Skip to main content

The Duty of Constant Communion: Who is Welcome at the Table?

This Sunday we are going to explore Paul's call for us to go all in and "finish doing it." But this week I wanted to speak up as your pastor since Church is in the news lately, particularly about a part of the life of Church in general that I care deeply about: the sacrament of Holy Communion. 


The US Conference of Catholic Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church recently proceeded with publishing a report on the Eucharist (fancy word for Communion in Greek--it means Thanksgiving) that provides "teaching" to US priests. Controversially it makes a plain case to deny communion to public officials who refuse to publicly condemn abortion or work to outlaw it. It's largely being seen politically since abortion is such a controversial topic. It could potentially lead the current President, Joseph R. Biden into the awkward scenario where he, as a Roman Catholic, will not be able to receive communion.

Why does this matter to us?

What I find most interesting about us Methodists and how we take Communion is how, in the US, we got into the habit of only doing communion once a month. That is strange to me because our Founder, John Wesley, would have found this tendency to be really strange when most of our churches have clergy leading worship every time we meet! John Wesley wrote a sermon entitled, "The Duty of Constant Communion" where he says at the outset, "it is the duty of every Christian to receive the Lord's Supper as often as [they] can."

To Wesley, (and I am in strong agreement!) Communion is "the plain command of Christ" who told the disciples before he went to Calvary, "do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19).  Communion is nourishment for the soul, an opportunity to please God and to experience forgiveness from sin in one's preparation to receive communion. A lot happens at the Table, my friends! I think frequent communion is so important also because it provides us an opportunity to do something with intention, even if it is by rote. You might think, "if we do this too frequently, it will be meaningless!" 

Well, John Wesley has a response to that as well: 
"An objection against constant communion is that it abates our reverence for the sacrament. Suppose it did? What then! Will you thence conclude that you are not to receive it constantly? This does not follow...Has God ever told you that when the obeying his command abates your reverence to it then you may disobey it?"

I think there is more to this particular concern about the communion being less "special" the more often we do it. We live lives nowadays where we can go 24 hours on autopilot. Unthinkingly moving from one task to the next, swimming in stress and anxiety without recognizing it. Every time we have an opportunity to come forward to receive communion, we have an opportunity to stop, to check in with our souls, to make sure we don't have hate in our hearts, to approach the Table CHOOSING to make that moment special and sacred to us. And that choice each time is an act of prayer and thanksgiving, and an opportunity to receive God's mercy and be nourished in our deepest souls. 

It would be a HUGE decision for anyone like me to deny anyone else an opportunity to share in the feast at our Table. There are almost no reasons that I would ever deny communion to anyone in my practice of ministry. The Table is one of the most important parts of my faith, the thing we have in common with millions, the meal that grants us an opportunity to re-member the Body of Christ--the feast that bridges the past sacrifice of Christ to the future building up of the kin(g)dom of God! We aren't Christian without communion. So, for many reasons, I don't agree with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Thankfully, I don't have to as I am not Catholic!

But I will say this: Can you imagine any time where Christ would refuse to offer himself to anyone? And if you can, is the Christ you imagine made in your image, or is he the Son of God in whose image we have been made?

--Ben

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Busy-ness and Many-ness and Much-ness

 The story of Mary and Martha lately gives me pause. Living where I live now, I have this great opportunity to play host to guests. And the extended period of this pandemic has made both Becky and me hungry for human interaction. I also love to cook. And one thing I notice sometimes is how I can get really focused on cooking and not necessarily on being our company.  This obviously isn't a huge problem, when we are eating and afterwards I can be present to company that has come over, but the division of labor between Martha and Mary reminds me of how Becky and I complement each other well when hosting. Becky is a much better engaging conversationalist than me, and while I am cooking (or finishing cooking) she can easily keep guests entertained. But what if someone came over that I wanted to spend a lot of time talking with? How would I feel if I still had to cook and got jealous of Becky's face time with a guest I would prefer to have more conversation with? Mary and Martha li...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hello, neighbor: Taking the Great Commandment Seriously

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?' We are starting a new worship series this Sunday we are calling "Hello, Neighbor!" In our Scripture passage this week to start out, we encounter Jesus' answer to a challenging question that I still think has significance for us today: "Who is my neighbor?" When Jesus answered the question about how to get into the Kingdom of Heaven he said simply, "Love God and Love your neighbor." So this whole thing is really about love, but the question of "who is my neighbor" for 1st century Jews like the lawyer in Luke also had legal and even theological significance. Who your neighbor was as a Jew had to do with who had the same responsibilities you had. It's analogous to asking "Who is my fellow citizen?"  Jesus' answer was profound in his telling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. And it puts a new spin on the Great Commandment for us. I look forward...
Post a Comment
Read more

Faith During the Storm

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” --Mark 4:35-41 I wonder really how the disciples felt, being tossed about in a storm in their boat with the real possibility that they might die, being told in an infuriating fashion by Jesus afterwards something to the effect of, "Dude, relax. You're interrupting my nap." Let's remember that the disciples were fisherman and Jesus was not. The disciples ...
Post a Comment
Read more