This morning we observed Holy Communion for the first time since late last year. How I wish Reformed churches would celebrate the Lord’s Supper whenever they meet for worship. When will we finally follow Calvin’s wishes rather than the defective practice of Geneva’s city fathers? Many years ago I published this article in Reformed Worship: The Lord’s Supper: How Often? Here is an excerpt:
As for the Lord’s Supper itself, we should begin to think of it as it was meant to be: a meal. We eat meals three times a day. And the most pleasant and meaningful of these are eaten in the company of family and friends. Fellowship at table does not lose its significance simply because it is repeated two or three times daily. The same, I would argue, is true of frequent reception of communion.
Because we are frail human beings plagued with the normal doubts that beset everyone, we need this tangible confirmation of our salvation in Christ’s body and blood. Far from being burdensome, our nourishment in the Lord’s Supper should be cause for joy and gratitude. . . .
In churches where the Lord’s Supper is celebrated weekly, the people have generally come to treasure this opportunity to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8). Far from becoming mundane and ordinary, the supper has come to enrich the faith of those receiving, who increasingly find themselves looking forward to each Resurrection Day with eager anticipation.
March 4th, 2012 | 4:17 pm | #1
Very true. My wife and I both come from an Anglican background (where we celebrated the Lord’s Supper each week), and I wish in the Evangelical world we would do so more often, because we cannot be reminded of God’s grace and Jesus’ work on the cross too often as a Christian community.
March 6th, 2012 | 12:04 pm | #2
Our Reformed (PCA) church went to weekly communion many years ago — so many I’ve forgotten, probably a decade, at least.
Once you get used to that, it doesn’t make sense to think you’re really doing worship without it. On the rare occasion that we have a non-ordained supply in the pulpit, something is really missing.
March 8th, 2012 | 5:46 pm | #3
Excellent post.
Having grown up in the LCMS I never understood this thinking in the Reformed tradition while I was affiliated with the CRC.
Sadly, I think that many in the evangelical side of the aisle miss out on this wonderful gift given to us by our Lord. This sacrament is such a beautiful treasure to strengthen our faith, I can’t imagine not participating at least weekly in Holy Communion.
March 12th, 2012 | 8:05 am | #4
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormons”), the core activity of every Sunday worship service is the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, in which every person in the congregation, from toddlers up, is invited to take a piece of broken bread in remembrance of the body of Christ. That is why they are offended by the accusation that they are somehow less than Christians.
March 12th, 2012 | 11:16 am | #5
I’m curious, Raymond. Why do Mormons take bread and water rather than bread and wine?
March 24th, 2012 | 11:40 am | #6
Raymond, mormons are not reconized as Christians for reasons that have nothing to do with the frequency of “communion”. Rather it has everything to do with the perversion of the Gospel and the pagan polytheism that is taught in every mormon meeting house and by every mormon missionary.
As far as the post itself, how I wish that the church would not only get back to frequently sharing the Lord’s Supper but also observing it as the church under the leadership of the apostles’ did, namely in the form of a shared meal rather than a tiny cup of wine and a bit of bread. What passes for the Lord’s Supper in most of the church is a sad and inadequate shadow of what it could and should be.
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