The Meaning of Holy Communion in The United Methodist Church

Stories of Communion in the New Testament

• Matthew (26:17-20), Mark (14:12-26), Luke (22:7-23), and I Corinthians (11:23-26) all describe how Jesus established the practice of Holy Communion
• These stories also establish the basic pattern of actions in Holy Communion: Take, bless, break, give.
• Jesus TOOK bread, BLESSED God, BROKE the bread, and GAVE it to his disciples.

Stories of Communion in the New Testament

• The gospel readings place the establishment of Holy Communion in the context of the festival of Passover (Exodus 12:1-28)

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• Just as eating the meat of the Passover lamb (with wine) and placing the blood of the lamb on the outer doorway became a deliverance from death and oppression, eating the bread and drinking the wine of Holy Communion becomes a means to deliver us from the power of death and sin.

Paul and Other Stories

• Paul’s teaching about communion in I Corinthians is to remind the Christians in Corinth that they are gather as one whole body to observe Holy Communion
• Other New Testament stories also address Holy Communion more indirectly:
• The Emmaus Story in Luke 24:13-35– Jesus TAUGHT them, then he TOOK bread, BLESSED it, BROKE it, and GAVE it to them (Luke 24:30).
• The Story of Pentecost in Acts 2:42-47– notes the church continued in the teaching of the apostles, and the fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers” (verse 42)

Sacrament and Ordinance

• The term sacrament focuses on God’s promise or vow (Latin, sacramentum) to offer us salvation by receiving Jesus Christ.
• The term ordinance means commandment (ordinatio, or mandatum in Latin) and focuses on our obedience to it.
• United Methodists describe Holy Communion primarily as a sacrament.
• This means we place our emphasis on God’s promise (sacramentum) to save us MORE than on our obedience in doing it. Both matter. God’s faithfulness matters more.

Names for This Sacrament

• There are three different names for this sacrament in common use: The Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, and Holy Communion.
• Each emphasizes something different. All three are valid.

Names for This Sacrament

• “The Lord’s Supper” reminds us the host of this meal is Jesus. We do not establish who is invited or receives. Jesus does.
• “Eucharist” means “Thanksgiving” and describes what WE bring to this sacraments. We offer ourselves in a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
• “Holy Communion” describes what we receive in response to offering ourselves in the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. We receive communion with Christ in his body and blood.

The Shape of the Service: �Word AND Table

• The Emmaus Story underlies the shape of regular Christian worship on the Lord’s Day (Sunday).
• First Jesus taught them. This is the service of the word.
• Then Jesus “took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them.” This is the service of the Table.
• These two parts belong together, and in this order. Word precedes Table. Then, as at Emmaus, table leads to sending into the world. This gives us to two final parts of worship: Thanksgiving and Communion, and Sending Forth.

The Shape of the Service: �Word AND Table

• Early Christians built the service of the Word on the basis of synagogue worship.
• There were two primary parts to the service of the Word: Entrance, and Proclamation with Response
• We ENTER God’s presence with thanksgiving and praise (Psalm 100:4– “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise.”)
• Then we listen and respond to God’s word read and proclaimed.

The Shape of the Service: �Word AND Table

• This gave early Christians and us today a basic pattern for Christian worship based on four movements: ENTRANCE, WORD and RESPONSE, THANKSGIVING and COMMUNION, and SENDING FORTH.
• We see this basic pattern of worship consistently in examples of worship we find in the early Church and among the vast majority of Christians in the world today.

Praying the Great Thanksgiving

• An elder or the appointed pastor presides using our ritual.
• The role of the presider is to lead the whole congregation in offering themselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice
• From after the opening dialog on, the whole Great Thanksgiving is prayer addressed to our Triune God
• Not story told to the people
• Not magic words spoken for the people

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The Structure of the Great Thanksgiving

• The Great Thanksgiving is a prayer– addressed to God, not to the people.
• The only exception is the very beginning, the opening dialog, intended to help get the congregation ready to join in the prayer.
• Presider: The Lord be with you.�People: And also with you.�Presider: Lift up your hearts.�People: We lift them up to the Lord. �Presider: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.�People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.

