Last week we celebrated communion in this congregation, and I mean celebrate. Communion is often a fairly somber event, but last Sunday as people came forward they smiled. In fact, some people beamed as they received the “bread of power and prophesy”and the “cup of welcome and joy.”Was it the inspiring faith stories, the music, the Spirit on the move on Pentecost 2014?

In March we had communion on the first Sunday of Lent, and there was joy among us then as well. Eight children from Christian Family Montessori School who had been preparing for their first communion were part of the congregation. They had learned about Jesus the true vine and the water and the wine; they had reflected on what impedes their relationship with God.

Several weeks earlier, the children who are Catholic had shared communion in a local parish. Then they all came here, Catholic, Mennonite and “other;”all the children participated, their families and friends joined us for worship, and you could see the eagerness and joy on their faces.

Some of the families had not been to a Mennonite church before. Thank you for extending such warm hospitality that Sunday and always. Afterward I heard comments like “I have never heard such singing in church,”and “people asked for prayer and then you actually prayed for them, in the service.” Though we are not in ecclesiastical full communion with all these people, the Spirit was present and working through us as a gathered community.

How different than the way that some of us grew up, worrying about condemning ourselves if we participated in communion with those from a different tradition. Paul’s admonition to the church at Corinth rings loud in our ears: “…those who eat and drink without discerning the Body of Christ eat and drink condemnation on themselves.” But this congregation was formed when young adult Mennonites from German background wanted to have communion with Mennonites from Russian background or even – other Christians that weren’t Mennonite. So welcoming all to the table is part of our congregational DNA.

Still, what are we to do with these angry, chiding words from Paul to the church at Corinth? Clearly there is a problem with the way the community is sharing (or not sharing) communion. The gospels were not yet written when Paul writes to the church at Corinth, but he knows about that last meal Jesus shared with his disciples. The liturgical tradition seems to have already become established; Paul says “I received from the Lord what I also handed to you.”

Interestingly, where Paul and the gospels use almost the same words for Jesus’institution of the meal, Paul leaves out Judas and his betrayal of Jesus. Perhaps he doesn’t need to refer to Judas’betrayal: the church at Corinth has its own problems with disloyalty.

The church at Corinth is a diverse group across social class; they are slaves and free, rich and poor, women and men, married, single, families. The ideal model of the early church that is described in Acts, where all shared things in common is not how it is in Corinth – at all. When the community gathers, the rich folks eat and drink as much as they want. This leaves a whole swath of the congregation feeling hungry for food – and fellowship. If Judas betrays the body of Jesus, the church at Corinth betrays the body of Christ.

Paul doesn’t go as far as Jesus in Matthew, “It would have been better that the betrayer not be born;” but he does speak harshly to those who with their drunkenness and gluttony, show no respect for the community. These seem to have forgotten that in this ritualized meal, the bread and wine represent something bigger than the hungry stomach, something bigger even than the local gathering.

We might try and spin this: the rich members of the community are just treating everyone equally – with the same haughty attitude to all. But Paul is having none of it.

He says that when those who sit at table together are that unaware of each other bodies, that unconcerned about the other bodies, they sin not just against their sisters and brothers but against the very body and blood of Christ. They eat and drink not Christ’s union but Christ’s judgment – upon themselves.

Should we be literal in our reading here, is this a message for all people in all times? It is written: “Everyone, therefore, should examine themselves and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” or is Paul, in anger, a bit over the top? How can anyone ever be prepared enough to receive Christ, even in the form of a small bit of bread, a quick sip from the cup? How much of the community must be in alignment, at peace, before it is okay to share the meal?

Aren’t we all unworthy? The church at Corinth is not the exception but the rule. Our church communities too harbor inequalities: racism, sexism, abuse. While Mennonite Church USA has statements on immigration and abortion, capital punishment and peace and justice we cannot claim to be in total agreement within this congregation, across the conference or across Mennonite Church USA. With such dissension among us, is there hope for ever having true communion?

What if Paul was writing to us? Would he upbraid us for sharing the communion table with people from Allegheny Conference with whom we have not been in full fellowship for over 10 years? Would he point toward our inclusion of LGBTQ people as a gaping wound in the body of Christ? Would he be angry with the ways that the church has betrayed LGBTQ people, leaving them to starve spiritually while others stuff themselves on fast food theology and watered down biblical teachings?

The reality is that over the years that we have been under discipline by the conference, some of us in this congregation have shared the bread and cup with people from Allegheny Conference and Mennonite Church USA. Have we brought judgment upon ourselves? or even on others? Should we have refrained from participating at the table?

I am not advocating for a cavalier attitude toward communion, within this congregation, conference or denomination. I am suggesting once again that we approach Jesus and Paul in the Jewish way, with some questions. Are they pre-judging us by their warnings about judgment, with Jesus’ominous “It would have been better for that one not to have been born.”Are they telling us that none of us is ever worthy?

Or are Paul and Jesus describing what inevitably happens if we eat and drink when we are not in union with each other? Perhaps Paul is describing what happens when one eats without taking the other into account; we consign ourselves to solitariness rather than community.  Look what happened to Judas, who shared the meal with Jesus despite the warning he was given. Judas was soon alone, so alone he chose death.

Perhaps rather than a prescription, we are given a description of what happens when we approach the table unprepared, when we come to the table closed to relationship with others. We experience judgment: our own internal judgments as well as the continued judgments of others, the judgments that have separated us in the first place.

In the coming weeks we will have some congregational conversations about our relationship with Allegheny Conference. I do not have any simple answers for how we should approach the ongoing situation with the conference and denomination. When I am able, I  take the long view and remember that we are in the midst of a huge shift in society and in the church. In a time of flux do we stop singing and praying? Do we stop having communion, until we can get it right?

That certainly has not been our approach the past decade. In the most intense times, we have gathered more often for prayer as a community. Maybe instead of determining that we are not ready for communion because we disagree, the best thing we can do is to keep having communion with each other. What if coming together at the communion table, recognizing our own brokenness and the brokenness of the body of Christ brings healing? What if (break the bread) “do this in remembrance of me”meant instead “do this in remembrance of me”  (put the bread together).

Eucharist in Greek means thanksgiving. As Mennonites we do not usually use the term eucharist; we have traditionally used “the Lord’s Supper”or “communion.”What might it be like if we recalled and celebrated this as a meal of thanks? After all, Jesus gives thanks for the bread and breaks it; he gives thanks for the cup and shares it. What if we approached the table not with worry about condemnation and death, but instead pondered our connections with God and with others. What if we started with thanks – for the bread and cup. And thanks for the life of Jesus, the community of Christ, the movement of the Holy Spirit.

As we talk with each other in the coming weeks, as we talk with representatives from conference, let us approach each other, as well as the table, with humility and thanksgiving. Humility because none of us is ever worthy to receive Christ. And thanksgiving because this small ritual meal brings us together, the many and varied parts of the body of Christ.

(If during the singing of the hymn you would like to come forward to receive the healing, broken bread please do so.)