Whose Supper Is It, Anyway?
John 6:1-21 + August 13, 2006

We're half-way through a series of sermons on John 6 -- on Jesus' teachings about the Bread of Life. The first week we looked at the overall themes of John's Gospel: that God, in Jesus, comes to us in person; that God shows us, in Jesus, that we're called to live life abundantly, in all its fullness. And last week, we focused on a dominant theme in John's Gospel from start to finish, one that Jesus emphasized last week in his words which are repeated today: Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. In last week's sermon, we unpacked the word believe. Believing is not about thinking right things to earn God's favor. To believe is to belove. Believing is not something we do by our own strength or understanding, Luther says in the Small Catechism. Believing is a way of living to which the Holy Spirit calls us -- a life of loving and trusting. The past two Sundays lay the groundwork for today's sermon where we explore the question of who should be welcomed at the Lord's Table, and who should get turned away.

What is the role that belief plays in Holy Communion? It occurs to me that belief is not unlike hate and fear when it comes to human growth and development. But it develops in the opposite way. If we're taught to hate and fear (and we've heard a lot about that lately), it occurs to me that we've got to be taught not to have faith -- unless we never learned to trust to begin with. Maybe that's why Jesus' preaching and teaching so often lifted up children as examples for us. In fact, I wonder what we can learn about the nature of faith from Jesus' attitude toward children.

When it comes to the question of who should be welcomed at the Lord's Table, there seems pretty broad agreement here with our policy of open communion -- that any baptized Christian who comes through our doors, who trusts that Christ is present in the bread and wine, is welcomed to our table. Many of you have shared with me other worshipping experiences when you were not welcomed to commune. You were not amused!

So what I want to focus on today, because it is something very new to Holy Cross, is the question of whether or not children below fifth grade should be welcomed to receive Holy Communion. I realize that this may be very hard for some of you, because it goes against what you were taught. It also runs contrary to what I was taught and experienced as a kid. But nine years ago, in 1997, after years of study and conversation in ELCA congregations across the country, the following was adopted by the churchwide assembly: "Admission to the Sacrament is by invitation of the Lord, presented through the Church to those who are baptized." (The Use of the Means of Grace) The key phrase is "by invitation of the Lord." It is the Lord's Supper, not mine, not yours. If baptism is birth into the family of Christ, Holy Communion is the family meal. In our family, I didn't wait until our kids understood the digestive process before I let them eat with us at the family dinner table. While this idea may be new to us Lutherans, it isn't new in the whole Christian Church. The Greek Orthodox Church has been welcoming children to the Lord's Supper for some 1500 years.

Jesus says a lot about welcoming children. For starters, he says, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." (See Matthew 18:1-5) And there's lots more where that came from. Given everything Jesus says about welcoming children, and he says a lot, I cannot, as a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ and by his authority, I cannot in good faith refuse the outstretched hand of a baptized child at the altar rail. I CAN leave the decision about whether children commune up to their parents -- only they really know if their children would approach the table with a child-like attitude of wonder, mystery, and delight, or a childish attitude of boredom, novelty, or distraction. And I hope all of us do the same kind of parental discerning with ourselves, every time we prepare to commune.

At the table of our Lord Jesus Christ, three things happen: God nourishes faith, forgives sin, and calls us to be witnesses to the Gospel. In conversation I've had with some of you, you speak of how important the forgiveness part is. And rightly so. And it's not the only thing that happens in the Holy Supper. Children may not completely understand the concept of forgiveness, and the underlying biblical history and theology that links it to Holy Communion. We might not either. But children can be nourished in faith by being included in the family meal. Children can be witnesses to the Gospel.

Some of us are concerned that because children may not completely understand confession and forgiveness they don't know how to adequately prepare for communion. But then again, do adults? When we prepare for communion, we focus both on the need for redemption and the depth of God's redeeming. Preparation is certainly recommended, but not required. Luther writes in the Small Catechism, for that person "is worthy and well prepared who believes these words, 'for you' and 'for the forgiveness of sins.'" (The Use of the Means of Grace) For a child, the "for you" part is enough to begin to plant seeds for the kind of relational faith that Holy Communion nurtures. And even a newborn understands "for you" when he nurses at his mother's breast.

Many of us are haunted by Paul's words in I Corinthians 11:27-29: Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body eat and drink judgment against themselves." Paul's words here are NOT addressed to children, and they're not about children. He's writing to those in the community who are eating and drinking while others in their midst are going hungry. They are excluding from the meal others who belong to Christ. (See First Corinthians 11:17-22) Paul is just as angry as you are when you worship elsewhere and are denied the bread and wine. Like you, Paul is not amused: Do you show contempt for the church of God, he says, and humiliate those who have nothing? The body that Christians need to discern is the body of Christ which is the Church. That is the body which is being ignored by people in Corinth who exclude instead of include. (The Use of the Means of Grace)

Opening the communion table to children can be for us a faithful exercise in humility. We may not like to hear this, but before God, we all have the same status, whether a child whose body squirms at the rail, or a 65 year old who proudly maintains decorum. (Again, see Matthew 18:1-5) We all have the same status before God, except that if there is a preference toward one or the other of us, it would be toward a child. Jesus says Let the children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. (Mark 10:14) Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (See Matthew 18:3; Mark 9:33-37; Luke 9:46-48) In the kingdom of God Jesus proclaims, that prophecy from Isaiah is fulfilled: And a little child shall lead them. (Isaiah 11:6) Jesus makes it very clear that children have much to teach us. The question for us is whether we have the humility to let them.

In 1954, the Bible scholar Sofia Cavaletti* was asked to prepare a seven year old boy in Rome for his first communion. At first she refused, saying she knew nothing about children. But the mother persisted; eventually Sofia consented. That experience with a 7 year old changed her whole life. She saw in that child, and in numerous other children since, a way of being in the presence of God that is both unique to the child and a gift to the adult who stops long enough to notice. She reminds us constantly to look to the child to watch for that sign of a deeply religious life -- joy -- and to always ask the question; "What face of God is the child telling us he or she needs to see?" In our worship at Holy Cross, we can show our children the face of God that says, "You belong. You're just as important as everybody else here. This gift is free. The adults don't earn it or deserve it and neither do you. That's the way it is with me."

One father who gets it, Andrew Gillies, penned this poem:

Last night, my child confessed to me some childish wrong;
and kneeling at my knee, he prayed with tears:
'Dear God make me a man, like Daddy -- wise and strong! I know you can!'
Then while he slept, I knelt beside his bed, confessed my sins, and prayed with low bowed head:
'O God, make me a child, Like my child, here -- pure, guileless, trusting you with faith sincere.'