Confessing Evangelical

Came across the following quotation that seems helpful when considering how to respond to my friend the baptist pastor and his concerns over closed communion and the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper:

When we wish to correct with advantage and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but reveal to him the side on which it is false. He is satisfied with that, for he sees that he was not mistaken and that he only failed to see all sides. Now, no one is offended at not seeing everything; but one does not like to be mistaken, and that perhaps arises from the fact that man naturally cannot see everything, and that naturally he cannot err in the side he looks at, since the perceptions of our senses are always true. (Pascal, Pensées, para 9, emphasis added)

Pretty much every objection evangelicals have to the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper (and Baptism, for that matter) is absolutely correct - or rather, would be, if Lutherans in fact held the views ascribed to them. For example: that it involves a crude and "cannibalistic" view of the Supper; that it leads to a belief in "the sacrifice of the Mass"; that it provides justification for an idolatrous adoration of the physical elements, whether during or separate from the administration of the Supper; that it involves an ex opere operato view which removes the need for faith in the Gospel; etc. In short, that it leads inexorably to the worst errors of Roman Catholicism.

So following Pascal, the aim is to notice that that is the side from which our evangelical brothers and sisters view the matter, and to acknowledge that all the things they object to are indeed objectionable; but to go on to demonstrate that they are not held by Lutherans and are not a necessary consequence of Lutheran teachings.

Well, it's got to be worth a shot, hasn't it? ;-)