Full Text for Pastoral Theology and Practice- Volume 27 - Administering Closed Communion Lovingly (Video)

ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN PASTORAL THEOLOGY & PRACTICE LPTP-27 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 www.captionfirst.com *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> NICK: I find that most visitors to our services come from churches that practice open communion. Is it really that important that we commune only Lutherans at our altar? And by this, do we mean only Missouri synod Lutherans? How do we handle this as pastors? What about when we see someone at the communion rail whom we've never met? What about family members of communicant members who approach the table without having first spoken with either an elder or a pastor at the church? I suppose I'm concerned that I know how to carry out proper administration of our Lord's Supper while at the same time communicating our doctrine in an understandable and loving manner. >> PROF. SENKBEIL: You know, Nick, I'm really happy that you phrased the question exactly as you did, that is, about proper administration and doing so in a loving manner. Because that exactly is what a pastor is called to do. In fact, St.�Paul writes to the church in Corinth regarding the office of the ministry, "This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." That's in the fourth chapter of the first letter, verse 1. Servants of Christ. Stewards of the mysteries of God. In other words, the work that pastors do in their congregations is really to serve the Lord Jesus Christ who loved his church and laid His life down for Her. He is interested as Her heavenly husband in giving gifts to Her, and He wants them to be given just as He has planned. And it's important then that pastors not interject themselves in between that process, that they are intervening and somehow maybe giving the impression that it's all their own decision or it's something that they decided to do for people. One of the early church fathers said, "Remember, that the church already has a husband. It's not right to court the bride." The pastor, rather, is the "best man" for this heavenly husband. He serves the Lord Christ. So we take our orders, if you will, from the Lord Jesus. And we are to regard ourselves as stewards of God's mysteries. That is, as caretakers, those who carefully administer the gifts which he has for His church. And, of course, the Lord's Supper, the sacrament of the altar, is chief among those mysteries, where the Lord Jesus feeds us with His body and blood under earthly bread and wine. So to whom we administer that is an important matter. Now, the question you raised relates to who is admitted to the Lord's table in our circles. And while it's true that indeed there is only one holy Christian church yet that church is invisible to human eyes, we can only go you and I by what we hear confessed regarding the faith. So the church's external fellowship or visible fellowship is organized not around faith in the heart but rather upon the confession of the mouth. So then we find that this practice is important, the practice of communing only those who have a common confession of that faith. So here we ask a very good Lutheran question: Where is this written? Where do we find this practice of closed communion expressed in holy scripture. We have to look, first of all, at what's happening in the Lord's Supper. And we'd find that in the 10th chapter of I Corinthians in verse 17 where we read�-- verse 16, "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body for we all partake of one bread." In other words, Nick, there is a unity that is publicly confessed among those who partake of the same altar from that same altar. Because they share in this one bread, which is the body of Christ, they are expressing their unity and union in a common confession. Now, obviously, it would not be right for someone who disagrees rather in fundamental articles of the Christian faith with another Christian to participate in the same communion. For example, a Roman Catholic who comes to our altar, in their church they profess that the sacrament is an unbloody sacrifice, as they call it, for the sins of the living and the dead. In other words, Jesus in the sacrament is being offered again as a sacrifice to God for the guilt of people, of sinners. The sacrament, on the other hand, according to Jesus' words of institution is given precisely for this reason: For the forgiveness of sins. His body was offered once, together with his blood upon the cross. But it's here distributed as a pledge and a certainty of the forgiveness of sins. So that's a fundamental difference regarding the sacrament itself. Again, distinguishing between Roman Catholic and Lutheran doctrine, the Roman Catholic church officially teaches that the atoning work of Jesus is not sufficient for salvation but that the works of Christians, the loving service of Christians, becomes also a factor in their salvation. That's, of course, clearly anti-scriptural. And so it would not be possible for those who confess decidedly conflicting understandings of the very nature of salvation itself, the chief article regarding justification, to commune from the same altar. What about our Protestant friends? There, I think, in California you have a lot of people who come from nonsacramental churches who may be visiting your church. Their understanding of the Lord's Supper is that it's an ordinance, that is, a command which is given to the church in order to remember Jesus by. And while indeed the sacrament is a sacrament of remembrance, it is a remembrance in which we actually are fed with the very body and blood which was once given and shed for our salvation. It is a real participation, as the apostle writes in the text I just read, in the very body of Christ that was given on the cross in His blood which was said shed for the forgiveness of the whole world. And so, therefore, it's a far different understanding in terms of our understanding of the Lord's Supper and theirs. And I'm sure they would not want to endorse our public teaching regarding the Lord's Supper. So it's a matter of common courtesy. We would not expect them to publicly affirm our doctrine. Now, of course, this escapes a lot of people, particularly in our time when they think of the sacrament primarily as a question of hospitality. You know, if I'd come to your house or you'd come to mine, we would be normally offering each other something to eat or to drink. It's a matter of common courtesy. And so people are, in our age of tolerance, a bit put off when the practice of closed communion is stressed. They think it's an act of intolerance. They think that church is being inhospitable. Well, as Dr.�Warneck has already pointed out, in actuality, it's for the very sake of inclusion that we insist on a common confession of the faith. In other words, after proper instruction and as a person has publicly stated their confession of the faith which our church teaches, then they're received into communicant membership, that is, into full participation in the sacrament of the altar so that they, together with us, might give a united confession of this common faith. It's an act of real Christian compassion, in other words. But really it's more than that. It's a question also of being concerned for people's spiritual welfare. In point of fact it really isn't healthy for people to receive communion if they don't understand what it is. For that point let me refer you to the 11th chapter of I Corinthians where we read about an aberration, really, that developed in the congregation of the Corinthians regarding the Lord's Supper. And that's in I Corinthians 11 where we read verses 27 and following. "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then and so eat the of bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some of you have died." In other words, in the Corinthian congregation, the practice there was of having a fellowship meal before the Lord's Supper. And, when they got to the Lord's Supper itself, they were no longer able to distinguish between common or ordinary bread and wine and the bread and wine which had been consecrated by the Lord's words which were also the body and blood of Jesus. They were not discerning the body, if you will. And, therefore, they did not properly examine themselves regarding the sacrament. They had defiled or profaned that holy thing. And there were consequences for them. There was physical illness implied as a result of their abusing of the Lord's Supper. Now, to use an analogy, I think, Nick, you were involved in teaching science in high school. And you understand that there are certain procedures regarding some of the experiments that might happen in a classroom. That it might not be healthy for all of the students to be utilizing all of those chemical elements without proper instruction. It's dangerous, in fact, for people to engage in those practices if they don't know what they're doing. So also now, as I said, we are stewards of the mysteries of God, pastors who are called to serve congregations. It's important that we understand that these most holy things, namely, the body and blood of Jesus for our salvation would be given proper respect, that they would be handled correctly, in other words, received properly as they're given, and that people would be prepared to receive it as the Lord has instituted it. So, therefore, the question you originally asked�-- Is it really proper that we commune only Lutherans at our altar?�-- well, the answer "yes" and "no." It's not merely the name "Lutheran" that is important. It's rather that confession of a common Christian faith, which is believed and taught and confessed in our midst. This is the focus regarding our practice of closed communion. It's not a matter of which particular church you belong to but rather the faith which you confess. We walk together as Christians in the Lutheran church Missouri synod confessing a common body of doctrine. This is our unity. It's expressed outwardly in our communion practices. I hope that helps you understand this important practice. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***