The Blog of St. Mark

If you came over and saw Katherine and Samuel happily playing, you probably wouldn’t be too shocked (or disappointed).  If you ate with them, you’d probably have a great time.

Unless you watched them playing with scissors and power tools.  Unless they ate pills from medicine bottles.  Then you’d probably un-nominate us as parents of the year.

Because there are some things that kids shouldn’t play with or eat.  Even adults shouldn’t willy-nilly take medicine.  Imagine if I came to your home, went into your bathroom and started popping your pills.  You’d be mad because I was costing you money, and panicked because I would probably end up hurting, if not killing, myself.

And yet everybody and their brother wants us to give them the Lord’s Supper no matter who they are, what they believe, what they know, what they feel, where they go to church.  They say, “It’s the church, God is love, how can you be so unloving and not provide us with the Lord’s Supper?  How can you say I’m not a Christian?”  How can we in good conscience open us this medicine cabinet willy-nilly, when Paul writes:  Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.  That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep (1 Cor. 11:26-30).

Just as most diet and exercise plans say, “Consult a doctor first,” so Scripture tells us that the Lord’s Supper is NOT like Baptism.  Baptism is for all nations.  The Lord’s Supper is for those who can examine themselves and who can recognize the body and blood of the Lord.  This is why we “close” the table to some people sometimes.  Not because we don’t think they’re Christians.  Not because it isn’t the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins.  But because there’s a warning on the label:  “Handle with care.”  Examine and recognize and you can partake.

And in case someone asks you, this has been the practice of most of the Church throughout most of history.  The Large Catechism:  We must make a distinction here between people. Those who are lewd and morally loose must be told to stay away. They are not prepared to receive forgiveness of sin, since they do not desire it and do not wish to be godly (LC, V:58).  Likewise, in the Augsburg Confession, Philip Melanchthon quotes a pastor from the 400s, John Chrysostom, who says that the priest stands daily at the altar, inviting some to the Communion and keeping back others (AC XXIV:36).