He said that it was the first time that he had received Holy Communion in his twenty-five years of life, but at the time no one else paid any attention to him. There was nothing extraordinary happening when viewed from the outside, but inside Alan was undergoing a transformation, one that he never could describe fully. But it was only a few years later that he entered seminary and became a Baptist minister.

A rather dramatic case in point that the sacrament of Holy Communion can be converting, as well as confirming. That is why we always extend an open invitation to come and in the name of Christ receive the bread and the cup, the body and blood of Christ. We dare not hinder the work of the Holy Spirit of God by limiting access to the consecrated elements.

That remains a big divide within the Christian Church. Who is invited to partake? In many contexts it is made clear that you must be baptized, or confirmed, a member of that denomination, or even of that specific congregation. Holy Communion is reserved exclusively for the demonstrably faithful. A confirming sacrament; it strengthens, it encourages, and inspires. We United Methodists believe that is true. Receiving the Holy Meal can do all of that for people of faith – strengthen, encourage, and inspire.

But also, and we have seen it happen, it can be a converting moment, a time when peoples’ lives are changed when they see how things converge. In our liturgy we recite the “mystery of faith:” “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” Past, present, and future all flowing together into a pervasive presence of Christ in our lives. That is how we express what happens when we receive the bread and the cup, and that changes the way we view our lives.

Now, if we claim that Jesus the Christ is pervasively present in our lives, most dramatically portrayed in the sacrament of Holy Communion, how is that true? There are some in the Christian tradition who insist that Christ is present real and literal form. When the priest presiding at the altar says, “Pour out your Holy Spirit on these gifts of bread and wine that they may become the body and blood of Christ,” that they actually do, actual flesh, real blood. It is called “transubstantiation;” the substance changes. This is the logical outcome of a focus on Holy Communion as the reenactment of the crucifixion, in which case the more physical, the better.

And there is a strain of that in Charles Wesley’s hymns. Soon we will sing, “Come, Sinners, to the Gospel Feast” (nothing subtle there in his “open invitation”!), and there is the line, “O taste the goodness of our God, and eat his flesh and drink his blood.” Graphic impoliteness; no wonder people thought that the early Christians were cannibals. 

But, transubstantiation is at one end of the spectrum of how people understand the pervasive presence of Christ. At the other extreme is the sense that Holy Communion is a reliving of the Last Supper. It is a memorial meal, observed in worship because Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” This no longer is an altar upon which sacrifices are executed, but the Lord’s Table at which a meal is served. And Jesus the Christ is here in our collective memory.

John Wesley insisted that his Methodists, all of them nominally Anglicans, go to the parish church to join the community in receiving the sacrament. This was not to be an exclusive event held in someone’s home by a lay preacher. It was to be public, communal.

But we United Methodists tend not to occupy either end of the continuum – transubstantiation or a memorial meal. John Wesley argued that in Holy Communion Jesus Christ is really present, but not physically in the bread and wine or not ethereally in our thoughts, but spiritually. He agreed with the notion that a symbol is “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” The bread and wine signify Christ’s presence.

Let us make that a little less rarified. One person says to another, “I love you.” But, where is that love? It is not a physical “thing;” it is not something to which someone can point. Rather, love is made real by a word or action that signifies that love; it is the symbolic expression that makes the love “real.”

Jesus the Christ is really present in the sacrament of Holy Communion in that sense, John Wesley insisted. And his brother, Charles, the poet, writes,

O the depth of love divine, the unfathomable grace!
      Who shall say how bread and wine God into us conveys!
      How the bread his flesh imparts, how the wine transmits his blood . . .
      Sure and real is the grace, the manner is unknown . . .
                                       (Hymns on the Lord’s Supper, #57)

That is a lot of meaning to attach to a small piece of pita bread dipped into a cup of grape juice. Why pita bread? Actually, it could be any bread from anywhere in the world. Bread is the staff of life, basic to all diets everywhere. The preference for pita bread is that it is Middle Eastern and it cuts well and does not fall apart when we dip it. But, there is nothing more sacred about this kind of bread than any other. In fact, we strive to have gluten-free bread available, as well. If we are going to make the invitation truly “open,” then we cannot excommunicate people because of gluten intolerance.

