1 Corinthians 11:17-26

¹⁷Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. ¹⁸For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it. ¹⁹Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine. ²⁰When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. ²¹For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. ²²What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!

²³For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

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A few weeks ago, I was doing my regular morning routine before class, drinking a cup of tea and reading the New York Times, when I found myself in what, for me, is unfamiliar territory in the newspaper: the sports section. Now, I’m from Nebraska, so—thanks to the Huskers--I’ve never been able to escape football entirely, but that hasn’t been for lack of trying and I generally give the sports section of the paper wide berth. And yet, here I was reading about Thomas Jones, the former Jets running back who recently signed with Kansas City during the off-season. I had ventured into this section of the paper unintentionally because I now read the Times online, and I had followed a link to the sports column from an article about the recent coal-mining explosion in West Virginia that killed 25 miners. So, what does coal-mining have to do with an NFL football player? Well, it turns out that Thomas Jones grew up in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where both of his grandfathers, his father, and his mother were coal miners. In the same month that Thomas Jones began his NFL career by signing with Arizona, a large rock in the mine fell on his mother’s back. She never worked again. As I sat reading the sports column, my computer notified me that it was running out of power and, as I pulled out my power cord to plug in, I thought about the coal and the coal miners that still provide 54% of my electrical power so that I could continue reading my morning newspaper. My power light lit up and I went back to my sports-free morning routine, but I wondered—as a Christian—can I really claim to sit at the same table as those coal-miners?

In today’s reading from 1 Corinthians, Paul is confronting a community with a divided table. Some of the members from the early Christian church in Corinth have been writing Paul to complain about divisions in the community. It seems that, when these early Christians gather to celebrate the Lord’s supper—which is probably still a full sit-down meal at this point in Christian history—those who are more wealthy and powerful arrive early and, instead of waiting for the slaves and other lower class workers who have fewer means and less flexibility in work schedules, the wealthier Christians have been going ahead with their meals, eating most of the food and becoming drunk before their Christian brothers and sisters even arrive. Paul is furious and, in his harsh rebuke of their behavior toward each other, he explains that by acting in an unworthy manner—by celebrating the Lord’s Supper at a divided table--they have not been celebrating communion at all.

The divided table in the Corinthian community was immediately visible. The elite and the poor workers who directly supported their lifestyles were located not only in the same geographical area but in the same church. For the most part, this is not the case in our modern context of globalization. One of the profound effects of a globalized economy that we are just beginning to acknowledge is the disconnection between goods and the people who produce them. As local sources of production have shut down or been out-sourced over the last few decades, we now know very little about the on-the-ground workers who actually make many of the products we consume. We sometimes forget that such people even exist, and we would certainly struggle to claim any true connection with them. Even when we become aware of unjust practices, such as the fact that the explosion that killed the miners was likely preventable, we have a hard time making the connection between the people—like the miners—and the products—like the coal and eventual electricity—that we consume every day. The geographical distance, differences of social and economic class, and the many levels of corporate middlemen rob the workers of their identity. Even the essential things of life like food, energy and clothing are disembodied…disconnected from the people who make them as their livelihood. In this kind of system, I can almost hear Paul saying, “What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter, I do not commend you.” The coal miners along with sweatshop workers, migrant farm labor, meat packers, and so many others are sitting at a different table.

After Paul’s harsh rebuke of the Corinthians, he goes on to recount Jesus’ words in order to remind them of the purpose of the celebration. He says that…

the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

“Do this in remembrance of me”. The Greek word translated here as “remembrance” refers to the Jewish sense of remembrance, which is different than simple recollection. When Jewish people celebrate the Passover, as Jesus and his disciples were doing during that meal, they aren’t just sitting back and remembering God’s actions as if telling a story of once upon a time, long, long ago. Instead, they are retelling God’s actions in order transform the old story into the current story of the Jewish people today. This form of remembering is a way of naming oneself as a part of the past, and therefore accepting the responsibility to act in the present. It is a form of remembering that not only requires recollection but it also compels action. By commanding the Corinthians—and us—to “Do this in remembrance of me”, Jesus is commanding us to remember in this Jewish sense of the word. By participating in this meal, by remembering Jesus’ words and actions, we are compelled to act based on the new covenant Jesus has made with all his people at his one, unified table.

Every time we partake in communion, we are asked to listen to these words and take them on ourselves—to pull them on to our bodies like a new set of clothes—and then to live in those clothes by working to ensure Christ’s one unified table is available everyone. The tricky part is that, in our modern economic situation, our Christian community is a global one, so how can this act of remembrance compel us to work for a globally unified table? Becoming more informed about the source of our energy and products and the dangers that face their producers is certainly a start, but it’s not enough because this form of so-called “‘virtual solidarity’ offers no concrete results” (William Cavanaugh). Education is essential but we can’t stop there.

Strangely enough, one major step in overcoming this global distancing between people is to think locally. We must make ourselves intentionally conscious of the human beings behind the products we use. The emphasis on local business and local economy may seem like old news to you by now, but this about more than good economic sense and knowing where the apple you’re eating came from; this is about knowing the person who grew the apple, this is about actively remembering our connection with the wider body of Christ. As my new favorite bumper sticker says: Act local, but think global. By reconnecting even some products with actual local people, we are better able to connect globally.

A great example is right here in Milwaukee with the organization Growing Power. In addition to being a national leader in the development of local sustainable food systems, Will Allen’s organization also works to reintroduce the human element of food production by connecting and involving local consumers with the project. The day I visited Growing Power, I met inner-city youth interns who were teaching suburban volunteers about methods of urban food production. One of the youth told me about how working on the urban farm has made him more conscious about where all his food comes from. I watched while one group of inner-city youth and suburbanites worked together to introduce a new batch of worms to a compost pile. Another group worked to repair a leak in the fish tank that provides natural fertilizer for trays of nutrient-rich sprouts…and then, when they were finished, they all sat down together for lunch. At one table.

In our global community, the work to which Jesus calls us is tremendous, but it starts at the table. This one, undivided table. Come, eat, and remember for all is ready.

To the Glory of God. Amen.