Remembering the Meal: 1st Corinthians 11:23-26

-

 

Nheyob, cropped by Tahc, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons


              Have you ever thought of collective memory? The ways events can pile on top of each other and make meaning out of history rhyming and echoes of the past upbuilding the future? Well, if you haven’t, consider 1st Corinthians 11.

It is these words of institution we use on Sunday for Holy Communion. We remember what Paul offers to the church in Corinth—that divided and strained congregation in Greece that Paul seeks to unite around the common story and common body of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Words he has received from the wider church—the words Jesus spoke on the night he was handed over, words we find in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Words preparing his disciples for his death, and resurrection. Words harkening back to other liberative words—another meal of salvation. The meal they eat is, or at least is like, a Passover meal.

Passover, a meal remembering the frantic escape from Egypt. God raising up Moses to liberate his people, bringing them out of slavery and into freedom, aided by miracles and mud clogging chariot wheels. Passover a “perpetual ordinance” a repeated meal, a memory that shapes community—re-membering the Passover community every year.

Every Sunday we recite Paul’s recitation of the words passed on by the Apostles about Jesus’ last meal, a Passover-like meal. Jesus’ Passover with his disciples repeating that story of escape from slavery and death in Egypt. It is a community recreated around a meal. A meal of death and life, a last supper becoming the first supper of the New Creation, the great and promised feast.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Table of Contents: Seven Central Things

-
Image
Introduction Intro (Ash Wednesday) The Road to Emmaus Saul on the Road to Damascus A Unified Theory of Lutheranism Today Gathering Gathering at Pentecost (Sun 18 th ) Not Gathering The Art of Gathering Gather in a 3D World How Then Shall We Gather? Gather Prayer Baptism (Jesus + < Jesus Alone)—Galatians 3:23-29 An Emergency Baptism (Sun 25 th ) BEM and Indiscriminate Baptism Baptism in a 3D World What then of Baptism? Baptism Prayer Confession & Forgiveness The 51st Psalm A Shattered Unicorn The Book of Forgiving (Sun 3 rd ) Yup, it really means you are forgiven. How Shall We Confess and Forgive? A Prayer The Word Word, words, joy, judgement Chuckwagon Grace The Bible a Cradle The Word for Now (Sun 10 th ) What is the Good Word? A Prayer Giving Thanks Sanctifying Gratitude I would have been Blind, instead I See Grateful Thankfulness, Now It is Good to Give God Thanks and Praise (Sun 17 th ) A Prayer The Meal R
Read more

Sent Out in Song

-
Image
                The Hymn “The Canticle of the Turning” is a favorite among a whole generation of Lutherans, probably all for vaguely the same reason, it was sung at an especially powerful moment in their life. For me it was sung before my cohort of Young Adults in Global Mission left the Lutheran Center in Chicago to our particular destinations around the world. A one-man band sent us off; if I remember correctly, he was simultaneously playing bagpipes, a harmonica, and drums. He played as all of us excited and anxious young people sang Mary’s song about the transformation of the whole world on account of her son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. It was the song that sent us out into the world to join in that mission. In my case that song sent me to an 850-year-old English abbey converted into a retreat centre where I cleaned rooms, taught kids archery, and served booze to Anglican Bishops.               I think that song was sung in LTSP’s chapel the night I and 11 other seminarians found ou
Read more

I would have been blind, instead I see

-
Image
                At my last annual eye exam, my optometrist suggested that I see a specialist; she thought something looked a little off, but 90% of the time what she saw wasn’t a problem. So, I went to an ophthalmologist, completely chill—there is a 90% chance it is nothing. I ran through the eye chart, got a puff test, all the semi-regular stuff that gets done to one’s eye. Then they brought me to a back room and started manipulating my eye with what looked and felt like a spoon and a dental tool.               Next thing I knew there were needles in my eye injecting numbing solution and a big old laser burning the back of my eyes. By the time I went back to the waiting room, I felt like a throw away towel someone used to clean up a flooded muddy basement. 1 in 10. How lucky, I thought.               After three more sessions spaced out over 8 weeks, they’d stabilized my eyes with those lasers, and in so doing they’d saved my eyesight! In fact, if I’d gone to the Ophthalmologist 3
Read more