Open Communion?

John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” 

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not he communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” 1 Corinthians 10:16 

When we come to the Lord’s Table, we do so in expectation of that participation. Failure to come to the table in this knowledge comes with the potential for harm. In Paul’s first letter to Corinth, he exhorts the brethren of that community to examine themselves when they are coming to the table. “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep”, 1 Cor. 11:29, 30. When we approach the Lord’s Table and fail to recognize what it is that we are approaching, we risk this very same thing of approach in an unworthy manner. So, in order to discuss an “Open Communion”, first requires a discussion on what that communion is all about.

Jesus says in John chapter 6 that unless his disciples eat of his flesh and drink his blood they do not have life within them. Many of those that were following him left after this statement due to how difficult it was for them to apprehend. The apostles remained and so did others as they recognized that Jesus had life in the words he was giving them. When he sat at the table for the Passover, he instituted the sacrament of his Body and Blood. Now this sacrament is the very real presence of Christ given to his church. Each of the members of the early church were called to that table and asked to give them over to a commitment in order to be present. All those who had been hangers on had left. Many who had been healed on not recalled again. So, those that remained and are named demonstrate a level of commitment. Who followed Jesus to the cross? John is the only one of the 12 that did. Peter denied him, Judas betrayed him and took his own life, and the other 9 scattered. Jesus calls them back together, except Judas, following the resurrection and shares the Breaking of the Bread at the climax of the trip to Emmaus. 

Communion is understood to be the ongoing participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is the means by which we “eat of” his flesh and “drink of” his blood as he speaks of in John 6. He commanded the disciples on the night before he was handed over to suffering and death to continue this eating and drinking in perpetual memory of what was to come. He linked it to the Hebrew celebration of Passover in that now Death would pass over all who are partakers. The taking of communion signifies and reminds the taker of their incorporation into Christ’s body, His sacrifice on the cross, His ascension into heaven, the promise of His coming again and grace that it bestowed upon those who believe. Communion is not a fellowship meal. It is a sacrament. For us in the Episcopal Church, a sacrament has an effect in that it conveys with it God’s grace. This grace is given to all who have committed themselves to Christ. This is not exclusionary. Jesus says that many are called, but few are chosen (that is make the commitment). Yet, it requires the participation of the person receiving the sacrament in that they must make themselves available to the grace being offered. How does one make their self available to the grace? They do so through the Sacrament of Baptism.

Following the resurrection and appearances to his disciples, Jesus ascends, Holy Spirit descends and the church is born as recorded in Acts Chapter 2. After hearing the sermon of Peter regarding Jesus and the resurrection and ascension, the crowd is “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37).  They ask what they are to do. Peter’s response is “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) There is no invitation to the Lord’s Supper until there is the baptism. Only after this does it recall that the fellowship grew and there was continued participation in the “breaking of the bread, and the prayers”. Therefore, scripturally, it is not accurate to say that people were called to the table without baptism. 

Again, further evidence of this is located later in the Acts of the Apostles when Philip encounters the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip expounds upon the passage that the eunuch is reading and explains to him about Jesus. The eunuch identifies a body of water and asks what would prevent him from receiving this baptism. Philip then baptizes him. The eunuch is not led to the table first. He is led to a relationship with Jesus and then given the opportunity to be baptized into the Name of Jesus, in other words be incorporated into the Body of Christ.

What is baptism then? It is the “Sacramental rite which admits a candidate to the Christian Church.” (Orthodox Dictionary of the Christian Church) This admission to the church can also be defined as incorporation into the Body of Christ as one draws on the 1 letter to the Corinthians Chapter 12. Paul reminds the church at Corinth that they are a body with Christ as the head. That “by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…”(1Cor 12:13) This incorporation is then what leads to “…and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” (1Cor 12:13) This drinking into the one spirit is oft times seen as representative of the Eucharist in that we are all partakers of the Body and Blood through communion. So, scripturally, the entrance to The Table (Communion) comes through a person’s commitment to be incorporated into the Body of Christ (the Church) as expressed through Baptism (the commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior having the outward sign of being washed through water as it points to the inward sign of the washing and indwelling of the Holy Spirit). Baptism becomes the fulfillment of the above quote from Jesus in the 14^th chapter of John, it is the way in which we come to Him and thus come to the Father.

What of the early church? In the Didache (ca A.D 140) the initial instructions are given for baptism in regards to water and using the Trinitarian formula of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then they address the practice of fasting and then follows instructions regarding the Eucharist. It provides a basic formula for giving thanks and concludes with “Let no one eat or drink of the Eucharist with you except those who have been baptized in the name of the Lord; for it was in reference to this that the Lord said ‘Do not give that which is holy to dogs’.” These instructions were accepted and enforced throughout the early church. Origin himself “further stresses that the person being baptized must seek practical understanding of what baptism signifies. Baptism is renunciation, conversion, penance. It completes sacramentally the ascetical death of the catechumen; but ‘if anyone comes to the washing of water (continuing) in sin, then his sins are not remitted’ (21^st homily on Luke).” (as quoted from Concise Sacramentum Mundi). Additionally, the various church Councils were held to discuss and validate such things so that each of the early fathers does not question the validity or the necessity of baptism. We can learn much by what is not said as we can by what is said (in a sense via negative). In that Eucharist is not provided to, in truth forbidden from, any who are not baptized, we can only conclude that even for the early fathers and later in the church history, Baptism is the essential rite by which we are incorporated into the faith. Without baptism, we are not given nor should we be given access to the other sacraments. How did Jesus begin his own ministry? He began it first by himself receiving baptism in both water and Spirit. 

