Live fully in the community God has designed for us Conclusion

You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here and Part 4 here.

These last few weeks we have learned the community God has designed for us includes the outcast and the disciple, the weak and the vulnerable, the marginalized and the privileged, the stranger and the foreigner. I have posited, if we are not living in a community that looks like this, then we are not living fully in the community God has designed for us. I further stipulate, if we continue to allow such divisions, the body of Christ will (continue to) suffer.

After Pentecost, it didn't take long for the church to relapse into well worn habits. For some, maintaining the dividing line between Jew and Gentile seemed paramount. More than once, ministry that included mixed race company raised eyebrows and invited debate. For others, divisions crept into the fold even as they gathered in worship with tongues and prophecies abounding or as they gathered around the Lord's table to share a meal. Paul addresses this particular issue in 1 Corinthians.

The Last Supper by Jacopo Bassano

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! 1 Corinthians 11:17-22

Paul goes on to teach the Corinthians about the history and purpose of the Lord's Supper.

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. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

As we read Paul's final directives in this chapter, be mindful not to divorce these verses from the previous, especially verses 17-22.

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. 1 Corinthians 11:27-34

The Last Supper by Sieger Koder

How were the Corinthians believers eating and drinking in an unworthy manner? How were they guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord? The context of 1 Corinthians 11 enlightens us.

In a time when the church primarily met in private homes, Paul addresses a gathering of Christians in Corinth. It seems the wealthier members of the congregation, those with flexible, less-demanding schedules, arrived early. While servants and slaves, those with schedules dependent upon others, arrived late. The hosts escorted the early-arriving wealthier members to the main dining area to eat while the food and the wine remained abundant. But when the servants and the slaves finally arrived, the already-gathered church escorted them away from the full dining room to the courtyard outside and gave them leftovers.

As Paul certainly knew, and the Corinthians would soon realize, divisions will always be easier to maintain then creating space for inclusion. Divisiveness is easy. It relies on our basest self. It's second nature. But diversity demands more. It defers to Christ's nature. It's hard-work. The Corinthian believers, by defaulting to the easy peasy, status quo of I-belong-here-and-you-belong-there, eventually succumbed to negative effects on their health and well-being as the body of Christ.

In these passages, Paul argues, the Corinthians dishonor the body of Christ by enabling divisions in the church (11:18,27). He warns the believers, they eat and drink judgment upon themselves by allowing some to go hungry while others get drunk (11:2, 29). He concludes, many are now weak and sick and some have even died because they have disgraced God's church by shaming the poor (11:22, 30).

Our tendency toward division may be second nature, but it's also detrimental to our health. Diversity is essential to our well-being, therefore, inclusion must be intentional.

Paul is right. Before eating and drinking, we must take care to examine ourselves. We must consider whether our words and actions honor or humiliate those who are different than us. One way to determine if we treat others with respect is to recognize whether we are all gathered as equals around the same table or if we are consistently separated.

Consider the various tables we fellowship around. Who's included? Who sits around our tables of conversation and friendship? Who feels welcomed at our tables of ministry? Who do we accommodate at our tables of decision making? Do these gatherings only ever include people who look and sound like us? Have we, as the body of Christ, made ourselves susceptible to weakness, sickness, or even death by those we've excluded?

Remember, enabling division is easy. All we have to do is succumb to the status quo. But diversity is God's design. As image bearers of God we bear a serious responsibility. Diversity is God's design, but inclusivity is our choice. It's our choice to ask hard questions, invite deep conversations, search our souls thoroughly, gain self awareness, repent sincerely, and open seats at his table daily. To neglect our responsibility may be detrimental to our health. But to embrace this responsibility enables us to live fully.

When we accept our responsibility as image bearers of God to purposefully include all kinds of people around his tables of fellowship, ministry, and decision making, then we can begin to live fully in the community God has designed for us.

Live fully in the community God has designed for us Part 4

You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Today, an expert in the law tests Jesus, but it's the disciples and the expert who get schooled.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Luke 10:25-29

Wanting to justify himself, the expert in the law presses his luck with one more question. With an upraised brow and a smug little smile he asks Jesus to clarify – Who is my neighbor? A short story, an unexpected hero, and a rhetorical question later, Jesus awaits the expert's answer. “The one who had mercy on him,” he answers correctly, if not begrudgingly. For the word Samaritan never crosses his lips.

The Good Samaritan by Vincent van Gogh

Most regular Bible readers acknowledge a strong animosity between Jews and Samaritans because of a vague notion that something happened in their shared history. Here's a brief accounting: 

In 722 BC, the Assyrians destroyed the land of Samaria, then occupied by the kingdom of Israel. The king of Assyria resettled the land with people from Babylon and other nations who worshipped other gods to replace the Israelites (2 Kings 17). Eventually becoming a racially and religiously mixed nation, Ezra rejected their help to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 4). Insulted by the snub, the people of Samaria build their own temple on Mount Gerizim. (Remember the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4?) Resentment deepened between Jews and Samaritans in 128 BC, when leader and High Priest, John Hyrcanus invaded Samaria and destroyed their temple. Not to be outdone, a century later, the Samaritans defiled the Jerusalem temple with dead bodies. 

Suffice it to say, by this time, the Jews and Samaritans despise each other. And in the opinion of the expert in the law, Jesus' good Samaritan would have sounded like an oxymoron.

Yet, it's not only the expert in the law who needs to hear this story – to rethink and reconsider the question, Who is my neighbor? Not hardly. Luke strategically places the telling of this parable after an unfortunate interaction with his disciples in the previous chapter.

The Good Samaritan by Paula Modersohn-Becker

As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village. Luke 9:51-56

Soon, Jesus will give his disciples a mandate to go into all the world and preach the good news everywhere. Everywhere? Jesus can't even trust these guys to go to a neighboring village. Want to flunk Missionary Training 101? Threaten to kill foreigners who reject Jesus.

For now, Jesus directs his disciples to another village. Not to protect himself from the Samaritans, mind you, but to protect the Samaritans from his disciples. No wonder Jesus recounts the parable of the good Samaritan in the next chapter – his own disciples needed its lesson, too.

Sometimes I wonder, How was it possible for the disciples to sacrifice everything for Jesus, learn from him daily, love him wholeheartedly, and yet harbor racist attitudes? I don't know. It seems impossible to hold such contradictory beliefs and behaviors in tension.

Then again, I also wonder, How is it possible for Christians today to pray fervently, give generously, worship extravagantly, and yet despise the stranger, fear the foreigner, hate the immigrant, and be inhospitable to the refugee? I still don't get it.

As Christians, we long for that day when every tongue, and tribe, and nation will sing his praise, yet we reject the humility, the courage, and the kindness necessary to create an environment to live that reality presently. In the process, we forfeit God's design and God's community to our own detriment. It's not as if God left us powerless to complete the task he set before us. Or is the day of Pentecost just a fond memory for the Church?

I made a promise a few weeks ago to prove to you that living in the diverse community God has designed for us is essential to our health as the body of Christ. I haven't forgotten. Return next week for the final installment. Until then, let's remember ...

When we care for the stranger, love the foreigner, embrace the immigrant, and welcome the refugee, then we can begin to live fully in the community God has designed for us.