ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
October 2, 2022
Today is World Communion Sunday. It is one of those special Sundays in the life of the church for which Hallmark will never make a card. To be honest, I am sort of glad. In worship this morning, we are going to focus on our Core Value of Hospitality. Of course, hospitality is sort of central to the idea of communion — at least at Cypress Creek Christian Church. There are a lot of things that grieve my soul when it comes to how the church has lived out the Gospel, and the history of who has been welcomed and who has been excluded has been right there at the top of my list. If you love God, but are told that you cannot come and share at the table (the Lord’s Supper), it implies that the love you feel is not reciprocated.
Those who restrict others from participating often point to Paul’s First Letter to the Church in Corinth, where we find the words, “…those who eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the Lord’s body and blood.” That phrase, “in an unworthy manner,” has been the go-to passage for exclusion. People interpret it to mean, “We don’t want anyone taking communion who is unworthy of this special feast,” yet that misses the whole point of this section of the letter. Paul was calling out those who had plenty to eat for not sharing. You see, people brought food into the worship gathering, but there were others who had nothing, and it meant that some were going away hungry. Those who had nothing were barred from participating in the experience. When Paul spoke of the “unworthy,” he was referring to those who excluded others out of selfishness. Yet the church, in a rather self-serving way, began to create categories of unworthiness as a way of controlling who could participate in the Lord’s Supper. Communion is not exclusively for those who have all the answers. It is for all who long to find welcome and to symbolically feel as if they share in fellowship with a God who loves them beyond measure.
I have received emails from Christians in other churches chastising me for allowing “unrepentant sinners” to share in Communion. Let me suggest that the accusation and implication of the emails would have Paul saying to the authors of the emails, “You just demonstrated your unworthiness to join us at the table,” but I’m pretty sure Paul, in good Jesus form, would follow up those words by saying, “Yet even you are welcome to join the rest of us at this table.” That’s the spirit of hospitality we seek to embody every week.
May your Spirit of welcome, Loving God, be the Spirit made alive when we gather today at your table. Amen.
