How shall we approach?

There is something in the nature of man that he feels the necessity to add to things. This can be a good thing as we transform the natural order from a raw state into a more gloriously refined state but it can also be twisted. Take our conception of and approach to the Eucharist. In the Puritan world an emphasis was put on the judgmental aspect of the Table and our unworthy disposition toward it. This led to, ironically, the same fearful disposition toward the Eucharist that Medieval Catholics had and that the Puritans were seeking to escape.  

In the midst of this era (late 17^th and early 18^th Century) a whole genre of Communion preparation manuals appear which often were formed in a series probing questions. The importance of these manuals to us today is that the attitude adopted from these still haunt modern Reformed thinking. Here are some of the conscience-probing questions that Cotton Mather had a potential communicant ask in his “Companion for Communicants”:

• Is your knowledge of Christian doctrine orthodox competent and your belief orthodox?
•  Do you yield a full intellectual assent and cordial consent to the whole Word of God?
• Are you relying on Christ alone?
• Do you exalt Christ above all creatures?
• Do you desire above all things to be conformed to Christ and to look upon sin as the worst of all evils?
•  Have you placed your chief happiness in acquaintance and fellowship with God?
• Do you desire the prosperity of your neighbors and endeavor to return good for evil?
• Are you convinced of your own sinfulness?
• Does your conviction produce contrition and did that in turn issue in confession? 

This is just a small sampling that continues for “page after page.” (E. Brooks Holifield, The Covenant Sealed: The Development of Puritan Sacramental Theology in Old and New England, 1570-1720, p. 201.) 

There are several things one notices about these questions. First, they are wholly extra-biblical in relation to admittance to the Eucharist. In other words, it is all tradition and bears little on the peculiarities of 1 Corinthians 11. The next thing one sees, is that depending upon how deeply one applies the questions or how doubtful one’s personality is, you might have to answer “no” to every question. Finally, there is an implicit assumption that these are proper hoops one must jump through to get to the Table. This makes Communion the work of man rather than God and puts the emphasis on our actions rather than Christ’s action through the Eucharist. 

So what happened through this emphasis in New England? You ended up with Communion being a time where the majority of the church either observed from afar or left the building while those who were judged fit took bread and wine. You even had the bizarre situation where, according to Edward Taylor, the following persons did not take Communion: 

What a lamentation is this! Persons professing the gospel, religious in their lives, knowing in the concerns of religion and the things of God, orderly walkers in their conversation, attending God’s worship public in assemblies, private in their families, secret in their closets, and filled with experiences of God treating of them in His Word, yet miserably neglecting this wedden supper. Oh! What a lamentation is this! Certainly they fall under the rebuke from our doctrine for their neglect. (Ibid., pp. 205-206.) 

This was a sad state of affairs where the feast of the resurrection was turned into a supper of unworthy self-introspection. It also turned a meal meant to communicate grace to weak and doubting souls into an exclusive event for those with strong or presumptuous spiritual dispositions. This should give us pause in the modern Reformed churches. Do we add high barriers when we interview children for admittance to the Eucharist with technical questions from our church order manuals? Do we take the joyous emphasis off of the risen Lord and put it on ourselves when we have our heads down or the pastor and elders cry while awaiting the distribution of the elements? History ends in laughter at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the Eucharist is that feast projected back into history. How should we approach and take such a sweet gift?

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