Adapted from Pastor Brian Phillips’s book Sunday Mornings.
Starving the Little Ones
Nowhere is the tragedy of putting children “out of the way” more obvious than at the Lord’s Table. To those churches who rarely practice communion (a couple of times per year, perhaps), this is a non-issue because the Supper itself, sadly, is a non-issue. But, for those churches that regularly observe the Lord’s Supper, the issue of children at the Table has become one of great debate.
In Reformed and Presbyterian churches, like my own, observing communion is taken seriously and, in an increasing number of churches, it is practiced weekly. The children of believers are baptized and, in many of those churches, they sit alongside their parents, singing, praying, reading, and hearing the Word of God. They are told that they are members of the covenant through baptism, yet when the bread and wine come around they are denied because they have not made a “credible profession of faith to the elders.”
These covenant children likely cannot remember a time when they did not believe and they profess their faith each week as they recite the creeds. They seek forgiveness for their sins each time they join in the corporate confession of sin and pray the Lord’s Prayer. Yet, for some reason, they are still denied. A 5-year-old faced with these circumstances knows only that the elders (who are much older, wiser, and theologically astute) have some reason to doubt that she’s genuine. So, she doubts it too. Rather than being raised to trust and believe, the children are trained that they lack both, being identified as “unworthy partakers.”
The Church starves her children of spiritual food, telling them to grow up big and strong, so they can be given something to eat. When some of the children waste away from hunger, the Church responds with a sigh of relief that no bread was wasted on them. The children who grow up to doubt Christianity are used to illustrate why they shouldn’t be allowed to commune without first making a profession of faith. Yet, no one wants to acknowledge that the doubt they pursue was first handed to them by the elders.
Little Saints
1st Corinthians 1:2 says Paul was addressing “saints” in his letter. The word “saints” is the Greek term hagios, meaning “holy ones.” Who are the holy ones to which Paul wrote? 1st Corinthians 7:4 says, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.” The word “holy” is the same term rendered as “saints” in 1:2. Paul was addressing all believers and, very explicitly, their children. He does the same in Ephesians and Colossians, where he specifically states that he is addressing “saints” and directs specific commands to the children (Eph. 1:1 and 6:1; Colossians 1:2 and 3:20).
In 1st Corinthians 10:16-17, Paul says, “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? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.” Who is “we?” Who is “one bread and one body?” The saints are one bread and one body and their children are included in that as well.
To be continued…