Sun Kwak, “God Communes with Us”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX6bAkOeJEU

TEXT: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

[17] But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. [18] For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, [19] for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. [20] When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. [21] For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. [22] What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

[23] For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, [24] and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” [25] In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” [26] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

[27] Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. [28] Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. [29] For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. [30] That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. [31] But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. [32] But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

[33] So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—[34] if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

SERMON: “God Communes with Us”

So, back in 2015, our family moved from San Diego to Philadelphia, which was not just a downgrade in weather but a serious downgrade in some of my favorite foods. We were coming from San Diego, so Mexican food was something that I spent some time grieving over prior to the move. I just knew that it was now a part of my past experience. So, I did my proper grieving and mourning. But then, we get to Philly. And in this new church I was pastoring, these congregants wanted to get our family excited about Philly. And so, a number of them tell me about this authentic Mexican food that was actually in the neighborhood we moved into. And this is 2015, so Yelp is the most credible form of food evaluationthere is. So, I hop on Yelp and check out the ratings of this restaurant. And sure enough, over a thousand reviews, and it was 4.5 stars. And so, I go there, and I get my carne asada burrito. I take few bites, and my thoughts were — This is NOT a carne asada burrito. I mean, they had all the ingredients of a carne asada burrito — there was tortilla, some meat, some attempt at salsa and guacamole and so. So, they had all the ingredients. But you see, I’d had the real thing before. And I just knew — This ain’t it. Something about it just wasn’t the real deal.

We’re at a passage today, where the apostle Paul tells a church — What you’re doing. It is NOT the Lord’s Supper. And like the fake carne asada burrito I had, there were probably all the necessary components — the Word, the bread, the wine, some instructions and administering. But the apostle Paul takes a look or more of a listen to the situation and assesses — This ain’t it. And he doesn’t just stop there. But because of their malpractice or mal-observance of the Supper, he goes as far as to say — Because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. And these are strong words. Because the Scriptures, and in particular, the New Testament letters, are filled with instructions of how it is good to be together as a community. Words like Hebrews 10:24-25 — And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet one another, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. And so, it must have been that there was something so repulsive and detrimental to the way they observed the Supper that outweighed the pros and the positive mandate for Christians to be together on Sundays.

Something that John Calvin said — that he would rather experience the Supper than understand it. And history rarely mistakes John Calvin as this loosy goosy touchy feely kind of experience driven Christian. No, he was strongly driven by Scripture for his understanding of the Christian faith. But there’s something so experientially compelling about the Supper that convicted Calvin to refer to the Lord’s Supper as more Spiritual experience than intellectual ascent. He called it a ladder that connected heaven to earth and earth to heaven — this portal that transports us to Spiritualrealities together as the body of Christ. And about the mystery of this, Saint Augustine referred to it as a visible sign of an invisible reality. And the purpose of a sign is not to get you hyper-fixated on the sign itself but to move the observer from the sign and toward the final destination — this transcendent meeting place between a holy God and imperfect sinners. Which is why I think C. S. Lewis was so grieved when Christians debated argued about minute details regarding the Lord’s Supper. Because contrary to its other known name communion, where it was meant to bring people together, it seemed to separate and to divide. Because the focus of the Supper should not be on the signs — the bread and wine. But rather, what these things point us to — to deep communion with our God who gave up his life to bring us this Table.

And we read this particular set of words every time we partake in the Supper. Because these are words of radical graceand a compelling invitation. In this first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul addresses some crazy sins. He brings up five cases — including things like incestuous relationships and idolatry in worship. One of my favorite preachers Brian Habig, when preaching through each of these cases, would say — We’ve had our issues at Downtown Presbyterian, but this isn’t one of them. And the city of Corinth was filled with so much scandalous activity that there was a special word describing their kind of sinning, which was Corinthianizing. Even the Romanssaid that there was something different about the waters of Corinth. And all of this debased and corrupted ways of lifeseemed to sneak into the life of the church. And so, you take all that.

And then, you take the structure of our passage today. I talked about a burrito already, but here we find a sandwich, also known as a chiasm. And this is where there are parallel outer buns that point to the meat in the middle. And the buns are found in verses 17-22 and verses 27-34, you get strong words of admonition addressing the sins of the Corinthians in their mal-observance of the Supper and the consequences for these behaviors. And this directs us to the middle of all of this in verses 23-26. And you think about how you and I treat our children. We see some bad sibling behavior, and we say something along the lines of — That is NOT how we treat our brother. And in turn, if they try to sit at the table, we’ll snap and say — Nope, until you make it right with your brother and show us you can be kind, you’re not allowed here. And the apostle Paul isn’t not addressing these issues. He is, as we’re going to look into. But look at what at’s the heart of these verses here in verses 17-34 — the meat in the middle of the sandwich. Because when you boil down the words of verses 23-26, it essentially says — This is for you. To this church that corrupted its very usage, to this outrageously sinful congregation before a holy and perfect God and his sacred meal. Here is Jesuswho bought this meal with is life telling these people — This is for you. That there is something more powerful than their sinning and their mistakes. There is deep grace here. This is the meeting place for God and his people. And not just in spite of but because these Corinthians were so crooked, it’s implored to them — This is for you.

