Mike Phay preaching.

In his classic work Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote "Without Christ there is discord between God and man and between man and man...Without Christ we...would not know our brother, nor could we come to him. They way is blocked by our own ego. Christ opened up the way to God and to our brother.  Now Christians can live with one another in peace; they can love and serve one another; they can become one. But they can continue to do so only by way of Jesus Christ. Only in Jesus Christ are we one, only through him are we bound together." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together [San Francisco: Harper & Rowe, 1954], 23-24)

Christ gave us this example of self-giving, sacrificial love when He died for us.  He gave us a meal with which to remember it.  And when we share this meal together, we must come in grace and with grace.  For Christ invites the church to His table -- and we get to be part of that Feast.

Mike Phay preaching.

1 Corinthians 11:2-16 is arguably the most difficult passage in the Bible to interpret.  The issue of "head coverings" in public Christian worship is not one that most modern churches deal with.  Many would look at this passage and dismiss it as an argument of social propriety that is no longer valid today.  Surprisingly, others would hold onto the customs put forth as normative for all churches at all times.

But Paul is making a deeper point about the nature of men and women in the church -- and it is the idea of "headship."  He is adamant that the church be an accurate reflection of the "Already Not Yet" aspect of the Kingdom.  That we -- gathered together corporately -- show forth the newness and the glory of God's Rule.  This means many things -- the deepest and most important of which is the new kind of relationship between men and women in the church.