We had five birthdays to celebrate this week!

Once we come to know God, something amazing happens. We realise that we are known by name, and God actually gives us a new name.

In the show ‘Walk On The Wild Side’, animals are given human voices and it’s difficult sometimes to tell one animal from another (listen to these marmots getting confused between names here!)

This is never the case with God, however. He knows us personally and adopts us into His family, giving us a new name, even as He changed Abram’s name to Abraham, Jacob’s to Israel and Simon’s to Peter. Their life-changing encounters with God resulted in new names.

Is 62 tells us how God will change our names from ‘deserted’ and ‘desolate’ to ‘Hephzibah’ (‘my delight is in her’) and ‘Beulah’ (‘married’). When God is introduced into our lives, a radical change comes over us and we gain a new identity and name in Him.

1 Cor 11:27 (‘So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord’) has left many Christians under a cloud of condemnation and guilt. How can we ever know if we are taking Communion worthily? At times, this leads people so afraid of God’s wrath and judgment that they refuse to take the emblems of bread and wine.

One Bible commentator says “[There is a dangerous misconception that] people are ‘unworthy’ if they have any sin in their lives, or have committed sins during the past week. This in turn resulted in reading verse 28 personally and introspectively, so that the purpose of one’s self-examination was to become worthy of the Table, lest one come under judgment. The tragedy of such an interpretation for countless thousands, both in terms of a foreboding of the Table and guilt for perhaps having partaken unworthily, is incalculable.” (Fee)

We have to understand that whilst it is good to examine our hearts and confess our sins, we are then able to receive God’s forgiveness. If self-examination leads us to believe we are too sinful to take Communion, we have misunderstood the nature of grace. Similarly, if it leads us to believe we ‘deserve’ to take Communion, we have failed to understand God’s grace. The emphasis Paul places on taking Communion in this chapter reminds us of the corporate nature of this love feast; it’s not meant to be a stick to beat us with. ‘We are only worthy because Christ has made us worthy. We need to partake feeling unworthy to do so. This attitude is part of what it means to partake in a worthy manner.’ (Keith Krell, bible.org) We are people who can live without condemnation (Rom 8:1) because of all Christ has done for us, not because of what we have done; God ‘has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.’ (Eph 1:3-4)

Paul’s concern with the Corinthian church is that the factions and disunity in the church there effectively undermine the unifying, redemptive purpose of Christ’s death. He wants us to look back and remember all Christ has done for us and look forward with eager anticipation to His coming again, but he knows that the greatest commandments are to love God whole-heartedly and to love others as we love ourselves. This the Corinthians were clearly not doing. Loving God can never be divorced from loving people (1 John 3:15-18).

‘When we partake of a piece of the bread from one loaf, as a gathered church, we not only symbolise our union with Christ in His atoning work, but our union with His “body,” the church. We symbolise that we all, together, constitute the body of Christ, and that we are all equal sharers in the saving work of Christ. We profess not only our unity but our equality. We are all one body, and we all have equal standing in that body. It is by virtue of His work at Calvary that we are saved. No one is more saved or less saved than anyone else in the body of Christ.’ (Bob Deffinbaugh)

Having dealt with the question of gender issues in 1 Cor 11:1-16, Paul moves on to tackle other aspects of corporate worship in Corinth which left much to be desired (1 Cor 11:17-34).

In matters regarding the Lord’s Supper, Paul sees little to commend the church (1 Cor 11:17, 22). The initial unity and fellowship of the early church (Acts 2:44-47) had broken down in Corinth, with the ‘love feasts’ (fellowship meals incorporating the breaking of bread) becoming little more than an excuse for over-indulgence and drunkenness, with the rich eating their own food and not even waiting for slaves to arrive. This disregard for fellow believers and lack of love and respect troubled Paul enormously, for the sacrament of the Eucharist originated from the last meal Jesus shared with His disciples before His crucifixion (see Matt 26:17-35, Mark 14:12-31, Luke 22:7-38) and was the opportunity to remember His great sacrifice for us all. The relationship between people in the Body of Christ is of paramount importance (Matt 5: 23-24), so to act in so unloving a manner meant this was not actually celebrating the Lord’s Supper properly at all (1 Cor 11:20) C. K. Barrett writes, ‘The Christian Supper was founded on the sacrificial death of Jesus, an act of divine deliverance by which sins were forgiven and a new covenant set up between God and men, who, being reconciled to God, were now united among themselves.’ If this unity (for which Jesus prayed in John 17) is not evident in our relationships, however, we run the risk of being disciplined by God (1 Cor 11:29-30). If factions and divisions proliferate, we are undermining the very sacrifice of Christ which is for all people, regardless of gender, wealth or status.

