Eucharistic meditation

Eucharistic meditation January 31, 2010

1 Peter 4:3-4: For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.  And in all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they malign you.

As Pastor Sumpter has pointed out, Peter is engaged in a kind of sociological analysis, distinguishing between two societies, their habits, and their values.  One he labels “Gentiles,” and these are dominated by evil desires, by greed for more and lust for domination, by drunkenness and idolatry.  They are, as Peter says, the “dead” who are going to be judged when Jesus arrives.

But Peter tells of another society.

This one has died with Christ to the flesh and lives not to satisfy its desires but to fulfill the will of God. It is characterized by sobriety, sound judgment, prayer. It is a society of love, where, Peter says, we are to be fervent in love for one another.  That love extends itself in hospitality.  Each member of this society has a gift, and uses it to serve others.  This is also a society of the suffering.  We follow Jesus, who suffered in the flesh, and Peter says that his readers should expect fiery trials.

This is the society of the “living.”  They are also going to be judged, since judgment begins at the house of the Lord, but they will be judged unto life and not to destruction.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul too describes two societies, and summarizes these two societies by pointing to the two tables at the center of each.  At the heart of Gentile society is the table of demons, and at the heart of the Christian society is the table of the Lord.  The desires that dominate each society are evident at the table, and they are exclusive tables: You cannot share in the table of the Lord and the table of demons, Paul says, or else you’ll provoke the Lord to jealousy.

You know which society you belong to because you know what table you sit at.  You’re here at the Lord’s table, and Paul says that means you’re committed to the pattern of life that is found in Jesus.  By your presence at this table, you’re renouncing the table of demons, and the society of the Gentiles, and are called to follow Jesus in fervent love, in hospitality without complaint, in stewardship of the manifold grace of God.


Browse Our Archives