I believe that, according to the scriptures, Christians should celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It is not a side-dish to the Christian experience that we can take or leave. It is prescribed by Jesus Himself, and it has been understood through the ages, from the time of the Apostles until now, as an indispensable part of our discipleship.
Communion has been interpreted in many ways through the years. Some believe that the bread and wine literally become the actual body and blood of Christ (Roman Catholic). Others believe in a qualitatively different experience of the presence of Christ among His people whenever communion is celebrated (Luther, Calvin, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglican/Episcopalian, many others). Still others believe it to be simply a reminder, a memory device, which point our heart and mind back to the crucifixion (Zwingli, Anabaptists, most contemporary Evangelicals).
Personally, I believe that the gravity of the communion celebration is what makes it indispensable to our worship. In 1 Corinthians 11, we read these words from Paul: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.” The first notion I have when reading this passage is that people are dying because of the cavalier way they are taking communion! I can’t help bu think that it has to be more than just a memory device.
Second, I find myself wrestling with the phrase “recognizing the body of the Lord.” Simply put, we must recognize the body of Jesus when we eat and drink…or there are painful ramifications. So, what does it mean? Catholics would say we need to recognize the literal, “transubstantiated” presence of Jesus. Memorialists would say we must have an internal recognition of the saving impact of Jesus’ actual sacrifice.
I confess…I line up with Calvin and the Eastern Orthodox on this one. I do believe in a unique presence of Christ in the celebration of communion, that is made possible by the work of the Holy Spirit. Because of this conviction, I think communion is worthy of our devotion (Acts. 2:42).
- – - – - – - – - -
For further reading…
Communion … at every service?
I became a Christian in a church that celebrated communion every week. When my ecclesiastical horizon expanded, I became familiar with churches and denominations that only practiced the Lord’s Supper monthly, quarterly, and even annually. I also came to understand that Catholic churches offered the Eucharist multiple times daily. So, the simple questions came to my mind. Should we celebrate communion every time we gather? If not, how often should it be practiced?
I make no claim to have a definitive answer, as this is an issue that has been debated at length over the years. Let me offer a few statements of support for some of the stances.
Never: Some leaders of the “Radical Reformation” abandoned Holy Communion altogether, saying that a literalist view of its celebration was theologically flawed from the beginning, and that Jesus was speaking symbolically in the Upper Room – not instituting an ongoing practice.
Yearly: Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in the context of the Passover celebration. So, when He said “do this in remembrance of me,” the “this” to which He is referring could certainly be interpreted as the Passover itself. He could be saying, then, that – in the same way the Jewish community celebrates the Passover annually – we should celebrate the newly-reinterpreted Passover, the Lord’s Supper, annually as well. Old school Southern Baptist churches, for example, celebrated communion yearly, in conjunction with Easter.
Monthly: Most churches that celebrate monthly have done so because a) they don’t want communion to lose its significance by doing it too often, b) the logistical issues related to communion make it cumbersome on a weekly basis, and c) out of an historical pattern that has evolved through the practice of their denomination.
For example, in different historical seasons, the expansion of congregations was often more rapid than the church’s ability to provide ordained ministers to preside over the sacraments. This was true of Medieval Catholic Europe, and of the Western frontier of the USA. Hence, communion would be celebrated whenever a credentialed clergyman could make it to town. In this context, denominations would do well to at least provide the Lord’s Supper quarterly. And, as we know, sometimes things birthed out of temporal necessity become long standing traditions.
Weekly: As we do at EVBC, many churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper whenever they gather for corporate worship. Some, though, have relegated communion to Sunday nights, or even Wednesday, because there are so many non-Christians attending on Sunday morning, making it more awkward to “fence” the taking of communion for Christians only.
Weekly communion was the practice of the Ancient Church (at its weekly Sunday gatherings), as well as the practiced championed by Luther, Calvin and most reformers.
More often than weekly! In Acts 2:42ff, the scriptures tell us that the members of the early church “devoted themselves to … the breaking of bread … Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” It does not say here how frequent these meetings were. But, it does indicated that breaking bread was a regular part of their fellowship, and that their fellowship was daily in the temple, and also taking place in homes. And, it says that they would “break bread” in these home fellowship gatherings. It would seem that celebrating the Lord’s Supper is surely not isolated to all-church gatherings, or contexts where ordained leadership must preside.
Some key figures from history
John Wesley contended that it is the duty of every Christian to receive the Lord’s Supper as often as possible, because of its benefits, including giving believers the strength to perform their duty and leading believers on to entire sanctification.
Augustine reported that in his day that the frequency of communion was different in different places. Augustine saw there was no Scriptural rule for the frequency of communion and urged his people to conform to the practice which he finds prevailing in the church to which it may be his lot to come (Epistles 54, 2).
Martin Luther, in his Preface to the Small Catechism, wrote: We are to force no one to believe, or to receive the Sacrament, nor fix any law, nor time, nor place for it, but are to preach in such a manner that of their own accord, without our law, they will urge themselves and, as it were, compel us pastors to administer the Sacrament.
John Calvin believed communion should be celebrated weekly, and was distraught by monthly or quarterly practices. Calvin’s was a minority position, however. His desire to see the Lord’s Supper observed weekly coincided with seeing the laity receive the cup, and the language of the service to be in the vernacular of the people.
July 19, 2008...7:01 pm
GW – True: The Lord’s Supper
Jump to Comments
