The Lord's Supper Is Radical Hospitality?
This is my fourth post about my recent experience at a United Methodist Church. This post is about a practice Paul describes as, when done improperly, leading to sickness and death. Paul wrote:
"That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep (died)."
What is Paul talking about? Taking communion wrongly or with a wrong attitude.
Last Sunday at a United Methodist Church, in her introductory remarks to communion, the pastor described communion as being all about "radical hospitality". This was not a passing remark. "Radical hospitality" was described as the central theme of communion. Communion is ALL ABOUT RADICAL HOSPITALITY. (The death of Jesus Christ was never mentioned.)
But the heresy did not stop there.
When she invited people to come forward, she made a point of inviting ALL people to come forward.
Many churches practice an open communion. That means that if you are a believer, it does not matter what denomination you belong to, you are welcome to partake of communion. For example, the Catholic Church practices a closed communion. You must be Catholic to take communion in a Catholic Church.
This United Methodist pastor was not leading an open communion. She was inviting EVERYONE, believers and non-believers to participate in communion. I later spoke with her on the phone about this and she confirmed it. Everyone, without exception, was invited to take communion.
In our phone conversation she also confirmed that communion is all about "radical hospitality". I had not heard wrong or misunderstand what she said during the service.
The Book of Discipline, which is the United Methodist Church's manual describing what they believe and how things are done, says
Article VI, The Confession of Faith: "...we believe the Lord's Supper is a representation of our redemption, a memorial of the sufferings and death of Christ, and a token of love and union which Christians have with Christ and with one another. Those who rightly, worthily and in faith eat the broken bread and drink the blessed cup partake of the body and blood of Christ in a spiritual manner until he comes."
It says nothing about "radical hospitality" nor about communion being open to everyone, believers and non-believers. Communion is described as Christians rightly, worthily and in faith eating the bread and drinking the cup.
So what does the Bible say?
The Bible says that communion is for believers only, and it is very serious about this.
"For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself." -- 1 Corinthians 11:29
The Bible says that you must come to communion with the right attitude. For example, you are not to just treat communion as another meal or as an opportunity to eat. To take communion with an unworthy attitude is a very serious sin.
"Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord." -- 1 Corinthians 11:26
The Bible says that we take communion in remembrance of Jesus Christ and to "proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."
"And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.'" -- Luke 22:19
"'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper he took the cup saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." -- 1 Corinthians 11:24-26
Paul goes on to say:
"A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep." -- I Corinthians 11:28-30
In this case United Methodist beliefs, as described in the Book of Discipline, accurately reflect the Bible.
Why does this pastor depart so radically from the Bible? I'll give you my thoughts on that in a future post.
But I also must ask, why does the United Methodist Church allow heresy to be preached in two of their churches? (This person pastors two churches.) Why do the members of these churches not speak out???? Are there any Christians in these churches?
Labels: lord's supper, sacraments, united methodist church
7 Comments:
Great article even though it's very sad. God gives us His Son to plant in us the most "radical" love of Heaven and our clergy miss this wonderful gift.
If the communicant doesn't believe in Jesus' sacrifice, why would they even want to take communion? Obviously, this has become a boring ritual to that pastor. He might as well go "blah, blah, blah" as he's breaking the bread and raising the wine cup.
I go to a PC(USA) church but I have never seen any type of heresy coming from the pulpit, just from the headquarters in Louisville and other churches. If I started to see that going on, I'd complain as you did. But if that's the direction they want to go, I'd have to leave.
Yesterday I went with some friends to their church, a Calvary megachurch. Thousands of people heard the gospel preached from start to finish and then they offered communion. The pastor said, "If you don't believe that Jesus died for you and that your sins are forgiven, just pass them to the next person." I didn't see anyone pass them up. Not one person got up and ran out.
What are these heretical pastors afraid of? Are they afraid no one will show up for Sunday worship thus they corrupt the message? The irony is that very few people do respond to their new religion! Folks are leaving in droves.
