Southwood Presbyterian Church

Should the Gospel be SO confusing at communion?

Monday, February 21, 2011

Posted question:
Should the Gospel be confusing?   When we come to the (Lord’s) table should we not know what we are doing? The Gospel is a mystery that was hidden for ages, but now revealed – it is Christ in us the hope of glory (Col 1:27).  

You are a gifted communicator and can make the complex comprehendible. There are some in our flock confused.  Help them understand that the kind of people whose every thought was on evil all the time are the kind of people for whom Christ died.  He makes them new.  He sets them free.  He is their Advocate.  They are to turn and flee from evil. They are to be imitators of God.

Answer: Should the Gospel be confusing? Hmmm. I think ‘yes’ and ‘no.’

First the “No.” No, It shouldn’t be confusing if by confusing you mean ‘more confusing.’ If you are saying, “When Jean explained communion I was MORE confused about Christianity than when he started because he just rambled and verbally walked us into a fog.” Then NO it shouldn’t be that way. The Gospel IS confusing, but I shouldn’t make it MORE confusing. The old saying goes like this, ‘a mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew.’ If I am being ‘misty’ then there’s a reason it feels ‘foggy’. If that is the case I need to know it. I hope it isn’t.

Secondly, the “Yes”. Yes, it SHOULD BE more confusing in the sense that this mystery called the Gospel is perplexing and it’s nuances will push us to places of emotional discomfort and tension constantly. In that sense the Gospel is ‘troubling’, ‘perplexing’, ‘confusing’ and even ‘frustrating’. One has to personally discern whether the information being presented is ‘more confusing’ or whether they are simply ‘confused.’ That’s not a subtle jab, it’s an honest answer.

With regard to communion it is easy to be ‘confused,’ (Side note: there is a general corporate tension at Southwood which adds to this. The idea of progressive sanctification where we get ‘better and better’ the longer we are Christians is one which deeply affects this issue as well. That topic is the subject of a book and other blog entries, not a little pastoral note here!)

So back to communion. First, what is a ‘sacrament’? It is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible reality. A sacrament is a picture of something else. In the Presbyterian Church we have two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both are pictures of the Gospel. Baptism pictures the cleansing or washing clean of a sinner by the blood of Christ using water. The Lord’s Supper pictures the reality that we, personally, are feeding on Christ by faith. By my actions ‘externally’ in taking communion I am saying to the world that I believe ‘internally’ in Christ’s work done for me, a sinner.  Here is where the ‘rub’ comes in: as Christians we believe that there must be continuity between our ‘internal’ profession of faith and our ‘external’ expressions of faith. This is key to understanding why pre-communion instructions (also called ‘fencing the table’) can be ‘confusing.’

Consider the following: let’s say person ‘A’ is sitting in the pew and they have been having a secret, undisclosed, adulterous affair. There is sinful enjoyment and longing for this to continue, but no one knows. When the Lord’s table is set before them there should be a dilemma in their heart. The dilemma is this: I am about to ‘say to the world’ by taking communion that I hate my sin and have turned from it to Christ, but I have been ‘saying with my life’ that I love my sin and I regularly turn from Christ to it. There is profound difference between the guilt and fear that make someone ‘cautious’ and ‘careful’ to not be caught and the conviction which would drive this person to repentance. To this person I would say, “Because of your great sin you should NOT take communion. It would be a lie. Your true life, even if it’s secret, says that ‘sin is where life is found’ and this table says that ‘Christ is where life is found.’ By taking the bread and wine you are ‘declaring’ that you believe sin is death and Christ has given you life. That is a lie. You don’t ‘believe that’ with the way you are living. As Christians we are people who can, for the first time in our lives, actually love what God loves and hate what He hates. You are not doing that. Do not add further hypocrisy to your personal self-deceit. Do not take communion. It would be a lie.”

In the pew across from them is person ‘B’ who is struggling with an eating disorder, and a couple of people know it, close friends and those from who they have sought counsel. Person ‘B’ realizes the sin, the control issues, perfectionism and the sin-patterns beneath the sin. They have confessed, repented, fallen and confessed again. Now it’s communion Sunday and this very morning there was an ‘episode’ of purging before church. As the table is set and the sermon is preached person ‘B’ is now actually feeling sick, sick about sin and sick about what a hypocrite they have been. Someone asked them in the hall how they were doing with ‘it’ and they lied. They said, ‘fine…’ The self persecution then flooded their mind, “I’m such a hypocrite, a liar and a mess… I still think I’m fat…” Persecution comes from the inside and from the whispers of the Evil One, mixed in there is even actual conviction of sin, after all the Holy Spirit is at work here too!

Their dilemma is this: I am ‘saying with my lips’ that I hate my sin and love Christ, but I find myself regularly ‘saying with my life’ that I love ‘thinness’ and control more. The internal tension is this, “I hate my sin. I want it gone. Oh, Jesus please help me!” (Now pay attention here: the last place that this person believes they deserve to be is at the Lord’s table- the guilt, shame and sin accuse and condemn concurrently. So rather than seeing that their sin has actually been driving them TO THE CROSS, it now betrays and drives FROM THE CROSS. They see their sin and regular trips to Calvary as marks of failure rather than movements of health. They see regular encounters with Jesus as ‘proof’ that they don’t ‘get it’ rather than regular encounters with Jesus as the thing they were ‘supposed to get’!!!

To this person I would say, ““Because of your great sin you SHOULD TAKE communion. If you didn’t It would be a lie. Your life of failure and repentance doesn’t say that ‘sin is where life is found’ and it says ‘sin is what is killing me’ and this table affirms that. Taking communion says, ‘Jesus gives me life, not thinness.’ To ‘not take’ communion now would be to further look WITHIN for the strength and power to overcome your sin and actually avoid Jesus. Taking communion is an ‘external’ declaration of your ‘internal’ cry—- “I CAN’T DO THIS MYSELF!!!” By taking the bread and wine you are ‘declaring’ that you believe sin is death and Christ has given you life. You believe that. It IS the way you live. As Christians we are people who can, for the first time in our lives, actually love what God loves and hate what He hates. The hypocrisy you are avoiding is profound. In every other ‘bite of food’ you fear being defined by it, but at this table you are finally free to actually allow THIS MEAL to define you! You are His bride and the dress size doesn’t matter!”

I long for us to see the beauty in the contrast of these two scenarios. This is how I can say in the same breath, “Because of your great sin some of you SHOULD NOT take communion and because of your great sin some of you SHOULD take communion.” I do acknowledge that it sounds like double-speak, but I hope that the ‘confusion’ is now one of a ‘furled brow’ at the mystery of the Gospel and not the mis-clarity of your Senior Pastor.