Well, hey everybody, I'm Adam Schell, the pastor of Albert Heitzen. Welcome to our sermon podcast. And I just want to start out by thanking you for spending part of your day with us. And if you're blessed during our time together today, let me invite you to come and worship with us live on Sunday mornings at 10.30am.
Eastern time. You can worship with us live on our church website at mhbcleuable.com slash live or if you're in the Louisville, Kentucky area We would love to have you come and join us in person with that. Let's get right into this episode sermon. As part of my freshman orientation at Georgetown College when I started there over 25 years ago somehow.
Yeah, that makes me feel really old. We were all required to attend an etiquette banquet. Now the problem with this was the people who were in charge of hosting this etiquette banquet didn't tell the students We're going to be participating in a whole lot about what to expect in this banquet before we got there. As a matter of fact, the only thing that I knew about this banquet before I walked through the doors of the banquet hall that night Was that every student who attended was required to wear a proper attire and they told us explicitly that that man that guys had to put on a suit and tie But that was really all that I knew so as I walked over to the students that are that night to participate in this etiquette banquet I had no idea what I was in for and now you have to remember that when this was happening I was all of 18 years old a freshman in college So at this point in my life my idea of buying dining was going to a restaurant that didn't have a plate place attached to it So you can probably imagine how overwhelmed I felt when I walked into the banquet hall that night and saw tables all across the room And every table was covered with a pristine white table cloth and every table had more plates and utensils sitting on it Then I had ever seen any meal I'd ever been to in my life.
It wasn't a church potluck So I was completely and totally overwhelmed by everything that I saw when I walked into that room that evening And I think you kind of understand why it is and I felt that way But as I made my way around the room leaving through the tables to try to find my assigned seats And yes, you heard me correctly I had an assigned seat along with everyone else there that included those fancy little dang cards to let us know where we were supposed to sit But when I finally found my spot and I sat down in my seat I sat down in a table that looked a little like the one we're gonna put up on the screens for you to see So overwhelming just to look at it just in case you're trying to keep up with it There's let's see There's three four three plates two knives two smooths a couple of glasses a ball and a actual linen tablecloth And then I there was also one very confused college student sitting at tables But over the course of the next couple hours of my life We would learn a little bit more about what each item sitting at the table in front of us was supposed to be used for and we've learned Some other various aspects of proper dinner etiquette while we were there that evening as well So I thought I'd start this sermon out today by giving you a little quiz on your table etiquette Partially, I want to do this because it does in fact apply to the sermon that I'm preaching this morning But also I do it just so I don't feel like I wasted those two hours of my life at that etiquette banquet all those years ago Because I haven't really had a chance to use those skills a whole lot since then and you don't have a free guy You don't have to worry this quiz isn't going to be extremely difficult for you And I'll actually get the whole thing started by asking you a pretty easy question just to get the ball rolling So question number one when it comes to table etiquette throughout your entire life You have been told that there is one place that your elbows do not go when you are at the table So where do your elbows not go when you're at the table on the table secret? You've got your proper etiquette figured out already very very good next question for you as you look at a proper dinner setting What do you call the fork that is placed the furthest to your left? What's the fork for this to your left of the table setting that your salad for look at that two for two a lot of you already are you Doing a fabulous job. All right next question for you question number three What do proper gentlemen do whenever a lady leaves the table during dinner?
Proper gentlemen stand whenever a lady leaves or returns to the table during a proper meal All right, let's move on We'll try a couple harder questions for you this time Do you know what direction the food is supposed to be passed in during a proper meal? Do you pass the food in a clockwise fashion or a counterclockwise fashion? You got 50-50 shot of guessing right? You pass it clockwise All right, the last question that I have for you all right What you're having a proper meal and someone I think you're sitting at the table with asks you to pass the salt Do you pass them the pepper as well?
If you are having a proper meal and somebody asked you to pass the salt you begin by passing them salt and then you politely ask them if they Would like the pepper as well? Let's see the my quiz. So thank you for participating with it And how'd you do? Did you know the right answer all the questions?
Did you miss the answer to all of the questions or more importantly? Why did I ask these questions to begin with right? I mean why do I start the service out by talking about etiquette a proper etiquette meal? I mean, it's not like any of us are going to be invited to have high tea with the king of England anytime soon And it's not like you actually have to know the difference between a butter knife and a salad fork to be able to feed yourself So why does the first few minutes of the sermon talking about proper etiquette?
