Dear Emanuel Members and Friends –
For I received from
the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he
was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it
and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In
the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new
covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s
death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or
drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the
body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread
and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat
and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and
ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged.
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be
condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when
you come together to eat, wait for one another. If you are hungry, eat at home,
so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation.” (I
Corinthians 11:23-34)
“Who is welcome at the Lord’s table?” Throughout Christian history, this simple
question has been a source of great controversy and division. It is a sad and bitter irony that a
sacramental meal intended by Jesus to bring believers together in His name has throughout
this history of the church been twisted by human sin into yet one more excuse
to drive believers apart.
Christian denominations vary greatly in
their discernment of who is welcome at the table. Some practice what is called “closed
communion”; that is, only members of that denomination are welcome at the
Table. Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, along with some of the
more conservative Lutheran denominations (such as the Missouri Synod and
Wisconsin Synod) practice closed communion.
For example, only Roman Catholics are permitted to take the Eucharist in
Roman Catholic churches, and, conversely, Roman Catholics are not permitted to
receive communion in non-Catholic churches.
Some groups, such as the Amish and Old Order Mennonites, restrict
communion even further, to members in good standing of the specific congregation. In the past (perhaps in the present as well),
Scottish Calvinist congregations required those seeking a place at the table to
show a “communion token” (received upon passing a religious test) to prove
themselves worthy.
By contrast, the United Church of Christ,
along with the majority of Protestant Churches, practice “open communion”. Churches practicing “open communion” express
the invitation to the table in various ways, such as by saying “All Christians
who wish to know Christ’s presence and share in the community of God’s people
are welcome” or “All seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ are
welcome at the table.” It should be said
that even “open communion” does not mean “anything goes”: as the Heidelberg
Catechism (the basis of religious instruction for our longtime members) stated,
“Question 81: Who should come to the
table of the Lord?: Those who are
dissatisfied with themselves for their sins, and yet trust that these sins have
been forgiven them and that their remaining weakness is covered by the passion
and death of Christ, and who desire more and more to strengthen their faith and
amend their lives. But the impenitent
and the hypocrites eat and drink judgment to themselves.” (Please note that
while the United Church of Christ no longer uses the Heidelberg Catechism as an
instructional guide, the Heidelberg Catechism is part of the history of our UCC
tradition, and guided the Evangelical & Reformed tradition in which Emanuel
Church is deeply rooted.)
The varying practices among Christians as
to who is invited to the table are grounded in differing interpretations of the
passage above from Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth. Based
on this passage, in some denominations (particularly those who practice closed
communion) those of other denominations,
those who have committed what is deemed “mortal sin” and, in some traditions,
children who have not yet been confirmed, are barred from the table based on
the words in the passage about “eating and drinking in an unworthy
manner”. (For example, my late father’s
second wife, a devout Roman Catholic, considered herself barred from communion
in her church because of her marriage to my father, at least for the length of
their marriage.) As the passage above
states, “All who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink
judgment against themselves” – a sobering thought which may bring us up short.
But against whom was Paul writing when he
wrote of those who “eat and drink without discerning the body” and thus “eat
and drink judgment against themselves”? Whom did Paul have in mind when he wrote
these disturbing words? Let’s listen in
on Paul’s description of communion, Corinthian-style:
“Now in the following
instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for
the better but for the worse. For, to begin with, when you come together as a
church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe
it. Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become
clear who among you are genuine. When you come together, it is not really to
eat the Lord’s supper. For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead
with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. What! Do
you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church
of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I
commend you? In this matter I do not commend you! (I Corinthians 11:17-22)
Unlike the modern practice of communion in
most churches, in the days of the early church, communion was taken in the
context of a full community meal – perhaps similar to a potluck. Table fellowship – that is to say, eating
shared meals together - was an important and distinguishing practice of the
Christian church from its earliest origins. The intent was a full sharing of
available food and drink among all members of the community, so that all would
be satisfied and none would go away hungry.
