aspect of Jesus, minds wander, kids start cutting up, and the whole thing gets difficult.
Take it, remember Jesus. Not complicated. You don’t have to mentally reinact the crucifixion, just remember Jesus. Simple, easy, effective, and yes, brilliant.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I do find it amusing that many talk of communion as being a “together” event and not soely an individual thing yet those same people want to get up and sing TO us and not with us. They want a praise team that is more like a chours where we just sit and listen, where the whole service is turning into a “watch us” sort of thing. I don’t see “communuion” in that at all.
From time to time our church mixes it up and we have “stations” we go to and take the supper. I’m fine with that. I like how we change it up and don’t get into a rut but I’m also fine with each way listed above including Rochesters way. I just think it’s funny when so many in the church preach one thing during the supper but everything else in “worship time” is different.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Obviously, from the comments and post above, communion is a lot of different things to a lot of different people – while all at the same time, it is completely about Christ and us.
Do you mind if get out of italics? There. That feels better. I felt like I was emphasizing everything.
And, when you’re at the table, you can’t emphasize everything. Just Christ and us. Yes, it is all about Him. And it is all about us. The matter which He emphasized – His body, His blood – as well as the manner in which He emphasized it: a Passover meal with His closest ones; His “family.”
If it were only an individual matter, He could have had us celebrate it in a closet, or on a mountaintop. The ideas was to have us celebrate it together, remember together, remember Him together.
It ain’t a one-or-the-other proposition.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Well, I tried to get out of italics.
Is this better?
September 16th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Perhaps the best communions I ever participated in where very informal affairs. A group of friends were gathering together to learn Koine greek and we always took the time to have some bread and a bit of wine. We shared how our week was, what new insights we had, old and new doubts and always ended with prayer. It was a celebration of our unity in Christ, without his sacrifice we wouldn’t have known each other, two Americans, an Armenian, a Swiss German and a Russian. It was during that time that I was closest to God’s community, his sacrifices, his commands and his love for his people.