Communion joins us with Christ and all believers

JESUS IS GOD’S LOVE.
HE GIVES US NEW HEARTS –
TO LAY ASIDE OUR OLD WAYS,
TO BELIEVE AND FOLLOW HIM,
TO LIVE WITH HIM EVERY DAY. 

Heartland

From 2002 to 2009 I worked as General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Australia. It was a remarkable role. I served 23 member churches and connected with their global counterparts, attending gatherings as far afield as the Middle East, Europe, Africa, North and South America and China, and closer to home in PNG, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and elsewhere.

During those years I noticed something about global Christianity which I still notice as LCANZ Bishop: despite being entrenched behind denominational, cultural and theological lines (usually in that order!), Christians almost universally value the practice of holy communion.

I have found this to be so even among determinedly ‘non-sacramental’ groups like the Salvation Army. As a Christian temperance movement, it abandoned the sacraments to avoid controversy. But, a hundred years on, some officers I knew still attended communion in other churches. One or two had even arranged their own baptisms. I don’t think they confessed this to their superiors, but they quietly admitted it to me.

Why is the practice of holy communion so pervasive even where there is no emphatic theology, such as Lutherans have, to support it? During important early debates on the topic, Lutherans learned to use certain words to describe what communion is and is not – terms such as ‘means of grace’, real presence’ of Christ, ‘true body, true blood’ and ‘in, with and under bread and wine’. We also learned to take communion seriously and how to prepare and receive it worthily by faith in the words of Christ.

Listening closely to other Christians, however, we find that they also describe a sacred act of God’s presence which humans cannot fully understand. Despite our partial, incomplete knowledge, we are all in awe of God’s saving work through such apparently simple means.

I highly value and passionately believe in the Lutheran understanding of the sacraments – see Luther’s Small Catechism for the simplest explanation. Luther wrote, ‘The words “given for you” and “shed for you for the forgiveness of sins”, show us that forgiveness of sin, life, and salvation are given to us in the sacrament through these words.’ This is central. The Son of God gave his life for us. In communion we are made one with Christ and, through Christ, with each other. That’s not just the people in the same room or our denominational group. It means all believers in time and eternity. All your brothers and sisters are there at the altar with you, being served and saved by Christ! So simple and yet profound. Some bread, some wine, and the word bringing together all of God’s people.

Now, if we wanted to start a global faith to save the world, how would we go about it? We would want people to know the truth, understand it and obey. We would probably opt for a set of commitments, accompanied by appropriate rules and regulations.

But what did God do? What we call the New Testament today tells the story of Jesus’ life and teaching, written from various perspectives, and some important early Christian letters. Among many important truths, it reveals these simple acts – water and the word, bread and wine with the word. They are saving acts. Through them we become members of God’s family and receive eternal life.

Whatever our spiritual or theological bent, whatever church community we come from, communion tells the truth about who we Christians are. God gathers us as one body in him, a mystery beyond our understanding and a powerful, continuing, saving grace for all who believe.

Rev John Henderson

Bishop Lutheran Church of Australia