Why has the Sacramental Practice of Holy Communion Stopped for the Evangelicals - Essay Example

Why has the Sacramental Practice of Holy Communion Stopped for the Evangelicals? The Holy Communion, also known as the Eucharist or the Sacrament of the Altar can be defined as a practice that is upheld by the Christian community in a bid to remember the sacrifice that the Son of God, Jesus Christ made for humanity.1 It is one of the two sacraments of the catholic religion that the church agreed on keeping after undergoing transformation with the other being baptism. The act consists of taking a sip of wine and a piece of bread (also known as the Eucharist) in remembrance of the last supper where Jesus and his disciples did the same act before he was arrested by the Romans. The holy communion has been a popular practice among churches for many decades, but as time has worn on, it is found that the evangelical church has began to uphold this practice fewer times in an year than was previously the case.2 It is now found that the staunch denominations may practice it once a week which is considered to be plenty, but in comparison to past tradition demonstrates a dramatic decrease in the amount of times that the Holy Communion is now taken. Churches need to recognize this problem and act upon it so that congregations can once again go back to taking the Holy Communion on a regular basis as possible. Other churches have reduced the number of times that they take the Holy Communion to an even lesser amount with a number of churches practicing it as few as 3 or 4 times an year. The number of times that the Holy Communion is taken varies from church to church, but it can be established that there has been a discernible reduction in the number of times that it is being taken today in comparison with the past. 3 This has brought about the question of why the Holy Communion appears to have ceased to be practiced as often as it was earlier by members of the evangelical church.4This is not to say that the faith of the Evangelical church has waned over the years as the Holy Communion is the only practice to be affected and the church maintains other modes of worship. There are a number of factors that one is able to examine to try and come up with an answer to this mystery, some of these factors include: Salvation by faith – The issue of salvation by faith can raise the question whether this has played a role in making the sacramental practices that were previously present in the Christian religion irrelevant in worship nowadays. Salvation by faith refers to the stance that one only needs to believe in the Lord and his son Jesus Christ and what he did for humanity and willingly repent for them to be saved.5 This means that there is no other practice that is required of them for them to keep their faith or prove it for that matter. This may include the frequent taking of the Holy Communion which was previously considered to be an act done by the religious and displayed the strength of their faith and their closeness with God. However, blaming salvation by faith may not be an accurate answer as this belief has played no part in discouraging those who wish to partake the Holy Communion from doing so.6 The stance only deals with the issue of salvation and what is required of an individual who wishes to be saved and become a Christian, but it has not looked down upon any of the practices that are upheld by the more traditional practitioners nor stated that the Holy Communion is no longer required. Thus, it would not be right to put the blame on the Salvation by faith stance that has been taken by Christians as it is not responsible bringing about this new trend. Logistics – This offers a more practical explanation to why individuals have stopped taking the Holy Communion as frequently as was done before. The logistics of the churches that are involved may serve as an explanation in the sense that it is now more difficult to arrange the taking of the Holy Communion than it was a few decades ago.7 This can be due to various factors such as the increase in the number of individuals that attend a church due to growth or the growth of the church in another dimension such as the number of branches that it is made of.8These are all matters that will have to be considered when one is arranging to have their congregation partake of the Holy Communion. The issue of the economy is also another factor that should be considered, the prices of various commodities such as wine and Eucharist bread has gone up over the last couple of years. The size of congregations have continued to be on the rise over the years as the world populations continues to increase and this has brought about another matter with regards to the logistics of the Holy Communion.9 The number of people who now attend services can reach up to the thousands and thus performing the Holy Communion to such large a number would take up a lot of time which may make it impossible to do so especially when a service lasts between 30 minutes and one hour. Taking the Holy Communion may mean that the Pastor is not left with enough time to deliver his sermon to the congregation and thus such churches may choose to bypass this activity altogether as a result. Some churches have tried to deal with this problem of time through setting apart specific services that are meant for the partaking of the Holy Communion but this does not happen on a regular basis. Another aspect that has somewhat discouraged the taking of the Holy Communion is the division that occurs during such an event as not everybody is able to take part in this activity.10 This brings about a sense of separation between the members of the congregation and the church may feel that by causing this division it is in a way looking down upon those who are not able to take the Holy Communion and as a result may decide that it is better to scrap this activity from their agenda as they do not want to discourage individuals from coming to church as a result. Imitation – The issue of imitation may also be examined as a reason behind the reduction of the practice of the Holy Communion. The Eucharist and the practice of Baptism can be said to be the two chief things that the Catholic Church and the reformed church still have in common.11 Therefore, it can be said that the decline in partaking of the Holy Communion may be as a result of those within the Evangelical realm feeling like by maintaining this practice, they are in some way imitating the Catholic Church. However, realistically, this