Let us be church [I Cor 11]

If I really want to pick a fight with my Roman brothers, I do not discuss Mary, nor the saints, nor the pope. I say that transubstantiation is the wrong way to look at communion. The very word communion is a red flag to an Anglo-Catholic: it is Eucharist.

The truth is that none of us really understand what happens in communion. It is a mystery. It is beyond us. The very fact that there is a table and a place we can meet and proclaim the LORD’s death is a witness. For it proclaims the death of Christ, for us, for all time.

What is clear is the correction. When we do this, when we meet and share bread and wine, we cannot be isolated. If we are a church, we are most obedient at the table. And we must acknowledge each other and be merciful to each other at that time.

The congregation I attend is not small. It meets fairly early on a Sunday morning. There is coffee. There are more pastries and breads and cereals than are good for me: one of the leaders has a standing order with a local bakery. Most people gather to eat. We don’t. We get up, walk up the hill, and inhale the second coffee.

But you do not approach the table unprepared. One needs confession. One needs to reconcile. And the food here is small, symbolic. Far better that we let the poor take home the excess that we let the glutton out. For it is much better to meet and look each other in the eye than to exist in some kind of virtual reality, as if we were techno-gnostic cyberpunks.

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. 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, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 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.

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, 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.” 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.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

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. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—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.

(1 Corinthians 11:17-34 ESV)

There are many communities and groups that can help people, without getting into the artificial groups that exist within my profession. Most sports teams, crossfit boxes, and gyms know it is the community and accountability that matters. Many businesses have regular clients. Most bike rides and tramping groups work as much because of the friendship as the endorphins, as do Sunday runs.

Some of the more evil employers (Google is a good example of this) try to make work the community, so that all serve the Zuckerberg or Brin for every waking hour. Communities that base themselves around tasks work, particularly for blokes. (The other half of the species find the meeting is the agenda, I know, but I am not of them.)

But the work of the church, when we meet is to proclaim the gospel. The death of Christ. To encourage each other to continue to do good. Church is not crossfit, nor therapy, nor an activist group encouraging us to compost, or help the homeless, or promote a social agenda.

Most of those things are neutral or good. However, they cannot proclaim the gospel. That is the role of the church.

So let us neither ignore the church, nor dilute it. Join your gym: God bless you if your fitness system is better than what I do. Work for good in the community: in this corrupt times the honest people, like Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn and Orbel, are on the extremes, and despised by the elite. On many things we work on the alliances are not ideal, but the least bad option.

But not in the church. For it is Christ’s and from his mercy, shown in his death and resurrection we gain an ability to approach God. Let us be the church, not a local recreation centre or branch of the progressive, unitarian, singularity.

UPDATE.

On the picture.

Zuck’s smile in that picture isn’t Mona Lisa material, except in its capacity to absorb analysis. If it looks as if he’s laughing at you, you’re responding like a loser. The coming chaos is far too unpredictable to justify that.