Hey, Church!
We will have the privilege and joy of sharing a communion meal this Sunday! To prepare our hearts and minds to receive the bread and wine (or, cracker and juice) with sincerity and faith, I thought it would be appropriate to focus this weekend’s meditation on the significance of that sacrament. To do that, I want to diverge from my usual talking points on the subject and, instead, explore the meaning of the word “communion” before applying it to its more narrow sense of the sacramental meal we share in church.
The great Puritan pastor, theologian, and voluminous writer, John Owen (1616-1683), wrote a book called Communion with God (first published in 1657). One idea that serves as the bedrock for all that is later expressed about the Trinity and our participation in Divine fellowship is that the word communion must be understood as distinct from union. “Communion [with God] consists in giving and receiving”; it requires a mutual effort, similar to how we would describe good communication (Owen, Works, 2.2). Union with God, on the other hand, is achieved by the unilateral action of God. Thus, “While union with Christ is something that does not ebb and flow, one’s experience of communion with Christ can fluctuate” (Kelly Kapic, “Worshiping the Triune God: The Shape of John Owen’s Trinitarian Spirituality”). In other words, there are things we can do to strengthen or harm our communion with God but our union with Him remains secure, since it is a free gift of God’s grace.
We use the word “communion” to describe the sacrament of The Lord’s Supper because it is a meal that calls us to respond to the union we have received in Christ’s body and blood. It is more than a passive commemoration of Jesus’ sacrifice (union); it is our participation in active, growing fellowship with Him (communion). God’s promise to hold us fast until the day of His return does not vacillate according to our obedience but our communion with Him does. Sin pushes God away but righteousness, which comes from the Spirit through meditation on His Word, draws us into the kind of loving relationship that shares one mind and heart.
The body of Jesus was broken, and His blood was shed, for your union with God. We eat and drink the symbols of that grace to participate in sin-denying, faith-renewing, and relationship-strengthening communion with Him and with one another. As we ingest those elements, we meditate on His once-for-all sacrifice and we actively sacrifice ourselves anew upon the altar of His free grace. The first offering secured your forgiveness; the second is your response of joyful gratitude and obedience.
So, prepare yourself for communion with God! Put away sin and seek righteousness. When you take up the emblems of Christ’s sacrifice this Sunday, may the Spirit use them to bring you nearer to Himself and cause you to share in His comfort, dominion, joy, and peace.
“When someone sets his affections upon the cross and the love of Christ, he crucifies the world as a dead and undesirable thing. The baits of sin lose their attraction and disappear. Fill your affections with the cross of Christ and you will find no room for sin” (Owen, On Temptation and the Mortification of Sin in Believers).
Your brother,
Ryan