Happy Wednesday evening from
rainy, dreary Tennessee. I’m going to have to invest in a canoe to get me to
and from work if this weather pattern persists. Since it’s storming out, this
is as good a time as any to bring you a new blog post. Also, I just noticed
that this will be my 25th blog post since I started this project back
in May of 2019. Although I don’t know exactly who reads this blog regularly,
the stats show that a number of you do. I am grateful for each of you that has
read the blog over the past several months. You truly keep me going.
For
my 25th post, I want to harken back to the title of my blog – Word and
Sacrament. I haven’t touched on Sacraments much here in my last few posts. I’d
like to talk a little bit about the frequency in which the Lord’s Supper is
observed in our Churches.
If
you’re reading this blog, I likely do not need to explain to you what the Lord’s
Supper is. However, you may not know that there are a number of conflicting
views on what the Lord’s Supper is, what it represents, and the exact manner in
which Christ is made manifest to us in the Sacrament. There are four major views on the Lord’s
Supper held today by mainstream Christians. I will not go into these in detail
in this post. If there is enough interest, I can write a future post outlining
each potential in greater detail. For now, here is a brief description of the
four views:
Transubstantiation – This view is
held by Roman Catholics. In this view, the bread and wine literally become the
physical body and blood of Christ.
Consubstantiation – This view is
held today by most Lutherans. Consubstantiation holds that that Christ is “in,
with, and under” the elements of bread and wine. However, in this view, the
bread and wine do not become the literal body and blood of Christ.
Memorialist – Sometimes referred
to as Zwinglianism, this view is espoused by most Baptists, Non-Denominational
Christians, and Pentecostals. In the memorial view, it is taught that the Lord’s
Supper is a mere memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection. The memorialist
view denies that Christ is in any way present in the Lord’s Supper.
True Presence – The final view is
the one held by most Reformed Christians. The True Presence indicates that
Christ is present in the Lord’s Supper, but only in a spiritual, non-physical
manner.
It
should not be surprising, given the varying doctrines, that there is
substantial disagreement about the frequency in which the Lord’s Supper is to
be celebrated. There is substantial disagreement not only between different
denominations but also in different congregations within same denomination. I
ran a quick Twitter poll this morning asking people to select the frequency in
which their congregation observes the Lord’s Supper. The four choices included
the following:
·
Weekly
·
Monthly
·
Quarterly
·
Other
The poll will still
be running until tomorrow morning, so there is still time to vote for your
choice! Thus far, 40 Tweeters have responded to the poll. I interact with
people of varying denomination backgrounds on Twitter, so I am hoping that this
poll is representative of Christianity as a whole. The results are as follows:
· 47.5% of respondents indicated their
congregation celebrates the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis.
· 35.0% of respondents said their congregation
observes the Supper monthly.
·
Only 7.5% responded quarterly.
· The remaining 10.0% of those who answered the
poll indicated that they utilized a frequency other that weekly, monthly, or
quarterly.
The poll results
were not particularly surprising to me. Over the past several years, there has
been a significant number of Churches moving towards weekly reception of the
Lord’s Supper. This was the case in the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America)
congregation that I attended. I’ve been attending my current Baptist Church for
about 5 months and have only partaken in the Lord’s Supper once. So which
frequency is correct? Let’s go to Scripture to check for guidance.
Scripture
actually doesn’t specify a frequency in which the Lord’s supper should be celebrated. 1 Corinthians 11:26 offers the following
guidance: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” If I’ve never mentioned it before,
1 Corinthians is my favorite book of the Bible.
As most of you
know, I was reared within the Roman Catholic tradition. In Catholicism, it is
the practice of the current day for the laity to commune at each and every Mass.
However, I’ve recently learned from listening to Dr. David Anders on EWTN radio
that this has not always been the case within Catholicism. In the early days of
the Catholicism, it was customary for the laity to partake of the Lord’s Supper
only once a year. This example further lends credence to the notion that there
is no right or wrong answer for the frequency of observance of the Supper.
Although we’ve
established that there is no mandated frequency, I am a proponent of observing
the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis. Without getting into too much detail, I’ll
also divulge that I believe that Christ is truly present in the Lord’s Supper
in a way that is beyond our understanding. My reasoning for desiring weekly
reception is based on the very words of Jesus Christ. In John 6: 53-57, Jesus
tells his disciples: “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in
you. Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at
the last day. For my
flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just
as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one
who feeds on me will live because of me.” In light of Jesus’s words for us
in this passage, I want the Supper as often as I can get it! The words of Jesus
have the power to bring us to eternal life and the Lord’s Supper is God’s word and
promise presented to us in tangible form. Sign me up to receive the Grace in
the Supper weekly!
One of the main
reasons for my love of 1 Corinthians is Paul’s lengthy discourse on the
treatment of the Supper. In his letter to the Church at Corinth, Paul sets
about to correct errors that have reached him regarding the improper handling
of the Lord’s Supper. In the midst of Chapter 11, Paul issues this stern
warning to the Corinthians: “Therefore whoever eats this bread or
drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of
the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For
he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to
himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”
It’s clear that
Paul takes the Lord’s Supper with great seriousness and expects his fellow
Christians to follow suit. Paul’s words, written by inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, seem to indicate that the Lord’s Supper should be celebrated with both
regularity and reverence. There are also
passages found in the Acts of the Apostles that suggest the Supper played a
large role in early Church gatherings.
Let me
reiterate that this is just a personal preference I hold. I am certainly not intending
to belittle anyone that would rather save the Supper for special occasions or
observe it with less frequency. Someone who takes the Supper less frequently than I do is no less of a Christian than I am! But for me, if the Lord’s Supper is what Jesus
and Paul say it is, then how could I afford not to partake of the Lord’s Supper
at every opportunity?
I’d love to hear others’ thoughts
on this matter. Please feel free to leave a comment below outlining your position
on the frequency of the Lord’s Supper.
In Christ,
Kendal May
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