One Sunday long ago that rarest of things happened: A woman who had never before set foot in a church came and joined us for worship.
Her son had asked why they didn’t go to church. Ours was in the neighborhood. They showed up.
I mean they had never, ever been in a church before. Most newcomers to any church used to be regulars at some other one.
As several of us chatted after worship she described her experience:
I liked the songs and the, uh, talk. But do you always do that ‘body and blood’ thing? That’s kind of gross.”
This was her very first exposure to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. It has been a key question of outsiders since the early centuries when the first apologists had to explain that Christians are not, in fact, cannibals.
In our post-Christian culture we need once again to be ready to explain what we do of a Sunday morning—and why it matters.
It would probably be a good start if we thought about it ourselves.
Here is what the Heidelberg Catechism (the widely used and well-loved Reformed summary of Biblical Christianity) said about the topic back in 1563:
76 Q. What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his poured-out blood?
A. It means to accept with a believing heart the entire suffering and death of Christ
and thereby to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life.But it means more. Through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us, we are united more and more to Christ’s blessed body. And so, although he is in heaven and we are on earth, we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone.
And we forever live on and are governed by one Spirit, as the members of our body are by one soul.
No, we have to say, unlike many denominations, most churches in the Reformed tradition do not celebrate the Lord’s Supper every week. It is really important though. Look at the things that we gain by receiving the Lord’s Supper, which Jesus tells us is his body and blood:
1. We receive forgiveness. That is huge. If you’ve read the Heidelberg Catechism, or followed this blog on the topic, you know that the writers saw sin as a big problem. As a species and as individuals we have not lived as God intended. The result is misery.
The Lord’s Supper points us to Christ’s sacrificial death, his body broken and his blood poured out on the Cross. We “eat” and “drink” when we “accept with a believing heart” the realities the elements point to — and so we receive forgiveness.
The Catechism is not saying that just any eating and drinking of the elements does this. It is saying that nothing communicates the grace of forgiveness through Christ so vividly and powerfully.
In the Lord’s Supper we come to know that this overwhelming gift of love is for us, and heals the rift caused by our sin.
2. We are joined to Christ. Huge again. And surprising to many in the Reformed tradition.
We Presbyterians have somehow inherited a simplified version of Zwingli’s teachings about the Lord’s Supper: that it is only about “remembrance”—looking back on what Christ did in the past rather than something he does here and now.
The Heidelberg Catechism does emphasize remembrance, but here the Supper is emphatically more than that.
- We look to what Jesus said about the Supper: it is his “Body.”
- Then we look to the action in the Supper: we eat it.
- The very nature of the Supper teaches us its meaning: his body comes into us like the food we eat.
It is a mystical image of union. And the Catechism emphasizes it with the image of marital union in the words of Adam upon meeting Eve. In the Supper we are so united to Jesus that we are “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.”
3. Our lives come to be governed by his Spirit. Huge again. We are no longer on our own, but now, joined to Christ’s body we find our lives shaped and ruled by his Spirit.
Not all at once. I have nothing to boast about in this regard. But it is real.
The Lord’s Supper teaches us of the deep work of God in our lives. Forgiveness. Union. New life. Maybe we really should do this every week.
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I would love to hear from you in the comments: What is the most important meaning of the Lord’s Supper for you personally?
I am a little confused by the #1. Both in your explanation and in the Heidelberg reference. #1 seems to be saying to separate things. Is the receiving of the elements themselves what brings forgiveness, or is it the belief that precedes the acceptance? Said another way, these elements only point us to the cross and provide forgiveness, if in fact we have reconciled to God by believing we need a Savior and reconciliation comes only thru Christ’s action on the cross. I don’t mean to confuse the issue, but I believe there is a profound mystery with the action of the body and blood of Christ and our individual beliefs about Jesus Christ.
Thanks Susan, for identifying this confusing bit in my post. I rushed to get it out and just didn’t spot it. I’ve now edited that section — let me know if it makes more sense.
On the “Reformed” side of 16th century Protestantism, it was never “bare eating” that brought forgiveness. Rather the forgiveness comes through faith, trust in the faithfulness of God who in the Cross has promised forgiveness and made it possible.
Very nice post thank you! You addressed some misconceptions I had of the Protestant understanding of communion.
As you may know, the Orthodox understanding is very multifaceted (here I’ll use the prayers of St. John Chrysostom from the 4th century):
Our Eucharistic service starts with the anamnesis (remembrance), but then builds many layers. Before the bread and wine have been consecrated, the Priest says, “Offering to You these gifts from Your own gifts in all and for all…” But then the people finish the sentence with the main verbs, “We praise You, we bless You, we give thanks to You, and we pray to You, Lord our God.”
The idea is that God accepts our gifts and transforms them into the Body and Blood of Christ to be given back to us. At that point the priest says, “So that they may be to those who partake of them for vigilance of soul, forgiveness of sins, communion of Your Holy Spirit, fulfillment of the kingdom of heaven, confidence before You, and not in judgment or condemnation. Again, we offer this spiritual worship for those who repose in the faith, forefathers, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and for every righteous spirit made perfect in faith. Especially for our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever virgin Mary.” This is an offering for the salvation of the world!
Then, right before the Lord’s Supper, this whole thing gets re-emphasized as the priest prays, “We entrust to You, loving Master, our whole life and hope, and we ask, pray, and entreat: make us worthy to partake of your heavenly and awesome Mysteries from this holy and spiritual Table with a clear conscience; for the remission of sins, forgiveness of transgressions, communion of the Holy Spirit, inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, confidence before You, and not in judgment or condemnation.”
I also appreciated your comments about union with Christ. There was an Orthodox priest who wrote a blog post a few weeks ago saying that the idea of “accepting Christ” was foreign to Orthodoxy. Instead, he used the baptismal service to show that we are to “unite” ourselves to Christ. During the baptism, this is the question that the priest asks, “Do you unite yourself to Christ?” The service then continues, and after the baptism, the hymn is, “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia.” The priest was emphasizing in this blog post that union implies a synergy, a working with Christ. At any rate, that is to say I enjoyed your post. Thank you.
Thanks Fr. Dustin.
Actually this text just presents one of a great number of Protestant views of the Eucharist. Understanding this sacrament, tragically, was a matter of great division in the Reformation.
For Calvin in particular, union with Christ was crucial to understanding salvation — an idea that lay rather dormant in the Reformed tradition across the centuries, though it is gaining renewed attention in our lifetimes.
Dr. Hansen, as I have been studying this semester in your class the idea of the “celebration’ that occurs with the sacraments has been neat to see unfold. Forgiveness of our sins and unity that comes from the Lord’s supper is a joyous occassion and I understand now why maybe this should be enjoyed more often. Our church does not do it weekly, but I sure couldnt’ fault us if we were to start to doing so, in fact I may propose why we should think about doing it more often!
Thanks Joe! Calvin actually thought the Lord’s Supper should be celebrated every week, but he couldn’t convince Geneva to go along with him. I hear people say celebrating it weekly would somehow make it less significant. In my experience just the opposite is the case.