"Christ, Communion, and Loyalty," 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, Alan Mills

Well, good morning everyone. For those of you who don't know

me, my name is Reverend Alan Mills.

By day, a military chaplain, by Sunday, part of this church

community and happy to be here with you today to open up God's

word with you. As we do so, let us pray to the

Lord. Please join me in prayer,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 1 God, we bless you this day and

pray that we may be a blessing to you.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be

pleasing to you and acceptable in your sight, our rock and our

Redeemer. Amen.

Some decades ago, a Romanian woman was strolling through by

the banks of the Boozawa River in southeastern Romania when her

eye fell upon a reddish Black Rock.

How interesting, she thought, how attractive.

She picked it up. It was heavy, about 8 lbs, about

the size of a large coconut, she said to herself.

I know just what I will do with this.

She brought it home and she placed it right by her back

door. Whenever a a pleasant breeze

would blow and she wanted some fresh air, she would use the

rock to prop open her back door. From time to time she noticed

that when the setting sun bathed the rock, it seemed to glow with

reddish orange hue. It was beautiful, she would

admire it once in a while, but for the most part it just sat by

her back door, only put to use when the need arose.

When the woman died in 1991, a relative inherited the house.

He noticed this rock by the back door, and he suspected that the

door stop might be more than what meets the eye.

He knew about the local gemstone mines dating back to the 1920s.

The man took the rock to a government expert for appraisal,

and to his surprise and delight, he was offered over $1,000,000

by the Romanian state for what turned out to be one of the

largest Nuggets of ruminite ever found, a fossilized form of tree

resin. Now this gemstone has a

permanent home in the Provincial Museum of Buzow and is

considered a national treasure of Romania.

I want you to keep this chunk of amber ruminate before you and in

your mind as we proceed today. I tell the story of it because I

think it sheds light, pun intended, on particular

realities of our life in Christ. The body of Christ, you and I

together are like this gemstone, created by God with inherent

beauty and uniqueness and now indwelt by the Spirit of Jesus

Christ. His glorious light is meant to

shine through us, to illumine a Dark World, and when we are

walking and worshipping in union with Him and each other, the

world is illumined by His beautiful colours as they shine

through us. When this light is compromised

or concealed, the world is deprived of the light of His

presence through you and me. Well, my brothers and sisters,

if that's all that you remember from today's sermon, that would

be enough. But Paul has more for us as we

look at this passage in court to the church in Corinth.

As we continue this series through the summer, I I will

invite you to consider with me two ideas that Paul illuminates

for us now. The cultural setting is very

different from ours today, but the principles are just as

relevant to us today as followers of Christ.

Paul has a word here for us about communion with Christ and

a word about loyalty to Jesus Christ.

So first, a word about communion with Christ and his body.

Paul illustrates his larger point first by making reference

to the central act of Christian worship, Holy Communion.

Now, at any point in our Christian journey, each of us is

going to be growing in our comprehension and understanding

and experience of what is actually taking place in Holy

Communion. There's always going to be more

to grasp and a deeper revelation and experience to receive as we

participate in Holy Communion. But human language and human

understanding limit us until we will see him face to face.

Then we will know the fullness of that joy and union that is

we're introduced into in Holy Communion.

But Paul does want us to lay a hold at least of a couple of

core truths, and he says he speaks of them in verses 16 and

17. He says the cup of blessing that

we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of

Christ, The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the

body of Christ? Because there is one bread?

We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one

bread. Paul stresses 2 things about

Holy Communion. First, it is the God-given means

by which our union with Jesus Christ is pictured, enacted,

facilitated, nurtured and deepened.

And secondly, simultaneously, it is the God appointed means by

which our connection with His human family, the Church, is

portrayed, enacted, facilitated and deepened.

The Greek word Koinonia that is used in verses 16 and 17 has the

sense of intimate participation or union with, and that's where

we get our word in English communion, Union with in the

Eucharist as instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, bread and

wine received in faith become the incarnational means by which

we are. We receive the glorified risen

Lord Jesus Christ Himself, intimately participate in his

life, are united to Him, and are incorporated into His body,

embodied as the community, centered on and in his living

presence. 1 old Anglican theologian in the 1600s put it

this way, that participation in Holy Communion is like the

invisible ligaments of the body of Christ.

It's what binds us together to one another and makes US1 body

in the Spirit and by the Spirit. Now we often confess, as you

confess the the the Apostles Creed, the words of the Apostles

Creed, and perhaps of you as you have recited the Apostles Creed,

you've wondered about that little phrase, the communion of

Saints, and what that might mean.

