Difficult Divine Decrees: Communion
Notes
Transcript
Difficult Divine Decrees: Communion
The question brought was ‘How often should we take communion.’
The answer is straightforward: Scripture does not tell us how often we should take communion.
We can wrap it up and head home!
Okay, let’s talk about communion.
Why are there different communion traditions?
Who does it? (Membership)
Who serves it? (Authority)
Why do it? (Purpose)
And I use traditions on purpose. That statement alone might offend some because they don’t view what they do as a tradition, they view it as what scripture commands.
**All these play into the timing and frequency of communion**
***DOES***
Usually had to go through a catechismal process
Could take months to years
Must show a change in your life
Then you would be baptised
The unbaptized were excluded
Then you would take communion
Then you were a member of the church community
***SERVES***
We don’t have any real information on the early church
It seemed that just about anyone in the church could do it.
Or it was a collective meal of sorts
Later it would be the deacon, elder or bishop that would do it
It would take on further significance once the bread and wine became the body and blood of Christ
***PURPOSE***
It is on this point the debate really begins
Purpose of communion
Relationship to Passover or not?
Synoptics vs. John
Salvation or Remembrance?
John 6 vs. 1 Corinthians 11:23
Historical Sources
Daily, multiple times per week, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, undefined
***Relationship to Passover or not?
The three synoptics (Matthew, Mark, Luke) all have the meal happening the day of
John has Jesus dying the day the passover lamb was sacrificed, meaning the meal was not a passover
Paul writes that Jesus is our passover lamb, alluding to his death being on the day the lamb sacrifice.
***Salvation or Remembrance?
If you take John 6 as speaking of communion, then you will think of communion as salvation
If you don’t take John 6 as speaking of communion, then you will think of communion as remembrance
What about children? (Infant baptism)
***Historical sources
Early writings have the church meeting daily, multiple days per week, and weekly.
Later, the frequency drops, likely due to Roman persecution
Once Christianity becomes the official religion of Rome it become an official process along with catechism and baptism.
In other words, the church controlled who could participate and who could not.
Who could be saved and who could not.
And by this time, the disconnection from Jewish tradition was entirely complete
So, by the time we get to 500 CE, we have debate regarding baptism and communion and its role in salvation.
You must be baptised to participate
You must be catechised to participate
You must be saved to participate
You must fast before you participate
You must confess before you participate
Lest you drink damnation unto yourself
This lasted for another 1,000 years
What remained similar up to a few hundred years ago was the requirement to
Be a believer
Be baptized
Be a member
What we do, was rare and not common until recent periods in the west.
As I said before, the frequency is not mentioned in scripture.
If we tie it to Passover, then a full meal, once a year, would count
But we know Israel failed to keep the Passover meal for hundreds of years.
But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
Notice what Paul says here.
There are some who are not genuine among them.
And they should recognize them, not the ones who are hungry (as we will see) but ones who want to be ‘greatest’ in the group.
When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
It is done in remembrance, not to ‘replay’ the event
Not to get forgiveness
Not to activate salvation
It is a memorial
As often as you drink it
Meaning, there would be or might already be differing traditions
It might be due to the ability of those to assemble together
***Important: Apocalyptic view
It is done to remind us that Christ is coming
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
Many have hooked this section to say you must confess your sins.
But it does not say that anywhere in the text.
The phrase ‘discerning/judging’ the body is about discerning the body of Christ you are gathering with. If you don’t look around and see the needs of others and serve them first, then you drink judgment on yourself.
Weak and ill and some have died, likely means that the old, weak, sick, and hungry, are not being attended to, and they are dying.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.
So it sounds like the hungry should eat at home, but if you have no home, if you have no food, then this might be the best meal you have.
Again, no timing is given. As often as you drink it.
For Paul, communion is serious business.
It would seem that doing it with the wrong attitude, with the wrong remembrance, can condemn us alongside the world, when Jesus returns.
Why are there different communion traditions?
Who does it? (Membership)
Who serves it? (Authority)
Why do it? (Purpose)
