Worship Notes: Sacraments Part III
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In the last Messenger, we gathered around the
baptismal font, our “once for all time” washing. This month, let’s come for the refreshment of Holy Communion where those first
promises are recalled and brought into the present.
Probably from the start Christians were
gathering each Sunday for a ritual meal re-enacting Jesus’ Last Supper. However, about 57 AD in Corinth, the meal
seems to have gotten out of hand. The
Apostle Paul warned the Corinthians that their feast was no longer Holy
Communion because “when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your
own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. What!
Do you not have homes to eat and drink in?” (1st Cor. 11:21-22).
The “cup of blessing,” Paul tells them,
and the “bread which we break” is the body and blood of Christ uniting us as a people (10:16-17). He passes on to them what he was taught, how
“the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took a loaf of bread,…”
(11:23-26). Now, almost 1,940 years
later, how many Christians and how many languages have spoken, heard and handed
down these “Words of Institution” in remembrance of Christ and for the
forgiveness of sins? Incredible!
The churches must have heeded Paul and
brought more unity and order to the meal.
Justin Martyr described the Service of Holy Communion in about 150
AD. See if this sounds familiar: Gathering on each “day of the sun,”
Christians heard readings from the “memoirs of the Apostles” (Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John), or from the prophets (Old Testament). The presider would deliver a message based on the lessons. They would then rise for the “standing
prayers,” concluded by the exchange of peace (then, a kiss of peace). The bread and wine were prepared by the
presider who would offer up thanksgiving “with all his might” to which the
congregation responded, “Amen.” The
presider and assistants distributed the bread and wine. The Communion service concluded with a
collection from “those who were prosperous.”
Not a great deal has changed in the
service in the past 1800 years has it?
While liturgy (literally, “the peoples’ work”) includes our voices, we
are reminded that even as our music, instruments and languages change through
the generations, we are joining a heritage that precedes us by over a thousand
years and millions of voices.
In the next Messenger, I will briefly interrupt this series on the Sacraments
to talk about another ancient tradition of worship, the Collection of
Offerings. Once done, the elements of the
bread and wine in Communion are so rich in meaning and purpose, I want to spend
time with each of them individually.
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