And with the cup, it is grape juice. Why not wine? It could be, if we chose to. John Wesley used wine. But, think. There are people for whom alcohol poses a particular problem or simply is not wanted. Again, to be truly open in our invitation, it makes sense to use the unfermented juice.

It is a practical decision for inclusion, not a moralistic anachronism, though I will say this about the Prohibition Movement of a century ago. It grew out of a progressive social impulse that also gave rise to better working hours, more universal public education, and the right of women to vote. It all was seen as working together to improve our common life. The prohibition of alcohol was not practical as it turned out, but it was well-meaning and still advises us to be cautious today.

If the sacrament of Holy Communion is to be open to all who come in the name of Christ to receive the bread and the cup, if it is to be a converting act as well as a confirming one, then the bread must be digestible by all, the cup available to all, and the pathway to the elements accessible for all. Plus, one’s denominational affiliation must not be a barrier, or one’s age.

We offer Holy Communion to children at the direction of their parents. I did not experience that when I was growing up in a Methodist Church in downstate Illinois. I do not remember ever having witnessed the sacrament in church, though they must have had it, perhaps four times a year.

And when we moved north to Wisconsin and joined an Evangelical United Brethren church, a Germanic denomination with strong theological ties to Wesleyanism, I could not receive until I was confirmed, the idea being that I needed to understand what I was doing before I did it.

But, if there were an entrance exam before we were allowed to receive the sacrament, none of us would pass. It is an unfathomable grace, says Charles Wesley, a mystery. So then, how much do we need to comprehend in order to qualify? I confess that I see as much wonder in the eyes of young children who are brought forward by their families as I do with the adults. And when a young boy in the arms of his mother gives me a “thumbs up” before he receives the bread, that is good enough for me. And then, when I see a child at the cookie table take one, and hold it up in the air, and break it, I think that we are on the right path. That child already knows more about Holy Communion than I did entering Confirmation.

“Constant Communion” is what John Wesley demanded of his Methodist followers. Why? Because God commanded us to do it. “Do this in remembrance of me.” So, why settle for communing just every so often, frequently but not constantly? God has commanded us to honor our father and our mother, too. Are we going to say, “Well, I won’t do that constantly, but I will do it frequently . . . maybe tomorrow, or maybe next week? Will we say, “Four times a year is often enough?” No, every chance that you have, and John Wesley would submit to the sacrament several times a week, whenever he could.

But, some people complained to him and still worry today, “I am not worthy to receive, and it says in the Bible that if I participate in the sacrament when I am unworthy then I condemn myself to Hell.” Wesley responded, “Of course, you are not worthy. None of us are worthy. That is the whole point. Holy Communion is not a reward for righteousness but a cure for sinfulness. It is a sign of God’s gracious love toward us when we are not worthy so that we might live from this moment on a worthwhile life. It is a way of signifying Christ’s pervasive presence in our lives, not only at the Lord’s Table but also as we go out into God’s world.

There is a lot at stake in the sacrament of Holy Communion. That is why we celebrate it so often. And “celebrate” is the right word. John Wesley saw it as a joyful event that was part of the evangelistic outreach of the church, offering God’s grace, Christ’s presence, and the Holy Spirit’s power. We have included it in every 11:00 am service during Lent. We always have Communion at the 8:30 am service and the Saturday 5:00 pm chapel service. Every Wednesday morning we offer the sacrament to whomever comes in on their way to work between 7:30 and 9:00, and we have it after the noontime service each Wednesday. Not “constant,” but close.

Let us confess that sometimes it is a powerful experience for us when we receive the body and blood of Christ; oftentimes it is not. Sometimes we really sense Christ’s presence; other times we simply are participating in the discipline of faith. In those uninspired times we can let the songs we sing and hear during Communion wash over us, and we can watch (Holy Communion is not only to taste, but also to see) . . . watch people young and old, people of different faith backgrounds, people from a variety of countries, cultures, languages, and circumstances, and marvel at how Christ is present not only in the elements of the sacrament but also in one another. He pervades the community. And somewhere in the mix of people there may be those for whom this is a life-changing moment.

And for us that, too, always is possible. Change can happen when Christ is present . . . past, present, future . . . all of it now, here, in this bread and cup. Thanks be to God. Amen.