Well, I'm talking about this to start the sermon because right now we've been working our way through a series of sermons called at the table Where we have been talking about what happens at this table the communion table And over the last few weeks We've seen that what happens at this table when we eat of the bread when we drink of the cup that it challenges us to become more like Jesus and that's why we in the church often refer to communion as a sacrament the word sacrament shares the same Latin root It's the word sacred so both of these words refer to similar things they refer to being set apart They refer to being made holy so when we come to this table when we eat and share communion together That's what's happening for us when we come to this table we are being set apart when we come to this table We are being made holy when we come to this table we are being changed so that we can become more like Jesus But because we know that when we gather at this table that we're experiencing something sacred There are times when we forget that the whole communion thing started around an ordinary table There are times when we forget that before Jesus and his disciples shared the very first communion that Jesus had just gotten together with his closest friends and his followers To share a meal with them and because Jesus and his disciples had come together to share a meal That means that they were ways that they were expected to behave while they were at the table They were rules that they were supposed to follow when they were at the table They were table manners that they were supposed to use when they were at the table But the table manners that Jesus and his followers were supposed to use during the meal that they shared together Are way more important than us just remembering that we were not supposed to put our elbows on the table during the meal Or knowing which fork we're supposed to use when the entree is served And that's because when Jesus and his disciples gathered together to share a meal They weren't just sharing some kind of fancy dinner together They'd actually come together to observe the Passover And for the people of Israel the Passover is a sacred time Where they remember the way that God heard the cries of their ancestors And the way that God saved their ancestors from 400 years of slavery and Egypt So there were rules that they were supposed to follow whenever they observe this meal Because this meal was supposed to be a way to remind them of God's faithfulness To them to their ancestors and a way for them to continue to hold on to the hope That since God heard the cries of their ancestors God continues to hear our cries to this day And since God saved the people of Israel from 400 years of slavery God will save us From whatever dangers we face So there were rules that Jesus and his disciples and everyone who has ever taken the Passover Are expected to follow when they are sitting at the table There are rules that are supposed to follow when it comes to the food they eat And the way that they're each dish is served There's rules that each person sitting around the table are expected to follow When it comes to retelling the Passover story So that everyone there is reminded of God's faithfulness to them So good table manners at the Passover were meant to help everyone at the table Remember that they were sharing this sacred meal And sacred meals require sacred behavior Sacred meals require sacred behavior And that's not just true of the sacred meal of the Passover It's true of our sacred meal when we share communion Our sacred meal that we share at the communion table requires sacred behavior But just like it's easy for us to sometimes forget that we're not supposed to put our elbows up on the table during dinner It didn't take real long before the early church started to forget that they were expected to behave in a certain way When they were sharing the communion meal And I can show you what I mean If you've got a Bible close by your Bible app on your phone I'd encourage you to open it to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 1 Corinthians chapter 11 And as we're finding let me tell you a little bit more about what is happening in this passage In this passage we are going to find some people who have some pretty awful table manners And that's because you have to understand that when the early church got together to celebrate and observe communion Their observation doesn't look the same way that it looks when we observe communion today When we observe communion a little bit later on during the service today You're going to come up to the front, you're going to get your little tiny oyster cracker and your little tiny grape juice cup But when people in the first century were sharing this meal in the early church was having communion together They were sharing a real meal Not just a little cracker and a little cup of grape juice So this meant that everybody was part of the church, family's got part of the church They would prepare food and they would bring it over to eat and share with everyone else in the church During this communion meal a little bit like a potluck And then as the meal was progressing and starting to wind down That's when the communion bread would be broken and the communion cup would be passed And they would remember and observe this sacred meal together But the problem that was happening in Corinth was that there were some people Who were trying to create the communion meal like it really was just any other potluck dinner So what you really had happening there is you had some wealthy people who were part of the church Who were arriving early for these communion meals And when these wealthy people showed up they brought the best that they had to offer They brought gourmet food, they brought expensive wine But as soon as they sat down at the table they started eating everything that they brought They started drinking that expensive wine that they brought And some of them were even getting drunk at the communion table And all of this was happening before a lot of people who were part of the church in Corinth Even got off from work let alone had the chance to make it over to share this communion meal So you had people who were stuffing themselves silly at the communion table While other people were going hungry You had some people who were getting drunk at the communion table While other people were going thirsty And remember this wasn't happening at just any old church meal But if it was happening at any old church meal it would have been bad enough But no this was happening at communion The time where we're supposed to remember Jesus is sacrificial love for us The way that Jesus willingly laid down his life for us So in 1 Corinthians 11 Paul is going to have something to say about everything that's been happening During communion in Corinth So let's take a look at what Paul writes We're start reading in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 17 This is what Paul writes He says Now I don't praise you as I give a following instruction Because when you meet together it does more harm than good First of all when you meet together as a church I hear that there are divisions among you and I partly believe it It's necessary that there are groups among you to make it clear who is genuine So when you get together in one place it isn't to eat the Lord's meal Each of you goes ahead and eats a private meal One person goes hungry while another is drunk Don't you have houses to eat in and drink in? Or do you look down on God's church and humiliate those who have nothing? What can I say to you? Will I praise you?
