Holy Communion Online(?)

Here's a question: If you are sitting alone in your living room, with a cracker and a bottle of grape juice, listening to a recording of a pastor saying the Holy Communion liturgy over the Internet, and then you proceed to consume that cracker and grape juice, have you just received the sacrament?

Have you actually taken Holy Communion?

According to United Methodist doctrine, the answer is no. According to our church's sacramental teaching, as contained at various points in our Book of Discipline, Book of Resolutions (i.e., the "This Holy Mystery" statement), and the Book of Worship, that kind of exercise does not rise to the level of Eucharist.

I could sketch out the reasons why this is the case, but if you don't know them already, I would simply say to go to the relevant places in our doctrine and read them for yourselves. Our sacramental doctrine (like a lot of our church's doctrinal positions) could use some development. But what we've got is good, and it expresses a deep sense of the power of the grace of Jesus Christ active in the community of believers through the church's liturgy.

What we do not allow are interpretations of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper that are so far out of bounds that they do damage to the church's historic understanding of the sacramental meal and endanger the laity's reception of the gospel message of salvation.

Why am I stressing this so much? Well, a couple of weeks ago, my wife showed me this article in Newsweek, which highlights a new movement sometimes called "Virtual Communion." It involves pastors and churches inviting people to "celebrate" Holy Communion from the comfort of their couches, while viewing websites where Eucharistic worship services are shown or the liturgy is recited.

One of the Newsweek's articles featured websites is this one, which calls itself "A United Methodist Celebration of Holy Communion." In the name of inclusivity (the term always used to advocate for radical individualism in the church), the site provides web surfers the opportunity to receive the Lord's Supper with no other companion than a disembodied, previously recorded voice while they participate from their sofas.

I wrote a column in the United Methodist Reporter about this phenomenon last week, which you can read here. I hesitated to put my thoughts on paper, because the creator of the site (a retired UM local pastor) clearly believes he is doing the church a good service. But good intentions are simply not enough. This website represents something not just mistaken; it is dangerous. And in such a situation the Lord's Supper must be defended.

Not long ago, I posted a satire called "Winnie-the-Poohcharist" (in two installments, which you can read here and here) about the ridiculous attempts of some churches to make the sacrament more "relevant" by employing cheap gimmicks from pop culture. I now wonder if I should even have written that satire, because of the danger that it would be misunderstood (as, indeed, it was in some of the comments left on the blog posts).

So let me be clear: The sacrament of Holy Communion is the single most important act of worship in which we, as disciples of the Incarnate God, can engage. It should not be abused, maltreated, or deformed in its character. It requires sound teaching for it to be understood and celebrated with fidelity. The Eucharist is the very vehicle of God's salvation of us. It is difficult to over-exaggerate its importance. It is not to be changed to suit our consumerist tastes, but rather to be understood in the great mystery of grace that it offers us.

If you are interested in reading another interpretation of this same issue, check out Kevin Baker's blog here.