Inclusive community
St. Paul’s words provide the first description we have of Christian worship, written even before the gospels. What he says points to something important about the nature of the church.
St. Paul only quotes the words about the sharing of the bread and cup in order to emphasise his understanding of its meaning. It seemed that the Eucharist was still, like Passover, a meal. But it had become a scandal. The rich brought their equivalent of the hampers from Fortnum and Masons, whilst the poor had nothing. The rich couldn’t wait for the prayers before they began to eat. So tonight we are called to look to each other. Tonight, on the night that Holy Communion was instituted, we are invited to Holy Communion, and invited to be a holy communion – a blessed, sanctified fellowship of Christian believers. The very word ‘Communion’ expresses our togetherness in what we are called to do. And holy – not because of our own intrinsic virtue, but holy, because we are called to be holy, we are made God’s holy people, by our Father. We are forgiven – We receive absolution, we receive the blood of Christ shed for the sins of the whole world, we are baptised people.
All this forms the background to the words we quote from St. Paul in tonight’s service, and his teaching, specific to one particular situation in Corinth, has had to be applied countless times since where there has been a disagreement at this table. Because there was no real sharing then, the Eucharist ceased to be celebrated as a meal. It was reduced to the sharing of bread and wine, so that all might share on equal terms and accept each other.
Time and again in history Christians have found reasons to divide, and have, as at the Last Supper, and as at the Church in Corinth, have broken the unity, the communion, which Christ wills for his people. It lays a heavy responsibility on us.
It would be tempting to think that on this night of all nights when we come to the Holy Communion, we come to fix our eyes solely on Jesus. Indeed, it might almost seem that a pair of blinkers, as fitted to horses, might help us to focus our gaze. But the spirituality demanded of an occasion described as Holy Communion, demands that our communion be with each other as well as with the Lord – with that motly crew at Corinth, with those who shared at the Last Supper and then betrayed or denied their Lord.
St. Paul is asking the people of Corinth to consider the kind of Church which Jesus had wanted when he broke the bread in the upper room. At one level it seems like a small exclusive group of those particularly chosen. It’s not. St. Paul’s understanding was that this group contained the representatives of the whole human race. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free. The Christian Church was to be inclusive, rather than exclusive, but Paul was never allowed to have the last word. Throughout the centuries there has been division about whether the church should be the one or the other. Should the church use the ancient liturgical language of Hebrew, or modern everyday speech? What about the Jewish food laws? What about food sacrificed to idols?
The detail, of course, pales into insignificance when set against the picture of the Last Supper. Jesus gives the new commandment, and washes even the feet of the man who will betray him. The picture is one of openness and of welcoming. John Wesley described Holy Communion as ‘a converting ordinance’ and there was just a hope that Judas might have been converted by his sharing in that Passover meal. He wasn’t turned away. The picture is of the sacrament being freely offered to all to be shared by all. The picture of the Church which it gives is of an inclusive community.
St. John’s first letter turns the great commandment about loving God and loving neighbour round to make the point clearer. He says
Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
In recent years an organisation has emerged in the church in Britain called “Inclusive Church” In particular it is inclusive of women and of those who are gay. And we are finding in the Anglican Church that being inclusive, in the sense that Paul was inclusive, is very costly, because this issue is producing a huge split in the Church to the extent that people will not share in Communion together or come together to the Lambeth conference. Tonight of all nights we focus on the meaning of our Communion. First we have Paul telling us that we must accept each other. Then we have the example of Jesus in the gospel acting it out.
At the Last Supper Jesus got up and washed not the hands, but the feet of his disciples. In this he was doing not the service required from a disciple, but instead doing the work of a household slave, who might wash the feet of guests as they arrived for the meal. Peter blurted out the indignation and embarrassment of them all. The household slave does not eat with you. The person who washes feet doesn’t eat with you. But this gesture shows that Jesus is completely inclusive.
In what Jesus told him he was able to re-assure Peter that the roles were not actually reversed. Jesus said ‘If I, your Lord and master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.’ Jesus did not cease to be Lord and Master in washing his disciples’ feet. He was still the king who had come into his holy city amid the shouts of triumph of the crowds. He was a king who had, in sharing our life, also taken the form of a servant.
What Jesus did was part of his responsibility as King. A king is responsible for the safety, the care, the protection and ultimately the life of his people. This washing of his disciples’ feet is first the acting out of that care for those closest to him. Jesus was saying to his disciples ‘This is how you must treat each other.’
Now you may well be saying to yourself ‘This bit doesn’t apply to me. I’m not a king, I’m not the lord and master. I’ll just have a dose for five minutes.’ If that’s what you are thinking, then don’t. Because we all find ourselves at some point in that position. Every single person needs to accept the dignity and the worth of everyone else. Everyone matters. That is what Jesus was saying in doing this, everyone matters to God, to Jesus, and if we are his followers then we should show that everyone matters to us. If Jesus can do this for his disciples, then he tells us that we must do the same. It applies to us when we invite anyone to our home. It applies to anyone who offers any kind of service – a teacher, a local government employee, a tradesman, a dinner lady, a receptionist. Whoever we have dealings with, they are the people who matter.
Following the example of Jesus we are called to respect the dignity of everyone – the King is there to serve, and we are all to serve each other. It is this model which is the basis of Christian society that our conduct towards each other should be determined by a concern for every person, and in particular for those in need, for those who need our care. Human rights, now enshrined in European legislation, start with our king, our god, who washes his disciples feet.
It may be that this gesture by Jesus at the Last Supper has done more to further the idea of a democratic society than any other, for it demonstrates that the role of the King is to respect, honour and serve every one of his disciples, his subjects, his people. It upholds the dignity of every person. It may be that we have reached a point where this action, far from becoming superfluous, needs to be acted out not just in the Churches, but by Presidents and Prime Ministers. And when that is done it needs to be remembered that this service is to be imitated by civil servant and clerk, by doctor and banker, parent and by child, by everyone, whether what the service they perform is paid or unpaid. And the other side of this is to assert everyone’s need to serve, whether that service is paid or unpaid, for the good of the whole community, and first for the good of the person who performs the service, for in this we follow in the pattern of Jesus, and we obey his greatest command, the command at the Last Supper, to love one another.