And that’s for us too. For the self-righteous criminal, for the prodigal, for the self-preserving legalist, for those hiding secret shame, for all of us with a past, because we all have a past. The words for us today — This is for you. Because God’s grace is deeper than our sin and our shame. Which is why the Westminster Larger Catechism implores those who are weak and insecure and anxious and doubting not to refrain from but that these ought to come to the Supper. And why? In order to be strengthened, because there is power here. Tim Keller, when he was preaching on the Supper, said that there is a past, present, and future reality with this meal. That it has the power to transport us and to transformus.  And so, we’re going to look into that today, into our fourth installment of this five part series in looking at our Sunday liturgy — the movement of God communing with us through the Lord’s Supper at the Lord’s Table.

Something that Saint Augustine captures through his Totus Christus, the whole Christ, is that for the church, the body of Christ to be alive, it must take living cues from our head. And if our head is in heaven, then our movements ought to reflect the principles of heaven more than the principles of this world. Which is why we’re called to live in this upside down manner, this countercultural way. Because the church was created not to blend in but to be different — to be the salt in light in dark and decaying world. And again, this church in Corinth was kind of failing in that task — they looked more like Corinth than they did heaven. And the apostle Paul kind of spells this out with how they were sharing in what they thought as the Lord’s Supper. According to some of the writings we find through Pliny and Tertullian, the first century Christians participated in something called the Love Feast, which accompanied the Lord’s Supper. Many first century churches met in people’s homes. And in Corinth, there were these larger homes that would be used for Sunday service. And as people gathered, the focus was on the Supper and this Love Feast. And for these larger homes, there were this arrangement of u-shaped tables, where people would recline around in order to have food and drink, which was brought to them through the inside of the u. The very elite and middle portion of these tables was called the triclinium. And this seated 9-12, and it was where food and drink were brought to first. And after they were served, there were somewhere between 30-50 seats for the next outer u, which was called the atrium.

Now, this was the way all meals and parties thrown by hosts were arranged, even outside of church. It was customary for hosts to invite people into their homes, and it was the rich and people of class who would come first and be seated in the triclinium. But then, those working the fields would come later and be seated in the atrium. And if you came too late, it was because you were a lowly servant, and there were no seats left for you. It was just the way that dinner meals functioned during these days. And so, what the apostle Paul is describing doesn’t look too different from how dinner gatherings were carried forth in Corinth. And so, what’s the big deal here? We read here in verse 21 — For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. And so, it seemed that the rich were eating and drinking so much that the poor weren’t getting any food and drink. And then, we get these words in verse 22 — What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? And so, there’s two things going on here. The rich are disregarding the poor. But the deeper dig is with the address of whether they have houses to eat and drink in. Because what the apostle Paul is addressing is that these Corinthians, in their practice of the Lord’s Supper, of Sunday service, of the love feast, as a church — they looked nothing different from their culture. And that was a problem, because they thought that they hosted the Lord’s Supper and forgot that it was Jesus’ meal and his hospitality.

My childhood TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air began each episode with the trademark song that started — This is the story all about how my life got flip-turned upside down. And young Will Smith goes to tell about his journey from West Philadelphia, the place of fake carne asada burritos to Bel Air, the place of 70 dollar Eggs Benedict. That something happened, as he was transported from one place to another. And here’s the thing. For us to change and to be countercultural as a church, we need to be regularly transported. To be told every single week — This is the story all about how my life got life got flip-turned upside down. Because Jesus brought in his upside down kingdom, as the servant king who came to die for his people. And through this ladder we see in the Supper, it takes us to heavenly realities through divine transportation and transformation, displacing us from our footing in this world to shaping our steps by way of heaven.

Because when Jesus first institutes the Lord’s Supper, it’s at the setting that we know as the Last Supper. This was the last meal that Jesus has with his disciples, who would have recognized the meal as not the Lord’s Supper but as the Passover meal. It’s something that God’s people had been celebrating ever since the institution of it in the Exodusstory. And something that God does, in order to recalibrate and reorient his people to his love is mandate rhythms to remembering and recalling this story. Every single year, a little like how we celebrate Easter and Christmas. Every single year, the Israelites gathered around the Passover event and celebrated it together. And Moses says in Exodus 12:14 about this Passover event — This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. And that word forever has all kinds of covenantal implications. In the context of a covenant, in the words and paraphrased thoughts of Geerhardus Vos, forever is used synonymously as last or final. The only way that it is undone is if something replaces it or fulfills it. Now, in the Passover meal, the custom was for the host or the head of the table to use items on the table to walk through the Exodus narrative. And one of the items that he would have held up is bread. And the liturgy attached to the bread was this presider saying — This is the bread of our affliction.

