World Communion Sunday is a day that invites us to reflect on the global, inclusive nature of Christ’s table. In every corner of the earth, believers gather around bread and cup, celebrating not only the gift of communion but the vastness of the community with whom we share it. This Sunday, we join hands and hearts with people from different nations, languages, and backgrounds, connected through the love of God and the gift of creation.
That said, it seems somewhat paradoxical to say that in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Table, also known as Holy Communion, The Eucharist (from the Greek word meaning thanksgiving), we are “in communion” with all Christians around the world when the sacrament (particularly our rites for it and understandings of it) itself is among the things that divide us. I have the utmost respect for multiple interpretations and traditions, but I have to say, having been raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, that it’s teaching is just plain wrong. Jesus shared food with everybody—sometimes 5,000 at a time—including believers and unbelievers, clean and unclean, righteous and sinners, Jews and gentiles. Think about it: If he died for all people, why would anyone be excluded from his table?
I’m sorry (not sorry), but it’s just plain wrong to insist that one must belong to a certain denomination to partake of the Eucharist. I see no biblical basis for any exclusion for it, in fact, I find overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Paul says, “All who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.” This is often interpreted to mean you’re supposed to see the physical flesh of Jesus in the bread and wine. But in the context of everything Paul is talking about, that is, the church, I think he means discerning the body of Christ—the community, the whole. Again, everybody.
The bread, and the complete self-giving it symbolizes, lead us to be mindful of the whole human community Jesus died for, including people of every tradition, denomination, sect, religion, belief system or unbelief. I think central to Jesus’ and Paul’s gospel is the radical inclusiveness of God’s love and the profound oneness of the human family.