No, I don't praise you in this So unsurprisingly in these verses that we just read Paul's not real happy with what's going on in the church in Corinth Paul is not real happy that there are some people who are overindulging at the Lord's table While other people in the church in Corinth are going hungry Paul's not real happy that there are some people who are getting drunk at the Lord's table While other people in the congregation are going thirsty But as we keep reading in this passage We're going to see that Paul gets upset about more than just the fact that the church in Corinth Is allowing some people to go hungry and thirsty Where they're supposed to be sharing this communion meal So we keep reading we're going to see that there's something else that Paul is upset about So let's continue reading on This is how we're going to pick up in verse 23 and let's see what Paul says next Paul goes on to write I received a tradition from the Lord Which I also handed on to you On the night on which he was betrayed Jesus took bread And after giving thanks he broke it and he said this is my body Which is for you Do this in remembrance of me And he did the same thing with the cup and after they had eaten Saying This cup is the new covenant in my blood every time you drink it Do this in remembrance of me Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup You proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes So these verses that we just read Paul tells us that he's not just upset He's not just angry about the fact that some people are being allowed to go hungry During the communion meal while others are stuffing themselves silly He's not just angry that some people have nothing to drink While other people are getting drunk at the communion meal Now Paul tells us that what he's really the most upset about Is it when the church in Corinth is getting together and observing communion When they're celebrating and sharing the communion meal That they have completely forgotten what communion is all about So Paul tells them that when Jesus broke the bread And when Jesus passed the cup He did that for a reason But the reason that Jesus broke bread and passed the cup Wasn't just so the church would have an excuse to have a potluck dinner Now when Jesus broke the bread when Jesus passed the cup He did this as a way for the church to remember him That's why when you look at the communion table that's sitting in front of me Or the communion table that you find in virtually every other church You find these words inscribed and carved into it This due in remembrance of me That's the reason we take communion The reason we take communion is to remember Jesus The reason we take communion is to remember Jesus But when Paul tells us that the reason why We come to the table to eat the bread and drink From the cup is to remember Jesus Paul's not using the word remember the same way that we use the word remember Typically when we talk about memory and remembering something today We're talking about a cognitive function We're talking about trying to recall something that has happened in the past So we talk about trying to remember some lesson that we learned when we were in school Or we talk about trying to remember something that happened when we were away on a family vacation Or we talk about trying to remember having to go to some silly etiquette bank When we were freshman in college But that's not what Paul is really getting at when he uses the word remember And that's because the word that we translate is remembering this passage is the Greek word Anamnesus And the the theologian Elizabeth Johnson points out that anamnesus refers to more than just cognitive memory More than just recall She says that this word is emphatically behavioral So she says this word that we translate is remember can also be translated as representing or making something present again What does that mean? Well, it means that we don't just take communion to remember Jesus We take communion to make Jesus present in our lives again And what does that mean? Mos Elizabeth Johnson goes on to explain It means that for Christians to remember Jesus is to re-appropriate the consequences of his death in his resurrection It is to know ourselves as the body of Christ It is to lay down our lives for the world just like Jesus did It's for us to love one another the same way that God loves us all That's what communion is really about It's about It's about It's about remembering and making present the body of Christ that was broken for us It's about laying down our lives the same way that Jesus laid down his life for us It's about loving each other the same way that God loves all of us That's what communion is about That's what's supposed to happen when we gather at this table So when we come to this table and when we leave this table It means that we should behave more like Jesus We're going to put it another way We should have Jesus's table manners Another way we should have Jesus's table manners And can you imagine how different the world would look if the followers of Jesus actually had Jesus's table manners instead of our own? Can you imagine how different lunch would look all across our country?
