Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 11:
17 Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. . .20When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. 21For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. 22What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?
In the early Church, the Lord's Supper was actually a sit-down meal, full of food and drink, and a lot more than the parsimonious little wafers and cups we hand out today. And, when it came to the wine they used the good stuff -- not the Welch's many Protestants use today.
But not all was well in the early church. It seems that the richer would come and eat with each other, while the rest of the folks were still probably working. A high time would be had at the Lord's table, with some getting good and drunk, while the poor would be left hungry, hoping for scraps left from the table of the rich.
It wasn't the Lord's Supper -- it was a gated communion.
It's only gotten harder and harder for the rich and poor to share a meal. In COVID is been almost impossible. But we need to find a way to break bread together. And we need to do so regularly.
Our jobs and our neighborhoods divide us. So too do even our Sunday Schools classes. But a shared table is where we meet Jesus.
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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