Putting the "Union" Back in Communion

by Rev. Jason Blanton

I need to begin this blog by saying right up front, "I don't know what it is like to have a hierarchy tell me what I can/should/must do in my church as a pastor." I say that so that you won't think I am pretending to know what it is like to minister as a Catholic priest, receiving directives from on high that my own personal understanding of The Way may or may not agree with.

I have noticed a troubling trend in recent years surrounding communion. I'm only 35, so it may not even be that recent, but in my memory, in the last decade or so, it has become more and more common for local parishes to refuse communion to politicians who were not Pro-Life (or anti-abortion) enough. The thinking being that abortion is a sin, and therefore a politician that isn't sufficiently opposed to that sin must answer for the sin as well, which would put them out of Grace, as best I understand Catholic theology.

Then, last week I read this. In case you don't feel like clicking the link, the story goes like this: A woman's mother died. She and her family are Catholic, and so obviously the service was held in her local parish and performed by the local priest. When it came time to take communion, the priest refused to serve the woman. Why? Because she is a lesbian. Apparently her sin is so great in the mind of this local Catholic priest, she doesn't even deserve communion at her own mother's funeral. He refused her publicly, with a rebuke of her lifestyle. At her mother's funeral.

Now, before I get to my thought on this, I should say, this isn't an attack on the Catholic church. In fact, the Bishop who is over this local priest has already apologized. I want to be clear, this kind of thinking is pervasive in many churches, it just so happens that Communion plays a larger role in the theology of the Catholic Church, and so it makes it an even bigger refusal.

Now, here is my one and only thought when I heard this story: Jesus didn't even refuse Judas. Jesus sat at the table, establishing the meal that we call Communion, Lord's Supper, Eucharist, knowing full well that He had been betrayed. You would think that if ever there was a sin so grievous to deserve a refusal of fellowship with Christ, it would be the sin of betrayal. Yet there they sat, Judas and Jesus, hands dipping in the same bowl - and Jesus never says, "I'm sorry Judas, you are a sinner and so you can't participate in this meal. You aren't worthy to fellowship with us here."

Jesus didn't even refuse Judas.

Think about that next time you think there are people who don't deserve to eat at your table.

Jason Blanton is the pastor of Grace Crossing in Charlotte . This article originally appeared on his blog, http://jasonblanton.blogspot.com/.

God and Natural Disaster

by Rev. Randy Carter

When it comes to human suffering, natural disaster confronts Christianity with a real theological and intellectual challenge. We can assign the suffering of war to the sinfulness of our world. We can see the suffering of those who hunger linked to the corruption of governments and systems that keep people locked into poverty. We can work against the suffering of those who are abused because we can work against the abusers in hope of stopping them. When human suffering finds its cause in other humans, we can make sense of it and address it within the frame of sin, forgiveness, redemption, and justice.

The natural disaster, however, is different. We cannot assign an earthquake and tsunami to some Middle Eastern tyrant drunk with power. We cannot easily link the earth’s shifting ground to evil men who prey on children in human trafficking. We cannot neatly find another human to blame…which leaves God.

The new vocal atheists have already made their opinions known. Sam Harris, author of “The End of Faith” and a prominent atheist thinker and commentator, published the following on a CNN website blog: “Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn’t care to, or he doesn’t exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely” (http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/20/finding-faith-amid-disaster). For Sam Harris, natural disasters that create human suffering reveal a multiple choice test for the reality of God. A, B, or C – make your choice. For someone as intelligent as Sam Harris, I am disappointed that his thinking comes down to a multiple choice.

Christianity cannot dismiss the real challenge natural disasters and the human suffering that results from them present to the faith. We, like atheists, struggle with questions as well. Why did it happen? Why did so many have to die? God, could You not have stopped this? The real challenge, however, is not about God’s existence. The real challenge is whether we can submit to the mysteries of life and death, admit there is power greater than we can control, and that as much as we would like to create a God whose only interest is being “nice” by our standards, we have no right to create God in our own image. The earth shakes and the oceans roar. We stand in worshipful awe of creation when we watch the sun rise above the watery horizon of the Atlantic Ocean. We stand in fearful awe of creation when we see the footage of a tsunami wash away houses and cars. But, we do not claim that these competing moments dismiss the reality of the Creator. Does the earthquake and tsunami, then, point to an “evil” Creator? Not it all. The Bible consistently assigns evil to humanity because evil is linked to sin. The natural disaster can be devastating and cause a great deal of suffering, but earthquakes and tsunamis and hurricanes are not “evil.” These natural events are part of a created world that exists in a tenuous balance of earth, water, and air, all held together by the mysteries of gravity and atmosphere. That life exists at all on this planet is a wonder – a wonder of the goodness of God.

So, Sam Harris can have his multiple choice. He is not looking to explore the mysteries of these things but have “reasons” to be free from God. I struggle with the suffering I see in Japan. I’ve got questions. I’ve got some frustrations that I’ve shared with God. But, in the midst of the suffering, God is present. God is at work for good. My faith centers not on “reasons” for God’s goodness, but the powerful “evidence” of God’s goodness at the cross.

The Lord be with you all, Randy

Randy Carter is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Hillsborough. This article was originally printed in their church newsletter, The Messenger.