Sermon - Holy out of ordinary: the Lord's Supper

Sermon - 8th July 2007

Holy out of ordinary - the Lord's Supper

Scripture - 1 Corinthians 11: 17-34

Philip Jones

The church at Corinth

One fact sets the context for everything Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: they were engaged in a major conflict between church members. Those of us who have been drawn into a fully-blown church conflict know that it can feel as if the self-destruct button has been hit, and that only the firmest guidance and the most definite leadership can bring the situation back into some kind of equilibrium.

So when we hear Paul's words to the Corinthians about blessing for some and condemnation for others, we need to bear in mind that he is seeking to guide his fledgling church with all the leadership power he can muster.

When we look at how he approaches this task of leadership by letter, it's valuable to know that Paul probably wrote four letters to the Corinthians, and these have been edited together into two substantial essays which have come down to us as First and Second Corinthians. So whatever was going wrong in Corinth, it seems it took four substantial attempts to get to grips with the issues and offer leadership solutions.

When Paul challenges the Corinthians about their approach to the Lord's Supper, his main point is around exclusion, elitism and power. He is appalled that the local church leaders in Corinth are allowing sharply divided groups to continue to exist - even in the way the memorial act of the Lord's Supper is practised among them. He tells them their meetings tend to do more harm than good and that the rivalries result in some eating the Lord's Supper to excess, while others go hungry, and the poorer members are shamed.

The Lord's Supper

Paul refers to the tradition he received from the remaining apostles in Jerusalem who were engaging in the memorial act which Jesus had given them. Paul had spent time with Peter and James, and it's clear from what he says that the Lord's Supper in that earliest branch of the Christian church should be a communion of all the people with their Lord.

In fact, when we all share in the Lord's Supper in the same way, that declares powerfully that we are all one body in Christ and fit to receive the body of the Lord in the memorial act. Indeed, the only way to receive the body of the Lord worthily, is to recognise the equality, inclusiveness and unity of God's people as the body of Christ here on earth. If you neglect the one, you inevitably fall short of the other.

There is also another parallel: the Lord's Supper uses the most ordinary things to achieve the most extraordinary result. A piece of the most common, staple, basic food - bread - together with a cup of the cheapest local wine, are taken by God and turned into something holy. But this only happens when the body of Christ, which must also embrace the most ordinary things in our lives, comes together as a worshipping body. And again, the ordinary becomes holy through this memorial act. Ordinary food, ordinary drink, ordinary lives - all taken, held, blessed and made holy - as one of our songs says: "…set apart for you my master, ready to do your will". [Purify my heart/Refiner's fire]

For us today

And in that transformation of the ordinary into the holy is one of the key principles of our day-to-day faith, because when we let God do the transforming, the most extraordinary things happen.

When we do something as ordinary as greeting and befriending a newcomer, we discover that we are offering acceptance, welcome, warmth, a sense of value and belonging. These can be rare gifts in the disconnected and alienated worlds from which some of our visitors come.

When we spend our time and energy placing our publicity materials in the gay village, or staffing a stall at Pride or Sparkle, we enable many chance encounters with the message of inclusion and equality which can be found here. For some people, either immediately or over time, this is a message which takes root and begins a transformation.

When we help to set up the church for worship each Sunday, or help to clear away the equipment afterwards, or prepare the refreshments, or do the washing up, we play our part in making sure that those who come through our doors encounter a community which is welcoming and ready to include them. This is so often the starting point for engaging with a God who also includes them and loves them.

When we join our own single voice with the voices of the choir and all those around us, we transform the sound of worship into something which is greater than the sum of its parts, because we are lifted into an experience outside of ourselves. We can do things in a worshipping community which we can't do on our own, and this has profound effects on our experience of God.

And when we move through our daily lives outside the church walls, at work, in our families, in our social groups and among our friends, we somehow communicate something about our discipleship of Jesus. In those most ordinary of places, we show our faith through the things we do and say, the values that we bring to our judgments, and the way we relate to other people. We may never use the word Christian about ourselves, yet somehow the Christian faith becomes reflected in our lives. This is, perhaps, the most subtle transformation of all.

Paul's message to us, coming out of his challenge to the Corinthians as they steadily became exclusive, elitist, unjust and divided, is that holiness comes out of ordinary beginnings. It is in the ordinary, day-to-day aspects of our lives that we will engage with God in transforming other people as well as ourselves.

In a few minutes on our altar we will see how God transforms ordinary bread and wine into Jesus's presence, here among us in a special way. That memorial act links us directly back to the night when Jesus instituted it. But it also connects us with the Jesus who spent his ministry among ordinary people, living ordinary lives; the Jesus who addressed the fundamental concerns of people's lives, yet people who were transformed by their encounter with him.

Paul shows us the model for our understanding of holiness. He also shows us the failure of the Corinthian church to follow that model. Our challenge, as the community of Jesus in this place, is to make the choices on our journey of faith which enable God to transform us into a holy people. And all the signs suggest that those choices will be surprisingly ordinary.

Amen.

(Philip Jones)

This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.