cannot be the case as the rivalry between the reformed church and the Catholic Church fizzled out a long time ago and humankind has come to accept the existence of the two groups as separate religious entities that have learnt to coexist and live in harmony with one another.12 Catholics and Protestants can no longer be considered to be enemies and have accepted each other and their different religious views. Thus, it seems unlikely that one group would stop doing something just because the other is doing it. The fear of imitation of the Catholic religion can be thought about as one of the least likely reasons behind the reduction in the practice of the Holy Communion by evangelical churches. Familiarization – Another factor that can be studied in the rise of this new trend is the fear of familiarization by the churches thus leading to a reduction in the number of times that Holy Communion is performed by Churches. This is to say that church leaders may be afraid that frequent practice of the Holy Communion may lead to its members being too familiar with it thus taking away the significance of the practice and its meaning.13 As a result the leaders may consider reducing the number of times that a church practices the Holy Communion in a bid to maintain its stature and importance among the congregation, the reasoning behind this is that the fewer times it is practiced, the higher its significance as it is not seen as an everyday occurrence and thus not held in high esteem. However, such reasoning can be questioned as there are means of maintaining the stature of the Holy Communion without having to reduce how often it is performed by a church.14 A church is able to maintain the significance of the Holy Communion through a number of ways such as teaching their congregation on the importance of the act and ensuring that they do not forget its significance and why it is vital for them to practice it frequently. It can also be said that the frequent practice of the Holy Communion may serve to do the opposite of familiarizing the congregation. The frequent practice may result in the congregation holding the practice in high esteem as its importance is seen in the number of times that it is practiced. Modernization – The emergence of a modern society can also be blamed for the reduction of the number of times that Evangelical churches partake of the Holy Communion. The emergence of humanism and rationalism may have led to the development of the view of that the Holy Communion no longer needs to be taken as frequently as it was before.15 The modern religious follower will look to rationalize matters in the sense that it may be cheaper to partake of this practice fewer times than was done before and in the process save money that the church can allocate to other immediate and more concerning needs.16The modernization of the society including the religious community may also have resulted in the reduction of the importance in which the Holy Communion is held in comparison with earlier times thus leading to a reduction in the number of times that it is practiced as it is no longer seen as an absolute necessity. However, this argument has its flaws as well as there are still a number of churches such as the Catholic Church who practice the Eucharist on a regular basis and it would be hard finding an explanation why this modernization of religious culture has not had an effect on their beliefs and practices.17 There is also the question of other religions such as the Islam community who have maintained their practices as well to a noticeable extent and thus it would bring about a new question of why the evangelical church was the only religious group to have been affected by this modernization and why the practice of the Holy Communion and not other parts of the Christian religion has been the area that ism most affected.18 Thus in all fairness it would not be right to blame modernization for the reduction in the partaking of the Holy Communion within Evangelical churches. The story of the last supper, which is the source of the practice of the Holy Communion, appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels namely, Luke, Mathew and Mark as well as in other parts of the bible such as John and 1st Corinthians. The appearance of this subject so many times in the bible depicts the importance with which the early church held the practice of the Holy Communion.19 The practice was very symbolic in nature and can be considered to have held a larger relevance in their time due to the recent timeframe of the activities that had occurred. That is to say, Jesus had just been crucified on the cross and resurrected and thus the practice of the Holy Communion held a strong significance for them.20 The practice was also done by some of those who had been present at the actual Last Supper, and thus they were carrying out Jesus’ orders who had asked that they do this so as to remember him. In conclusion, one is able to come back to one of the most sacrificial moments in the worship of the communion through the maintenance of its relevance and significance within the religion and not through the increase of the number of times that it is taken. There are a number of solutions that can be offered for churches that had stopped but wish to go back to practicing the Holy Communion however such as setting apart a certain date for this activity for those who feel it may take too much time during normal service hours. The church officials can also explain to those who are not able to take the Holy Communion how they can qualify to do so in a bid to ensure that they do not feel excluded. If the cost is too expensive, substitutes such as normal bread and grape juice can be used instead as well. Ensuring the church takes part in the Holy Communion is an important part of the Christian religion and should not be forgotten.                               Bibliography Armstrong, John H. Understanding Four Views on the Lords Supper. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009. Dom, Dix Gregory. The Shape of the Liturgy. London: Continuum International, 2005. Gayle Felton. This Holy Mystery. Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2005. John Flader. Questions and Answers on the Catholic Faith. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2010. Paul, Bradshaw. Eucharistic origins. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Thomas R. Schreiner and Matthew R. Crawford. The Lords Supper. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2011. Read More