I am somewhat conflicted about my comments, that they will be seen as critical and not in love, but even though I still may have quite a “beam” in my own eye, to wait until that beam is entirely gone before I ever discussed my observations or preach the Word of God again would seem to negate my ability to ever speak for God for the rest of my human life on this planet. I think we, as Christians, are all in that same boat together.
We are called to be our brother's keeper. We are called to speak truth into one another's lives, as we see destructive behaviors and attitudes that may be going by unnoticed in the lives of our brothers and sisters. Hebrews, Chapter 10:24-25 says: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, the much more as you see the day approaching”, and also, “to provoke one another to love and good works”. Every time I read that passage, I am struck dead between the eyes with the word “provoke”. The connotation of provoke is never in my mind’s eye, a pleasant one. Provoke carries with it the idea of almost “inciting to anger”. We are called in Christ Jesus and in the body of Christ, to speak into one another's lives, to look over one another's shoulders (in the nicest of ways), and to be our brother's keeper. The true test of our character then, is not just our ability to confront our brother with issues that may be going awry in his or her life, but it is “most seen” in our ability to take such a criticism from another believer in ourselves. Again, the true test of Christian character is not giving a rebuke, but receiving one. In this, I am still not sure that I have actually matured above any of those whom I have ever “provoked”. As Paul said in Philippians 3: 12-13, "I count myself not to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward towards things which are ahead, I press towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus".
All that being said, as I sat in church today and they began the portion of the service known as receiving communion, I was disturbed by what I saw, to say nothing of that inside information which I had concerning not only the people officiating over the service, but several of those in the room who were in leadership positions. The two ministers administering the communion are currently in a place in their relationship were one is so either offended, or unable to recover from the hurt that happened between the two of them approximately 6 months ago, that they have called for a mediator to come in from the district to settle the grievance between them. I believe this to be relatively new information to the other of the pastors administering the communion, as when he spoke to me about it earlier in the week, he appeared to be both hurt, taken aback, and highly frustrated that this was still an ongoing issue between these two ministers. Beloved, do not get me wrong here, God is for peace, and mediation if needed, is never a bad idea, but the thing that stuck out to me is that the Word of God, of which both these people are professional ministers in, clearly delineates the method in which offenses are to be resolved. Again, not that we all as human beings and fallen people, living by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, do not stumble and fall in this process regularly and often, but to completely disregard this process in our personal lives, and allow the clear teaching of Scripture to be pushed aside, to be a minister of the gospel and allow the offence to go on addressed, and fester for months and months, (possibly secretly), having never followed the biblical mandates of 1: not letting the sun go down on our anger, or 2: when we find ourselves offended - we go to that person and tell them the offense privately, then if they will not hear you, you go buy two or three (still semi-privately), and last of all, it is to be taken before the church. To know these, and to not be able to do them with 100% accuracy is human, BUT to know these, and to be leaders of the people, and examples of the flock, and still choose another way, and most importantly, to put that way off for months and months, and allow the offense to grow and fester in our hearts, is a sad to the point of almost un-excusable behavior for a Christian in leadership in particular.
It may sound like I am droning on about these conditions, but that is not what struck my thinking today, as two of these leaders stood before me administering the communion service. Paul, in first Corinthians Chapter 11:27 - 30, speaking about the Lord's supper or communion, was very explicit to say that a man, woman or person should carefully examine themselves before they partook of the communion elements in the Lord's supper; for to eat and drink - holding onto offense or unrepentant sin, or prejudice against another believer in the body, and partake of these elements, was to eat and drink in a way that would bring upon themselves judgment, the King James would say “damnation”. The 30th verse goes on to say, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many have died". The reason I bring this up today, is because as I watch the body of Christ, sometimes (even myself for I am not immune) it appears to me that we have become all too relaxed with the admonitions, warnings, and clear-cut teaching of Scripture. The verse above says that receiving communion with unresolved conflict, bitterness, offense, or unrepentant sin in our hearts causes sickness, and death. You will notice in that verse that he says MANY are weak MANY are sick and MANY have died. My friend the Bible clearly says MANY! I only write this today truly because it is my hearts desire not only that my friends would be reconciled, not only that my friends would become true examples of the Word of God in action, not only so the work of God would grow unhindered, but that in a moment of “going through the motions”, and performing a duty or ceremony which we feel compelled to do in spite of, or despite our current personal situations, in that moment we fail to realize the significance of God's Word, that we are in fact “sowing seeds” in ourselves of weakness, sickness, and eventually death if we do not repent of and remedy the situation.