The Structure of the Great Thanksgiving

• The Great Thanksgiving is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
• The Great Thanksgiving is Trinitarian
• We address and praise the Father
• We remember the life and work of the Son
• We ask the Father to pour out the Spirit on us and on the gifts of bread and wine we present

The Structure of the Great Thanksgiving

• The Great Thanksgiving follows the four actions of Jesus at his last supper: Take, Bless, Break, Give
• The presider will TAKE the elements from those who present them (at the offering) and set the Lord’s table
• The presider and the people BLESS our Triune God through offering the Great Thanksgiving together
• The Thanksgiving blessed God for all God has done to save us, before Christ, in Christ, and in the future through Christ.
• The Holy Spirit consecrates the bread and wine to make them be for us the body and blood of Christ.
• After the conclusion of the Great Thanksgiving (the completion of the sacrifice) the presider will BREAK the bread.
• The bread is broken primarily to enable the presider and servers to GIVE it to the people who may receive.

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How Christ Is Present

• Christ is really present in the bread and the wine. The bread and wine really become for us the body and blood of Christ.
• We do not seek to explain the mystery, other than to insist the Spirit’s action makes it so and we can feel it.
• “O the depth of love divine,�the unfathomable grace!�Who shall say how bread and wine�God into us conveys?”

How Christ Is Present

• We reject transubstantiation as “the one right way” to explain this.
• All reality is divided into two “levels”
• Accidents– how things appear to be; the particular properties of a chair (what it’s made of, how it’s shaped, it’s size)
• Substance– how things really are; the “chairness” of the chair– a chair can be in many forms, but still be a chair
• Transubstantiation asserts that in the Great Thanksgiving, the “accidents” (outward appearance) of the bread and wine are unchanged, but their “substance” becomes bread and wine.
• We reject this largely because these categories depend on Greek philosophy, not the Bible.

Who May Participate in Holy Communion?

• All who are baptized, and any and all present with you who can respond to the invitation to the table – age, denomination and even religion are not barriers. (Matthew 11:28 – Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden; Let the infants come to me! (Luke 18:15)
• “Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin, and who seek to live in peace with one another.”
• All who love him– if we love Jesus, we will follow him and do his commandments, especially to love our neighbors as God has loved us (John 13:34-35, 14:23)
• Who repent of their sin– Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:14-15)
• Live in peace with each other– Matthew 6:23-24

Who May Participate in Holy Communion?

• Systems for confession, pardon, peace and reconciliation are essential.
• Early Methodism: Bands, ritual, class leaders
• At a minimum: confess sin, then confess sins, offer pardon, extend peace as pledge of forgiveness and hope for reconciliation, not simply as a greeting.

How Often Should We Celebrate Holy Communion

• As often as possible.
• Celebration requires the presence and leadership of an authorized presider– an ordained elder, a local elder in mission, a licensed local pastor or provisional member preparing for ordination as an elder appointed to your congregation.
• John Wesley expected his elders to celebrate at least weekly in each charge.
• Infrequent celebration was the result not of our theology, but the lack of available authorized presiders.

Using ALL the Means of Grace

It is expected of all who desire to continue in these societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of God; such are:

The public worship of God.

The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded.

The Supper of the Lord.

Family and private prayer.

Searching the Scriptures.

Fasting or abstinence.

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Serving and Receiving

• Christians have done this differently in different contexts over time: Sitting, standing, kneeling, common cup, loaf or wafers.
• Anyone who is baptized may serve the elements.
• The fullest expression of the biblical image is to share from the same loaf or loaves of bread, and from a common cup.
• The emphasis is on serving and receiving. This best fulfills the fourth movement– GIVE. We are GIVEN the bread and cup, and so RECEIVE them. We do not “TAKE” them for ourselves.
• If you pass trays of elements, serve them to one another.

