At our church, we take communion on the first Sunday of the month, when we also share a potluck fellowship meal. Before we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, our pastor always impresses on us how serious the sacrament is—that it’s not to be taken lightly. He reminds us of the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, who were warned not to take the Lord’s Supper “in an unworthy manner” (verse 27, ESV). And indeed, it is serious. But I wonder if we tend to think that the way we treat each other during fellowship dinner, or during the week, is less serious.
I’ve often observed (in my own habits and others’) a separation between “church” and “normal” life. We dress up nice for worship service and put on our best behavior. We solemnly sip the communion cup on cue and reverently sing the closing song. Then church is over: we can relax again, eat lunch, and chat freely until it’s time to leave. We can return to “normal” life until next week.
I think our view of the church tends to be too narrow. The church isn’t bound to a building, geographic area, or even a set of rituals or teachings. The Apostle Paul says believers are the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27) and God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16). The church isn’t somewhere we attend once a week; it’s something we ARE all the time. In the early church, believers spent life together and met in each others’ homes. Part of the issue in 1 Corinthians 11 was that some people were bringing their own food to eat and humiliating others who had less rather than eating together and sharing what they had. At the same time that they professed to honor and remember Jesus’ death, they were mistreating members of the church He died for. Our worship of the Lord is bound up with how we treat each other. Not only that, but the world watches how Christians behave toward people inside and outside the church. We represent the church with our words and actions everywhere we go.
On one hand, I think we often miss some of the reminders of holiness and sacredness that are few and far between in many churches today. Moses took off his sandals on holy ground. The Israelites worshipped in the Temple where the manifested presence of God dwelled. Later, Christians worshipped (and still do) in cathedrals that draw the eye up to heaven and left them in awe with just a tiny sense of the grandness of the One we worship. I think there’s a place for that kind of awe and respect and solemnity. As humans, we tend to forget things if we aren’t reminded of them often. We can lose that sense of holiness when our faith becomes commonplace.
On the other hand, isn’t “commonplace” exactly what our faith is supposed to be? Oozing from every bit of the way we live our lives? We no longer worship in a temple, on a mountain, or in another sacred place. We carry the presence of the Lord around with us now. In truth, the sanctuary is a holy place, but so is everywhere else. How we behave in the church building is not more important than how we behave toward others throughout the week. Believers, we are the church, and the world is watching us.
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