In April of last year, the pastors of the megachurches in PCusa, mine included, sent a letter begging the GA not to lower their purity standards. They were ignored. Thus the heretics are coming primarily from the little churches.
Thank you so much for being committed to the Word of God. I recently attended a conference based on the book, The Emerging Christian Way...the speaker was so full of heresy and no one seemed to mind. Rev. 2:14 in the message say, "But why do you let that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet mislead my dear servants into cross-denying, self-indulging religion?"
I have never experienced such "interesting" teaching like this before so I began to do research and came across your website. THANK YOU! I left the conference knowing I need to read the Scripture more and be steeped in it...not as a tool to bash people with, but as a plumbline, to hold up as I hear things that do not align with the Word of God...
I sat at this retreat and this woman preached heresy. What was worse was that she made the people who are committed to evangelical, Biblical-based beliefs feel like they were simple-minded, "old-school", and inflexible with their thinking. Whoa! I pray for the church she pastors now as well as the church that was at this retreat to have, know, and come to the TRUTH!!!
Anonymous, thank you for your comments. You are right on the mark. Although different from the "progressive" church, the emerging church (aka emerging Christianity) is another... I almost said distortion of scripture, but it is actually a total rejection of scripture and replacement with human wisdom.
"Thus says the Lord, 'Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord." - Jeremiah 17:5
Hi, I stumbled across your blog as I was searching for "Can only pastors give the communion"...or host them. I totally agree with you on this part. I'm not a Catholic. My church is now Southern Baptist, but that doesn't really matter to me, I go with whatever the word of God teaches. And the verses you proved were true! Don't let anyone put you down or scare you to hold your tongue when you have the Truth to speak out. That pastor will pay for the things he is doing when to those people. Even Paul warned Christians to take the communion seriously. He wasn't even talking to nonbelievers. We have to take this very seriously. Two months ago we had a woman at our church who has just claimed to receive Christ as her Savior, admitting to sin and Salvation. Her cousins did not allow her to take communion. Some people might have gotten mad that they told her not to take it. She really didn't know what she was doing. So she didn't take it because they said so. Then just the next week, she told them that she was no longer a Christian because it didn't fit her lifestyle and her husband's. Thank God she did not take the communion. It is part of our job to protect them too, and not cause others to stumble. That's why my old pastor will annouce before communion that "if you haven't professed Jesus as your Savior and have not been baptisted, then pass the cup and the bread to the next person." I understand why he says that. Because when people are really saved and profess the name of Jesus as their Savior, they will do it opening in water baptism to proclaim openly Jesus as Lord. Water baptism is the visual action of what your mouth proclaims. That's why Peter, when he saw that some men were speaking in tongues, did not wait, and immediately said that they should be baptised with water. Thank you for fearing the Lord. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. An His children will fear and obey Him. He knows who are His. -Pa
you people need to read the Bible & see what it says concerning the Lord's Supper. Do you just take the part's that you like & just discard the rest of His commands?
Anonymous, thank you for your comment. You are perfectly correct, reading the Bible is what needs to be done. Reading what it says, not what we, in our human "wisdom" want it to say. To a non-Christian, yes the Lord's Supper can seem like it's about hospitality. After all, when we invite someone to dinner in our homes that's what it is, hospitality. But the Lord's Supper was much more than that.
With the bread and wine Jesus taught us how to remember the sacrifice He was about to make. His body was broken and His blood given so that we could live.
"He took the bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples saying, 'This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.' After supper he took another cup of wine and said, 'This cup is the new covenant between God and his people--an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.'"
(Luke 22:19-20)
This is not about eating a meal together. It is about remembering what Christ did. To a non-believer this has no meaning. It is just eating a meal in fellowship. To a believer it is a remembrance of the incredible love of God in sacrificing His son, pouring out His wrath on His son, so that the punishment we deserve for disobeying God has been paid in full on our behalf by Jesus Christ.
The context of the verse about not discerning the Lord's body, is referring not the elements. (Or we would have to accept transubstantiation). The body of Christ is the church. They were disdaining the fellow believers not the significance of the feast. This was also the perspective of John Wesley.
Post a Comment
<< Home