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1 Corinthians
11:20-27
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When you
come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For in
eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry,
another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink
in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who
have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this?
No, I will not.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the
Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when
he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which
is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he
took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant
in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of
me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you
proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats
the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will
be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the
Lord. (ESV)
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True
Joy
Thursday
of Pentecost 20
14 October 2010
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John
Chrysostom was preaching to a world very much like our own. While
preaching to the people of Antioch (he only later became bishop of
Constantinople), he chided them for allowing the luxury of their
community to crowd out concern for the gifts God bestowed on them
in the mystery of Christ's body and blood. He exhorted them not to
be absorbed by worldly concerns to the detriment of their faith,
the Christian life, and the needs of other persons. He pleaded with
them not to walk away from the feast of the body of Christ only to
fall into the vices which are characteristic of affluent societies:
drunkenness, undisciplined feasting, and carelessness about the
needs of the poor. The Christians who have been nourished on the
body and blood of Christ, cannot just fall back into the
self-centered life of pleasure seeking.
The church receives at the hand of Christ such great riches in the
divine service. She has been married again to the bridegroom in the
consummation of the altar. By partaking of His body we are united
with Him so that His becomes ours and ours His. She has feasted at
the altar set with royal care for the children of the King. She has
sung honor to the Thrice Holy. She has received heavenly food under
earthly means. A joy above all sadness has been bestowed upon her
in this royal feast. But her children sometimes seek to prolong
that joy using the means of this world to manufacture the
prolongation of it. True joy is to be sought (Ps 4:6-7), but is
not to be found in the luxuries of this world.
This is not to say that luxury or riches per se are evil. On the
contrary, if we have them we should live as if we did not. If we do
not, as if we did (1Co 7:29-31).
They must not be the guarantors of joy in our lives. Only Christ is
the treasure in whom true joys are to be found (Mt 6:21). We must
walk away from the altar with the fullness of joy that Christ
gives. Only then will we no longer be enticed by the light and
fleeting joys of this world.
When you compare the joys of the feast of the Lord to those which
are offered by the enticing world, the joys of the feast far
outweigh those of the world. Thus the self discipline required of
the Christian life is no burden to us or a thief of true joy. For
our joy has been made full and complete in the Supper, which
conveys the very body and blood of Christ to us. No one who
partakes of this can ever walk away from it unchanged. It is the
true luxury to feast at the royal banqueting table of Christ the
King.
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John
Chrysostom
"Have
you heard holy hymns? Have you seen a spiritual marriage? Have you
enjoyed a royal table? Have you been filled with the Holy Spirit?
Have you joined in the choir of the Seraphim? Have you become
partaker of the powers above? Do not cast away so great a joy,
waste not the treasure. Do not bring in drunkenness, the mother of
dejection, the joy of the devil, the parent of ten thousand evils.
For it is a sleep like unto death, and heaviness of head, and
disease, and obliviousness, and an image of dead men's condition.
Furthermore, if you would not choose to meet with a friend when
intoxicated, can you tell me, if, when you have Christ within,
would you thrust upon Christ Himself so great an excess?
"Do you love enjoyment? Then, on this very account stop being
drunken. For I too would have you enjoy yourself, but with the real
enjoyment, which never fades. What then is the real enjoyment, ever
blooming? Invite Christ to dine (Rev 2:20) with
you. Give Him to partake of yours, or rather of His own. This
brings pleasure without limit, and ultimately everlastingly. But
the things of sense do not bring everlasting pleasure; rather as
soon as they appear they vanish away. Whoever has enjoyed them will
be in no better condition than he who has not, or rather in a worse
condition. For the one is settled as it were in a harbor, but the
other exposes himself to a kind of torrent, a besieging army of
madnesses, and hasn't even power to endure the first swell of the
sea.
"Let us follow after moderation, that these things do not happen to
us. For thus we shall both be in a good state of body, and
possessing our souls in security, shall be delivered from evils
both present and future. From these may we all be delivered, and
attain unto the kingdom, through the grace and mercy of our Lord
Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy
Spirit, be glory, power, and honor, now and forever.
Amen."
John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Corinthians,
27.7
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Prayer
Lord Christ, You are
the source of true joy. Help us not to seek ultimate joy in the
things of this world. Keep us gathered around the feast that You
have set for us at the altar of our churches. Rescue us from luxury
and leisure that the true richness of Your mercy might be our
constant and passionate desire. Amen.
For Chaplain Don Ehrke, U.S. Army, that the holy angels would watch
over him in the commission of his duties
For the street children of Madagascar who are fed by the Good
Shepherd mission, that they would know the true joy of Christ, who
is the bread of life
For children who are not wanted by those to whom God gave them,
that they would be adopted into loving families where they can be
brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
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Art: GR�NEWALD, Matthias
Isenheim Altarpiece (1515)
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� Scott R. Murray,
2010
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