Since I started to systematically read theology at university
(I had started to read systematic theology before going, but you
probably don't want to know that!) I have been fascinated by one
area in particular - the sacraments.
I have already written a few times about baptism. In some
ways, it is a striaghtforward subject, even if people tend to get
a bit heated when talking about it. There are quite a lot
of Bible passages that talk about baptism, so there is a lot you
can usefully say about the Bible's teaching on the subject.
Communion, on the other hand, is quite different. I
noticed this first in the evangelical summaries of what we believe
about certain key areas - each subject would bew approached in a
very similar manner, apart from this one.
You would usually get a statement of a doctrine, a description
of why it was important, and a list of passages that taught it.
This sequence would be repeated until the core beliefs in
an area had been covered, and then the subject moved on.
Not so when dealing with communion: you get a sprawling,
meditative something full of allusions and spiritual principles
that seemed to fall out of thin air, almost no Bible passages,
and the few passages given often said very little about the
subject being discussed.
In short, I started to wonder if evangelicals had anything
useful to say about communion at all.
I have attempted a brief summary
("Thoughts on
Communion") of what it seems to me that we, as evangelicals,
can say about communion. This is an attempt to look at the
rest of what we try to say, and - hopefully! - begin to make some
sense of it.
In their doctrine of communion - like no
other area - evangelical Christians ignore the Bible and base
their beliefs on theory and speculation.
For simplicity, I shall use the term 'communion' here to refer
to the act in which Christians eat bread and wine (or some
acceptable substitute!) in obedience to Jesus' command to "do this
in remembrance of me." It goes by a variety of names - the
Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, the Lord's Table, the Mass - and so
on.
In using the term, I don't mean to identify what one group of
Christians do as opposed to any other group but rather to
include what all - or most! - evangelicals do and understand
themselves to be doing in this act.
1. Feeding on Jesus
Introduction to the section.
1a. John's Gospel
John chapter 6 is possibly the most important passage in the
Bible for understanding communion. It is the only place
where we hear Jesus teaching about the subject.
1b. The Synoptics
Details
2. The Real Presence
Introduction to the section.
3. Getting Grace
Most Christians agree that communion is a 'means of grace' -
but what does that mean?
4. Magic and Ritual
What qualifies as communion? There seem to be two basic
elements in most answers to this question - church order and
sacrament.