A Pastoral Letter
on Living Without The Holy Communion in a Time of Pandemic
Monday in Holy Week
2020
To
the members and friends of St Stephen Lutheran Church:
Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ,
Maybe
you are missing Holy Communion. I know I do. I have not gone so long without
receiving the Sacrament of the Lord’s body and blood for many years. It is also
painful for me, as your pastor, not to be able to preside at the altar. It is
my joy to administer the blessed Sacrament in your midst.
Some
might ask, couldn’t we ‘commune virtually?’ For example, couldn’t I, as the
pastor, eat bread and drink wine in my home during one of our livestreams, and everyone
else could eat bread and drink wine (or crackers and grape juice, cookies and
coffee, or whatever is on hand) at the same time in their own homes? This seems
like it might be a creative response to this unique situation in which we
cannot gather physically because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many pastors and
congregations are trying variants on the above, with more or less faithfulness
in using only bread and wine. Perhaps your friends or family members are
already participating in such services.
But,
while I am very grateful that the Internet allows us to share the Word and
prayer while we are physically separated, there is good reason to think that
the Holy Communion is only celebrated when Christians are gathered together in
one place, with an ordained minister present and presiding at the liturgy,
using one bread and one cup by the Lord’s command.
The
Apostle Paul writes: ‘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’ (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
The
worship of the early Church followed the pattern that the Lord set. On Sunday,
the day of the Resurrection, the disciples of Jesus in a particular town
gathered in one place (usually the home of a disciple) to hear Scripture and preaching
and to eat the Lord’s Supper together; participating in the eating of one bread
and drinking from one cup, to make tangible the spiritual unity they shared
both with Christ and with each other.
As
the Church grew and offices such as bishop and presbyter (elder, later called a
priest) became commonplace, it was important that the members of the Church be
admonished to only receive the ‘Bishop’s Eucharist.’ The Church based on the
teaching of the twelve apostles was in competition at the time with various
Gnostic sects and mystery cults, some of which observed sacred meals. It was
important to be clear that not any sacred meal was the Lord’s Supper, but only
that meal celebrated in community with the bishop of a local church.
As
Christianity became a more popular religion and finally the dominant religion
of the Roman Empire, more and more non-Christians would attend Christian
worship, but they were asked to depart before the celebration of Communion.
Only baptized Christians were even allowed to be in the church building for the
celebration of the mystery of Christ’s sacrificial death for his people.
So
we see that these things are necessary for any celebration of the meal the Lord
gave us:
·
The
gathering of baptized Christians; and
·
The
leadership of the bishop or a presbyter (priest, or pastor) under his authority;
and
·
The
reading of Scripture and the preaching of the Gospel; and
·
The
sharing of one bread and one cup among the baptized (the disciples), using the
words Jesus gave us.
It
is this entire act of worship, and not just the eating of bread and
drinking of wine, that we call ‘The Holy Communion.’ It’s not only the Words of
Institution over bread and wine (Take and eat, take and drink, etc.) that
‘make’ Holy Communion. But when Christians gather, a minister presides, the
Word is preached and the congregation receives Christ’s body and blood according
to his command and with his promise to be present – that is Holy Communion.[1]
In the Lutheran Book of Worship, it’s the whole service, not just the
part where we eat and drink, that is called ‘Holy Communion.’
In
gathering we are publicly identifying ourselves with Christ and we are
receiving each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, taking up each other’s
space and giving up space to the other, a receiving of the other’s whole person
as a fellow member of the body of Christ, that is made concrete in the sharing
of the Peace. Can tuning into the same livestream really be ‘togetherness’ in
this full sense? Don’t we understand this intuitively? We are grateful for a text
from, a phone call or a video chat with a loved one, but we most dearly wish to
be in their physical presence. I certainly love doing the virtual worship, but
I really want to be together with you in church.
The
ordained minister is both the representative of the whole Church in the midst
of the local congregation and is the person responsible for presiding at the altar.
Not only is the minister to ‘say the right words,’ but must ensure that the
Lord’s Supper is being administered correctly and received in a worthy manner;
that the Lord’s body and blood is treated with reverence and respect, and
insofar as possible to ensure that it is the baptized alone who receive Holy
Communion. None of these responsibilities of the ordained minister can be
accomplished except in physical community.
If
we cannot receive Jesus’ body and blood, are we then without the consolation of
our Lord, who gave himself for us? By no means! God gave us both Word and
Sacrament as means of grace by which we receive Christ. In this time, we focus
on the Word, especially the comforting passages by which Christ assures us of
his presence with us: ‘I am with you always’ (Matthew 28); ‘Abide in me, and I
in you’ (John 15); ‘What can separate us from the love of Christ?’ (Romans 8);
‘It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.’ (Galatians 2). These words
and others like them are sure consolation in a time of physical distancing from
others and from the Holy Communion.
This
Word is heard in reading and hearing Scripture, in psalms, hymns and spiritual
songs, in preaching and teaching, in prayer, in confession of the Creed, in
confession and forgiveness, and in Christian conversation (from six feet apart,
of course, but also over the phone, on a livestream, in an email or a letter or
in a group chat or videoconference.) We also have those words which we have
memorized from our parents since childhood, and the promise of our baptism in
which we were made children of God and inheritors of new life.
We
can use this time without the Holy Communion to reflect upon how much we need
it and treasure it. We can repent of the times we took our Lord’s gift for
granted. We can be grateful for the religious freedom of our nation in which,
in normal times, we may gather publicly to worship our Lord. This can be a time
when we become conscious of Christians, who for whatever reason, must live
without gathering, without hearing the Word, without sharing in the Lord’s
Supper, but still retain their faith in Christ. We share, for the moment, their
isolation, and we claim the same faith as they.
We
are never without our Lord Jesus – and never more do we rely on that promise
than in this Holy Week, when we must live without his most precious means of
grace in Holy Communion. He understands, indeed he shares, our eager longing
for the day we can once more respond to his salutary command: ‘Take; eat,
drink; do this for the remembrance of me.’
In
Christ’s love,
Pastor
Frontz
[1] In the Lutheran
Confessions, to which our congregation subscribes and to which all Lutheran
churches adhere in some form, we read: ‘…the recitation of the words of
Christ’s institution alone does not make a Sacrament if the entire action of
the Supper, as it was instituted by Christ, is not kept…Christ’s command ‘This
do’ must be observed unseparated and inviolate. (This embraces the entire
action or administration in this Sacrament. In an assembly of Christians bread
and wine are taken, consecrated, distributed, received, eaten, drunk, and the
Lord’s death is shown forth at the same time…)’ (Formula of Concord, Solid
Declaration VII.83-84).
