My Morning Meal

There are a number of them . . . commands we refer to as the “one anothers.” Love one another . . . forgive one another . . . admonish one another . . . encourage one another . . . stir up one another . . . pray for one another . . . serve one another . . . and the list goes on. I encountered another “one another” this morning. I’m going to suggest it’s among the lesser known “one anothers” . . . wait for one another.

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.   (1Corinthians 11:33-34a ESV)

Context? The crazy mixed up world of the church in Corinth. “Those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1:2) . . . those who “were enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge . . . not lacking in any gift” (1:5-7). But those who had more than a few issues. Divisions in the church . . . misapplied grace to open and determined sin . . . lawsuits filed among themselves . . . confusion about eating food sacrificed to idols and dabbling with idolatry. And, as I read this morning, even issues arising from when they came together.

Four times in this latter portion of 1Corinthians 11 I encountered the phrase, “when you come together.” That the understood practice of believers at the dawn of Christianity was to come together seems evident. That’s what the church does . . . the ekklesia, the called out people . . . the assembly . . . they assemble. And these brothers and sisters, when they came together as the church, it was “not for the better, but for the worse” (11:17-18).

Ouch! The Lord’s people . . . come together in the Lord’s way . . . to participate in the Lord’s table (11:20) . . . and it’s for the worse.

You get the sense it was a bit chaotic. You sense they came together only because they knew they should come together . . . and not to gather in a way that honored the Head of the church. Their coming together only gave occasion for the divisions among them to be manifest. At the love feast, which preceded the taking of the elements, each went about eating their own meal with no thought of each other. They loved to feast . . . but did not feast in love. One stuffed their face with all the food they brought, while another went hungry. Some got drunk on the abundance they had . . . others were humiliated as they arrived with nothing. Can any one say, “Gong show!?!”

They had come together, as they should, to proclaim the Lord’s death . . . to remember the body given for them . . . to recall the blood shed for them . . . but they did so in an unworthy manner. So much so, that the Lord’s hand of the discipline was on them . . . “that is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (11:27-30). Sobering stuff.

It’s not enough that the church go through the motions . . . we need to wait for one another. Literally, we are to “look for” one another, to “expect” one another. The original word being built off a root which indicates “taking another’s hand.”

I think it’s at least part of what Paul refers to when he says that they should be “discerning the body” when they take the bread and the cup. Beyond distinguishing the Lord’s Supper from their love feast . . . in addition to separating the food they brought from the sacraments they received . . . Paul wanted God’s people to recognize that, in their gathering, they were to come together as the Body of Christ for the purposes of lifting up their exalted Head. And, as such, they were to wait for one another.

Oh, that we might, as God’s called out ones, come together for the better and not for the worse. That, as we wait for one another, we would love on another, so that all people will know we are His disciples (John 13:35).

By His grace . . . for His glory . . .

Our fellowship’s practice is to remember the LORD in the taking of the bread and the cup once a month. But this month will be a “three communion month” for me. As a church body we “proclaimed the Lord’s death” last Sunday as we customarily do on the first Sunday of the month. And next week, I will gather with believers to participate in the blood and body of Christ two more times. First, on Wednesday night with my men’s bible study group (every six weeks or so we pause from our study to gather for prayer and communion), and then on Good Friday when our church family comes together to reflect on the price paid for our redemption in anticipation of Easter’s resurrection victory.

For that reason, I may have hovered a little longer than usual over my reading in the latter part of 1Corinthians 10. And perhaps that’s why this post I did back in 2011 grabbed my attention.

Re-sharing my thoughts on fine dining.

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I’m not really one for fancy shmancy eating out . . . haven’t been to a lot of really “nice” restaurants . . . a few, but not very many or very often. Recently though, Sue and I went out for dinner with some friends to a nice restaurant. Not only was it nice because there was nothing on the menu you could “super size”, but because it was located up on bluff overlooking the city. And, while we didn’t reserve any particular table, we were seated at a table near the window . . . a table with a nice view of the cityscape below us. Not all tables had such a view . . . we could have just as easily been seated near the kitchen . . . or near the washrooms at the back of the restaurant. But we weren’t. And wouldn’t it have been kind of dumb to have said, “No” to the table with a view and instead asked to be seated at the back by the washrooms? I’m thinkin’ . . .

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? . . . You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.    (1Corinthians 10:16, 21 ESV)

Talk about your “fine dining” . . . talk about your “best seat in the house” . . . and you’re talking about the Lord’s table. Invited to pull up a seat with the Guest of Honor . . . no back row . . . no observing from afar . . . no hoping for leftovers . . . but given full access to participate in the “cup of blessing” and “the bread that we break.” Brought near, received onto holy ground, as we interact afresh with the life giving blood of the Savior. We, who were once on our own to wage war with sin and death, now made one body, identified eternally with the body of Christ. Oh, how easy it is to take such a seat for granted. How prone I can be to simply “go through the motions” during communion and never look up and behold the view . . . the view of the cross . . . the view of the empty tomb . . . the view of the land that awaits all those love His appearing.

