I went to church yesterday with my grandmother to celebrate Easter, and the communion ceremony was performed. Just to be clear, what I’m referring to here is when the congregation has the tiny cracker and grape juice symbolizing the body and blood of Christ. As he always does, the preacher said that no one should take Communion if they had unforgiven sins on their conscience, but yesterday his warning seemed especially dire. Apparently if you don’t do Communion right, you’re going to hell. The words he used were, “There are people walking around dead today because they took Communion lightly.” This happened in a Southern Baptist church.
I had a religious upbringing, but I don’t recall this point of doctrine. I always thought that the only unforgivable sin was suicide, and that’s only because you wouldn’t be able to ask for forgiveness after committing it.
Anyone ever heard that if you screw around with Communion, you may as well hop in the handbasket?
The priest at our Catholic Church went on in sort of a similar fashion. My take on it was that there were a lot of people there that morning who never show up at church otherwise and he wanted to make sure they knew the rules.
The Presbyterians substitute grape juice for wine, too, I think.
Episcopalians take a “radical welcoming” approach to communion. All are welcome to receive the wine and wafer, “wherever you are on your faith journey,” even non-Christians. We don’t take a hard stand on transubstantiation, but acknowledge it as a divine mystery.
I attended a Baptist Church growing up, and I don’t really remember this. I do remember that you had to have had “The Dunking” before you were allowed your share of the grape juice and Wonder bread.
Now I attend an Episcopal church and the rule is more like, “If you’ve ever had water sprinkled on your head as a baby[sup]1[/sup], c’mon up for you taste of wine and a dry cracker.”
I know the Catholics have to have gone to confession before they are allowed communion.
[1] Bubba asked Clem, “Do you believe in infant baptism?” Clem replied, “Believe in it? Heck, I’ve seen it!”
On the other hand, grape juice is cheaper, avoids any controversy if there are kids present and it fits Paul’s warning about making sure that you are not a stumbling block for the brothers of weaker faith.
As to the OP, I don’t think the Bible spells out any particular ills if you take communion when you shouldn’t, but many churches take it very seriously. Part of that is because communion is meant as a symbol of unity and fellowship and so some people feel like letting just anyone do it weakens the meaning. On the other hand, I tend to think that if one’s idea of “unity and fellowship” is “keep the heathens out” that one might need to re-read a few verses.
Don’t get me started on what I think communion really ought to be, though. I don’t think Christ intended it to be a stale wafer and half a sip of warm grape juice. I think he meant an actual meal or at least something more filling and social.
Hmm. I wonder how one is to know whether or not particular sins are forgiven.
Our church (Disciples of Christ) welcomes all to participate in communion. The emphasis is on Christ’s sacrifice and the resulting forgiveness. I would say you found a church that likes to emphasize that they know what’s right and that anyone who disagrees is wrong.
While I have heard stern lectures on not being worthy of taking communion, I haven’t heard it put as you describe. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone just made it up.
The usual Biblical support for these views comes from 1 Corinthians.
The KJV has the strongest language - note the implication that people get sick and die because of this:
The translation of the part reading ‘discerning the Lord’s body’ was one of the things that set Luther off in starting the Reformation. Differences among the interpretation of this passage are probably one of the biggest differences between Christian denominations.
This comes after an earlier discussion about the Corinthian church in particular (as well as a mention by Paul that men with long hair are shameful):
At every Mass I go to (I’m Catholic) nearly everyone gets up and takes Communion, and I’m pretty sure that not all those people are going to confession regularly.
Christian churches generally come down on how common communion should be in one of three ways:
Members only: Roman Catholics frown on Catholics receiving communion when they find themselves in a church of a different denomination, or when a non-Catholic attends a Catholic service.
“Full communion”: Some denominations have decided that other denominations are close enough theologically that their communion ritauls are theologically equivalent. This gets a little strange. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod does not consider the Evangelical Luthern Church of America to be in full communion, although their worship services are virtually identical.
“Open table” communion: There are a few denominations that do not believe the bread and wine served at the service have any special significance (that is, they don’t mystically change into the physical manifestation or representation of Christ’s body and blood.) To them, communion simply symbolizes a common meal, and all are welcome to join.
The whole thing threw me into confusion. I go to church on this one day a year because it’s important to Grandma, and I was ready to follow along. Then the preacher says, “You better not, and oh by the way, remember when you took communion last year to please your granny? One way ticket, baby.”
I mean, really. You’d think they’d go over that a few times in Sunday school so we didn’t get all inadvertently damned. Thanks to panamajack, I can see where the preacher was coming from, but I’m not convinced he was right about it being Unforgivable.
Well, the actual rule for Catholics is a bit more nuanced: you may not receive the sacrament of Eucharist if you’re conscious of serious sin. So there’s no requirement to regularly receive the Sacrament of Penance; the key is that you cannot receive communion if you have unconfessed mortal sins on your conscience.
With regard to the passage from 1 Corinthians 11 to which panamajack referred: bear in mind that the particular “eating and drinking unworthily” which Paul is discussing in the surrounding verses is actions showing contempt for others in the worshipping community …
Regarding worthiness: I’m an ELCA pastor, and Martin Luther’s approach was that the only Christians who should not receive Communion were those who imagined that they were worthy of it. His approach: whoever believes the promise “given and shed for you, for the remission of sins” is well prepared.
So I’d definitely challenge the idea that coming to Holy Communion with “unforgiven sins” is itself a sin. Among the gifts offered in Communion is precisely forgiveness of sins. Those who should come to receive forgiveness, are those who need it.
As Grimpen stated, communion is a reminder that we are forgiven. That being said, the priest/pastor is reminding the community that because Jesus forgives our sins, we too should be willing to forgive others as we partake in communion. If we hold a grudge, it’s showing ungratefulness toward the sacrifice and gift one is about to receive.
Also, pertaining to the end of the original post, although I know Catholicism teaches that suicide is the only unforgivable sin, the Lutheran (not sure about all Protestants) teach that the only unforgivable sin is rejecting the Holy Spirit ie. Christ’s forgiveness. The argument for suicide being forgivable is that a) you could sin right before having a heart attack (or any other catastrophe) and not have the chance to repent and b)when Jesus died, he forgave all sins (past, present, and future) in that moment, and therefore we are already forgiven.