Meanings of Holy Communion

• “Communion” is with the whole gathered community– I Corinthians 10:17
• Remembering– Luke 22:19, I Corinthians 11:24-25
• Re-membering– putting the body back together
• Re-membering– putting the memory together in the present time
• Remembering Jesus– not just the last supper
• Sacrifice– Romans 12:1, I Peter 2:5
• A prayer as a sacrifice offered with our whole selves, body, mind and spirit

• A sharing in the whole of the Triune God
• We praise the Father
• We give thanks for Jesus, the Son
• We call upon the Holy Spirit – John 14:26
• Receiving the body and blood of Jesus– John 6:48-59, Colossians 1:15-20
• A foretaste of the Great Wedding Feast of the Lamb Revelation 21:1-7

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Meanings of Holy Communion

Holy Communion and Baptism

• Jesus commands us to offer both and do both
• Holy Communion– Matthew 26:26-29
• Baptism– Matthew 28:18-20�
• The historic pattern is baptism first, then communion. United Methodists affirm this historic pattern in principle. �
• In practice, we say which happens first is less important than that both happen. Persons coming to the table without baptism should be counseled to prepare for baptism at the soonest possible time.

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Elements for Communion

• Bread and wine (or grape juice) just like Jesus used is the normal pattern around the world
• The bread is what you use for bread– and one loaf that you all share. (I Corinthians 10:17)
• The wine is wine or grape juice (if available) or what you use as your regular drink from nature that best symbolizes life and joy in your context
• When all have received, dispose of all “leftovers” with reverence
• Eat, drink, bury, or pour/scatter to the earth
• Do not throw anything into the trash or sewer

Extending the Table

• Bread and wine blessed at the regular gathering of the congregation may be taken and shared later that day (if possible) with persons who could not attend (the sick, prisoners, the infirm, those who had to work)
• Either laypersons trained for this task or clergy may take and share these elements with those who could not attend at the regular time.
• Precedent for this ministry is recorded as early as 150 AD (The First Apology of Justin Martyr).

Inappropriate Practices: �Preconsecration

• Practice:

The practice of consecrating elements ahead of time for the convenience of the pastor not having to go to small or remote congregations, weekend camps, or other such occasions is inappropriate and contrary to our historic doctrine and understanding of how God’s grace is made available in the sacrament (Article XVIII, The Articles of Religion, BOD; page 64). If authorized leadership is not available for celebrating the Lord’s Supper, other worship services such as love feasts, agape meals, or baptismal reaffirmations are valid alternatives that avoid the misuse of Communion elements. –This Holy Mystery, p. 32

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More simply put: �“Elders itinerate from church to church. Elements do not.”

Inappropriate Practices: �Self-Serve Communion

“Both “self-service” Communion, where people help themselves, and “drop-in” Communion, where the elements are available over a period of time, are contrary to the communal nature of the sacrament, which is the celebration of the gathered community of faith.”�–This Holy Mystery, p. 23�

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Inappropriate Practices: �Online Sacramental Practice

1. Parallel to Field Preaching? (Reaching people where they are)�
2. The Community IS Gathered?�
3. No limits to the “effective range” of the Great Thanksgiving?

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• Multiple ways to have the same experience?

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Inappropriate Practices: �Online Sacramental Practice

5. A Converting Ordinance– So Why Not?

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“But in latter times, many have affirmed, that the Lord’s Supper is not a converting, but a confirming ordinance. And among us it has been diligently taught, that none but those who are converted, who have received the Holy Ghost, who are believers in the full sense, ought to communicate.�

“But experience shows the gross falsehood of that assertion, that the Lord’s Supper is not a converting ordinance. Ye are the witnesses. For many now present know, the very beginning of your conversion to God (perhaps, in some, the first deep conviction) was wrought at the Lord’s Supper. “ Journal, Friday, June 27, 1740

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Inappropriate Practices: �Online Sacramental Practice

5a. What Wesley meant by “converting ordinance” is different than is commonly assumed by those words now:

“The term [converting ordinance] was rarely used in Methodist literature prior to the 20th century. When used after that time, the phrase was taken up generally without relating it precisely to the original context of its use: the controversy with Molther on the means of grace and "stillness." In addition, by the time of this rediscovery, the language of evangelism had changed. "Unconverted" or "unbeliever" generally no longer referred principally to the "unassured of faith," but to those altogether without religion. Different conclusions were reached when Wesley's writings were read without an eye to their original context and time period. The converting ordinance was thus reinterpreted to mean a remedy for those totally without faith.” – Karen Westerfield Tucker, “Table Etiquette, Means and Manners”

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