There's a Seat at the Table

Before I start, a quick plug. Working bee is on tomorrow, so get keen for that. There’s also a youth car wash, and all the money goes towards the mission trip to Thailand we have planned later this year. I’d really appreciate your support, on behalf of all the youth who are doing everything they can to make it an amazing trip to serve people in need.

Today’s message leads into communion, a wonderful time to remember Jesus’ sacrifice and keep it at the front of our minds. It’s called There’s a Seat at the Table. I don’t normally do this, but turn to the person next to you and say, “There’s a seat at the table.” Lovely.

Father in heaven, thank you that you are a God who has saved us a seat at the table. As we take part in communion today, help us remember that you made the greatest sacrifice. You’ve given us the gift of grace, something we could never achieve on our own, and you’ve given it freely. Keep that at the front of our minds, and help us know there’s a seat at the table. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Shared meals

There’s something special about eating a meal at a table. Meals look different in every culture and every family. In mine, food is always communal. I think that comes from my Asian background, where you always share.

It frustrates me when I go out with friends for pizza and everyone wants their own pizza. Where’s the variety in that? A potluck-style meal is so much better: all sorts of dishes, a little bit of everything on your plate. I think that’s the way to eat together.

I realised how cultural this is when I was travelling with a friend. I needed milk for my cereal, saw his in the fridge, and poured some in. He said, “What are you doing?” I said, “It’s all communal, right? We’re family, we share each other’s food.” Apparently not everyone thinks that way.

But whatever your culture, gathering at a table to share a meal is special. At the table we take off our masks and engage in what it means to be human. It’s intimate. We share our lives with one another.

Table fellowship is at the core of Jesus’ ministry. He’s always eating and feasting, often with what many would call the wrong people. So much of why his ministry was effective is that he ate with people.

A table gone wrong

Today I want to talk about a table in the Corinthian church that didn’t capture Jesus’ heart for table fellowship. Paul writes to address problems with the Lord’s Supper. It’s a long passage, so meditate on it as I read.

In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.

So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I come I will give further instructions.

— 1 Corinthians 11:17–34

Communion in the early church

This passage is hard to grasp unless we understand how communion worked back then, because the early church approached it very differently from how we do.

In the early church the Lord’s Supper was usually part of a communal meal. Church met in homes. Believers shared their food in a family-like setting, and the Lord’s Supper was part of that meal. It was also far more frequent than it is for us, possibly weekly, and everyone took part.

As the church grew and became more institutionalised, the Lord’s Supper moved out of homes into dedicated church buildings. It became more liturgical and ritualised, a formal sacrament rather than part of a shared meal. So when the first disciples thought of communion, they didn’t picture deacons coming down the rows with little glasses of juice and little pieces of cracker. It looked very different.

Times have changed, but we need that context to understand this passage. Corinth regularly celebrated the Lord’s Supper, but not in the spirit Jesus intended. Paul describes a gathering where the in-crowd ate and drank and were merry, filling their bellies, while those of lower status were pushed aside, marginalised and left hungry. They weren’t invited to sit at the table.

The church was following the customs of the culture around it. At a Roman feast the host sat at the head, the highest-ranking guests sat next to him, and lower-status people sat further away. If your status was very low, you were put at a separate table entirely, kept away from the important people. Status was everything, and the Corinthian church was copying that pattern.

Paul’s vision: a reversal

Paul’s vision for the Lord’s Supper was completely different. It was a reversal of social hierarchy. The marginalised are lifted up, the hungry are fed, and the outcast has a seat at the table.

That’s why he challenges the Corinthians so strongly. They had turned the table into a way of keeping people out instead of a place to invite people in. Paul proposes a radically alternative way of gathering, because Jesus shows that everyone is equal at the table. When we observe the Lord’s Supper, we resist the impulse to exclude the outsider, and we welcome the marginalised.

What “examine yourself” really means

Paul says, “Examine yourselves.” You’ve probably heard that taught as searching the deep crevices of your heart for some hidden, unconfessed sin. That’s not a bad thing, and you should do it. But it’s not quite what Paul means here.

He’s asking the Corinthians to examine who they’ve excluded from the fellowship. Examine who you’ve pushed out, who you haven’t forgiven yet, who you need to be reconciled with, who you’re holding a grudge against.

I believe the table is the symbol of the Christian gathering. When we think of church, many of us picture a pulpit, a stage or music. For the early church the symbol was a table, where everyone was equal. Tables are sacred places where people gather, talk, share the deepest parts of their lives, and commune together under Jesus.

Communion first, conversion second

The early church was following the pattern of Jesus’ own life. He came to overturn status and hierarchy, and his method was communion first, then conversion.

In a world where sinners were condemned and cast out, Jesus took a special interest in them: the broken, the hurt, the marginalised and the outcast. And what did he do? He ate with them.

Think of Zacchaeus, a tax collector, an outcast who didn’t have it together and was rejected by his own people. Jesus saw him up in a tree and said, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). He ate with him. And the result? Zacchaeus turned his life around. There was repentance and conversion. But it was communion first, conversion second.

Make room for someone else

We can make communion very individual: just between me and God. But we also need to remember that it’s something we do together.

Jesus invites us, as sinners, to his table today to take the bread and the cup. Yes, it’s about your relationship with Jesus. It’s also about your relationship with his body. It’s about making peace with people you hold grudges against, and admitting that there are people you’ve pushed away from the table. Communion is about reconciliation in our relationships too.

Jesus died on the cross to give you a seat at the table. My question is: will you make space for someone else to sit there too?

Communion looks back as we remember what Jesus has done. It also looks forward to the final feast in heaven, when we celebrate with Jesus and his whole body, his bride. And the reality is that there’ll be people there you might not like! So it’s best to start the work of forgiveness and reconciliation today: to set aside our preferences, agendas and grudges, and come together as Jesus’ bride, one body, as we share the bread and the cup.

So let’s keep the table open today and welcome everyone, because Jesus saved us a seat so we can make room for others.

Foot washing

We’ll begin with foot washing, a beautiful time to follow Jesus’ humble example. Though he was the greatest, he showed what leadership and love are by laying himself down and washing his disciples’ feet, a servant’s job. He told his disciples to do the same as a sign of humility and service.

There are three spaces. Auditorium 2 at the back is for “plus ones,” families and married couples, to wash each other’s feet, and Derek will be there. The seminar room is for the ladies, with Setta. The other room is for the men, and I’ll be there. Please make your way there now, and then we’ll come back together for the bread and the cup.