Symbols can be tricky things. They are often a great help to us, communicating difficult to express truths in difficult to forget ways. They can, however, get a touch uppity from time to time. Sometimes the symbol loses all sense of proportion and thinks itself more important than the thing symbolized. Remember that the children of Israel thought themselves safe, chanting “The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord.” The temple should have been a symbolic reminder of God’s presence with His people. But once the people looked to the temple, rather than God Himself, trouble was coming and quick.
The Bible doesn’t tell us who ought to serve communion. Churches have elders serve to connect symbolically their call to guard the table, with the service of the table. The elders are called to determine if the claim to faith made by those under their care is legitimate. If a man is living in gross and unrepentant sin, and claims to be a Christian, it is the job of the elders to say to that man, and to the church, “This man, until he repents, does not look to us to be a Christian. Therefore he is not welcome at the Lord’s Table.”
It is good and appropriate then, to connect the office of the elder with the Table of our Lord. If elders are serving the sacrament, then of course women should not serve the sacrament, not because of the sacrament, but because women are not to be elders. That is, if you are in a church with women elders, the trouble isn’t that a woman is handing you the body and the blood. The problem is that a woman is ruling in the church, something not just symbolically wrong, but forbidden by the plain language of Scripture (I Timothy 2:12).
On the other hand, if a given church is unconcerned about connecting the call of elders to guard the flock with the call of elders to guard the table, it is not such a big issue. God never said, “Though shalt not receive the tray from a woman, unless she is the woman sitting beside you in the pew.” There are some wings of the evangelical church that are just flat uncomfortable with the symbols God Himself gave us. What is so interesting to watch is how man’s symbols always sneak in to fill the void.
Some churches celebrate the sacrament only once a year. Every week, however, they have an altar call. Every week they call on the lost to repent, and the found to repent and recommit. Which is just what is happening when we come forward to the table. The Lord’s Table the Lord commanded. The altar call He did not. These same kinds of churches are often uncomfortable with the clear lines of authority God has established with deacons and elders. So instead they begin worrying about whether so and so’s walk is good enough for him or her to be on the praise team. Or serve as a Sunday School teacher, as if these are offices in the church.
“Serving communion” is neither an office, nor a calling in the church, according to God’s Word. Would the symbolism be more fitting for a man to serve? Perhaps. Would it be more fitting for an elder to serve? Almost certainly. Is it fitting to judge one another on our differing guesses about what is fitting and what is not? Of course not. Instead let us encourage one another to submit to all that God commands. In short, in essentials unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.
This is the thirty-first installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday February 9 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 112811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.