Holy Communion
We celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion (Eucharist, Last Supper, Lord's Supper) the first Sunday of each month and during other special services. Oftentimes we receive the bread and juice at the communion railing, or we distribute communion by the ancient practice, called intinction, whereby we receive a piece of bread torn off from the loaf and dip it into a chalice of juice before eating.
There are four main understandings of Holy Communion. In reality there are many more than four, but these are the major positions:
First, transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic position, holds that the very substance of the bread and wine is transformed into the actual body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ with only the appearances of bread and wine remaining.
Second, consubstantiation, the Lutheran view, claims that the real presence of Jesus is in, with, and through the bread and wine, but the bread and wine do not change in substance.
Third, the reformer, John Calvin, believed that in the sacrament the Holy Spirit takes us in a spiritual way to eat/commune with the risen Lord Jesus. That is, Christ is spiritually present.
Fourth, another reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, held that Communion is a symbolic, memorial meal. In eating the bread and wine we remember Jesus and his sacrifice and resurrection.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, would fall between Calvin and Zwingli. Our Articles of Religion say the body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper after a heavenly and spiritual manner and that we receive it by faith. Wesley believed that Holy Communion is, what he called, "the grand channel" by which we receive God's grace. In some ways, Wesley was less concerned with how it happened and more concerned with what it did to/for us.
Besides the gospel accounts in which Jesus shares the bread and wine with his disciples during his last supper with them (e.g. Mark 14, Luke 22), the Apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthian church is important:
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17 NRSV)
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, 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. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. (1 Corinthians 11:23-29 NRSV)
How we understand the sacraments often divides us as Christians. That is very sad, especially when the sacraments (the mystery of God giving himself to us) are meant to bring us together in unity.
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