Theology for the Masses

We took communion today at church. That I’ve noted it tells you how rare an occasion this actually is. For being a democratic people who put emphasis on the priesthood of every believer, we Baptists are really pretty hierarchical about who can lead the serving of the communion. As we’ve been without a pastor for a number of months now, we’ve avoided the Lord’s Supper, I think, because there hasn’t been an “official” present to direct it.

Either way, I couldn’t help but think today that the early church deemed the event life-giving and vital to their existence. Yet in my tradition we really can do with or without it. I seriously don’t think most Baptist churches would even notice if failed to take the Lord’s Supper for a full year. Why did the early church find this event so vital? What is so essential about it? – Those are genuine questions, not merely rhetorical ones.

Sometimes it is disadvantageous being Baptist. The Lord’s Supper is not a “means of grace;” it is merely an ordinance that symbolizes the death of Christ. But there are many things that symbolize Christ’s death – what makes this one so special? Surely it is, but I don’t know that my tradition has reflected enough on it to have a good answer to that question.

Furthermore, as we went though the ceremony, I wondered what my mind is supposed to dwell on while taking the elements. As I crush the bread between my teeth, am I to be thinking of the breaking body of Christ? Is it that literal? Should I be confessing sin? What does it mean to take the Supper “unworthily?”

Or what about the unity that should be symbolized at the Lord’s Supper? In Baptist churches we have individual wafers and individual cups, each symbolizing our individual spirituality. But, to me, there’s something vital to everyone taking from the same piece of bread and drinking from the same cup. We are the body of Christ partaking in the body of Christ. We destroy congregational solidarity when we individualize the communion (not to mention, we’ve just created a contradiction in terms.

But the rampant individualism doesn’t stop there. Indeed, our emphasis is on making sure that we each individually are “right before God” before we take up the cup and bread. But never have I been in a service where we talked about communal repentance before the Lord’s Supper. Our privatized prayers and individualized religion perpetuate lifelessness. The communion seems to be an opportunity to break free from this. Yet we’ve colonized this as well.

As a movement, we Baptists are probably too prideful and stubborn to ask for help. Nevertheless, I ask you for help: what should I be thinking about as I take the Lord’s Supper? Is Christ really present in the elements in some way? Does the Spirit dynamically meet with the people during the Supper? How do we conquer the individualism of this communal ceremony? I feel there is vitality there yet untapped, but to be honest, I don’t even know where to begin.