by Teri Ong
A few months ago I was doing testing for a group of home-schoolers. The testing was being done in a “big box” church building. It is a great facility for school testing, with its many neatly appointed classrooms and large restrooms. While my husband was waiting for me to finish my duties, he overheard someone from the main church office contact one of the maintenance people on a walkie-talkie. The person in the office instructed the maintenance man to make sure that the “self-serve communion table” was properly set up and equipped.
That was a new one for me – “self-serve communion.” To me that is the mother of all oxymorons. The first two definitions of “communion” in the New Oxford Dictionary are 1) ”the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level,” and 2) “the service of Christian worship at which bread and wine are consecrated and shared.” Being focused on serving yourself is about as far away from communing or sharing with God and fellow-believers as you can get! Self-serve communion is less like a loving, commemorative feast with family and more like grabbing a solitary bite at Macdonald’s on the way from work to a ballgame.
What possible mental processes get us to accept and even partake of “self-serve communion?”
Perhaps the celebrant is looking at receiving the bread and wine only as a mystical personal experience, the receiving of God’s special grace through the sacrament. This is not what it meant to Jesus, however, when He conducted the first communion service with His community of disciples. He told them to continue to celebrate His death with bread and wine “in remembrance” of Him until He comes again. (Luke 22:17-20) Whenever His present-day community of disciples, otherwise known as His Church, celebrates the memorial called communion, they are being obedient to one of Christ’s final instructions given before He went back to heaven. And whenever believers submit to a command through obedience, they receive grace by virtue of their humility, but it is not grace that differs in any way from grace that is given for other forms of humble, submissive obedience. (I Peter 5:5-6)
Self-serve communion fails to demonstrate the kind of humility that is required for us to set aside our own schedule to accommodate the schedule of others. Celebrating communion in the context of a church service means that we have to submit our own personal “do list” and “calendar of events” to those of the Body of Christ.
Another possible reason one could accept self-serve communion is the thought that “communion” means only “communion with God.” The presence of other believers is not necessary for private communications with God; we should be communing privately through prayer and the Word of God daily. But “communion” in the more technical sense of receiving the elements of the bread and wine is always presented in a group context in the New Testament. (Luke 22:17ff, Acts 2:42ff, I Cor. 11:23ff) What would there be about being in the presence of fellow believers that would be crucial to proper “communion” with God?
One of the Scriptural requirements for proper communion is thoughtful examination of the condition of our soul before we partake. (I Cor. 11:27-30) The Apostle John taught that it is easy to say we love God, but it is harder to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. If, however, we are failing to love our brothers and sisters who we can see, we are fooling ourselves about the reality of our love for God who we cannot see. (1 John 4:20-21)
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
Putting the schedule of others ahead of our own is a way of showing love to them. Besides, when we are in the presence of fellow-believers, we are more likely to remember who might be offended with us or with whom we might have a grievance that needs to be cleared up so we can worship properly. (Matt. 5:23-24) Every New Testament example is in the context of togetherness with fellow believers. “Communion” and “community” are from the same root word, as are “union” and “unity.” Self-serve communion truncates “union” to “uno.”
If we are taking “self-serve communion” because we can’t fit Sunday services into our schedule, we are not submitting our schedule to God’s schedule by meeting with His people on His day. (Acts 20:7, I Cor. 16:2, Rev. 1:10) It should seem a little incongruous to be trying to commune with a God we can’t fit into our schedule.
What is the purpose of “taking communion?” The Apostle Paul said, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (I Cor. 11:26) The purpose is to “proclaim the Lord’s death.” What is the essence of the Lord’s death? He Himself told us, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Luke 4:8)
There was nothing “self-serving” in Jesus’ life or death. Everything was focused on doing the Father’s will in order to redeem fallen humanity. That purpose cost Him everything. How can we “proclaim the Lord’s death” if we are not willing to give up some personal something to put a church communion service into our schedule?
When and if we do a thorough soul examination, we need to check for anything that smacks of self-serve religion. We cannot serve two gods, and we are only to serve the One. “Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'” (Luke 4:8) If we worship Self, rather than the Lord, we could end up eating and drinking in an unworthy manner.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. (I Cor. 11:27-30 NASU)
The antidote to “unworthiness” is “worthiness.”
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph. 4:1-6 NASU)
The antidote to “self-serving” is “self-offering.” Harry Blamires wrote:
“In our communions God claims and sanctifies our offered humanity, but, after we have turned our back on His altar and returned to the world of daily affairs, nothing is easier than virtually annulling our offering and denying the continuing validity of God’s claim. Nothing is easier and nothing more natural by virtue of the very quality of our world itself, for it is not an offering world– and that is what distinguishes it from the Church. The Church is a sphere of offering– of giving and not keeping; the world is a sphere of getting and having.
It is therefore necessary to turn from this world, to focus the mind and heart and will upon God who alone can change getting and having into giving and not keeping…” (The Offering of Man, p. 87)
