The Corinthian church would have celebrated the Lord’s Supper as a true, full meal, likely in the evening at the house of a wealthy congregant. The problem was that they were treating the meal like just a meal, and going ahead and eating on their own, to the extent that Paul said “your meetings do more harm than good.”
In our western culture in particular, we can easily fall into this kind of behavior because we are a very individualistic culture. This can also cause trouble when we interpret scripture, because the time when the scripture was written was a much more collective age.
The root problem, though, was that by treating the Lord’s Supper as just another meal, they were missing the remembrance and memorial of what Christ did. If they had kept that event and truth front and center, they would not fall into the hoarding and self-centered behavior that Paul calls out.
As People of the Banquet Table, we are called to imitate Christ’s self-sacrifice, to wait and to give and to bring others in. Our role in this life is to exchange all the things that seem to matter, even the seemingly good and religious things, for the opportunity to feast and share at the table of God.
We cannot live in a scarcity mindset when we serve the one who fed the five thousand. We do not need to grasp so tightly or fear that there is not enough. God has more than enough to satisfy all our needs and even our deepest desires.
— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, September 18, 2022