Fellowship: It's not just for Sunday Potlucks

 

 

Read 1 Corinthians 10

Today, we have a fellowship meal and a long sermon in the second service. I’m guessing people will be checking to see if the fellowship team needs any help.

So, for this service, it is a little shorter and lighthearted. Here are some suggestions for today’s fellowship meal that might be helpful to us.

Finally, we get to line up alphabetically by height and pair up in threes.

Seats will be assigned randomly. You will be seated with another member of the family of faith.

The prayer will likely include more 'thees' and 'thous' and some other elaborate expressions, undoubtedly intended to impress those gathered. The Lord won’t be impressed, but maybe you will.

We're going to figure out this fellowship meal arrangement this time.  We will institute some procedures. I might even write an ISO 9000 series standard.

And while we are instituting some practical procedures, I’m reinstituting Aim and Flush.

The fellowship meal is usually easy for us. We connect well. We seldom run out of food. Most get seconds or thirds. I usually don’t have to preach on gluttony the next Sunday. Sometimes, I need to preach on that following Monday morning when I look in the mirror.

I’m not shaving next week. I’m going to eat my fill and stay away from mirrors. We don’t go hungry around here.  We like this fellowship sort of stuff. We get it.

Maybe too well.

Some of you remember when we moved the passing of the peace from early in the service to the end. We lost control of the service early on. People liked talking to each other. That’s a good thing, right?

So, we moved it to the end of the service.

The first time I moderated the Presbytery, it was something of a surprise. I was Vice Moderator but the Moderator really wanted to go to a family event that was scheduled at the same time. So, there I was, fully gavled and ready to go.

I finished the business in record time and we broke for lunch with only an item or two remaining. I pounded my gavel half a dozen times to get people back from lunch at the appointed time.

The problem was that people were still talking, connecting, and enjoying each other. The eating part was done. This was just fellowship that felt like it should continue.

Sometimes, I visualize the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at their millennial staff meeting, scratching their heads and wondering who divided up life this way—worship, fellowship, offering, and so many more quantifying descriptions.

I thought that love me and love others would get it.

The church in Corinth wasn’t so messed up on how to hold a fellowship meal, at least compared to loving God and each other. That’s fellowship. Nobody goes hungry in a fellowship that draws you closer to God and compels you to look out for one another.

If you fall asleep during the next service, remember that when it’s mealtime and someone looks left out or lonely, that’s where God wants you to be.

If someone puts the green beans ahead of the roast beef on the serving line, I can say with confidence that we will survive it.

If someone is left out of the fellowship during the meal, that’s a serious matter. That’s not us. That’s the lesson from Corinth. Inclusion is koinonia. It’s fellowship. It’s abundance.

It’s our lesson for today.  The lab work begins after the second service.

By the way, this fellowship business isn’t just about meals.

Amen.