Coming to Communion in an “Unworthy Manner”

When I posted the attached picture on Facebook, I got a question from a friend. I succinctly responded to what I think is one of the biggest misinterpretations of Paul’s communion theology today. I thought it would be good to share it here as well.

Here was his question:

And what is your take of the following passage:1 Corinthians 11:29-31 Modern English Version (MEV)29 For he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and unhealthy among you, and many die. 31 If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

Here was my response:

That’s  a great question and the scriptural context makes the answer very clear with what Wesley called a “plain reading” of the text. I studied this in my doctoral work.

Paul is not talking about some sense of individual worth or personal morality as many have imagined, but rather he is talking about ethics within the community. The context of 1 Corinthians 11 is that there were divisions in the community (the whole book is about that starting with chapter 1), and in that very chapter 11, Paul was criticizing the way these divisions were made evident even when they gathered at communion (“when you gather, it’s not the Lord’s supper that you eat, for one goes hungry while the other is drunk”). They were not sharing their food and wine, they were not regarding one another with love, they were quite comfortable with the difference in status they had from each other.

What he saw at the communion table becomes a prism through which he looks at the lack of love for each other beneath the surface. He goes on in chapter 12 to teach them how each of them have different gifts, like parts of the body, therefore they should appreciate each other as valuable. Then he says “let me show you an even more excellent way,” and he goes to chapter 13 into the “love chapter” in which he describes what true love is (we like to read this at weddings but what he was addressing was spiritual arrogance and church conflict ... “if I speak in the tongues of people and angels but do not have love, I am nothing but a noisy gong”.) Then in chapter 14, he directly addresses the spiritual arrogance they had against each other. Chapters 11-14 should be read as one block of teaching.

Clearly, when Paul wrote what you quoted he was talking about how they treated each other without love and appreciation and a sense of community. That’s what coming to the table in an unworthy manner is. Not some human line drawn in the sand over what you believe or don’t believe, or what sin is bad enough and what isn’t.

Those who exclude people who earnestly seek God from the table may be the ones guilty of not coming to the table in a worthy manner.

He replied:

I've never heard of any of us Methodist Pastors excluding anyone, have you? 

I responded:

No, the open table is central to Wesleyan theology, you are right.

However, I have heard of Methodist ministers excluding people from membership or attendance or baptism, whether back during the 60’s or in recent days, and that is by proxy excluding them from the table. This is against our Discipline not to mention wrong.

Systemic Racism and Collective Responsibility

Here is a recent post written by my cousin, Warren Hamby (the son of my Uncle Warren). It is a tribute to my courageous uncle, especially relevant for these times when there are those that deny the reality of systemic racism and collective responsibility.

A little more than 50 years ago, in Jackson, MS, a member of our church who was active in the Civil Rights Movement was a victim of a house bombing by the Ku Klux Klan. He and his family escaped death only because they had minutes before retired to bed. My dad, his pastor, read a statement from the pulpit the following Sunday. Here is part of his courageous statement.

"What had he (Bob Kochtitzky) done (to provoke this)? He had kept the integrity of Christian witness as a sensitive Christian in a society not yet willing to such a witness. He had taken seriously the convictions that were imparted to him by the teachings of the church school and the witness of the pulpit of this church. He had dared to go beyond the respectable acquiescence of the polite forms of Christianity that so often characterize the poor witness of most of us.

"The truth of this is so profound that it turns the question around so that it becomes, not what he has done, but what have we done to prompt this kind of violence?

"Let us not draw a small circle of guilt, for we are all indicted. The so-called decent and responsible people of our city, state and section are the Sauls at whose feet lie clothes of the whole affair. Upon our consciences the whole matter must rest. Justice, Brandeis once said; 'The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.'

"Who is to blame? Every pulpit where justice and mercy and goodwill have not been enough proclaimed; every alleged Christian who has thought more of his or her prejudices than of seeking the will of God and the spirit of Jesus Christ in attitude and behavior; every newspaper that has defended indefensible positions and voiced its own prejudices; the responsible elected officials of city and state who have been more concerned with expediency than integrity--here, my friends is the accumulated and collective guilt that is ours."

That pastor was my dad, the Rev. Warren Hamby, Sr. To honor him this Father's Day, I could list his good qualities and tell you how much I admired him, but I think the words I quoted above speak for themselves. And tell you how much I miss him since he has been gone from this life, words fail me. There are no words.

Church of All-Embracing Love

Here's a word from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who wrote this in Germany during the rise of Nazi power. It is amazing how much it applies to our times:

"A church of faith - even if it is the most orthodox faith that faithfully adheres to the creeds - is of no use if it is not even more a church of pure and all-embracing love ... It is of no use to us for us to confess our faith in Christ if we have not gone first and reconciled ourselves to our brothers and sisters, even to the godless, racially different, ostracized, and outcast. And a church that calls a nation to faith in Christ must itself be the burning fire of love in this nation, the driving force for reconciliation, the place in which all the fires of hatred are extinguished and prideful, hate-filled people are turned into people who love."

From "A Testament to Freedom" p. 249