In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians tonight we hear the same words of our Eucharistic prayer. We are comforted knowing that in some measure we are doing what Paul’s church at Corinth, along with millions of Christians for two thousand years, have been celebrating with the same commandment from the Bible. But what we miss in this snippet of scripture is the important context for these words. We will return to the context in a minute, but first we need to talk about natural systems in contrast to man-made systems.

Take a walk in a National Forest or somewhere that is mostly free from the human influence. Look at the plants around you. What you will find is a riot of diversity with lots of different kinds of plants blooming at different times and providing all kinds of valuable services to the forest community. This is nature the way God created the earth.

Now take a walk in a soybean field or even a pasture. You will find only one kind of plant or maybe just a few. The diversity of insects and animals and wide array of plants that were originally there are now gone. The field serves one purpose only: to provide food for humans or livestock. I am not making any moral or value judgments between these two examples. One is not necessarily better or worse than the other. Yet, our agriculture and landscape reflects what comes naturally to human nature while the diversity in the forest reflects one aspect of the nature of God.

Humans just don’t like change or difference. That is why most of us are so comfortable with our jobs, homes, families, and what seems to be a stable lifestyle. It is settling to us and comfortable. Imagine how stressful it would be to move every two or three years and start over with new friends in a new community. A few of you have done it, but most of us would be terrified by the prospect. We like to be rooted in one place. We like to have a universe that is (or at least appears to us) to be nice and stable.

That is why major weather events, earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes get so much attention in the news. They disrupt our desire for stability. Social change can be equally unsettling. Lottery winners report that they often feel shunned by other people with great wealth. They do not share or speak the same social language and customs. In the same way, once thriving Episcopal parishes in California have imploded in a decade when the surrounding neighborhood becomes all Asian. The challenge to them was not lack of people to attend the church. The challenge was their comfort with social differences.

And that gets us around to the context for Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church. Just ahead of the reading we just heard, Paul criticizes the Corinthian church for the manner in which they celebrated the Eucharist. The Corinthians were allowing social divisions within their culture to shape the way they celebrated communion. Paul was not a happy camper.

In the ancient world of the first century Roman Empire, social stratification was extremely strong throughout the empire. In a glance, people could determine social status on the basis of dress, transportation, servants, food, accent, housing, and so forth. It was common in a meal setting for the host to intentionally serve larger portions and better food and wine to people of higher social status. It was an accepted custom.

Paul believes the Corinthians dragging their social customs into the Eucharist compromised the Good News and everything their faith stood for. Two verses before our text tonight, he notes that “in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, and one is hungry and another is drunk.”

Like the California churches that failed to grow when their neighborhood changed, we too are faced with a changing town and neighborhood. Grace Church is one of the more loving, open, and socially accepting parishes I have had the privilege to serve. I also believe that God is calling us to open up even more.

“Do this in remembrance of me” is a kind of reminder note from Jesus. “Do this” means to feed 5,000 people without distinction. On the field that day were rich people, poor people, criminals, saints, prostitutes, beggars, bankers, lawyers, farmers, merchants, and fishermen. Jesus made no distinction between them. He just fed them. He also sat down for meals with the most hated people in his society – tax collectors, prostitutes, and gentiles.

We have plenty of people around us who really do not know the Good News that we proclaim so well at Grace Church. When we “do this in remembrance of Jesus”, our challenge is to get those in the wider community to sit down with us, have a meal together, and enjoy how God has made us better because of our new connections.

After all, God’s love is really about who we are connected to.