Musings on the Daily Lectionary - The Body

Paul is none too happy with the Christians in Corinth when he writes to them. He is concerned about the development of divisions and contingents in that congregation. And he has heard that this lack of concern for one another intrudes into the Lord's Supper itself.

The Supper was more like a covered-dish supper than what most of us know as communion. People would bring food from their homes to share. But at Corinth it seems that the those who were well off and could get there earlier were finishing off all the food and wine before the poorer members could get there from work. The poor arrived to find no food left but some of their fellow Christians well fed and even drunk.

It is probably just as well that this happened. Otherwise Paul might never have mentioned the Lord's Supper in any of his letters, and we wouldn't have the familiar "words of institution" used in many churches for communion. But there is a line in Paul's instructions that I believe is commonly misunderstood. Paul writes, "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 judgment against themselves. "

Many people think Paul is talking about discerning Christ's presence in the bread, but nothing else in Paul's instructions speaks of mystical presence in the elements. Paul's issue in the failure of the Corinthians to act for the good of each other, and in the following chapter of his letter he speaks of how each member brings particular gifts so that together we become "one body."

In our very individualistic American culture, hearing Paul demand that we discern the body of Christ in those members gathered with us is difficult, counter-cultural thing. I wonder what communion might feel like if we all discerned the mystical presence of Christ in those gathered around us prior to breaking bread or sharing the cup.

(I also can't help wondering about the picture accompanying this post and its, perhaps, constricted discerning of the body. It is so small you may not have noticed, but all the faces filling in Christ's body are white.)

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