The beauty of starting church from scratch is that you get to re-invent everything. You are free to re-visit every core belief and practice and re-assess its validity or form.
Over the next few weeks at Upstream we are revisiting the whole idea of communion/the eucharist/ Lord’s Supper or whatever you choose to call it. We haven’t developed any set practices yet, or any immovable theological convictions in this area and our current expression is ad hoc at best. It seemed like time to try and nail this one down…
‘Good luck!’ I hear you say…
And that is kinda how it feels. Given that 2000 years of church history has led us to such a diversity of opinions I doubt we will be able to find the ‘right answer’, but I reckon we still need to determine what our position is and how we will express it. At the moment it is just either vague or a replica of what we have inherited, because we haven’t taken the time to explore it.
So today I began the crew on the task of asking some serious questions about communion. You might like to think them thru too, as I am guessing that many of us just take our current practice for granted and could use some deeper reflection.
Let me offer a few scenarios / issues to get you thinking. Please take some time to engage in the comments as I are trying to do some serious learning here.
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Last year when I was a guest speaker at the Anglican Training in Ministry intensive, a seminar for soon to be ordained clergy. I was there presenting ‘Forgey’ stuff, but over dinner the conversation turned to ‘the eucharist’ and I listened with curiosity. For some reason the folks were discussing how you estimate accurately the number of bits of bread and the amount of wine.
After a few minutes it dawned on me…
I thought out loud, ‘Oh of course, you guys believe the priest has to eat/drink whatever’s left don’t you?!’
‘And what about you?’ one woman asked…
‘Oh we just toss it out’, I said much to her horror.
‘But how can you?’ she asked genuinely concerned.
I went on to explain that we don’t see it as anything special, and she explained to me that once it had been ‘consecrated’, to her it was very special. I realised I was on touchy ground on this topic with Anglicans and my Baptist ‘remembrance/ordinance’ position was not ringing any bells for her.
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I remember growing up in my traditional Baptist church, where communion was always at the end of the service, so that those who ‘love and serve the Lord’ could be involved… but those who didn’t
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were free to leave, or to observe.
I always felt for people who left. They seemed like second class citizens in that environment.
Either that or (like me) they were too young to take communion…
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Which leads to another question of when is a person old enough to take communion?
I have allowed my children to take communion ever since they have told me that they love Jesus. I think 3 was the age they were first able to verbalise that.
We explain it to them each time as the bread and wine come around, and while they dont get it all, they know they are considered ok to partake.
This would not have happened in the world I grew up in.
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So that’s the kids…
They have christian parents and a childlike faith… and in my opinion they qualify, but what about adults who are not Christians… Can they take communion if they want to remember Jesus?
At our Easter camp we went to Busselton with 5 families who would not see themselves as believers and we held a remembrance service on Good Friday. They joined us for it and as part it there was opportunity to take communion (bread and wine)
Around half of those who aren’t Christians took the bread and the wine.
Is that ok?…
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Of course if you see communion as a meal then it gets even trickier, especially if you don’t believe that non-believers should be able to take part. Do you then exclude them from the meal?
On what basis do you decide their worthiness of communion?
Are ‘strays’ allowed communion – those who have lost their way with faith?
Is this what Paul meant about eating in an unworthy manner?
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Of course this raises another question of when we are actually doing communion and when we are just having a feed together. Is every meal a communion meal? Or do we need to declare it as such?
Is it only communion if we use wine and unleavened bread – or grape juice and wafers in our ‘Baptist’ case?
Is pizza and beer legitimate for communion?
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Then there are the really tricky aspects, like should only men be allowed to serve communion (there has been plenty of church biffo over this one) and if they are serving then should they have to wear ties?!
Okay, so that was the 80’s but I’ll bet there are some places around today where you’d need to be wearing trousers and a tie to be able to serve communion… Some churches even insist that you have to be an ordained priest…
Then there’s the Salvos… who just don’t bother.
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I could go on, but the you get the idea. This is very shaky ground for making categorical statements, yet over the years thousands have died for their beliefs on this subject.
Hopefully we will get thru the next few weeks without any unnecessary deaths, but let’s not underestimate the significance of the topic. For some people this is critical and for others it somewhat peripheral.
As a Baptist by heritage I struggle to see the sacramental aspect of communion, in fact for me communion has often been a time of fairly strained boredom as I have zoned out and felt guilty about my disinterest. I doubt this was what Jesus intends, but I also doubt he intended for it to be the place for a second sermon and a ‘symbolic’ feast. As a kid I always wondered if the minister was a bit whacked when he spoke of the feast and we finished up with a smidgeon of a Jatz cracker and a little thimble of raspberry cordial. A feast?!…
The aim of today’s learning was to de-stabilise the views that we have inherited and to plant questions in the minds of those present, ultimately with a very practical objective – to figure out what we will do at Upstream.
Anyway if you’re interested in the learning exercise here’s what we did:
1.We began by choosing a picture card to depict our experience of communion and then we shared why we chose that card.
2. From there I gave a short history of how communion has developed in the various traditions and what the different threads of belief are. We each reflected on our heritage and how we had been shaped.
3. We then turned to the gospel and 1 Cor to look at some biblical material.
The water grew murkier and murkier… This was the plan however!
4. So as we finished today I sent everyone off with a question to research and then report back on (5 mins max) next time we meet. The questions we are exploring are below:
1. When is communion ‘legitimate’ and when is it not?
2. What actually happens during communion? Is it a sacrament or an ordinance?
3. What is the main purpose/s of communion? How do we achieve them in what we do?
4. What form should communion take? Should it be a meal or a small cup of juice and a wafer of bread? Why?
5. Who is allowed to take communion? What guidelines are there?
6. Who can serve communion? Why do churches differ on this?
7. How often should a group celebrate communion?
8. Why has the form changed so much over the years? (meal – symbols)
9. What does it mean to take communion in an unworthy manner?
I love this kind of learning that really takes us back to some serious research and engagement with scripture and church history.
