The Duty of Constant Communion

Some months ago, hearing that the Baker family was church shopping, some members of the evangelism committee of a nearby United Methodist congregation approached to invite us to worship. After some conversation about a sermon series by the pastor, graded programs for my children, and various fellowship opportunities for all, I asked a question that seemed to confuse the committee members.

“How many of your weekly services are truly “Methodist?”

“Why all of them, of course,” came the answer, “We have a very engaging preacher and all kinds of music. ...you even have the choice of traditional worship or a casual worship.”

The thought of approaching worship casually made my stomach churn, but I let that pass. I was after something else in the conversation.

“Let me put it this way... ‘How many of your weekly services honor the Biblical balance of Word and Sacrament as prescribed by (Methodist founder) John Wesley himself?”

The now flustered layperson responded, “Are you asking how often we have communion in our services?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Well,” he said with growing confidence, “we have communion the first Sunday of every month, unless of course, a big Sunday falls on the first Sunday of the month. In that case we have to skip it so that the service does not get too busy.”

“What, please tell me, is a ‘big’ Sunday?”

“Easter Sunday, Palm Sunday, Boy Scout recognition, Stewardship, or any other Sunday that our pastor needs extra preaching time, or any Sunday where we need to insure that nothing interferes with an important recognition.”

Sometimes we in the Church need to listen carefully to what we are saying and to what we are hearing. At least by the testimony of one dedicated and well-informed lay person, the pastor of this growing suburban congregation clearly counted his weekly homiletic commentaries and the various marketing gimmicks carried forth in the worship services of his congregation as more important than the promise he made at his ordination to “...faithfully preach God’s Holy Word, and faithfully administer the sacraments.”

Consider the especially damning statement that suggested communion be dispensed with on “big Sundays” (read “high expected attendance Sundays”). To my mind that reeks of a desire to entertain rather than to minister. Should the body and blood of Christ only be offered by the Church when the crowd is small and the process won’t take too long. Or should the Cup of Salvation only be poured when there is not a more entertaining option for the worship hour. Or, worst of all, should the Biblical mandate of our Savior be pushed aside whenever it might impact “preaching time?”

In 1732 John Wesley himself cautioned against such thinking in his sermon “The Duty of Constant Communion.” Aside from the spiritual merits of Holy Communion, Wesley proclaimed in a most powerful way that to fail to celebrate the Sacrament in the worshiping assembly was a gross violation of “the plain command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

[Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I will confess to a degree of cynicism with the whole business of preaching. As a life-long weekly churchgoer, and as a professional in the Church for over 30 years where I would often participate in 2-3 weekly services, I would now be perfectly content to never hear another sermon as long as I live. I have endured countless canned sermon stories, and I could readily reveal several of the Internet sites where many ministers find them. I have heard literally hundreds of political speeches masquerading as sermons. Sometimes the politics revolve around national issues. At other times the politics are internal within the congregation. Whatever the focus of the pulpit politics, it is downright obscene that such would come between the power of the Eucharist and the worshiper who has responded to the call of the Holy Spirit to attend worship and approach the altar of grace.]

In the first decade of the 21st century, we can see that a toxic entertainment culture has infected the worship of many churches to an extent that such foolishness seems normal. Many pastors are, at best, vulnerable to this culture or, at worst, culpable to it. In some cases, ego issues and hopes for celebrity make it very difficult for many ministers to see these issues with clear focus and balance.

It is up to the laity in many congregations to stand strong against the tide.

Through councils, committees and boards, laity must insist that the Eucharist is present in every worship service and at all times. If this means that preaching time must be reduced from 25-30 minutes to 10-15 minutes, all the better! Most of the best sermons I have heard in my life were under 15 minutes.

When shopping for a church home, it is important that prospects make the Biblical balance of Word and Sacrament a condition for considering placing membership in a particular congregation. If evangelism committees and church staff members see that sermon-oriented liturgies are costing the congregation new members, changes will be made.

Most of all, it is imperative that lay members hold pastors to a high level of spiritual and leadership accountability. The yoke of ministry is a trust, it is not an entitlement. Pastors should be held to the highest standards of scholarship and study by a dedicated and informed laity. It is not out of line for members of the congregation to say boldly, “We have called a pastor, a minister of Word and Sacrament, not an ‘entertainer in chief.’”

“The Church is of God and shall be preserved to the end of time...” is a truth that is enshrined in the liturgies for Holy Baptism and for affirmation of membership in a congregation. We do not have to fear the survival of the Church, for such is a promise of God.

God, however, calls us as the Church to be a faithful witness to truth. He calls us to proclaim His Word boldly and without apology. He also calls us to break the bread of life in remembrance of His death, in proclamation of His resurrection, and in the expectation of His coming again.

To serve this calling is the sacred trust placed in us by Jesus Christ as the Head of the Church. To refract it through our desires to substitute pulpit entertainment for holy mysteries constitutes no less than a vulgar violation of that trust.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Bill