“Lose the Leaven”

1 Corinthians 5: 7, 8: “Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven …” We pray this verse in almost every Eucharist, but rarely bring out its full meaning. St. Paul has been comparing leaven with pride; they both cause something to rise up. He then reminders the Corinthians that just as leaven (pride) was not allowed in the sacrifices of Israel, neither is it, or malice, or wickedness allowed in our lives when we come to the Lord’s Table. Christ was leavened; we should be, also!