Well, the Apostles Creed is drawing upon the language here

in First Corinthians chapter 10. The word Saints has a dual

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

meaning. It can mean holy ones, as in

believers set apart for God and dwelt by the Spirit, And it can

also mean holy things, that is, the elements of consecrated

bread and wine that become for us the body and blood of Jesus

Christ. Thus, by means of these holy

things, we holy ones commune with the Holy 1 and in Him

commune with one another. The Christian Church from its

earliest times has affirmed this baptismal creed.

In this baptismal creed, what Paul affirms here in verse 17,

that the many who partake of the one bread of life, Jesus Christ,

are made one with him and one body in Him.

Now we celebrate this holy mystery every Sunday.

Why? Well, Jesus commanded us to do

so when we gather together. And it's also more something

that is made real by doing it. It is something that is enacted

by the enacting of it, the doing it, and our participation and

our comprehension week after week as we do so in remembrance

of Christ as He taught us. So much more could be said about

the Eucharist, but perhaps, and Paul will speak more about it in

the next chapter, Chapter 11. But hopefully these brief

reflections will be, at least for us, food for thought in our

spirit and mind the next time you say the Apostles Creed and

also when we come to the Lord's Table today and every Sunday.

So first, Paul has a word for us about communion.

But that leads to a second realization, because commitment

with, sorry, communion with Christ and his body calls forth

a response from us and a response of commitment.

And this is the main thrust of Paul in this portion of

Scripture that we've read loyalty to Jesus Christ.

Now return with me for a moment to our our ruminate nugget.

And I want to affirm in our midst here today a vital truth,

a truth that maybe some of us need to hear today and afresh.

And it's this you, my dear brother.

You, my dear sister, are not intended to merely be a doorstop

in the royal palace of our King Jesus.

You are a living and vital member of the Body of Christ,

and you belong to Him. He considers you attractive,

interesting, beautiful. He redeemed you by His blood.

He has reconciled you to His Father, if you will.

He found you on the riverbed of life and picked you up and took

you to Himself, and is in the process of polishing you up as

His precious treasure so that His Christ colour might shine

through you to the world. You are His treasure.

And if this is true, which it is, and it's also the case that

we owe him our loyalty in all things, every part of our life,

individually and as a community of of believers in our beliefs,

in our worship, and in our conduct.

And for that reason, Paul here enjoins us to carefully and

thoughtfully identify, renounce, and avoid anything which would

compromise our loyalty to Jesus Christ and impede His light from

refracting through you and me to the world.

This brief section of 1st Corinthians 10 is actually the

the third part of three lessons that Paul is giving them to

equip these Jewish and Gentile believers on how to sort through

their past and how to live out their new faith in the

surrounding Pagan culture. In the previous two parts, Paul

first advocates in Chapter 9 for Christians to identify

creatively and fully with the fallen world around us as fallen

creatures and seek to be all things as much as we can to all

people in order to we might win some.

And then in this in the secondly, in the first half of

chapter 10, right before this passage, Paul instructs them

about their that they can partially identify with their

Jewish past, with the covenant heritage, the exodus, the feasts

and the sacrifices provided they don't fall into Israel's sins.

And that they understand and celebrate Jesus the Messiah as

the fulfillment of all the covenant promises.

Now in this third section, Paul is going to show them when it

that when it comes to their Pagan past and worship

practices, there is no identification possible, no

ground for commonality. He counsels a full break out of

loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 14 says he speaks to these dearly beloved brothers and

sisters with a warning saying flee from idolatry.

I speak to you as sensible people.

Judge for yourselves. He's telling them, use your

godly reason. And if you stop and think about

it, you will realize that you can't mix good with evil and

still be on the side of good. Truth doesn't just doesn't work

that way. And evil never cooperates like

that. Instead, your loyalty to Christ

must outvote and take priority over all other allegiances.

So how are we to understand the context that Paul is speaking

into? Well, in ancient Pagan societies

like Corinth, social order was built around sacrifice to the

Pagan gods, and adherence to this social order was thought to

literally hold the world and society together and prevent it

from falling into chaos and plagues.

And the particular way that this social salvation was ensured was

through the ritualized sacrifice of animals to the gods, which

was believed to secure the gods health, wealth, and their

fertility for the gods provision of those those things.

Now, eating the flesh of those sacrifices signifies 1's

submission to and participation in that whole world.

Order to dedicate food to an idol was to dedicate yourself.

The meat from these sacrificial animals was then sold in the

marketplace, entrenching the entire system insidiously

throughout the economy and the culture.

No wonder, Paul says don't have anything to do with that system.

Flee from idols. For evidently there were some in

the Corinthian church who had not completely broken their

social patterns of participating in the Pagan sacrifices.

They were still trying to live in both worlds to get along by

going along. But Paul warns them that for the

Christian, this will not do. The risen Lord Jesus Christ is

Lord of all creation. He is the one who commands our

full allegiance and loyalty in every area of life.

And even as Paul assures these Corinthians that idols have no

real power of existence, still there is a twist.

