Why Some Churches Won't Let You Take Communion with 'Em

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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    Four decades ago, I'd never go to coffee hour after worship and sit with geezers; because they talked OCDily about prescriptions, aches, pains, and pills as they longed for the way things never were or maybe were but are no more.

    After a decade +1 of eligibility without joining AARP, I now sit with 'em and exchange notes.

    It happens.

    Inevitable.

    Mirrors and what's behind 'em in the cabinets don't lie.

    What's not inevitable is spirit; or as a senior wrote in my 8th grade yearbook that continues to challenge moi, "May you live as long as you want to and want to as long as you live!"

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    Jesus said, "Behold, I make all things new!"

    He talked about never losing the flexibility to stretch and make room for the new and better and improved and possible like new wineskins.

    I think a big part of what He meant is it's possible to remain vibrant and zest-filled and positively anticipatory and adventurous and learning and discovering and psyched for life and, uh, stuff like that no matter what it says on the birth certificate.

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    Depending upon God's grace for the opportunity/responsibility like Solomon in 1 Kings 3, I counsel lots of folks; including pastors being beaten up by churchgoers only coincidentally connected to Jesus transferring their...

    Ecumenical as well as parochial.

    Anyway, one pastor blurted out during a session, "You don't sound like a Presbyterian!"

    "Thanks," I replied.

    He asked, "Don't you want to know why I think that?"

    "Nah," I responded, "but if you insist..."

    He explained, "I've never heard many Presbyterian clergy talk so much about Jesus and the Holy Spirit and..."

    My comment: "I guess you've caught me on a good day."

    Selah.

    He went on, "Really, you come off, sometimes, like a Pentecostal or..."

    I interrupted, "I'm having a hard enough time trying to be a Christian without thinking too much about if I'm coming off as a Presbyterian or Pentecostal or..."

    Selah.

    As you know, I've been scratching the surface of the book more than reading books about it...lately.

    I haven't found too much about being denominational in it; but I have discovered lots about just following...

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    People who talk more about being Presbyterian or Catholic or Baptist or Lutheran or Methodist or Charismatic or Mainline or Pentecostal or, uh, whatever concern me.

    It's a Matthew 23 and especially 23:37ff. and John 17 thing; and if you're still talking more about denominational stuff than just Jesus, my guess is you're not very familiar with those texts.

    No wonder Jesus told Nicodemus that some folks gotta be born...

    Yeah, read John 3; especially if you're still talking about your denominational, sectarian, cultic, or whatever identity more than just Jesus.

    That is, of course, if you still wanna try or regenerate what that senior wrote in my 8th grade yearbook.

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    I just heard about a denominationalist more than a just Jesus guy who spent 20 minutes at the table explaining why non-members of his franchise can't take the sacrament with 'em.

    Jesus came to mind: "Come to Me,...all...everyone..."

    Now I know why Jesus never talked about denominations.

    I guess some people just need to be born all over again and from above before they can grow up about...

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Blessings and Love!