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Morning Devotion for the Season After Pentecost

October 11, 2023

The Invitatory

The mercy of the Lord is everlasting: O come, let us adore him.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Reading: 1 Corinthians 11:23-34

For 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, 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.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgement against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation. About the other things I will give instructions when I come.

Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones

Most of us are very familiar with the first three verses from this portion of Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians. They are read every year on Maundy Thursday. Interestingly, Paul’s letter was written far in advance of any of the synoptic gospels. It suggests to me that one must discount the telling of Paul’s conversion story in The Book of Acts, it having been written 30 years after Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians. Moreover, his account of Jesus' institution of the Eucharist is quite simple and powerful in its simplicity, compared to the versions in the Gospels of Matthew or Luke.

My high school health teacher took a very dim view of arguments at the dinner table. Her chief complaint was that arguments at such a time were disruptive to the digestive system because of the anxiety that they raised. For her, meals, particularly family meals, were intended to be intimate occasions. Paul has greater concerns, While he is disturbed about arguments, and divisions, in general, in this community because of the disunity among the members, he is all the more concerned that such disunity and factiousness not be on display at the Lord’s Supper. To him, Jesus’ mandated celebration of the Lord’s Supper, which was meant to be a unifying commemoration of the body of Christ. As a remedy to their divisions, Paul briefly outlines the tradition of the Lord’s Supper, highlighting its meaning in three main orientations: past, present, and future.

Paul’s restatement of the Lord’s Supper is presented as being a handing down of a tradition, beginning with Jesus himself. This original source found in Jesus himself is what Paul draws upon to distinguish the Lord’s Supper from the Corinthian dinner gatherings. These do not serve to unify the community within the meal instituted by Jesus. Moreover, the Corinthians believed such dinner gatherings served as church gatherings. For Paul, this demeaned the institution of the Lord’s Supper, which originally was celebrated by Jesus and his disciples on a religious day for all Jewish people. Just as the Jewish Passover served to connect people with an event from the past, the Lord’s Supper was a solemn reenactment connecting believers with the sacrifice of their Lord.

This is a reminder that the elements referred back to the night of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion. Thus, they were commanded to keep the death of Jesus at the center of the commemoration of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus’ action of breaking the bread was a reminder of his broken body on the cross, and the cup of the sacrificial pouring out of his blood. The Lord’s Supper, then, and now, should be a solemn time for their remembrance of the sacrifice made on their behalf (and ours today) by Jesus Christ and the eternal salvation that it accomplished.

Paul also points to the future. He speaks of the anticipated return of Jesus as he instructs the Corinthians to continue in its observance “until he comes.” For until he comes, we proclaim his death. All who do eat the bread and drink of the cup, will be accountable for this sacrifice.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,

for ever and ever. Amen.