What is a sacrament? Wikipedia defines a sacrament as a Christian rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. Augustine of Hippo defined it as an outward sign of an inward grace, instituted by Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church recognizes seven sacraments while most mainline Protestant churches have two. Some churches don’t use the word “sacrament,” and instead view them as symbols of faith.

I’m getting very close to specific doctrine here, so let me stop and explain the point I want to make.

First of all, I don’t want to convince anyone to leave one church for another. You don’t grow your flock by stealing sheep from another shepherd. If you belong to a church that you like and it fills your spiritual needs, that is wonderful and I wouldn’t want you to change that.

What I want to convey are important rites that many churches practice and why, to give you a better understanding of what some believe to be significant to their faith.

Today I want to discuss the Lord’s Supper. It’s also called Holy Communion or the Eucharist.

Why do we observe communion? Simply because Jesus asks us to: “And while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ And He took a cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is to be shed on behalf of many for forgiveness of sins’” (Matthew 26:26-28). This is also recorded in the 14th chapter of Mark and the 22nd chapter of Luke.

In John chapter 6, Jesus goes to great lengths explaining he is the bread of life and says, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Now, many denominations look at the Last Supper as symbolic, but later in John 6 it states, “Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this said, ‘This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?’” (John 6:60), then in verse 66, “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him any more.”

John is talking about Jesus’ disciples, those who followed him closely for a long period of time, not just some locals who said, “Hey, let’s go grab some lunch and listen to this Jesus guy preach this afternoon.” Would they have reacted this way if they thought it was only a symbol?

Are you really accepting Christ during communion? I once was asked by one of my evangelical brothers if Lutherans had “altar calls” — I said, “Sure, every Sunday, but we call it communion.”

Whether you believe the Lord’s Supper is symbolic or sacrament is your choice, but what I want to stress is that it is important to take it seriously as a Christian. Communion is significant to Christians no matter what your denomination is and should be taken with utmost reverence.

Whether you’re Catholic or Protestant, there is one thing we agree on: We need Jesus in our lives.

See you in church.