“Come, not because you must, but because you may; come to testify not that you are righteous, but that you sincerely love our Lord Jesus Christ…. come not because you are strong, but because you are weak… come, not to express an opinion, but to seek his presence and pray for his spirit.†(Covenant Book of Worship, 112)
This is one of the invitations to communion in my church tradition, and it has always been very powerful to me every time I hear it, because of the priorities it sets and the grace and truth it conveys. It came to mind this weekend while I was at a “friend’s retreat” with some amazing and hilarious people. In between games, snacks, laughter, music, and fun in the snow, we gathered together to share our values, our identities, our struggles and our joys. We also shared communion together after worship and served each other the elements, as embodied evidence that our shared life in Christ is what ultimatey connects us. It was relaxing, rejeuvinating, and just plain fun!
On the drive home, and as I was writing an assignment last week asking about my theology around the Lord’s Supper, I was reminded how this sacrament of communion has been a place of reflection and movement in my own life for the past few years. I didn’t grow up with a lot of emphasis placed on celebrating communion or on sacramental acts in general. But as I learn more about theology and experience worship in various contexts, my understanding and personal appreciation of this act also grows. In my tradition, we view this sacrament as a primary way to re-form and remember who we are as the people of God, following the directions that Christ gave about sharing table fellowship in remembrance of Him. It is “only” a symbol, for those of us who do not believe that the bread and wine (ok, juice) actually become the body and blood of Christ, but it is also an “actual” method whereby we partake of the spirit of Christ and participate in His sacrifice. I am still reflecting on this shared act that we do in the church, its meaning and its priority, how open or closed the table is, and how sharing communion might help us flesh out what it means to be the church – lately it is a fascinating ritual to me.
Hey Liz, my house church just recently decided communally what we believe about the Lord’s Supper, and I thought you be interested to know that our decision about what it is caused us to have completely open communion. I think what you mean by “open” or “closed” is answering the question, “Do we allow Christians from other denominations to partake in our communion?” At least, that’s what it means in the theological community. We actually consider the Lord’s Supper to just be part of the meal we eat with each other every week. Since we believe that Christ’s sacrifice was for all, regardless of whether they receive it, we’re willing and quite happy to include non-believers in the Lord’s Supper.
It is fascinating to listen for the churchly language that specifies which worshippers may come to the table: some say it is for all who are baptized; others say if you have personal faith in Jesus Christ; others say if you intend to live a new life, and others may use various combinations of the above.
My own preference is that we not use such fences at all, but give full access to this wonderful evangelical gift. All of us have some part of our being and doing that could be enlivened with a gospel touch!
John Wesley was of the mind that the sacrament has an evangelistic effect and that the invitation should be to non-believers too. I hope the day comes when we are inclined to explicitly welcome all to the table and allow its grace and power make Christ in all of us who respond more apparent.
Increasisng its frequency would also be my preference. (Having received it twice in three days at the retreat Liz mentioned above seems not to have done any serious damage to me or to the supper itself!!) But then, others may be a better judge of that than I am! 🙂
Chris and Carleton, great thoughts on this… I still, admittedly, don’t really know all of what I think about sacraments/sacred and how this all affects a community. Being at Garrett-Northwestern with a community that holds celebrating weekly eucharist very highly has challenged and taught me a lot; for now, I still see tensions between the meal being evangelistic AND formative for a certain called out community, or just a meal that we share AND a special, set apart ritual that we do. I do like Wesley’s thought on it though in general – I wonder what it would look like if the sacrament was part of what defined “the church” but was still open to non-believers to participate in as a way to experience part of the embodied, enfleshed church community… almost part of the catechesis of a (potential) disciple… hmm… Still learning – so share more!
Liz, you should read the series of posts I wrote about this issue. Someday maybe I’ll give you the paper I wrote about this too. Basically, I agree with much of what Carleton said. In some ways, I consider the Eucharist to be a means of prevenient grace, a way that Christ calls others into his glorious Trinity with the Father and Spirit. But here is the most important thing I wrote in my paper. I entitled the paper, “You Eat What You Are” because of the point that I made. As Christians, in order to understand the Eucharist, we must answer this question: “Where does the holiness rest during the Lord’s Supper?” Catholics can confidentally answer, “in the elements.” The Bread and the Cup are holy, because they are truly the body and blood of Christ. Evangelicals have a harder time answering this, because they don’t want to give the same answer as Catholics. But functionally, they have the same answer: “in the elements.” How many times were you told as a child that you should “examine” yourself before you took communion? What else can that mean except that you were being asked to ingest something that would make you holy?
I like the passage you quoted for reading during communion. I like the idea of reading this during communion: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” I like it, because it gets at what communion represents. It does not represent the efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice; it represents the power of it to save the whole world. Therefore, when I sit down to the Lord’s Supper with my brothers and sisters and ask “Where does the holiness rest during the Lord’s Supper?” I can answer correctly: it rests upon me. The Bread and the Cup do not make us holy. We have been seized by such a great power through the Holy Spirit that the very bread and wine we eat becomes holy. The Eucharist doesn’t represent Christ to us; we represent Christ to the world through the Eucharist. That is, incidentally, why we have the Eucharist at Missio Dei whenever we eat together.