And this is the key. There is a demonic power behind

that idolatry, which is real. Verses 19 and 20 make the point

with clarity. What do I imply then?

That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is

anything? No, I imply that what pagans

sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God.

I do not want you to be participants with demons.

This is the central thrust of Paul's passion for these

Corinthians is that they not entangle themselves with evil

and the demonic. To Paul, this is about loyalty

to Jesus. You cannot drink the cup of the

Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table

of the Lord and the table of demons.

So, friends, if we have been rescued by Jesus Christ and we

have from darkness the dominion of sin and death, our loyalty to

Him must be the primary of primary importance, like

exclusive fidelity in a marriage.

And I think the reason why Paul speaks of the jealousy of the

Lord right at the end of this passage in verse 22 is because

of this. We are the bride of Christ, his

beloved, for whom he gave Himself, that he might redeem us

and present us to the Father, a spotless bride, and to himself a

spotless bride. And love and loyalty is the

response that he jealously looks for in us, his bride and lover.

Well, this contesting of loyalty of course is not unique to these

1st century Christians. We too live in a time in a place

where our loyalty to Jesus Christ is contested every day.

And Jesus himself in our gospel reading said that he that there

are times when the gospel that he brings creates division and

not peace. We too are not immune from the

lure and temptations to split our allegiance between our Lord

Jesus Christ and this world's allures.

Now we may not sacrifice to idols today in the West, but

that doesn't mean that we don't have idols in our hearts and our

affections to which we are tempted to offer ourselves or

parts of ourselves in sacrifice. And it doesn't mean that there

aren't demonic powers at work manipulating and deceiving

people into compromising their souls and ultimately their

loyalty to the only true Lord Jesus Christ.

So Paul's admonition to us Flee from anything that would

publicly dishonor Jesus Christ or draw your heart away from

Him. Paul exhorts us not to traffic

with this world system of entrapment in idolatry, secrecy,

and ethical compromise. Because of our frailty and

fallen nature, as we offered up in our colleague prayer today,

we are often tempted to seek our status and approval outside of

our true identity. As a beloved child of God, we

face decisions. I face decisions every day that

contest my loyalty to Jesus. What?

What am I going to watch on television?

What am I going to keep watching on television?

What purchases am I going to make?

How am I going to use my money? And for all of us, driving in DC

traffic will contest your loyalty to Jesus in our

responses to others around us on the road.

But friends, maybe you are feeling caught up or compromised

by this world's system and the false idols that it worships.

Maybe Jesus is speaking to you about where your allegiance lies

and is calling you to change to effect change.

Sometimes we do get off track and we need a course correction.

But take courage my friends. Jesus is faithful.

His corrections may come in any area of our lives, in your

family, relationships, in the realm of finances, sexuality,

career, in private activities, attitudes, appetites or

ambitions. He will lovingly and

persistently convict you of something that needs attention.

Are there any issues in your life that you hesitate to pray

about or to talk about openly with others?

Are there any? That sense of secrecy or of

shame might be an indication that the Lord is convicting you

that changes are needed. Sometimes our conscience can be

repeatedly bothered about something that just doesn't seem

to resolve. He may be trying to get your

attention. Be still in His presence, listen

for His voice, let Him speak to you.

If you're struggling with something and you just don't

know how to begin to address it, I encourage you to seek out the

help of a trusted Christian friend or talk to those some of

those in your RES group or contact one of the pastoral

staff to help you gain discernment and perspective.

Pray together. Bring it to the Lord.

He will speak to you. He will show you the way

forward. He will lead you to properly

repent if there's something you need to repent of, and He will

heal you of the wounds and scars that resulted from that

situation. And then he will lead you to

renew your allegiance to him. Well, friends, we've seen that

Paul's burden in this passage is that loyalty to Jesus and

communion with him and his with each other are inseparable

realities. My fidelity to Jesus impacts and

influences you, and your fidelity to Jesus effects me,

and together our fidelity incarnates the presence of

Christ into this world. You and I are not unimportant

door stops in the King's palace. We are His precious treasure,

made to shine for Him, living members of Christ and His body,

and He wants to shine through us with all of His glory and

brilliance radiating up and out of your soul and of our

communal, communal life, shedding the beautiful hues of

His presence into the darkness of this world today.

Think on these things when you come to the table of the Lord to

share in the communion of Saints, holy ones sharing in the

holy things, the body and blood of Jesus.

Come to the altar to receive Jesus with joy, to give yourself

to him as your Lord, to renew your allegiance to Him, and to

affirm that you are not alone, but are part of the Body, His

body, in this world, in this church family.

And may we so yield ourselves to Him and to one another that we

will shine increasingly and ever more colorfully with the light

of Jesus Christ for one another and for the sake of the world,

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Amen.