Category Archives: Bible Study

Excommunicate Evil

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Detail of a late medieval Greek Orthodox icon showing Saint Nicholas slapping Arius at the First Council of Nicaea.

In the letter I wrote to you not to associate with sexually immoral people, not meaning the sexually immoral of this world in general, or the avaricious and the greedy, or the idolatrous, because then you would have to leave the world. Now I write to you not to associate with someone who bears the name of brother or sister and who is sexually immoral or avaricious or idolatrous or slanderous or a drunkard or greedy. You should not even dine with someone like that.

Who am I to judge outsiders? Shouldn’t you judge insiders? God will judge outsiders. Expel the wicked one from your midst. (1 Cor. 5:9-13)

St. Paul refers to a previous letter that he had written to the parish at Corinth; alas, that letter has not survived. But in that previous letter, the apostle had instructed the Corinthians to shun the immoral. He hadn’t told them to shun everyone who was immoral because that would mean that they would have to shun the whole world! He had told them to shun those who were members of the Church but who behaved as if they were not Christians. St. Paul told the Corinthians not to worry about outsiders; God will judge the non-Christians. St. Paul told the Corinthians that they were responsible for maintaining the discipline of the “insiders” and that they should not even have dinner with the Christians who denied the faith by such notorious, public misbehavior.

The practice of shunning those who repudiate the Church by their public misbehavior came to be known as “excommunication” as the Christians being shunned were “former communicates” who were now forbidden to receive Holy Communion; in Latin ex, out of, and communio or communicatio, communion — exclusion from the communion). They were excluded from the fellowship, the koininia, of the Church. Excommunication was seen as spiritual medicine and not a spiritual punishment as it was not intended to punish the excommunicated person but was meant to correct the excommunicated person and bring them back to the path of righteousness.

As the Church developed in Western Europe, two kinds of excommunication developed. One was called “lesser excommunication” in which the person was not allowed to receive Holy Communion but could still participate in other aspects of parish activities. The “greater excommunication” involved the public shunning that St. Paul describes. A person who was a “greater excommunicate” was forbidden to participate in public communal life in any way: the members of the parish in good standing were not allowed to speak or eat or do business with or associate in any way with a person placed under the “greater excommunication.”

A lesser excommunication was issued if a person either hit or attacked a priest in public or associated in public with someone who was under a greater excommunication. Lesser excommunications have not been issued since 1869.

A greater excommunication is issued if a person denies the Christian faith in public, promotes incorrect teaching, throws away or mistreats the consecrated Eucharist, or if a priest reveals what someone said in confession. Great excommunication can be forgiven if the public misbehavior stops.

St. Nicholas–of Santa Claus fame–is said to have been so angry at the heretic Arius that he slapped Arius during the first ecumenical council held at Nicea in AD 325. Arius has become the “prototype” or “model” of those who are excommunicated or cast out of the Church for notorious misbehavior or incorrect belief.

Yeast, Sincerity, and Truth

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Bread for the Eucharist with yeast (on the left) as the Orthodox use; on the right, Western hosts without yeast.

Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the entire mound of dough? Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new mound of dough, because you are unleavened; for Christ, our passover, was sacrificed. Hence let us celebrate not with the old yeast, not with the yeast of evil and sexual immorality, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Cor. 5:6-8)

The apostle Paul urges the Corinthians to expel the man who has a sexual relationship with his stepmother before his immoral behavior spreads and destroys them all. No one’s behavior is “private,” even if it is something a person does when no one else is there to watch.

The apostle mentions the passover sacrifice and the passover bread because the Passover feast was about to be celebrated (1 Cor. 16:8). He compares the man’s bad behavior to the yeast that must be thrown away before Passover starts. He urges the parish to not be contaminated by the man’s immoral behavior when they celebrate Passover; the apostle wants them to celebrate with the new bread of sincerity and truth, unspoilt by the “yeast” of insincerity, dishonesty, and lies.

According to Jewish practice, bread without yeast would only be used once a year–i.e. during the Passover. When the first Christians–who were Jewish Christians–would have known that and would have used leavened bread for the weekly celebrations of the Eucharist. Eastern Christians still maintain the practice of using bread with yeast for the Eucharist. Western Christians also used bread with yeast but began to use bread without yeast sometime in the 10th century.

The Eastern Christians saw the yeast in the bread that they used as a sign of the Resurrection; they could not understand bread without yeast as anything except a denial of the Resurrection. They also saw the use of bread without yeast as the rejection of the 4th Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon as the Armenians, who rejected Chalcedon, also used bread without yeast in the Eucharist.

Yeast gives life to dough that is totally dead–grain harvested, ground into flour, pounded and kneaded, passed through fire. Yeast can mean resurrection.

Yeast gives life to grape juice that is also totally dead–cut from the vine and harvested, crushed beneath feet, dead. The yeast makes the grape juice come alive and ferments it, making it wine.

But if there is too much yeast or the fermentation goes on too long the wine goes sour. It becomes vinegar. The bread can grow mold. Too much yeast can make the wine and bread corrupt. Rotten. Uneatable and undrinkable. The moldy bread and sour wine must be thrown away. Yeast means Resurrection but it can also sometimes mean corruption.

See my popular 2019 blog post about Communion wafers here.

Stewards of the Mysteries of God

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Detail of mediaeval fresco of St. Clement celebrating the Eucharist in the Lower church of San Clemente (Rome) and a Russian icon of St. John Chrysostom, vested as a bishop to celebrate the Eucharist and preach the Gospel.


Look upon us as stewards of the mysteries of God. In this regard it is expected of stewards that each one be found trustworthy. To me it matters little that I be judged by you or some other tribunal…. The one who judges me is the Lord…. who will shed light on things hidden in darkness and will make manifest the intentions of hearts…. (1 Cor. 4:1-2, 4-5)

A steward is a person who administers someone else’s property, house, finances, etc. This is an important role and was especially important in the ancient world. Stewards often know more about their employer’s business than the employer does; usually an employer has only one steward, not several.

St. Paul tells the Corinthians that he is one of the many stewards of the mysteries of God. What does it mean to be responsible for the mysteries of God? What are the mysteries of God? How is it that there are several such stewards?

The “mysteries of God” are the Greek term for what Latin theologians call the “sacraments” of God. To be a steward of the mysteries is to be a steward of the sacraments–i.e. the clergy who are responsible for leading the celebration of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and for making them available to the faithful. As the stewards of the mysteries, the clergy are responsible for the liturgical life of the parish and leading the people into deeper fellowship with God.

The “mysteries of God” are also the teaching of the Church–i.e. the preaching of the Gospel. The clergy are responsible for teaching and preaching, often in the context of the Eucharist. They are ordained to proclaim the Good News that is enacted in the celebration of the Eucharist. Teaching and celebrating are two sides of one coin: making the life of God available to the people. A life of teaching-preaching-sacramental celebration depends on the steward’s trustworthiness and efforts to live up to these privileges/responsibilities.

The people themselves are also stewards of the mysteries. They are charged and empowered by their baptism and reception of Holy Communion to invite others to share the life of the Resurrected Christ and lead them to closer fellowship with God as well.

Each parish is the entire church. There are many stewards because there are many parishes but within each parish the whole life of God is available to be lived out by everyone there, following the leadership of the clergy/steward(s) of that parish.

Does each steward occasionally fail in some way? Yes. Does each parish occasionally fail the steward in some way? Yes. But each steward and each parish will be judged by the Lord. Until that judgement comes, the parish and the steward work together to proclaim the Good News of the Lord and to live the life of the Kingdom here and now.