Today I had the opportunity to deliver a mini-sermon on Communion Sunday – basically just a few thoughts about Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 11. I wanted to go a little further, but to say what I wanted might have created more questions than answers, and perhaps would have resulted in some doctrinal confusion, so I didn’t go there. I don’t think sermons are the place to create controversy.
This is why God created blogs. Thank You, Lord.
In a nutshell, it rankles me a little when we evangelical Protestants say that the bread and the cup are only meant to be “symbolic”. Maybe it’s my high-church upbringing, but I don’t believe that to be the case. Something bigger, something more transformational is going on. It is not merely lifeless symbol.
I believe this because the early church (Paul, the early fathers, etc.) had a very high view of Communion, based on Jesus’ words – not only in the Last Supper but in passages such as John 6:48-58. Down through the history of the church, a high view was held for the most part, even by Protestants after the Reformation! It was not only symbolic to those believers. When the Lord’s Supper (or Eucharist) was celebrated, something mysterious, spiritual and impactful took place.
But somewhere along the way, we decided (in what I think is an overreaction to the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation) that we needed to strip the Lord’s Supper of anything that reeked of mystery and reduce the elements to their basic molecular structure. Nothing more.
I can’t buy it. The testimonies of Paul, the earliest church, the historical church and so many believers today speak against this lower view of Communion.
“OK smart guy, so what is your position?” The fact is, I am not sure I can define it. I don’t think I can sign on to transubstantiation (the Catholic view that the bread and wine are substantially changed into the body and blood of Christ. Many arguments for it are compelling, but I’m not there). Maybe I could warm up to Luther’s idea of consubstantiation (Christ being present in the elements).
What I do believe and know is that it is a means of God’s grace. One Protestant theologian has referred to the bread and wine as “operative” symbols – meaning that they not only proclaim a truth, but that through them, God performs an act of grace which corresponds to that truth. In other words, something divine actually happens. It isn’t mere symbol. God is acting somehow, some way, in and through the elements.
That is as close as I can come at the moment to describing it and perhaps I need to explore it further. But I am grateful every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper because I know I am going to encounter Christ in a unique and powerful way. At Jesus’ table, grace happens.
