The first part of the passage is guaranteed to raise blood pressures. It is worth putting in context, for it flows into the passage we read at the table, and is what most people think is the earliest discussion of communion.

If one is inspired by God and worthy of reflection and obedience, the other is as well..

This is not practiced in church, and this is not because it is impractical: one of the most common (and despised) practical garments is the hooded jacket or hoodie. I own a couple, so do the boys, because when it gets cold they are practical, And girls ones exist, for the fashion impaired.

But what makes this passage much more offensive to modern ears is that women are held as not equal: but a reflection, a helpmeet. Men are in the image of God, and women re the reflection of man. It is that theology (plus the first ever example of the Valentinian rulw — Paul says this is not his practice alone, but that of all the churches.

Well, the church does not consider that, nor does it consider the issues of justice within our congregations. Often. My congregation starts every service with a shared breakfast — and the food we do not eat goes directly to the foodbank. But me and the teenage boys eat before we arrive, so there is no imitation of two and a half ravening wolves hitting the shared meal.

For the poor should not leave our services hungry, and the rich should provide, not lord over the others.

1 Corinthians 11:2-34

²I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions just as I handed them on to you. ³But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife, and God is the head of Christ. ⁴Any man who prays or prophesies with something on his head disgraces his head, ⁵but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head – it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved. ⁶For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, she should wear a veil. ⁷For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man. ⁸Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. ⁹Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. ¹⁰For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. ¹¹Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman. ¹²For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from God. ¹³Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head unveiled? ¹⁴Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him, ¹⁵but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. ¹⁶But if anyone is disposed to be contentious – we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

¹⁷Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. ¹⁸For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it. ¹⁹Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine. ²⁰When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. ²¹For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. ²²What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!

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

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. ³⁰For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. ³¹But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. ³²But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

³³So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation. About the other things I will give instructions when I come.

Mark 8:1-10

¹In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, ²“I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. ³If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way – and some of them have come from a great distance.” ⁴His disciples replied, “How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?” ⁵He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” ⁶Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. ⁷They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed. ⁸They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. ⁹Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. ¹⁰And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

No, Ladies, I am not going to command you wear a Hoody: I do not have the authority, nor do I have enough of a sense of style. Women generally like hair and hats: this is a place when one can go for it. I have alreadly linked to one of the most crunchy fashionistas on the internet, and she covers her head.

But let’s look at the other half of the passage for this morning. It is two parts: one is Paul correcting the Corinthians: the shared meal is not some kind of picnic or party where everyone brings and eats their own. There are enough of those occaisions. Instead, it is a place to share, and the meal is a communion with Christ.

Given the comments of Christ (the people will fall over on the way home. How shall we feed them) there is an issue of feeding. Literally. In times of economic hardship, the shared tea after, or the shared breakfast before, could, indeed should, have some people there who need the calories, and to them the calories should be given. The church is not some kind of economic agency, but a witness to God.

And the second part of this is that we are approaching the table of our God, and this is a terrible thing. The man who chose to die in the most agonizing manner in the place of us commanded us to have this meal in his remembrance. The God who emptied himself to become man to reconcile us with him notes that when two or three of us are together, he is with us. We need to approach this after examining ourselves and after reconciling ourselves with each other — for in this week we will have wronged someone.

And we need to remove from our lives a sense of entitlement. The priests in the old covenant had their very dress described and regulated in the Law of Moses. We have simpler commands: dress with decency, and, for us blokes, hats off, so that our heads are uncovered.

At the same time,the Ladies are commanded to have fun with hats. Our God understands you all, and even allows for creativity, fashion and display. This may be me, but I don’t think he minds if it is a scarf, a hoodie, or a cap: in fact, he probably prefers that to some creation from a designer that could have fed a thousand.