- This article is no longer available online, but articles about the Lord’s Supper that appeared in the July 12/19, 2009, and June 10, 2007, issues of CHRISTIAN STANDARD–plus more–are available for purchase as a single, redisigned, easy-to-read and easy-to-use downloadable resource/pdf (a fuller explanation is below).
The Lord’s Supper: A Memory and More
Item D021535209 “¢Â $2.99
If you keep doing something often enough, long enough, it will change you. Take, for example, the Lord”s Supper.
If we practice the Lord”s Supper in a meaningful way, week after week, it will change us for the better by helping us grow closer to God. If we treat it as a ritual largely devoid of meaning, however, it can damage us by causing our faith itself to become a meaningless ritual.
In this 14-page resource, eight writers look at the Lord”s Supper (Communion) past, present, and future””its power, purpose, and promise.
As one writer puts it: “Nothing delivers the death of Jesus like the Lord”s Supper!”
The articles previously appeared in CHRISTIAN STANDARD (primarily in the issues of June 10, 2007, and July 12/19, 2009).
All downloads include permission to reproduce material up to 10 times for ministry and educational purposes. To order this resource, CLICK HERE; To sample the first few paragraphs of Robert F. Hull’s article, continue reading below . . .
One thing virtually all scholars of Christian worship would agree to is that the centerpiece of historical Christian corporate worship was the breaking of bread. This shared meal, with bread and either wine or, in some churches in the modern era, grape juice, is the single most uniquely Christian part of the assembly.
The singing of songs of praise and common beliefs, the sharing of prayers, reading of Scriptures, and exhortations based on those readings were already present in the weekly synagogue gatherings of the first century. These are, of course, dramatically altered with the inclusion of New Testament writings, hymns to Christ, and the presence of both Jews and Gentiles in the service.
The Lord”s Supper, though, has no clear precedent.
The Table Is Moved Back
In fact, the progression of a worship service in most eras of the church”s history can be described as a Christianized synagogue service, sometimes called the Service of the Word. This is followed by the presentation, prayers, and distribution of Communion, sometimes called the Service of the Table. Whatever it is called, all primary worship* included the breaking of bread as its essential high point.
How is it, then, that early Protestants in 16th-century Switzerland began to gather on the Lord”s Day for the Service of the Word, only? The answer rests in both the practice of the Roman Catholic Church of that era, as well as a strong Protestant desire to abandon as much ceremony as possible . . .
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