David W. Swanson

“In some Communion liturgies the congregation will be asked to examine their hearts before receiving the sacraments, the language being borrowed from 1 Corinthians 11: 28: “Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.” The current of individualism that runs so deeply through white Christianity leads us to think of this important part of the Lord’s Supper in highly individualistic terms. So, for example, we might recall an unacknowledged sin that can be confessed before coming to the table. This is all well and good, but the context for Paul’s admonition to examine ourselves is one in which class divisions and disparities had not been dismantled by the church. He is urging the church to consider how they, corporately, had succumbed to their society’s divisive hierarchies. The call to examine ourselves can include unconfessed individual sin, but we understand it more fully when we see it as an invitation to the entire community. Though it may initially seem strange, Holy Communion is a natural time for us to reflect on how racial discipleship has deformed our desires and assumptions.”
― David W Swanson, Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Solidarity