Article xxviii
“The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another; but rather is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death: insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ. Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped.”
1 Corinthians 10:14-17
Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
Luke 22:14-20
When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfilment in the kingdom of God.” After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
When we receive the Bread and the Wine, we receive Jesus by faith and partake in the Holy Trinity.
I don’t know if you enjoy the TV comedy series Blackadder, I’m a big fan of Blackadder, and in Blackadder the third, which is set in the 18th century, there’s a very funny episode which involves two actors, and the actors are very superstitious and they think you can’t say the name of the Scottish play, which is apparently a real thing that it’s very bad luck for actors to mention the name of the Scottish play.
So whenever they do hear it mentioned, in order to counteract the bad luck, they say a silly rhyme. It’s “Hot Potatoes, Augusta Stores, Puck will make amends”, and then they twist each other’s noses and it gets more and more painful as time goes on, because of course, Naughty Blackadder very much enjoys saying, “Macbeth”, and then they have to say, “Hot Potatoes, Augusta Stores, Puck will make amends”, and then switch each other’s noses until they’re in huge amounts of pain. And the point is that such level of superstition is just silly; that’s what Blackadder is exploiting.
But actually superstition is a powerful force in many people’s lives. That’s why the thing in Blackadder is a joke, because presumably actors take it very seriously that you shouldn’t say the name of the Scottish play.
Superstition is really a kind of magic. The idea is that you can control powerful forces like fate or even God through words or rituals. And what we’re going to be thinking about as we consider what goes on in the Holy Communion is to ponder the words, I love you.
Now there’s different ways of thinking about what happens when those words are spoken. And I’d like to imagine a lady called Mrs. Modernist. Imagine with me, Mrs. Modernist. She says, “I love you” to her husband and kids, but if you asked her what’s really going on when she says that, she would say they are only words. They’re really just sound waves, which then provoke a chemical reaction in the physiological system of her husband and children, which make them feel nice. So for Mrs. Modernist, saying “I love you” may feel nice, but really just boils down to a mechanical process, nothing more.
Now let’s imagine a second view on what’s happening when those three little words are spoken. And that’s the view of Mr. Superstitious. He believes that he has to say “I love you” at least three times to his wife every day or she’ll stop loving him. For him, it’s a kind of magic spell he uses to control his wife’s love for him.
Why am I saying this? Well the theme of our readings today is the Holy Communion. And what we as Anglicans are meant to believe about it. Our Anglican ancestors, who wrote the 39 articles, which we’re considering at the moment, were keen to avoid two errors that were common at the time about Communion.
The first one was quite similar to the error that Mrs. Modernist made about saying, I love you. This was an error that said Communion is really just eating bread and drinking some wine. It just boils down to a physical process of eating and drinking and it’s wrong to say there’s anything more special about it. That was one error.
The second error that our Anglican forebears were keen to avoid was one much more akin to Mr. Superstitious. Such people at the time argued that special words transformed the bread and the wine into the actual literal flesh and blood of Jesus and that Jesus’s presence could therefore be controlled by the words of human beings.
So in response to that first error, the kind of Modernist error if you like, our articles say that the Communion is not merely a sign. It’s not just a nice thing that we do, there’s something more special to it.
To the Mr. Superstitious party, our articles say that the idea of human words kind of magically calling down the very second person of the Almighty Trinity gives rise to many superstitions and even worse, it’s going against the clear words of Scripture and the very purpose of Communion.
So let’s return to those three little words, “I love you”. Mrs. Modernist is actually wrong, they are not just words, are they? They should, when received rightly, bring about what they actually refer to. When someone says “I love you” to someone they genuinely love, in a wonderful way it actually causes the love it mentions.
Conversely, Mrs. Superstitious is wrong, the fact that these words should create the love they mention doesn’t give someone license to use them magically and one-sidedly to generate love against the will of the person spoken to. In the same way, the Communion when given and received in the right way actually causes the union it points to, like I love you causes the love it points to.
We really do unite ourselves with Jesus and other Christians when we take Communion in the right way, not in a magic way as if Jesus could be forcibly united with us by using certain special words but in the right way.
So what is the right way to give and receive, Communion? Well the articles say, Communion is given, taken and eaten only in a spiritual manner. In Communion, Jesus is received and eaten through faith.
The reason we call it Communion is that this word is a translation of one that Paul used in our first reading from 1 Corinthians. He says, is not the cup of thanksgiving a participation or communion in the blood of Christ and is not the bread which we break a participation or communion or sharing in the body of Christ.
Remember how the words “I love you” bring about the love that they point to. In the same way, the eating and drinking by faith of the bread and the wine should bring about the spiritual participation which they signify. They bring about the communion or sharing in the body and blood of Jesus which the whole ceremony points to.
The early fathers called Communion the “visible gospel”. In other words, in the Communion we see the gospel summarised and therefore the effective giving and receiving of Communion has to be in the context of what it means, of what it points to. In the body and blood of Jesus mean one thing and one thing only, Jesus’ sin-bearing death on the cross for us.
When our articles say the communion is effective through faith, they don’t mean a kind of generic faith in some generic God or other, they mean solid faith in the sin-bearing death of Jesus for us on the cross. To give and receive Communion without this faith is as wrong as saying “I love you” in a deeply romantic way to an inanimate object; just completely wrong-headed. This is why Paul goes on to say in the next chapter of 1 Corinthians, in chapter 11, that whoever takes Communion in an unworthy manner is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
Again, we don’t want to fall into the attitude of Mr. Superstition that imagine that if you do receive the Communion unworthily it somehow turns into poison in your stomach or something like that.
But if someone takes Communion without faith in Jesus, Paul is clear. Eating and drinking Communion is therefore eating and drinking judgment on themselves. He says we all need to discern the body of Christ. In other words, to recognise our need for that sin -bearing death of Jesus in our place in order to receive the Communion in the right way.
So how should we respond to this? Well first, this morning let’s come to Communion with faith, not in the ritual but in the cross. Many of us will have been brought up with a strong and right reverence for Communion. But the bread and the wine don’t work automatically. They have to be received with trust in Jesus’ death in your place and then they become a true sharing in the divine Son of God.
Second, let’s indeed examine our hearts. If you thumb through the dear old Book of Common Prayer you will see that a lot of the Communion service back in the day was taken up with the exaltation. The exaltation said, please do not come to this Communion unless you are 100% sure that you are trusting in Jesus alone.
Do you have the life transforming faith in Jesus as saviour? The exaltation said if not, either don’t receive the Communion or come to faith in Him now. Because the table is open to sinners who come hungry.
We’ll hear the wonderful words of Jesus in a moment, “Come to me all who labour in a heavy laden and I will refresh you.”
There’s a reason our Anglican forebears put that as the first scriptural quote about Communion. Because Jesus says the table is open, come and eat with me. So that when we receive Communion we’re saying Jesus I need your death on the cross, I need you to cleanse me from my sin.
And third, let’s come expectantly. Communion is not just bread and wine. Neither is it a magic trick, but when received by faith it is one of the most powerful ways Jesus meets us, assures us and builds us up in our faith. He says to us you are mine, I died for you, now take and eat.
So let’s now pray that the Lord would do a wonderful thing in us and through us through our attitude to Communion.