I was also aware, based upon a conversation that I had with the another minister recently, that there were several in the church that had unresolved issues and offenses related to summer events, which are now 6 to 7 months old. After months of silence, where for all public purposes, it appeared that all was fine, it has recently come to the surface that there is still quite a bit of undercurrent and offense concerning the summer issues. Yet in all that time, without giving the slightest thought to it, almost all the offended participants in this scenario are taking and receiving communion regularly with either no knowledge, thought, or concern for the consequences stated by Paul in first Corinthians 11. My friends, we are living in dangerous times in the body of Christ. The goodhearted, “happy happy” way that many Christians live today - either willfully ignorant of God’s Word, or simply cavalierly tripping through their Christian experience, literally could be killing them. Again, Paul did not say there's a possibility you may die, brother, sister, Paul said, “Many are weak, many are sick, the MANY have died.
Over the summer, I was involved quite extensively both with these groups that are now offended, and quite possibly I was involved “neck deep” in the events that caused the offense. The Sunday after my resignation letter to the (2) people in leadership, which among other things, was simply me deciding and very privately stating to them only, that I would be stepping down from my positions in these committees and from platform ministry, communion w to be served. Aware of this, and knowing that if I continued in my present positions as the interim worship leader at that time, that the offended parties would be forced to serve me communion. A also realized that they would partake of that communion themselves without giving any thought to the consequences, and realizing that they also felt no need to be reconciled with me or to have me reconciled with them - my desire not to inflict weakness, sickness, or death on them was my chief purpose in deciding to step away (For a month) so that they and I were not in danger, (which is not entirely true) – for, in fact they were still in grave danger, as the judgment comes on people not because their offense is present in the room or not, but because they receive the Lord's supper without making the proper adjustments first.
I say this not to make myself a hero or a martyr, but simply to state that I believe the entire Word of God is the Truth, is infallible, and when you either invoke or violate the clear teaching of God's Word, you cannot escape the promised results of such an action, whether good or bad.
I believe that many times we “skim” over these warnings about receiving communion without judging ourselves first, because we don't see the weakness or the sickness or the death coming on us immediately after eating. Mark chapter 4: Jesus telling the parable of the “sower sowing the word” and the four kinds of soil, went on to say in the 26th verse, that the entire kingdom of God operates in the same way as a farmer who plants a seed, and then after “a length of time” or season - the harvest comes up. If that is true, and I believe it is, then receiving communion in an unworthy manner plants a seed of weakness, sickness, or death – it is so subtle that we don't notice it when it happens, and almost never do you realize at the point of sickness or death when and where the seed that brought this harvest on our lives was originally sewn in our hearts.
My friends, the sum of all that I've said today is simply this, offenses not handled the same day, or handled immediately, cause our prayers not to work, cause our relationship with God to deteriorate 9We may not notice it at first), cause weakness in us both spiritually and physically, open a door to sickness that God will not heal for us until we find the door that we have opened and close it, and if we will not heed, will eventually lead to our premature death much sooner than God in his sovereign will ever originally planned for us.
In my view, that is the clear teaching of Scripture. If we have taken communion in recent times without judging ourselves, without leaving our gift on the altar and going and being reconciled to our brothers first – Jesus said do that first (Matt 5:24), if we have taken communion offended, hurt, or angry with a brother or sister and chosen in that moment not to be reconciled first, but to cavalierly eat, saying to ourselves “Jesus knows my heart, he understands, and it's okay”. BEWARE - the seed you have sewn is growing in you now, and it will bring your weakness, your sickness, and if you will not heed, your eventual death (early and before God's time for you to go).
Let us stop right here, repent to the Lord if we have received communion improperly – because it's just a thing that we do and “the way we do it here”. God will forgive us, God will have mercy on, God can of abort the judgment we have sewn to ourselves. But after that my friend, we must stop what we're doing immediately, do not pass go, do not collect $200, we must go and be reconciled immediately – make the call now, clear your schedule, make the appointment, sit down and clear the offense before anything else is done. Clearly from Scripture, nothing else we do is truly acceptable in God's sight, no sermons, no Christian service, no outreach, and no prayer is acceptable to God when we still have with hidden or unresolved (unless every effort has been made to resolve them) situations and relationships in our lives between fellow Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ.
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