When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. — I Corinthians 11:20
Among the stories in the news this past week was the awarding of the Summer Olympic games in 2016 to the city of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilians are happy, of course, and so is the whole South American continent since this will be the first time the Olympics will take place down there.
Rio had been in contention with Madrid, Tokyo, and Chicago. From what I’ve read, a great deal of effort and money is expended by every hopeful city with the hope of convincing the Olympic Committee that they’re better than all the other cities for hosting the games.
What made this year’s choice of Rio de Janeiro such news was also the quick exit of Chicago as a possible site. It was the first to be “voted off the island” despite the presence of a stellar group of Windy City representatives such as Oprah and President and Mrs. Obama. There were those in the media who took it for granted that the charm and prestige of such highly visible Americans would lead to a slam dunk for Chicago to be chosen.
But it did not happen and, ever since, the hometown writers have been expending no small amount of ink wondering what went wrong. Chicago does not even have the luxury of having come in a close second. It was last among the four candidates.
Nobody likes to lose of course, but Americans seem to be excessively prone to hand wringing and second guessing when it happens to us. We are a competitive people, you know. Whether it’s in the school yard, at election time, in the market place, or even in church, we play to win. And when we play hard, we take it hard when we lose.
Still, for many of us, this life of winning and losing – this world we have created of winners and losers – is so familiar to us that it’s hard to imagine life being any other way. If we win, we celebrate. If we lose we take it hard and determine to win the next time. Second place is first loser. The world, we have come to believe not a little simplistically, is made up of two kinds of people – winners and losers. It’s how we categorize the members of the human race.
We take this situation for granted and so easily that it often comes as a surprise – if we understand it at all – to read in the scriptures that in the kingdom of God, the last will be first, the weak are the strong, the givers are the real getters, and the dying are those who are finally learning what it means to live.
This is not an idea that is easily digested even by those of us who are, by confession, citizens of the Kingdom. In fact, I am of the opinion that there is not an idea in all of scripture that is resisted so regularly as the one that says that coming in last is God’s idea of true victory.
There is still a lot of America in us American Christians.
But it’s in there, this upside-down kingdom idea of success. It’s plain as day and not infrequently mentioned.
It doesn’t matter how many motivational speakers you listen to – even those who claim to Christian preachers – about working hard and playing hard so you, too, can be a winner. We hear quoted Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things in Christ” as if it that’s all there is to the gospel. Nope, in the kingdom, things aren’t like that. For God, you’ve already got too much of the world in you. What you need more than anything is to lose a lot of it just to make some room for the spiritual treasures God wants to give you.
All of this is what lies behind the Apostle’s words to the Corinthians when he wrote to them about the disturbing way some of them were conducting the Lord’s Supper.
It seems that there were, among the members of the church, some who were relatively wealthy. When these wealthy Christians came to worship and the sacrament of Holy Communion was offered, they brought picnic baskets full of food for themselves and just for themselves. They spread the table cloths, laid out the good china and silver, set the bottle of wine in the ice bucket and ate a full meal.
Such an ostentatious display of wealth was bad enough, but they did it while other members, poorer members, looked on and were not invited to share in the bounty. They called the meal the Lord’s Supper, but it was nothing like it. It was exclusive and divisive and had no place in the church. What did Paul think of this? He said it wasn’t the Lord’s supper at all. He said that they were doing more harm than good.
It’s hard to imagine a church doing more harm than good. Even with our faults, we’re still usually on the plus side as far as being a good thing for the world.
Still, that is exactly how Paul described the state of affairs in Corinth. In the church, there is not supposed to be winners and losers, hungry and well-fed, rich and poor, quick-witted and dim-witted, popular and ostracized. The church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be an alternative community – visible and open to the rest of the world – where the old categories of losers and winners fall away in favor of brothers and sisters. We’re supposed to be where people go who are tired of getting beaten up by the never-ceasing competition of the world.
More harm than good? Indeed, this is how Paul describes a church that still looks and acts too much like the world. For Paul, the world doesn’t need a church that merely appropriates its competitive ways even if it quotes the Bible as it does so. When a church acts like the world, it is deceiving the very people to whom it is supposed to be witnessing. It would be better if such a church did not exist at all, wrote the Apostle.
What the world needs is a better way, indeed a different way altogether, of finding meaning and purpose in this short life we have on earth. The losers in the world’s games of life – and there are many – need to know there is someplace where they can go and find the sustenance and acceptance and love they are not getting in the world. In the Kingdom there are no winners and losers because everybody is at the table.
Paul thought it was about time the Corinthians did as much. If he were among us today, I’m certain he would think the same about us.
Thoughts Along the Way 