Day 56: Eating and Drinking and Appropriate Dress, in Worship and Out

Paul continues speaking about the issue of eating and drinking, circling back first to remind his readers of the unfaithfulness of some of the Israelites back when they were wandering in the wilderness.  Don't grumble or complain or wander away!  He warns them.  Be vigilant! he says.  Everyone in the wilderness had come through the Red Sea, but that didn't stop them from losing their way later on, forgetting their freedom, and focussing on idols instead.

Eating and drinking is connected with relationships, right relationships, and with our neighbors.  So Paul says, it's not that eating meat sacrificed to idols is either good or bad, but it's the effect it has on our dinner companions that makes a difference, and reveals our own hearts.  If you eat meat sacrificed to idols it won't harm you.  But if someone tells you, "Hey, this is meat that was sacrificed to idols," then maybe you shouldn't, because that might cause your dinner companions to stumble.  It's all about what is harmful or good for your neighbor, and for your neighbor's faith.

Perhaps that's what is going on in Paul's convoluted arguments about women praying with their heads covered.  Paul says women should pray with their heads covered because "a woman has authority over head head."  I'll just come right out and tell you I don't know what that means.  And though Paul says that a woman should keep her head covered because "man was created first, and then woman" and that "man is the image of God and woman the image of man", later on he admits that now "men come from women" (biology).  (by the way, in Genesis 1, both men AND women are made in the image of God.  Wish I had Paul right here with me so we could have a talk about that.)

Then Paul returns to the subject of eating and drinking, but this time he is talking about the fellowship of Christians, and the Lord's supper.  In the early church, oftentimes the community would share a meal as well as the Lord's supper, and it appears that in Corinth, the community meal has become the occasion for some to be gluttons and other to go hungry.  There is no sharing going on, and this is part of what bothers Paul.  So, later on, when he talks about eating and drinking worthily, and discerning the body, I don't think he is just talking about the "Real Presence," but he is talking about discerning the Body of Christ in the community, and eating and drinking honoring one another as bearers of Christ.

Again, for Paul, it's all about relationships, about how we treat one another, and how we treat one another reveals the condition of our own soul.