And what’s worse is that not only can we fail to appreciate the table we’ve been called to, but often we’ll ask for a table at the “back of the restaurant.” We’ll chose to sit at the table with one leg shorter than the others . . . the one that’s dirty and not wiped clean after the previous patrons . . . the one that keeps getting bumped by the waiting staff as they rush in and out of the kitchen. And what’s more, we’ll settle for the “cheap meals” . . . we’ll ask to be served scraps with no lasting nutritional value. And, somehow, we’ll think we can jump back and forth between the table the Lord has set for us, and the one the world invites us to dine at.

Why would I give up a seat at the Lord’s table for a seat at the back? Why would I settle for the world’s junk food when I’ve been invited to participate in soul-filling fare of the Lord Himself? I don’t know . . . but sometimes I do . . . “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it . . . Prone to leave the God I love . . . Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, . . . Seal it for Thy courts above.”

Sometimes I need to be reminded of the privilege that is mine to have a seat at the table.

Reminded that the reservation was booked by God Himself, and that the tab was picked up by His Beloved Son. To not forget, when I’m at the table, to sit back and behold the view . . . considering afresh heaven’s love poured out that I might be redeemed . . . knowing again that my Savior lives and that I’m dining with Him . . . discerning the body of the Lord in the believer’s who surround me . . . appreciating anew the wonder of the fellowship that I have been grafted into. And, when I have known again the wonder of being invited to the table . . . and have been fed the food of heaven . . . then, by His grace, I will have no desire for the table set by the enemy . . . no hunger for the greasy offerings of the world.

A seat at the Lord’s table . . . now that’s fine dining . . . amen?

Discontentment . . . I wonder how much time, money, and resource goes into battling discontentment. People not happy with their current situation bent on changing it. People frustrated at where they’re at, or how things are playing out, so they pour their blood, sweat, and tears into altering their reality. Whether it’s driven by self-imposed goals . . . or by some “greener grass on the other side of the fence” . . . or by some idealistic view of how their lives should be turning out . . . they want to be somebody else . . . or be doing something else . . . or be living somewhere else.

And it’s not necessarily that what they aspire to, or dream of, is wrong . . . or shouldn’t be aspired to. But it’s not their current reality . . . and so they are discontent . . . and they are frustrated . . . and they can get trapped into being consumed with the “if only.” When, in fact, they may just need to rest and continue in the “whatever condition” God has called them to.

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. . . . So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.   (1Corinthians 7:17, 24 ESV)

Seems like there may have been some “now what?” confusion in Corinth. “I’m saved . . . now what?” I’m saved and married to an unbeliever . . . do I need to get out of this relationship? I’ve been a Law abiding son of Abraham . . . now that I’m saved do I now try to “remove the marks of circumcision?” Or, I never knew who Abraham was, should I now be circumcised? I’m saved and I’m a bondservant . . . surely God intends a better life for me, do I rebel and run? Now what?

Paul’s answer, lead the life that the Lord has assigned to you.

Not that Paul is saying that God won’t lead us to a very different place than we are today . . . nor that God purpose for us will not involve a change of life situation. In fact, the “life that the Lord has assigned” may look very different tomorrow than today.

But what Paul is saying is that right now . . . in today’s “whatever condition” . . . there we should remain, or abide, with God.

Our current reality should be seen in the context of God’s calling. Our current situation placed under the umbrella of God’s sovereign purposes. And in that, we can abide . . . we can rest . . . and we can trust, that the next steps, or the next season, will reveal itself in God’s timing.

We were bought with a price, says Paul (7:23). Purchased with the precious blood of Christ that He might own us as His special people . . . redeemed at great cost that we might know the divine fellowship we were created for . . . ransomed through the power of a resurrected life that we might be adopted into His forever family. He has bought us and He has called us. And so, I’m thinkin’, He’s got our “whatever condition,” figured out . . . both for today, and for tomorrow. Ours is to live with the mindset that we are living out His calling . . . by His power . . . for His purposes.

And so, while I might have my dreams, desires, and aspirations, many of which I trust have been formed by the Spirit moving within me, I need not know discontent nor frustration. Because I’m called to remain . . . to adide . . . with God in my “whatever condition.”

By His grace . . . for His glory . . .

It’s known around these parts (aka my home) as the “chin of disapproval.” Over the years, bringing up five daughters, working with kids in youth groups and camp settings, my wife has perfected it. Often, it was all that was required for the girls to know they needed to get back in the line they had just stepped out of. Subtle but effective. I don’t think Jesus had a chin of disapproval, but something I read this morning has me wondering about the look Jesus gave when he was angry.

