One of the wonderful things about the sacraments and ceremonies of the Christian Church is that when they are practiced properly, they recognize the equality of all men and women before God. None of us comes with any special privilege, but rather we all come as sinners in need of the grace of God, and that we must come equally and be received equally on the basis of what Christ has done.
That is not true in the ceremonies of this world. On the contrary, most of those take great care to distinguish between people, so that those who are important get the first place, and those who are less important get a somewhat lesser place, and so on down the line until you get to people who are not even welcome. I have taken part in a number of graduation ceremonies, and it is the essence of graduation ceremonies to bestow honor and to distinguish between people. If you have had the opportunity to acquire a doctoral degree, you know there are differences even in what you wear. You get to wear a robe that is of a heavier material, with bands on the sleeve, and a hood that goes way down your back, about three quarters of the way to the floor. The outfit communicates a higher status than those receiving a master’s or bachelor’s degree.
It is not to be like that in the Church. If you take the ceremony of marriage, for example, where the wedding service is properly conducted it is a testimony to the fact that everyone, whether high or low, rich or poor, well-educated or not, are all united in wedlock in the same way, with the same vows, and with the same opportunities in the sight of God. So when a couple chooses to have a ceremony that is outside the expected form, there is something about it that does not seem quite right. I suppose of all the places in the world where that is most evident is in England, where you have the most splendid weddings that ever take place—involving a king or queen or another member of the royal family—in Westminster Abbey with all of the trappings. And yet, the words that are used in that service are the same words that the humblest person anywhere else in the British Isles repeats if they are married by the Church of England.
As we come now to Paul’s discussion of the Lord’s Supper, we see that this is also true. There is a proper way to partake of the Lord’s Supper, and there are certain things that are not to be done. Paul has found out about some abuses that had taken place in Corinth, and which he needs to correct. One was the fact that when the Corinthians came together to observe the Lord’s Supper, it had degenerated into what was essentially a banquet with very little, if any, spiritual overtones. When the early church gathered together for fellowship, including to observe the Lord’s Supper, they would eat together.
There was nothing wrong with that practice except that in Corinth it happened that the Christians were coming together more for the food than either the fellowship or the spiritual blessing. Some who were wealthy would come with their dinners and have a big feast. Others who were not as well off would come with very little or even nothing at all. As a result, the whole assembly was getting distorted. Some were indulging themselves, even getting drunk at the communion service, while others were sitting around with nothing to eat and were not participating in it at all.