In regards to our own Anglican roots, we can turn to the Articles of Religion adopted by the Episcopal Church in 1801. Located in the back of our Book of Common Prayer, Article XXVII Of Baptism states that “they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church; ..” The Eucharist, as stated in the Catechism on page 859 in the BCP, is “…the Church’s sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, is the way by which the sacrifice of Christ is made present, and in which he unites us to his one offering of himself.” Note that the Eucharist is named as the church’s sacrifice. Who is the church? It is the body of Christ. Who makes up the Body of Christ? Those who have been “rightly grafted into…” So, in accordance with Scripture, early church teaching and the early fathers as well to this day, Baptism is the prerequisite Sacrament for the other Sacraments.

Arguments could be made to say that “exclusion by having high expectations” may be distancing us from being able to reach out to others and draw them into a relationship with Jesus Christ. However, does not the above point towards the very fact that to be in relationship with Jesus Christ, which is the mission of the church, begins at acceptance of Him as Lord and Savior? When we come to a point as to desire membership over relationship, we miss the heart of what Jesus says in John 13. To come to the Father, we must go through Jesus. To go through Jesus means to have a relationship with Him. The Great Commission as outlined in the Gospel of Matthew is for us to “go into the world and make disciples of all men baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all I (Jesus) have commanded you.” To become a disciple of someone is to dedicate you to them. Access to the Lord’s Supper without baptism or Open Communion, circumvents this relationship and thus unequally yokes the Eucharist itself to the world. How does this present a gospel of hope to a fallen world? I would argue that it does not. What such does, instead, is presents a fallen world as the gospel by the fact that the Church conforms to the world. 

St Patrick, in his conversion of Ireland, would set up communities alongside existing communities. He and those with him would work the fields, take care of wood and the livestock, share meals and live right with those whom they were seeking to share the gospel with. At those times when the local “non-Christian” customs would be exercised, the missionaries would leave the vicinity to engage in their own celebration (as in “the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of the bread and the prayers”). They presented the Lord to the world inclusive of the difference in their lives that the Lord makes. Those communities would thus be drawn to explore the relationship that the missionaries had with Jesus and how it had affected their lives. This was the way that Ireland was won for Christ, not by syncretism (incorporating pagan belief and ritual into the Christian faith) or an open communion in which assimilation into the life of the church is effortless but instead by the Church being present to the world but “not of the world” as Jesus had prayed for us in John 17. The differences between the faithful were not only present but exploited. This is the good news. We are no longer the same persons we once were but instead, “if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2Cor 5:17). Through baptism, the old had passed away and thus the Irish were made new in Christ.

The mission of the Church as given to us by Christ is not membership. Membership does not bring salvation. Relationship with Jesus Christ brings salvation. Relationships require commitment. Baptism is the outward sign of a personal commitment to Jesus Christ as a person’s Lord and Savior. It is through baptism that we are incorporated into the Body of Christ and made heirs to the Kingdom. As such, it is through Baptism that we are then called to the Table of the Lord, or Communion. The Church must present itself to the world, work alongside the world and be open to communicating with the world in order for the world to be able to receive the gospel. It is not, however, the Church’s mission to become the world. As Israel experienced throughout the Old Testament, and to an extent to this day continues to experience, each time they became more and more like their neighbors, they moved further and further away from the relationship with the LORD. He would, in His faithfulness, send the Judges time and time again. For a generation, they would return back to the covenant. Yet, there came a time when they found it easier to not keep in the way of the LORD, would become more like their neighbors again and would require another Judge to lead them.

I would further add two personal observations made during ministry and mission. The first is that I had the privilege of supporting a person who was of another religion in coming to Christ. They were raised in a faith that believed in baptism only using the name of Jesus and did not practice Eucharist as a sacrament but viewed it more as a memorial. When asked about coming to the table to receive communion I was able to offer them our view of baptism as a prerequisite for communion. I offered for them to ask questions and then provided them with our (meaning the church’s) history of the sacrament and its application with regard to receiving communion. After careful consideration of the information and much prayer, they came and asked to be baptized in the Name of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They admitted that they looked forward expectantly toward communion as a result of the educational process that they had been through. They were thankful for the depth to which we view the sacraments and what they, due to God’s grace, convey. They were willing to make that commitment to Christ and did so and were fully received into the Body of Christ.

A second observation comes out of the mission field. In two travels to Nigeria I have observed their presentation of the Gospel and their handling of the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. Even with the level of persecution that they regularly undergo, the Anglican Church is growing in Nigeria and other parts of Africa at an astounding rate. There is no open communion. They present the Gospel and offer people an opportunity to be baptized and to receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. Many have thus been received into the Body of Christ even in the face of possible persecutions.