My Communion Journey

When I’m at work I think about a lot of things. And the other night I got to thinking about the Lord’s Supper.

Over the past 5 years I have celebrated the Lord’s Supper mostly with churches who strongly emphasize, “This is just a remembrance.” After 25 years of pastoring, I had forgotten. I confess, that view and approach to the Lord’s Supper seems to me to deprive it of it’s richness.

That’s what I was thinking about.

I began my Christian life in the Baptist Church, the home of the memorial view of the Supper. At Bible College they told us about the Catholic view, the Lutheran view, and the “right view.” The heart of the issue is the question of the Lord’s presence in the Supper: Is He somehow present in the elements or is this simply a time to remember?

So, at the beginning I held the memorial view (“simply a time to remember”). Then something dreadful happened – I read!

I read my Bible (the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?), and Derek Prince, and John Calvin, and John Wesley (on the means of grace), and the Fathers. And my view changed! A lot!

I now believe Christ is indeed present in the bread and wine, that it is His desire to impart grace to His people when they partake of the Supper, that the Supper is in fact a communing with Him. (How? The Holy Spirit makes Him real as we partake by faith.)

Yes, we remember. We remember what He did for us and we remember when we first received Him as our Savior. But we also receive. As we eat the bread and drink the cup we receive Christ – His wholeness, His life, His forgiveness. Amen! We look around and see our brothers and sisters receiving the same Christ and we are one in Him. And our hope is rekindled as we remember that this is only “til He come.” And on such a note of His presence, we always ended Communion with an invitation to any and all who wanted to be anointed with oil and prayed for.

I compare that with the impoverished, “Nothing is happening here but remembering” approach I have encountered. My heart is grieved.

Does it really matter? I thought about this comparison:

-You go to a restaurant that has pictures of every item on the menu. You are instructed to look over the items and remember what they taste like. Then you go home. “Great meal.”

-You go to a restaurant that has pictures of every item on the menu. And then you dine on your selection. Big difference!

Remember and receive. Commune with our Lord Jesus Christ. What richness! “Take the bread and feed on His body, broken for you that you might be whole. Drink the cup and receive His blood shed for you. Receive forgiveness. Be cleansed. Drink in his life.” Oh, Amen!


How in the world did I get here?? How do I get anywhere at night??? ☺