I’m in Mark 3 and Jesus is in the synagogue . . . the place where you expect to find the people of God. And He is drawn to a man with a withered hand . . . and the eyes of the religious elite are drawn to Him.

And they watched Jesus, to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart . . . ”  (Mark 3:2-5a ESV)

Jesus saw the man’s deformed hand . . . and Jesus knew the religious leaders’ deformed hearts. These men of the Book . . . these leaders of the congregation of the righteous . . . their hearts were hard. Even when Jesus tried to engage them in a logical discussion of the merits of healing a man on the Sabbath, they remained silent. It wasn’t a matter of could they believe . . . the evidence and testimony of Jesus’ power was clear . . . but it was solely a matter of what they wanted to believe. And they were not prepared to believe in anything that in any way compromised their self-serving positions of authority.

And so, records Mark, Jesus looked at them with anger. Peterson, in the Message, imagines that “He looked them in the eye, one after another, angry now, furious at their hard-nosed religion.”

Eye to eye with Jesus in His anger . . . makes the chin of disapproval pale in comparison. To grieve the Son of God . . . to agitate the Author of Life . . . to provoke the wrath of the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Talk about crossing a line!

And, as I reflect on it, I guess I have two reactions. One is to thank God that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Though once an enemy . . . though once opposed to the King . . . though once a possessor of a calloused heart of stone . . . because of the finished work of the cross, and through the abundant grace of God, there is no “chin” for me. No glare . . . no stare . . . no “how could you?!?”

My other thought though, is Paul’s exhortation to the believers at Ephesus to “not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). The word used by Paul indicating not so much an evoking of anger as it is of making one sad or sorrowful . . . of causing the Lord “distress” through actions unbefitting a child of God. It’s not that I fear “the chin” . . . it’s that I don’t want to do anything that would cause my Savior to grieve.

And yet, I know my frame . . . and He does too. I know my weakness . . . and He says His grace is sufficient. I know my failures . . . and He says that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9).

My desire is to please Him . . . my confidence is in the finished work of the cross . . .

No chin for those who are in Christ Jesus. By His grace . . . for His glory . . .

You can almost imagine Paul’s jaw dropped low . . . his eyes stretched wide . . . as he glares unbelievingly (at least in his mind ) at those who will read his letter . . . and says, “Really!?!? Really!?!?” You, who are going to judge the world, . . . you, who are going to judge angels, . . . you can’t settle a dispute among yourselves? You need to sit before unbelievers to deal with lawsuits against each other? And that you’d even have lawsuits at all is unbelievable. Better that you suffered wrong . . . better that you be defrauded than take such disputes to the world for resolution. But, beyond that, that there should be a basis for a lawsuit does not compute . . . that a brother in the Lord would defraud another brother is inconceivable!

That’s the issue Paul deals with in the first part of the sixth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians. Unbelievable! Some among these saints persisted in living like sinners . . . defrauding their brothers . . . and it poured out into the world as they battled one another like the unsaved . . . and the name of Christ was shamed . . . the “new life” they proclaimed to possess looked a lot like the “old life.” Paul says, Stop it! That’s not who you are.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.   (1Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV)

“And such were some of you . . . ” Oh, the grace that flows from that short, but powerful, declaration!

Not because of our righteousness, were we wooed into the Family of Faith . . . not because we were better than anyone else, were we declared to be a holy and royal priesthood. No, “such were some of you” . . . sinners . . . far from God . . . at enmity with God. But no longer. That was then . . . we live in a very different now.

In the name of Jesus, those of faith have been washed by the blood of the Lamb and cleansed with truth of the Word . . . they have been set apart for holy purposes . . . they have been declared righteous and without fault . . . all through the active agency of the Spirit of God. They have had an encounter of the divine kind and it has changed everything. The old has passed away . . . the new is come (2Cor. 5:17). It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20).

Sometimes I think we Christians just need to get in touch with who we really are and, by His grace, and through the power of His Spirit, determine to walk in the light of that reality.

We are the people of God. God having started a work in us to conform us to the likeness of His Son. We should seek to walk in that likeness. Our conduct being above reproach, first and foremost, toward others in the household of God, and then, to those who are yet outside of Christ. We should forgive according to that likeness. Our tolerance for being wronged gauged against Jesus’ humiliation for our sake and not based on the letter of the law which defines “our rights.” Our desire for the kingdom fueled by that likeness, that the affairs of this world are considered, at best, secondary as we set our sights on another land.

“And such were some of you . . . ” Praise God for new life in Christ! By His grace, may we live out that life such that His Name is lifted up.

Really!!!!