It must be more than a quarter-century since churches began using plastic cups in the observance of the Lord’s Supper.  It’s so much more convenient than using the rather expensive glass communion cups that required washing and very careful handling.  I remember when plastic communion cups first came on the scene.  They took a little getting used to.

There was a very dear woman in our church named Margaret.  She was the wife of a prominent physician in our community, and the plastic cups gave her fits.  Now, she wasn’t a stuffy traditionalist who resisted change.  She didn’t like the plastic cups because of the noise factor.  You see, in those moments of meditation following the partaking of the cup, quiet is called for.   But it seems some of the people were meditating so hard, they squeezed their plastic cups until they broke.  All over the sanctuary – in the quiet – you’d hear, “CRACK! CRACK!”

Margaret would hear the cracking cups and it would just drive her crazy!  How can people be so insensitive?  So careless?  Stop cracking your cups! Well, this continued for several months.  One Sunday morning as she entered the sanctuary, Margaret saw the communion table set up at the front.  “Oh no,” she thought, “not communion again.”  It ruined the entire worship service for her.  Throughout the music and the prayers and the sermon she had a really bad attitude.  Then came the communion service.

The bread was served and she glanced around at her brothers and sisters, trying to identify potential cup-crackers.  She had her suspicions about a few of them.  Then the cup was passed and as she bowed her head, she took several more quick little peeks around her.  Together the congregation drank of the cup.  Then came the time of meditation.

It was so quiet.

People all across the sanctuary were thinking of the price Christ paid on the cross for their sins.  But not Margaret.   She was waiting – waiting for the first plastic cup to break.

And then, there it was.  “CRACK!”  It was right near her!  Quickly she looked to her right, then to her left.  Several people glanced back at her.  She looked down.  And there in her hand was her shattered plastic communion cup.

I love that story.  I loved it when Margaret told it to me the week after it happened and I love it today.  It’s just so…her! And it’s just so me!  And I’d be willing to bet that it’s just so you, too!  It’s a humorous picture of a serious subject – our hypocritical sin nature.

Jesus talked about it all the time.  Take with you His words recorded in Luke chapter six.  “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”