Discerning the Body

6 October 2013

1 Cor 11:20-34; Mark 14:22-25

             The night that Jesus took the bread and blest it and broke it, and made it a remembrance of his life and ministry, that was to be his last night in Jerusalem. Jesus did not need a miraculous ability to see into the future in order to know what fate awaited him. It was the week that we have come to call Holy, the Last Week of Jesus’ life before death and resurrection. It began with the parade into Jerusalem, which we reenact every Palm Sunday when we wave palm branches and shout “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes!” The week continued with Jesus clearing the temple courtyard on a Monday morning, disrupting the holiday commerce as Pilgrims came from the known ends of the earth and points between, to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem.

            My house shall be a house of prayer for all people and you have made it a den of thieves, Jesus said. And “they” began to look for a way to kill him. “They” being “the religious authorities.” Though Jesus had many followers who lived in the margins of life-- tax collectors and sinners—among the powerful families of Jerusalem Jesus had few if any friends.

            So he knew what was coming. It was time for his mountaintop speech.

            He took bread, and after giving thanks, he broke it into pieces and gave it to them, saying, “Take; this is my body.” He lifted up the cup, and after giving thanks, gave it to them and they all drank of it, and he said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

            And then he went out to the Garden, to pray and meet his fate. That night he was betrayed, that night he was arrested, that night he suffered. The next day he was crucified.

            Jesus died, but the church was born. Holy Communion, the sharing of bread and wine in remembrance of Jesus, became and remains a primary identity-forming sacrament of the church. “A primary identity-forming sacrament” is a fancy way of saying that this simple meal reminds us who and whose we are. The other primary identity forming sacrament is Baptism.

            Baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Once you are baptized you are baptized forever, you do not need to be baptized again, the church decided long ago. But Holy Communion is repeatable, and it was, until relatively recently-- the last 500 years or so—repeated daily. It is the common meal that sustained the shared ministries of the church, the common meal that fed all the people.

            When the church was newborn, when we were still a reform movement in Judaism, the first Christians would go to synagogue together to learn the scriptures and pray, and then they would gather in each other’s homes for the breaking of the bread. They shared all things in common, the book of acts tells us. No one claimed private ownership of anything but as many as had lands and properties they weren’t using sold them, and laid the proceeds at the disciple’s feet, and these were distributed to all as any had need.

            But, it could last, could it? Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth indicates that there was trouble, early on. In the case at hand, some people were arriving early for the meal and eating it all up. They were behaving badly, having their fill of bread and getting drunk on the wine, while others went hungry and thirsty. This is not the way to remember Jesus!

            From this incident in Corinth we get the idea of “discernment.” Hear this verse again: 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. (28-29)

            Sometimes this verse has been used to defend whatever the religious authorities of the day define as “orthodoxy,” a word which has the same root as your orthodontist. The Orthodontist wants to make your teeth straight, and uniform, and more like everyone else’s. That’s a good thing. Orthodoxy is about straightening out your thoughts and beliefs so they are more like everyone else’s. This is not so great. Because this leads to the suppression of great minds, which may appear unsettled to those who have ordinary but orthodox minds themselves.

            In the past, this little verse about “discernment” has been the crux of arguments between Roman Catholic Orthodoxy and Lutheran Orthodoxy and Reformed Orthodoxy, about whether or not any of us are properly discerning the body of Christ in the bread. But such an argument reveals an ignorance of the context of the scripture. The folks in Corinth did not fail to discern Jesus in the bread. They failed to discern the body of Christ in the church. Which would explain why Paul devoted the entire next chapter of the letter to the theme of the unity of the church as one body, the body of Christ.

            We properly discern the body of Christ when we recognize how much we depend on each other. We properly discern the body of Christ when we grieve the absence from the table of any of God’s children. We properly discern the body of Christ when we do whatever we can to make a place at this table for all of God’s children, young or old, rich or poor, male or female.

            We properly discern the body of Christ when we are more concerned for others than for ourselves, and we are ready to go hungry, if need be, so that others can eat.

            Then the miracle occurs, for the measure you give will be the measure you get, “[a] good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.(Luke 6:38)” Then people will see the presence of the risen Christ in you. Thanks be to God! Amen.

(Dedicated to the confirmation class of 2015.)