CP197 A Tax on Holy Communion?

CP 197 A Tax on Holy Communion?

My first Call (Pastor Appointment) was to Eudunda in South Australia. This was a country parish with around 900 members. Back then I was young and had boundless energy. I flew into the work with gusto. When an Elder mentioned that one of my duties was to give Holy Communion to those who could no longer get to Sunday worship I set aside a day to attend to it. All up there were 8 or 9 of these elderly Eudunda ‘characters’. As I left each house a $5 note was offered to me. I received it each time and all of it was in the offering plate the following Sunday.

A month later, in March, I did the rounds again and the same thing happened. Then around Easter, in April that year, all of them received Communion at home a third time. It was important to me that the elderly and shut-in had access to the sacrament on at least a monthly basis. However, when I came to give them Communion in May some of those folk openly grumbled that it was costing them too much. Upon enquiry it turned out that my predecessors had seemingly had a set fee for such private Communions and that was to be available four times a year. I was shocked, and then angry. Not because they grumbled. Angry, because they had been given to understand that there was a charge whenever Holy Communion was brought to the house.

From that day to this I have point blank refused to accept any money when giving Holy Communion. And when families ask about the fee for a Baptism I’m pretty blunt about saying there is no fee. There should never be a fee or charge for Baptism or for Holy Communion. Not ever! The very idea is abhorrent. Why?

Why? We believe that forgiveness and life in Jesus the Christ comes to us FREE. That it what we mean when we are saved by grace. Yes, it cost Jesus his life, but it costs us nothing. There is nothing we can do to earn forgiveness and grace, and there is no way we can buy it. What did Jesus say? “Freely you have received. Freely give!” It’s my Call to do this. The congregation attends to my needs. We exist together to freely offer the grace and forgiveness of Calvary, the foundational rock of the Kingdom of Christ. We do it through the spoken word, and also through the visible word of the sacrament of Baptism or of Holy Communion. The idea that we might have a fee or charge for the Sacraments is repulsive and obscene. Look, if anyone wants to offer a gift in relation to a wedding or a funeral they are welcome. Those gifts are valuable as discretionary money for various causes. The Sacraments are different. They come at no cost.

With that as background you might understand why a newspaper headline and article (New York Times on 6/10/12) caught my eye and interest. Here it is, at least most of it. The author was Melissa Eddy.

German Catholic Church Links Tax to the Sacraments

“Last week one of Germany’s highest courts rankled Catholic bishops by ruling that the state recognized the right of catholics to leave the church – and therefore avoid paying a tax that is used to support religious institutions… With its ruling the court… dodged the thorny issue of what happens when a parishioner formally quits the church, stops paying taxes, but then wants to attend services anyway. The court said that… was a matter of religious freedom, a decision that so rankled religious leaders fearful of losing a lucrative revenue stream that they made clear, right away, that taxes are the price for participation in the church’s most sacred rituals: No payments, no sacraments.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Germany issued a crystal clear, uncompromising edict, endorsed by the Vatican. It detailed that a member who refuses to pay taxes will no longer be allowed to receive communion or make confession, to serve as godparents, or to hold any office in the church…”

There it was again. No payments, no sacraments. No pay = no grace. Really. Something is rotten here. Yes, I’m aware that much of the way these things have worked has a long history. And yes, one can understand the consternation of the German churches which ‘inherit’ huge amounts per the tax system.($6.3 billion RC 2011 and $5.5 billion Protestant – Lutheran 2011.) And yes again, one can understand the desire to escape the tax which is about 8.5% of taxable income. Dazzling figures are they not?

What’s my problem? I think it’s the linking of performance / payment with forgiveness. Whenever we link mercy with money in such a way we no longer have Gospel. Forgiveness tied to finance is of the devil. Forgiveness made dependent on performance in any way is law as distinct from Gospel. Jesus simply isn’t about law that way. He’s about freedom. He is about the free response of a forgiven soul to Calvary-won grace. The only precondition for forgiveness is a repentant heart… and which of us can read that in someone’s heart anyway.

More next week… the seal of the confessional is very much in the spotlight.

Fred