Week three Communion summary

Hello. I wanted to start with a question - basically do people read the summaries, or want them? Please let me know by commenting below. I don't want to go to the extra work if they are not useful.

I thought we had a great session last Sunday - a small, but very dynamic group.

We discussed the background of Corinthians, what the city was like (very diverse, lots of different religions, the church at Corinth being mainly gentile) and what it was about their version of the Lord's Supper that Paul responded to... and by responded, I mean quite strongly corrected. As mentioned before the love feast, a common meal of sorts, really, was celebrated by the church on a weekly basis. Different classes of people came together for this - and within the feast was the ritualized taking of the bread and wine, in remembrance of the Last Supper.

Paul strongly objected to the drunkenness that was going on, as well as the class distinctions that were brought forward - as opposed to a "coming together" of the classes, these meals were actually further bringing out the tensions. Rich folk brought better food, and more of it - poorer folk showed up late (because they were working in the field) when a lot of the food was gone. Paul's correction in 1Corinthians is the first record of the ritualized communion being separated from the love feast.

We also discussed Paul's talking about communion as bringing unity to the body. To be both in communion with God and with each other. (A subject he explores further in Chapter 12, when talking about the gifts of each part of the body).

A question:

This idea of the body, of being unified as we share in this communion ritual.

Have you experienced this? Do you come to the table as an individual? As a part of Grain of Wheat? As a part of the larger body (the church?) What is your experience?

We also spent some time on the first century Christian writing referred to as the Didache,(a chunk of it is seen in the picture above). This treatise explains some of the early church practices.

The Didache is dated approximately 49-79 AD, before John’s Epistles, the book of Revelation, and possibly many other New Testament books were written. The earliest layers of the Didache may have seen their origin during the time of the Jerusalem Council (around 50 AD), and may have played a role in the controversy surrounding the Gentiles (Acts 15). If this is the case, then the Didache may have been a collaborative work of some council members as a proposed draft for the letter to the Gentiles (Acts 15:22-29).

For us, we might recognize something from our own Communion liturgy:

From the Didache, Chapter 9 (section on Communion):

Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom.

Next Sunday we will continue looking at early church practices.

See you then.

Comments

[ian]

i'm reading this stuff Craig. i wasn't able to attend this past Sunday and i won't be able to attend this Sunday either so i very much appreciate the summary afterward.
i suppose i come to the table individually on occasion. when i concentrate on those around me and pray for different people then the individualistic me changes and i see a broader body of the church. on those occasions that i get to serve or lead communion i much more easily see the body of Christ as the different faces stand before me to get their inheritance.