To be sure that we don’t lose our place within our larger project, just as we must resist the temptation to pick and choose places on which to land and build theological constructs within Paul’s larger project of the first Corinthian letter, it is more than worthwhile to make a very brief return to the third chapter of Revelation. Though we are not yet ready to make our final conclusions, we do this in order to hear the words of Jesus, as delivered through the Revelator, while making careful examination of Paul’s presentation of the Lord’s Supper in Corinthians, of the way that the Lord’s Supper fits within and embodies the context of the messianic banquet, of the central place that is taken by meal practice, and of the picture that Paul is painting of the body of Christ that is to be observed through the table at which we call to mind Jesus’ physical and bodily sacrifice.
In addition to a cognitive pulling forward of the historical and geographical background of Laodicea that was laid earlier in this study, along with the relatively dense societal context that has taken up a great deal of space, not to mention the looming presence of the messianic banquet, let us see if the letter to the Laodiceans does not take on a different tenor when this early church background is provided. Jesus says, “This is the solemn pronouncement of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation: ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of My mouth! Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, and need nothing,” but do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, take My advice and buy gold from Me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from Me white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness will not be exposed, and buy salve to put on your eyes so you can see! All those I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent! Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears My voice and opens the door I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with Me. I will grant the one who conquers permission to sit with Me on My throne, just as I too conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne. The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (3:14b-22)
It is incumbent upon us to hear the words of correction, spoken to that church for a specific reason, in the same way that we hear Paul speaking words of correction to the church at Corinth. We hear a distant yet not-so-distant similarity between the words to the two churches when we hear Paul saying “For this reason, whoever eats or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself. That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dead. But if we examined ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you assemble it does not lead to judgment. I will give directions about other matters when I come” (11:27-34).
If we do not pretend that Paul is anything less than angry at this church over which he had doted and humbly served, then we could easily imagine words such as “I wish you were either cold or hot,” and “I am going to vomit” as Paul observes what is being undertaken, accepted, perverted, and even justified by this body of believers. We do this while continuing to bear in mind the powerful, separating, stratifying, covenant-and-kingdom-of-God denying societal forces that are at work in all times and in all places.
Speaking of the body, as Paul stresses the importance of the movement of the whole of the church body---with individual practice subsumed to its relevance to the church body as it attempts to live as a microcosm of the kingdom of heaven while also being an ambassadorial light to the world that speaks boldly of the reign of God and the coming together of heaven and earth that is accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus (which is what is stressed at the communion table and which will be further demonstrated in chapter twelve); and though the topic is different than that which is addressed in the fifth and sixth chapters, we see Paul again taking up and operating within the motif of the meal, with Paul again stressing the body (eyeing this in the light of the mention of the need for a careful regard for the body in 11:29) when he writes “Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread” (10:16-17). Here, we do not overlook the Abrahamic covenant pretensions that are present with the mention of blessing in conjunction with the sharing of the cup and the breaking of the bread, and we must affirm that there is something of grand importance in the breaking of the bread that speaks to the body of Christ---the church---and its role to be a blessing for the world. This role is communicated to an on-looking world through meal practice.
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