AG: I note that under the Office of the Keys, a pastor of a congregation has responsibilities before God that the average parishioner does not. As the Stewart of the Lord’s Supper, he is also responsible to Host for the proper manner and care for the people who partake of it.
As I am not a mind-reader, before I begin with this illustrious group, I must make some doctrinal points so you all can see from whence I come:
1. The Lord’s Supper has two visible elements and two Invisible ones. The Invisible Ones are the Body and Blood of Christ. They get there by the power of God’s Word via the Words of Institution. So with the bread and wine (and it IS wine) we receive the Body and Blood of Christ when we commune at a denominational altar. That is what we believe and confess.
2. “The Lutheran church rejects and condemns incorrect understandings of the Lord’s Supper, such as the view that the sacrifice of the Mass delivers man from his sins, or that the substance of the consecrated bread and wine is actually changed into the body and blood of Christ. We also reject and condemn the view that in the Lord’s Supper the true body and blood of Christ is not received by the mouth of the communicants, under the bread and wine, but is received only spiritually in the heart by faith, or that the bread and wine are only symbols of the far-distant body and blood of our Lord.”
(http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:h3EwHN40pUQJ:www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/LCMS/wa_fellowship-lordssupper.pdf+close+communion&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiHRdANOnqtoNm63yp8RfCEOaez8BrQ46X1Sbx1pL-zMQjxN14kDe7ecKUCOThHt7lPWxaTHhVXJKFPIxmB7A_c1KMGLD_Rz3TatgiWWd0tq-CKBBXT839aA7tgZswY48c2EwtU&sig=AHIEtbRfcyt6l5VCFqPw8NWwdtDlikrxew)
3. In the Lord’s Supper we proclaim ourselves in the common confession of the Christian faith. “As the hymn writer says ‘one in hope and doctrine, one in charity.’”
The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament that looks ‘upward and outward’ as the Cross of Christ does, communion with our Lord and communion with our fellow Christians, a common confession of faith. Therefore when you commune you are affirming the doctrines of those participating with you. If you disagree with those doctrines or don’t understand them, you should seek clarification with a responsible doctrinal authority like the pastor or the priest.
I conclude with this cut and paste link: http://www.lcmsdistricts.org/graphics/assets/media/Minnesota%20North/sevenmyths.pdf
(if one of you could give me the cliff notes on the posting of live links I’d appreciate it.) The last footnote is instructive lest I be accused of denominationalism.
The Peace of the Lord be with you always.
I’ve attended Lutheran LCMS churches and have refrained from the table because I do not agree with their doctrine of the Lord’s Supper.
I also appreciate that they would want to prevent me from partaking, not out of malice, but because they sincerely believe that partaking in the wrong manner could bring condemnation upon me. That to me seems a loving approach.
I certainly would never take communion at a Romanist Mass because that is clearly idolatry.
1 Cor 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
17For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
And when one partakes of "that one bread", one is admonished to discern it properly, with all that attends that idea. And certainly there is a disagreement how "that bread" is discerned in Communion.
I read it all plus footnotes.
In answer to your question, to make a hot link of a url, begin by typing a “<” followed by the phrase “A HREF=” and then the url. And then add a “>” to close the expression and type in a title or description and finish it all with “<” followed by a “/A” and a “>”. Obviously I am separating these terms so that they aren’t interpreted as an HTML command in this reply.
Back to the pdf which acknowledges the invisible church and the physical inability to distinguish it from the visible church. Which is to say, for exclusion under close communion, the doctrine discerns physically by the physical confession of physical lips.
And so the exclusion for the Lutheran confession is a physical matter, not a spiritual one. The doctrine does not claim Spiritual discernment.
My understanding of the doctrine is improved and I thank you! However, my position is unchanged because "common union" is a Spiritual matter (which the Lutheran confession recognizes) and the Spirit discerns.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. - Romans 8:9
Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? – Matthew 20:15
And the voice [spake] unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, [that] call not thou common. – Acts 10:15