There’s this children’s book written by Helena Ku Rhee titled The Paper Kingdom. It involves an immigrant family, where Mom and Dad work late nights as cleaners of an office building. One night, their work has to carry them late. So, they bring their son Daniel with, against his wishes and desires to just stay home and sleep. They get to the office building, and there’s paper to clean everywhere. And perturbed by all of this, Daniel asks his parents — Why do you have to clean up all this mess and all this paper? And so, they tell him that this is the Paper Kingdom. And so, Daniel asks — But where’s the Paper King? And so, they point to the head of the table, where there’s an empty chair and tell him that the Paper King has gone to bed. And so, they’re passing time and cleaning. And they go from room to room, from bathroom to bathroom. And Daniel gets increasingly frustrated that his parents have to do all this work at night. And so, his dad continues this analogy and says that in this Paper Kingdom, there are dragons. And they also contributed to all this mess. And so, Daniel exclaims — But why do you have to clean it all? Not fair! I’m going to yell at the dragons!To which his mom responds — No, little bug. Only the king can yell at dragons. And as Daniel is collecting all of these details, his dad stoops down and tells him — Someday, you’ll have to be king! Then you can sit in the throne room and tell the dragons to be nice and neat. And his mom adds — Remember to be nice when you become king. The dragons work hard too.

This story of immigrant parents working long hours in a country where they can barely speak the language, in order to provide opportunities for their kids to succeed and prosper. It might not be cleaning an office building, but for those who were raised in immigrant homes, we all know about this Paper Kingdom and the sacrifices made by our parents for their aspirations that we might one day be Paper Kings and Queens. Whenever I see older immigrants working long shifts as waitresses and in dry cleaners and at auto shops, there rises in my heart something that Robert Bellah refers to as our usness. Some kind of common longings and affections and emotions, because of parallel experiences shared. That there’s just this deep understanding. In Korean, it’s called jung. Because when I see these older immigrants, I get transported to my own story and our shared narrative. I think of my childhood when our family lived below the poverty line while my dad was a student. I think of when he worked long hours at a construction site in the summer, all while studying to finish up his degree as a student. Where my mom scrapped through babysitting and other under the table jobs. There’s a shared commonality because of a shared experience of afflictions and hardships.

When these Israelites heard year after year — This is the bread of our affliction. They had a shared past. Their foremothers and forefathers went through exile and homelessness and wilderness wandering and back all the way to the 430 years of brutal and harsh slavery. There was an understanding of this shared usness because of the hardships and afflictions experienced and suffered by their ancestors. And so, when Jesus presides over this meal, what the disciples anticipated was just another Passover meal. And instead of holding up the bread and saying — This is the bread of our affliction. Instead of that, when he holds up the bread and says — This is my body broken for you. This would have shocked the sensibilities of these disciples. Because the Passover was a statute forever. And only something better and so powerful and compelling could replace 1,500 years of shared hardships. And what was it? At that moment, Jesus knew that he would have to be the ultimate lamb slain and bloodied in order to provide a new and better meal for all time. That his afflictions and suffering when he hung upon the cross for our sins would have be the most binding experience for all who observe. And you see, church family, every time we come up for the Lord’s Supper, we hear those words — This is my body broken for you. Where Jesus tells us and calls us to remember that what he was going to experience on our behalf was infinitely more excruciating and isolating and devastating than the collective 1,500 years of affliction. And because of his suffering, we get to come around this Table to eat and drink. All we bring is our need and our belonging in this story of the Lamb.

The last point I’ll bring up. That word to remember is a covenantally packed word. The opposite of re-member is to dis-member, which we might know as ex-communicate. And for us who have dis-membered ourselves from God with our sinning, we need to be re-membered only through the restorative act of God’s forgiveness. And so, even as we continue to rebel, we are re-membered every time through the perpetual telling of God’s saving works for his people. That in this new covenant, as we hear of the new covenant of his blood each week. This New Covenant we read in Jeremiah 31:33-34 — For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more. That when God’s sealing words of promise are placed upon our hearts, our sins are no longer attached to us in his eyes. And so, in God’s covenant commitment to his people, we come to this Table, from the least of us to the greatest, with an equal need, with equal access. As the first century liturgy of the Table informs us — All of us, Jews and Greeks, men and women, slaves and masters, come to this Table as equals. And so, we celebrate when we come around this Table. Because this is a meal for sinners that transports us and shows us the ways of the kingdom.