COMMUNION

Rather than pausing for a brief Communion meditation, this message makes Communion itself the text, working through 1 Corinthians 11 and the Corinthian church's abuse of the Lord's table. The teaching organizes the meal around four directions. Looking backward: the bread and cup recall the new covenant in Christ's blood and the brutal cost of the cross. Looking forward: taking Communion proclaims — literally preaches — Christ's death until he returns, a practice that carries into eternity. Looking inward: Paul's sober warning about partaking in an unworthy manner calls for genuine self-examination and, when needed, repentance before the table. Looking outward: the meal is communal, a refusal of lone-ranger Christianity, and a reminder that the gospel proclaimed here is to be proclaimed outside these walls.