Visitors to Our Saviour often notice something at the Lord’s Supper that surprises them. We ask every guest to speak with the pastor before the service. That brief conversation lets the pastor learn whether you belong to a congregation of the Missouri Synod (LCMS) or of a church in fellowship with it. If you do, you are welcome to receive the Sacrament with us. If you do not, you are welcome to come to the altar for a blessing. Some people hear this practice as a closed door. We understand it differently: it opens a conversation, and it grows out of love for the guest.

What happens at this altar

Lutherans confess, with the Small Catechism, that the Sacrament of the Altar “is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.” When Jesus says, “This is My body,” His words mean what they say. The Supper is a gift that Christ places into the mouth of each communicant.

St. Paul treats that gift with great seriousness. He writes that “whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord,” and he tells each Christian to “examine himself” before eating and drinking (1 Corinthians 11:27-28). A person who eats “without discerning the body,” he warns, “eats and drinks judgment on himself” (11:29). The Supper is medicine, and medicine given carelessly can harm the one who takes it.

Who is worthy

Paul’s warning might suggest that the Supper is reserved for the spiritually accomplished. Luther taught the reverse. The Small Catechism says, “That person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.'” In the Large Catechism, Luther writes to people who hang back out of shame: “If, therefore, you are heavy-laden and feel your weakness, then go joyfully to this Sacrament and obtain refreshment, consolation, and strength. For if you would wait until you are rid of such burdens, that you might come to the Sacrament pure and worthy, you must forever stay away” (LC V 72). The Formula of Concord calls those who are weak in faith and troubled by their sins “the truly worthy guests for whom this highly venerable Sacrament has been especially instituted” (FC SD VII 69).

Closed communion, then, is no test of moral achievement. The questions that Lutheran Christians ask themselves before communing are simple and searching. Have I confessed and repented of my sins? Do I believe that I receive the actual body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of my sins? Do I share the confession and unity of this congregation? Will I, with the Lord’s help, amend my sinful life?

One bread, one confession

Paul writes, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17). Eating together at the altar is a public statement that we believe the same things about Christ and His gifts. When Christians who hold different confessions commune together, the act declares an agreement that does not yet exist. We would rather tell the truth about the divisions in Christ’s church, and pray for the day when God heals them, than pretend that they are gone.

The practice also respects the visitor’s conscience. A Baptist or Roman Catholic guest belongs to a church that teaches its own understanding of the Supper. Asking that guest to wait honors the confession of his or her own church and spares him or her from declaring at our altar something that he or she may not believe.

An old practice

The early church guarded the table closely. The Didache, a church manual from about the turn of the second century, instructs: “Let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist except those baptized into the name of the Lord.” Justin Martyr, writing in Rome around A.D. 155, explained that no one may partake “but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins.”

The Lutheran reformers kept this practice. The Augsburg Confession states that “the body of the Lord is not usually given to those who have not been examined and absolved” (AC XXV 1). The Apology adds that many in Lutheran congregations received the Supper every Lord’s Day “after having been first instructed, examined, and absolved” (Ap XXIV 1). Luther’s 1528 instructions for parish visitors directed that each communicant meet with the pastor beforehand, and for generations Lutherans “announced” for communion by speaking with their pastor before the service. Our request that guests speak with the pastor continues that custom.

The pastor as steward

Paul calls ministers “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). A steward does not own what he distributes. Christ gave the Supper to His disciples in the upper room, and the pastor serves it on Christ’s terms. The Augsburg Confession describes the pastor as one who “stands daily at the altar, inviting some to the Communion and keeping back others” (AC XXIV 36). Luther’s visitation instructions warned that a pastor who carelessly gives the Sacrament to someone unprepared dishonors it as surely as the person who receives it unworthily.

A pastor who asks a visitor to talk first is doing what a good physician does before writing a prescription. He is getting to know the person in his care.

How we welcome guests

Guests are welcome at the whole of our service. You will hear the same Scriptures, sing the same hymns, confess the same Creed, pray the same prayers, and receive the same benediction as every member of the congregation.

Before the service, please speak with the pastor. If you are a communicant member of an LCMS congregation or of a church in fellowship with the LCMS, you are welcome to receive the Sacrament with us. If you are not, please come to the altar with the rest of the congregation to receive a blessing; cross your arms over your chest so that the pastor knows. He will speak a word that recalls your Baptism, such as “The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit keep you in the grace of your Baptism.”

If you would like to receive the Sacrament with us in the future, the pastor will gladly talk with you. That conversation may lead to instruction in the Christian faith and to the day when you kneel at this rail beside us.

For a longer treatment of the same practice, see What about… Fellowship in the Lord’s Supper?