Discipline is God’s way of demonstrating that we are legitimate children (Heb 12:5-11), but Paul’s advice is for us to ‘examine ourselves’ so as avoid condemnation and judgment. He wants us (in this aspect, as in every other aspect he has considered so far) to treat everyone equally; respect each other; eat together and be devoted to one another in love (see Rom 12:10, Phil 2:3-4).

A geyser is a vent in Earth’s surface that periodically ejects a column of hot water and steam; it’s a sight I’d really like to see. These are quite rare, so I’d probably have to travel either to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming or to Iceland if I wanted to see one. Geyser activity, like all hot spring activity, is caused by surface water gradually seeping down through the ground until it meets rock heated by magma; geysers occur in volcanic areas. Apparently, there are two kinds of geysers: the ‘fountain’ type and ‘cone geysers’  (like ‘Old Faithful’ in Yellowstone National Park) which erupt from cones or mounds:

Yellowstone is the largest geyser locale, containing thousands of hot springs, and approximately 300 to 500 geysers. It is home to half of the world’s total number of geysers in its nine geyser basins. Due to the high rate of volcanic activity in Iceland, it is home to some famous geysers in the world.

Joy is rather like a geyser, I think. It bubbles away under the surface for most of the time, but then it spurts forth, visible to all, and, like the picture above, often grows in intensity! God’s dramatic intervention in our lives often calls forth joy from us; Ps 18, for example, was written by David ‘when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.’ It talks of God’s rescue and help and is scattered with praise: ‘The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Saviour!‘ (Ps 18:46) As we dwell on God’s faithfulness and remember all He has done for us, joy wells up and praise spills out.

Geysers apparently are not only a tourist attraction, they are also used to generate electricity and for heating. Joy is not something simply to be viewed by others; it is a source of heat and power in our own lives, sustaining us through the barrenness of winter and the dark nights of the soul when God feels so distant. Nehemiah reminds us that ‘the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ (Neh 8:10) Rend Collective, in their song ‘Joy of the Lord’ sing ‘In the darkness I’ll dance/ In the shadows I’ll sing.’ Whilst it may take time to learn to do this, God’s joy is within us, the gift of Jesus (Jn 15:11), and therefore can overflow as we dwell on who God is and all He has done.

Ps 149:6 tells us that praise is a double-edged sword in our hands. Don’t let the enemy rob you of joy, but let it well up and overflow like a geyser!

Mark McKeown closed the family service by talking about the world being in God’s hands:

When we think about arms, we realise how versatile they are and how we can communicate effectively using our hands (thumbs up, thumbs down, handshakes, hugs etc.) We use expressions such as ‘tight-fisted’ to convey meanness or ‘open-handed’ to convey generosity. Whatever our strength, however, all people have limitations, but God never grows tired or weary (Is 40:28-31) and His strength and grace are always available to us (see 2 Cor 12:9, Phil 4:13). God even arms us with strength at times (see Ps 18:31-32) and gives us His peace (Jn 14:27), upholding us with His righteous right hand (Is 41:10-13).

God reminds us that He is our provider (Phil 4:19) and because of this, we don’t need to worry (Matt 6:25-34). God is no man’s debtor (Mal 3:10) and we can be generous people because He has provided all we have (1 Chron 29:14). Our refuge is in God’s arms (Deut 33:27); there’s no safer place to be.