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  Long Island Abundant Life Church長島豐盛生命教會

1 Corinthians 11:17–12:11

9/9/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Some Thoughts on Communion
Some important thoughts from this passage from Blomberg:

"Almost every denomination has its distinctive traditions for how to perform the ritual: what if any liturgy to use in accompaniment, who may participate, who may distribute the elements, what form of food and drink is used, and so on. Often Paul’s threats of judgment have been unleashed on anyone who disagrees with one denomination’s unique traditions. In so doing, many Christians have entirely missed the real meaning of these threats, which, as we have seen, are directed against those who are not adequately loving their Christian brothers or sisters and providing for their physical or material needs.
    Even when Paul’s words are supplemented by the Gospel accounts, there is very little in Scripture that insists that the Lord’s Supper must be celebrated a certain way. No text ever restricts who can officiate or distribute the bread and wine. No particular words mandate what must be spoken. Prayers of thanksgiving are appropriate, but this is a far cry from the formal “blessing” of the elements that has become enshrined in certain ecclesial traditions. No specific frequency of celebration is ever commanded, although the references to the “breaking of bread” in Acts 2:42 and 20:7 may suggest that at first Christians partook of the Lord’s Supper daily and later weekly. Acts 2:42 also suggests it was one of four central elements in early Christian worship, along with prayer, fellowship, and instruction. There is thus nothing wrong with including communion as a part of every worship service, though there is something to be said for reserving it for certain announced occasions, so that what was intended to be special runs less of a risk of becoming mere routine." [1]

For a long time I've found it very interesting that communion services that I've been a part of seem to be so far from what was practiced in the early church.  Granted, as Blomberg says above, there are very few requirements placed upon communion in the Bible.  What I find interesting though is that in basically every communion service I've ever been a part of, it's been a very solemn and somber affair.  As we see in this passage, early on in the church the service was more of an extended meal and fellowship time than a five minute extra with some crackers and a shot of grape juice.  When we look at the history of the early church beyond the NT, we get a similar picture of what was called the "love feast" that was practiced regularly to remember and celebrate the work of Jesus.  I'm all for taking sin seriously and examining ourselves, but I think when communion becomes nothing more than 2 minutes of quiet reflection we've missed the point.  We have communion in remembrance of Jesus - how do we remember him?  As a broken man on a cross or a risen Savior from the grave?  As just a perfect man or as the beginning of the New Covenant?  As a disapproving boss looking over our shoulder or the one that gives us new life?  There is much more to celebrate in communion that we usually think of.  This passage shows the importance of taking things seriously, but that certainly doesn't mean it should be like a funeral!  Reading this passage that way is a serious error.  Not sure how this practically works out as most people are so fixed in their mind about how communion "should" be, but I think that Jesus deserves a better remembrance than a bunch of people quietly bowing their heads and trying to think if they feel guilty about something.

Just a thought.

[1] Craig Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 232-33.
Andrei
9/10/2012 06:50:19 pm

Wow, what you said is radically different than what many of us have been taught about communion, I think. So if most communion services are serious and somber, is that not Biblical?

Greg
9/11/2012 03:29:25 am

I don't know if I would say "not Biblical". As I said in the post, there is a lot of freedom in how to do communion - there aren't a lot of stipulations placed on it. However, I think that we are a far cry from how it was originally done, both in the NT and in the early church times. The quiet, serious manner that we use now has its roots in medieval Catholicism, not in some kind of Bible-mandated model.

My biggest concern about how we do it now is that it is mean to be done in remembrance of Jesus, yet it usually really doesn't do that. It's more just a reading of a few verses, then the command to "examine yourself" before taking the bread and cup. Like I said, I'm all for examining your spiritual state on a regular basis, but doing communion this way makes it more of an exercise of remembering our failures than remembering Jesus. I truly think it should be a time of much greater celebrating and DEFINITELY more focused on Jesus and not on ourselves. I don't think it's wrong persay, but I think we can do much better.

Kevin Kuo
9/11/2012 05:01:17 pm

Would seem like our fellowships maybe closer to the early churches communion than what we do first Sunday of the month. I think there is a place for "tradition" as long as people understand where and why it's done. Have you ever wondered why military people salute each other it has 0 military value but it is done by every military in the world. It was a custom born out of the age of knights. Because these warriors had their faces concealed friend and foe recognition was impossible if you did not have your banner with you so the only way was to lift up your helmet or visor so as to be identified. Today it's a custom to represent respect and acknowledgement of allied forces. But please note today saluting is never done in the field or in combat, where it first originated. I feel that our truncated communion was possibly designed to include those who do not go or could not go to "fellowship" and so the church in efforts to include them started this practice. It's just my guess.

Greg
9/12/2012 02:33:50 am

The historical roots of the form of communion that is common practiced come from observance of mass. I'm not saying it's wrong simply because it has Catholic roots or because it's short. I think the main problem is that it focuses on the seriousness of the death of Christ without acknowledging His resurrection in any real way. That's a root problem, but even beyond that, this time of "remembrance" is often made into a time that focuses more on ourselves and examining what we think is our relationship with Jesus/the state of sin in our lives rather than focusing on Jesus. Tradition isn't necessarily bad, but when it causes us to miss the main point it's a big mistake and tragic. I think this is one of those cases.


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