What We Believe - Holy Communion

Very rarely does this happen - but as I was reviewing the sermon composed for this week - I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to scrap it. To start all over. And when the Holy Spirit leads, its best to follow.

We are now in our fourth week of our sermon series on why we do what we do as United Methodists. Last week we talked about why we celebrate the sacrament of baptism. Just as last week, we discussed baptism without celebrating the sacrament of baptism together, so this week we are talking about the second sacrament that United Methodist Celebrate (there are two total) - Holy Communion - but not gathering around the table together, as we just did so two weeks ago. Specifically we will be asking ourselves a difficult question: “do we really know why we celebrate this sacrament?” 

The Apostle Paul finds himself addressing a plethora of issues in the church of Corinth. Remember that Paul would come into an area and plant a church - usually starting in the synagogues, when there was one present, and then preaching to the Gentiles - until he had a group of people who wanted to hear more about the message of Jesus Christ. He would raise up leaders and train them in the teachings of the Way, before eventually moving on to the next town. But the churches wrote to him. When he received the letter from the Church in Corinth, he was not happy. They were not conducting themselves as a church should. So he wrote them a long letter calling them out. This letter was probably received by one the church leaders, most notably the person who reported the problems to him in the first place, and then read to the entire body. 

In this particular section of Paul’s letter, he is addressing a very serious issue - Holy Communion. Over my years of being a pastor I have heard several complaints about communion - not practicing it enough, practicing it too much, not liking the words spoken during the liturgy, the presence of germs, not liking it being served in the pews, only wanting it served in the pews. The list goes on and on, but you get my general point. The complaints we have are generally about how communion is practiced. Paul is upset because the church has forgotten why communion is practiced. 

We celebrate communion as a community of faith. As United Methodists we practice an open communion table. This means that we believe that the table is Christ’s table - not ours, either as the United Methodist Church or even this local congregation. Therefore, anyone who wants to seek a relationship with Christ and responds to Christ’s love in their heart can come. 

Paul was furious because people were being excluded from the table. When Paul is writing this letter to the church of Corinth, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was part of a great feast, sometimes referred to as the Agape or Love Meal. Each person brought what they could to the table to share. Only class divisions quickly sprang up and the rich were seated at better places at the table, given the finest food, and had more to eat and drink on the whole, while the poor starved. While we may not try to exclude today based off of class, do we truly invite all to the table? Or are those in your heart that you feel should be uninvited, treated differently, or excluded?  If so, are we any bette than the church in Corinth? 

While most United Methodists would strongly say that they don’t see anyone being excluded from the table - I keep thinking back to a church one Sunday where a young woman couldn’t go forward to receive because of what was being served. She suffered from cillicas diseases and couldn’t eat gluten - most often found in bread. She was excluded from the table,. We need to remember that one of the ways we celebrate as a community is by thinking about what we serve. I’ve been asked several times why most Untied Methodists use grape juice while some other traditions use wine. Starting in the 19th century grape juice was used so that recovering alcoholics could come to the table without fear. More recently, many congregations are realizing wheat allergies prevents some from coming to the table, like that young woman, so they offer gluten free bread. We must always be attentive to how we can unknowingly exclude some from the body by what we offer.

We celebrate because we believe hearts can be changed at the table. John Wesley believed that communion was a means of grace, a way to experience God’s love for us, and that we should celebrate it as often as we can. We believe people can be covered at the table, come to relationship with God here, and grow in their relationship with Christ. Because of that belief, we do not require people to be baptized before they can receive the bread and the cup. Because of that belief, we believe that children are welcome to receive, if the parents so wish. Because here is one of the places Christ’s love can be experienced in a tangible way. It’s a mystery - we can’t put into words how it can happen, we only know that it does. That being said, we never force people to receive, or shame them for choosing not to partake in communion.

We celebrate to remember. Different denominations believe different things about Christ’s presence at the table. Some believe that he is truly present in body and blood. Other’s believe that the bread and the cup serve as symbols. Others believe that it is a memorial mean. We believe that the Holy Spirit is present at the table and nourishes all who partake as we remember what Christ has done for us. We are called to remember the night that Christ was betrayed. 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.’ We are called to remember more then the meal itself. Communion is not an event made to be administered in solitude. It’s about the body of Christ coming together to collectively remember the sacrifice of the personal, yet communal Savior. So as we gather at the table we are also called to remember our neighbor. We are called to keep in mind those who couldn’t be with us at the table. To think of our brothers and sisters around the world who don’t have the privilege to worship God publicly.

One of my favorite ways to celebrate communion is around an actual table where the pastor encourages everyone to look into the eyes of the person across from you and to pray for them. As you partake you remember your neighbor and thank God that Christ died for them. We remember the meaning of the meal together. 

We celebrate because we are forgiven. At the table, where all of our sin has been laid at the feet of the cross, we find forgiveness. Forgiveness cannot be separated from confessing our sins, admitting that we are in need of Christ, or remembering the sacrifice made. When we kneel at the table we come broken, but we arise remembering that Christ has made us whole and has deemed us his worthy children.

While I get the pragmatic nature of serving communion in the pews, I think sometimes we lose the sense of forgiveness when we don’t come forward to the rail to receive once in a while and hear those words “arise, you are forgiven”. We lose something we don’t celebrate by dipping the bread into the cup and hear the words spoken just for us, one by one. Words have a powerful way, when combined with this sacrament, of reminding us we are forgiven.

Finally, we celebrate with thanksgiving. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. The Lord’s Supper prepares us to celebrate in Heaven someday. It’s supposed to remind us that we are going to be at banquets in Heaven with the Triune God when he deems the time to be right. And as we leave the Lord’s Table, the table we approached so somberly remembering and confessing our sins, we can celebrate because we are forgiven. At the Lord’s table we face a spectrum of emotions. And we can be thankful for each and every one of them, because God has created us to be so emotionally complex. When I was in seminary, we received communion with both wine and grape juice, which is allowed in our United Methodist tradition. Each was clearly marked and we had a choice of what we were to receive that day as we dipped our bread into the cup. I would always access my heart asking inwardly if I was in need of confession for the bitterness of sin - in which case I would choose the bitter wine - or celebration of the sweet love of Christ - in which case I would choose the juice. No matter what I choose however, it was done in a spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude. We have so much to be thankful for as we leave the table.

As we reflect on the fact that we celebrate communion as a community of faith where hearts can be changed in light of remembrance, forgiveness, and thanksgiving, the Lord’s Supper can shed the trivial nature that we sometimes treat it with. We see that the table means so much more then we give it credit for. May we approach the table with an open heart, seeking the Lord, and the grace Christ bestows upon us. Amen.