An insightful participant in a recent worship class asked a question pertaining to last months’ blog submission. "If we are to see the Passover as an example of the Sacred Assembly with the covenant renewal components of Word and Sign, and if that remembrance is annual, why then is the Christian Sacred Assembly every week?" This is a marvelous question. Allow me to offer some possibilities and let me know what you think.
First, consider Luke 24. On Resurrection Sunday, Cleopas and the other disciple sat down with Jesus at the table. They were completely unaware of who He was. When He followed the “institution narrative” formula for breaking the bread, (He took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave to them) “their eyes were opened,” and later they said that they, “knew Him in the breaking of the bread.” How interesting that at the very moment they recognized Him in the bread, He disappeared from them bodily. Could it be that Jesus was helping them and us to understand that it is at His Table and in the bread that we will now “rightly discern the Body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:29)?
Second, Paul indicates in 1 Corinthians 5:7 "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast..." This feast is the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist. Twenty years before Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, at the birth of the church, Acts 2:42 indicates that the people dedicated themselves to the "apostles teaching" (fellowship, prayer) and "breaking bread." Breaking bread, a euphemism for the Lord's Supper, would have been celebrated in the context of an agape feast. This was their practice each time they met – which according to verse 46 was daily. Perhaps the Lord’s admonition to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” coincides. Moving on, note the two early church documents below that sound very similar to Acts 2 and demonstrate a weekly celebration.
The Didache' (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) was written at the same time as the Scriptures and was widely read in worship in the first century. "Concerning the Christian Assembly on the Lord's Day,” Didache' has this to say in Chapter 14: But every Lord's Day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one who is at odds with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: 'In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations.'" (quoting Malachi 1:11)
Further, Justin Martyr wrote in his First Defense chapter 67, "And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons."
Acts 20:7 also underscores Sunday as the day to gather. "On the first day of the week we came together to break bread."
These passages reveal that the Christians gathered to celebrate the Christian Passover feast, every Sunday. In Christ, the Hebrew Passover has been translated from a yearly remembrance of the Exodus out of Egypt, to a daily or weekly remembrance (anamnesis) of the New Covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20). Jesus brings deliverance from bondage to sin, death and hell through His resurrection. Given that Sunday was the day of the resurrection, it stands to reason that the Christian Assembly, complete with the Word and Table – the two components of Covenant renewal –would take place on that most blessed day.
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3 comments:
Hi Carl,
I needed to ask a few questions, not necessarily to you, but of myself before trying to respond.
If the Lord’s Supper is to remember the new covenant, and a covenant is comprised of Word and Sign (or meal), could we be partaking of the Lord’s Supper when in prayer and worship? For Christ “…is the Word made flesh…” it was “…my body broken for you…”, “…my blood, which is poured out for you.”. My thought is if we are in Christ when we pray, and we are in Christ when we take communion, are we not partaking of the Lord’s Supper when we worship with or without bread and wine? With or without one or more present? Since God is not bound by space or time, couldn’t it be that when I pray on a Saturday morning with another praying in Croatia we are actually partaking in the Lord’s Supper? Is the Sacred Assembly more than those present on a Sunday morning in a particular building? Could it be all who are in Christ – who have died to self and live in Christ? And is that the communing with God that happens at the Lord’s Supper?
So before I can comment on the frequency (or infrequency) of the Lord’s Supper, I need to distinguish between prayer and communion. They seem so similar. I wonder how communion with God in the Lord’s Supper differs from communion with God in prayer.
When I pray, I first recall the total sacrifice of Christ’s life for mine (and all mankind). I remember His sacrifice of His body and the shedding of His blood. I know he is God. I also know it is by His faithfulness I am saved because it is the ONLY conditional covenant which will not and cannot be broken. It is the covenant between God the Father and God the Son. The covenant is between God/God, not God/man. Jesus gave mankind this NEW covenant at the last supper and it is by this NEW covenant Grace is given and also received.
I then ask God for forgiveness of my sins (of physical, of thought and most of all of heart) which I’ve committed.
I then pray for needs to be supplied by Him. The needs can be for others or for myself – usually its both. They can be actual (physical – shelter, food, health, monetary) or spiritual (a forgiving heart, patience, love, gentleness, joy, thankfulness, more faith, more trust in Him).
Then I give Thanks. Thanks for His gift, for His forgiveness and for His provision.
There are times though, when I’m so awed by the beauty of His Being, the depth of His love, the sheer wonderment of His creation and divine plan I can do nothing but praise and adore. At these times there is much weeping, not of sorrow but from joy. I wish I could be this way in prayer all the time, I wish I could walk every moment of my life in this state. I think this is what eternal life will be like (but there will be no more tears – only a new song Ps.149:1).
It sounds like a “cookie cutter” prayer time - but it is not. These are the elements of my prayer time and they never seem to have the same shape, size or time frame.
When I partake of the Lord’s Supper I recall the very same thing – the NEW covenant – but: 1) I don’t pray at the Table, 2) I search my heart before going and I ask God to search, reveal and forgive before I would commune with Him and 3) It is done with my brothers and sisters in Christ.
For lack of a better word, there seems to be“purity” at the Table not present in the above “prayer time”. There is a completed (not completion) presence. It is an understanding and focus on the Divine. The Divine Being, the Divine Act and the Divine Gift. There is nothing of self or of others; there is simply Being and communion.
During the Lord’s Supper, there is UNITY.
So yes, I now see a difference. The Lord’s Supper is VERY special, distinct from any other worship. So why do we do it so infrequently (at least to me)? I don’t know. I don’t know how often it should be done. Could we come to the Table of Presence daily, weekly, quarterly, etc….with understanding and focus of the Divine every time?
The only response I have to that question is: I didn’t think I could commune with the Lord daily in prayer until I started to do it, practice it and live it.
I thank you for your teaching. It prompts me to consider and reflect on what I believe and practice.
God bless.
Thanks for the question. God has created us with physical and spiritual attributes. His coming to us and the faith He commends to us also contain physical and spiritual attributes.
Consider the following.
First, Jesus became flesh (sarx) and dwelt among us. Why? Could he have come to us in spiritual form, appeared to have died on the cross, and accomplished his mission? We could have related to the Lord in a sort of spiritual/virtual world and tried to forsake our physical side. But, this is not God's design. John goes to great lengths in his gospel to show that Jesus, the eternal Word, became flesh and literally died on the cross, was buried and was raised on the third day. It is interesting that we are given baptism as a physical re-presentation of death, burial and resurrection in our lives. In baptism we experience rebirth through the water (physical) and the spirit (John 3:5, John 1:32,)into Christ and His Church.
Second, Paul indicates in 1 Corinthians 10:16 that it is the cup and bread that are our participation in the body and blood of Christ. Why do you think this is? Prayer is very powerful and certainly prescribed by the Lord. But Jesus gave us this means to reconnect with His salvific, "once and for all sacrifice."
My conclusion is that God made us to be physical and spiritual beings. He wants to be Redeemer and Lord of all of us - the physical and the spiritual. At the Table and in baptism, as in His two-fold nature, we see a combination of the physical and the spiritual. A mystery - to be sure (John 6:53, 1 Peter 3:21).
Thanks Carl. This is of great help.
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