However, in the Corinthian church, the sense of community and caring
among the members of the church had broken down to such an extent that at
celebrations of communion, the wealthy stuffed themselves and got drunk, while
the poor went away as hungry and thirsty as they had arrived. In this manner, the wealthy, self-centered
members of the Corinthian church, in effect, turned the table of the Lord into
a toga party. Paul heard of his, and understandably
was sore displeased. Paul evidently wanted either that everybody should share
in the community meal, or, if everybody could not eat, then there should be no
community meal at all – and by and large, the church seems to have taken the
second option. To “eat and drink
unworthily, not discerning the body” meant not only a failure to see the body
and blood of Christ in the shared bread and wine, but also a failure to
recognize others at the table (particularly the poor who could not afford to
bring food) as equal members of the body of Christ. To approach the communion table seeing others
at the table as less worthy than us, as less than us as members of the body of
Christ, is to risk “eating and drinking, failing to discern the body” – because
the others at the table are members of the body of Christ on the same basis as
we are – on the basis of divine grace through the saving work of Jesus Christ.
How about children? At what age should children approach the
table? Practices vary widely (and
wildly) across the different Christian denominations. The Last Supper, at which Jesus asked his
followers to eat broken bread and drink wine in remembrance of him, was a
Passover meal, at which children were welcome. In the early church, children
and adults were likewise welcome at the communion table.[1] The Eastern Orthodox Churches still allow
baptized children and even infants within their churches to take communion. Oddly
enough, some ultra-conservative Reformed traditions, such as the Communion of
Reformed Evangelical Churches, some of whose congregations use the Heidelberg
Catechism, and the Christian Reformed Church[2] practice
(or have returned to practicing) infant communion for infant members of their
congregations. The Roman Catholic Church requires children to be confirmed
prior to receiving communion – but Roman Catholic children are confirmed at age
8, much earlier than most Protestant Churches, a recognition that children of
that age are entirely capable both of faith and of adequate understanding of
the sacrament. In years past, in most
mainline protestant churches (including the Evangelical & Reformed Church,
the tradition from which our church came), children did not take communion
prior to confirmation, which took place at roughly age 12-13. In recent decades, though, in mainline
Protestant churches (including the vast majority of UCC churches), there’s a
strong trend toward opening the table to children –at the very least, to older
children, perhaps age 7 or 8 upward - often relying on the judgment of their
parents as to whether their children have the capacity to understand on some
level what is going on at the table. Martin
Luther, in his rejection of infant communion, stated not that it was evil, but
that it was unnecessary, because he felt that children were automatically under
God’s grace until they reached the age of reason, and therefore did not need
communion. At the same time, he
acknowledged that infant communion was a tradition of long standing, dating
back to the earliest days of the church.[3]
There’s nothing explicit in Scripture, the
Apostles or Nicene Creed or (to my knowledge) in the Heidelberg Catechism
barring children from the table prior to confirmation. The exclusion of
children from the communion table prior to confirmation at age 12 or 13 is a
tradition within some Reformed traditions dating perhaps from the 19th
century – but the much older tradition of the wider church, dating back nearly
2,000 years to the time of the apostles,
is to include children in communion. My
personal perspective as pastor: I
believe it is important that all who approach the table, of whatever age and
mental capacity, recognize on some level the symbolism of the bread and
wine/grape juice representing the body and blood of Christ. The
bread and wine are a sacrament of the church instituted by Jesus himself - not
a snack pack. Infants and very young
children not yet capable of understanding are still invited to approach the
table and can (on their request or request of parents) receive laying on of
hands and a prayer of blessing. I believe
parents have an important role, regardless of whether or not they bring their
children to the table, to instruct their children on the meaning of
communion. On the other hand, I believe
these words from Mark’s gospel (echoed as well in Matthew’s gospel) give us
important guidance as to “what would Jesus do” regarding the participation of
children in church life, including communion:
“Then
little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands
on them and pray. The disciples spoke
sternly to those who brought them, but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for to such
as these the kingdom of heaven belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not
receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’” (Mark 10:13-15, similarly stated in Matthew
19:13-15)
See you in church – Pastor
Dave
[1]
For example, see, “The History of
Paedo-Communion from the Early Church until 1500” www.reformed.org/sacramentology/tl_paedo.html
[2]
https://www.crcna.org/FaithFormation/toolkits/welcoming-children-lords-supper/wondering-about-sacraments-children
[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_communion
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