Today as people leave churches and go to have a meal inside of a restaurant if we behave more like Jesus If that happened the servers that work at restaurants who typically loathe working on Sundays because of the way that church members treat them The way that church members talk down to them and treat them like they are less than human Well, they might actually find that we as followers of Jesus treat them like they are children of God People with infinite value and infinite worth People who deserve to have their needs met every bit as much as we should have our needs met And that means that Sunday shouldn't be the day that nobody wants to work inside of a restaurant It should be the day that everybody looks forward to working inside of a restaurant Because they know that they're gonna get the best tips they get throughout the week Or how different would churches look if we use Jesus's table manners whenever we have some kind of fellowship meal inside of church Because I can tell you I've gone to enough fellowship meals inside of churches over the years Where I have seen people who were just sitting inside of the sanctuary begin gossiping and talking bad about the people They were just sitting beside inside of the sanctuary as soon as they plot the plate down on the table and start eating But if we have Jesus's table manners instead of our own the conversations that we have inside of our fellowship meals would be times where we build each other up Instead of tearing each other down How different would the world look if we use Jesus's table manners every time that we sit down at any table To eat a meal And we take the time to remember that while we are sometimes overindulging at the table when we eat There are millions of people in the world who are starving How different would the world look without us always trying to show how important we are How different would the world look if we built each other up instead of tearing each other down How different would the world look if we were willing to put ourselves last and other people first How different would the world look if we truly use Jesus's table manners instead of our own Well, I imagine that the world would look a whole lot more like God wants the world to look And I imagine that all of us would start looking more like Jesus too And instead of tarnishing Jesus's name and tearing down God's kingdom I imagine that God would want to say to all of us Well done my good and faithful servants. You are being the people that I made you to be But it's not easy It's not easy to use Jesus's table manners instead of our own It's not easy to put already it's last in the needs of other people first It's not easy for us to come in any situation from a place of humility and set up a place of pride It's not easy for us to follow the example that Jesus set for us But it's still the example that Jesus set for us Jesus was so humble so giving that he was willing to come down to this earth To give up his life for us Just so that we could sit at God's table with him No, we're last few weeks We've discovered together that this table is so much more than just an ordinary piece of furniture with four legs and a top No, this table the communion table is a place where we encounter Jesus And it is a place where we are supposed to be transformed into Jesus's hands and Jesus's feet in this world But as we come to the end of the series, you have to realize it's up to you to decide How this table impacts you Because this table is a place that is supposed to change you so that you become more like Jesus But you have to decide if you will let it So let me ask you Do you want to continue to use the table manners that you have learned throughout your life Those manners that want you to go first and make sure you get the food that you want to eat The manners that cause you to talk down and mistreat people who serve you the meals Those table manners that are all about lifting yourself while tearing other people down Are you ready to use some new manners? Do you want to continue to live like you always have Or do you want to live like Jesus? Because that's the challenge of coming to this table This table will challenge you to become more like Jesus But in order for that to happen You have to be willing to let more of yourself go Let's pray together God as we come to you in this time of prayer You know that all of us have learned the table manners of this world And i'm not just talking about keeping our elbows off the table or knowing which fork we're supposed to use during which course of a meal God No, we've learned those manners that are about putting ourselves first getting what we need from the table while other people struggle And suffer But God that's not the world that you want us to live in That's not the way that you intended this world to be So God when you sent your son into this world he showed us a different way A way that puts ourselves and our needs last and the needs of other people first A way where we approach every table with humility instead of pride A way where we approach every table not thinking about what we need but thinking about what we can give God help us to set aside the manners of this world and take up Jesus's table manners instead Let us be changed and transformed by this table so that we can become more like him We pray this in his name Amen Well, hey, it's Adam again and I just want to thank you for tuning into this episode of our sermon podcast And I hope that you've been blessed during our time together And if that's happened once again, I want to invite you to come and worship with us live on sunday morning's at 10 30 a.m Eastern time You can do that by joining us on our church website at mhbcluable.com slash live or if you're in the Louisville Kentucky area You can also worship with us in person and that's going to do it for this episode of our sermon podcast But I want to invite you to come back and join us again when our next episode drops next week But until then i'll be praying for you.
I hope that you have a great week and we'll see you back here soon for another sermon podcast