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Dear Friends,

It’s a chilling warning, but what does it mean?
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. (1 Cor 11:27-29)

It’s an especially chilling warning because, as we read on in chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians, God reveals this (committing the above sins) is why he had been punishing some in the Corinthian church with affliction and even death: “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”

What does it mean to take the Lord’s Supper “in an unworthy manner”?! What does it mean to participate in the Lord’s supper, “without discerning the body”?! These are obviously serious sins, given that they warrant such severe and immediate judgement and discipline from God!Read More

Dear Friends,

Worship. Grow. Serve. Go.

If you’ve been around Redeemer in recent weeks, you’ve seen or heard those four little words a time or two, or three, or four, and you’ll likely hear them quite a bit more going forward. They’re memorable (or so we hope!), they’re catchy, they’re even (very) mildly poetic, and they’ll serve as a nice tag line on the website or the Facebook page or wherever else we might need one. But that is not why you’re hearing them – you’re hearing them because they’re biblical.

This Sunday, we will take a break from our study of the the complicated life of the church in Corinth to return to a simpler time in the life of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth as described by Luke in Acts 2:42-47. When we look there, we see what appears to be an idyllic account of the community of believers that formed in response to Peter’s call to repent and believe the gospel. It’s a beautiful, inspiring, even energizing, description of the church, one that almost sounds like a Lucan version of the old “and they lived happily ever after” endings of fairy tale fame. Eventually, fallen human nature reasserts itself, and the messy church with which we’re more familiar comes into being, but at this stage it appears to be all meadows and butterflies and bunnies. But here’s the thing: if that’s how we read this, we’ll have missed the point entirely.Read More

Dear Church Family,

• Head-coverings for women in worship?
• Is it a sin for men to have long hair?
• Is it a sin for women to have short hair?
• Is a husband the boss of his wife?

Yes, these are some of the issues and questions raised in our text for this Sunday and next week in our Daily Worship Devotions: 1 Corinthians 11:1-16.

Let’s just say these issues are too big and fraught to attempt broaching in this Pastor Weekly format and medium! I especially encourage you to read and reflect upon this text before Corporate Worship this Sunday. For now, here are some general pointers:

• Men and Women were deliberately created to be different, but they are of equal worth to God.
• Cultural conventions related to how gender differences are distinguished come and go;
• But, especially in the Corporate Worship and gatherings of the local church, men and women should exercise thoughtful caution about throwing off cultural conventions.
• Our freedom in Christ does not give us permission to be disruptive or divisive.
• Men and women were deliberately created to be different, but they are of equal worth to God. (Worth saying twice in our current day and culture – see the Subject Line of this email!)

So have fun reading and grappling with God’s Word in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 ahead of this Sunday!

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Ewan