Studying the Lord’s Supper
I am reading “Making a Meal of It” by Ben Witherington. It is not listed on the side because I cannot get it to load onto the site. I have been reading a lot of non-religious material in my free time, probably since I have been studying for Genesis and my Thesis so much. I am turning my attention back to theological concerns during this summer break. The book is excellent so far. The material is strong in background material to properly interpret the text. The book does with the major premise that the Lord’s Supper is attached to a meal. This is known as a “love feast.” It is interesting that the religious world is desiring to restore a weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper. The sacrament is becoming prominent once again. Instead of a quarterly or monthly observance, a weekly observance is recommended. Once again, I am proud of us in the churches of Christ for practicing the discipline of the Supper weekly. When the Supper is properly observed, it is a wonderful time of reflection, celebration, and unity. The whole idea of it being attached to a meal is something that I would like to study more. Though, I believe in some of my studying that people have thought that Paul stopped the practice of the “Love Feast” in his Corinthian letter. I have read John Mark Hick’s book a few years ago. If I recall correctly, there were some who disagreed with the Lord’s Supper being attached to a meal. I have enjoyed this rich study so far.
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About The Author
The reason we have a tough time seeing the Lord supper as part of a fellowship meal is that idea does not fit into our theology. Our theology led us to the idea of weekly communion and if we did it weekly then everything would take care of it self. Traditionally it has also been a solemn time of internal reflection rather than a time of talking and sharing where we need Jesus and what he has been doing in our life like we may around a table in a house with a meal included. There are many things such as the love feast that the first, second and third century church did that we do not. We have mostly attempted to discover and restore those things that fit into our culture such as the weekly observance of the Lord Supper, Acapella singing and left out other things such as the “love feast”, meeting exclusively in homes, and a bunch of other things. Don’t get excited about the elders supporting something like this. If your congregation in like most; this would cause a big problem, but it is a good idea.
I read a good book recently called “Pagan Christianity”, it highlighted some of the ancient practices. I am enjoying “Making a Meal of It,” really deep stuff. I love feast does seem difficult as well as meeting in homes because of larger congregations, nothing wrong with a large congregation with a building as long as we stay the church and not a holding company for land. As for my elders, they are always open minded and will try anything they feel as biblical. Waynesboro is not like some congregations, we are just trying to go by the Word of God only.
One two different occasions I have had the opportunity to participate in the Lord’s Supper within the context of a large meal. Once was with the Covenant Fellowship Church in Searcy, AR, where we had a large “breakfast worship gathering.” The other time was last year at the church retreat with the congregation I currently serve with. Logistically, it is difficult to have the LS in the context of a meal every Sunday since most ‘sanctuaries’ are not desigend for eating, thus forcing the congregation into a fellowship hall or some other arrangement (and the larger the congregation, the bigger chore this is).
Since the congregation where I am at is only about 50 members, several people who went on the retreat suggested that we have our worship in the fellowship hall and have the LS within our meal. I did not encounter any argument suggesting that it was wrong for the LS to be part of a larger meal. The objection two members raised ws that the LS was a time of “personal quiet meditation.” While there is nothing wrong with quiet meditation, I also believe they misunderstand the purpose of the LS.
I personally believe the best context for the LS is not the large Sunday morning worship assembly but instead in the context of a small group on Sunday afternoon/evening. I believe this would open up the practicing horizontal aspect (speaking to one another, praying with one another, sharing stories of what God is doing among us) of fellowship that seems to lacks in the assembly without losing the vertical dimension of the LS. However, in most congregations such a change (which would be monumental) seems almost impossible.
Rex
I finished the book last night. A great book, which I will do a review of. Thank you Rex for sharing your experiences.
Since you’ve read “Come to the Table” AND “Making a Meal of It,” I think it would be cool if your review compared them.
I wish JMH had done a book on the sacrament of the Word – I’m working through BW3′s latest book over on Fumbling. I think that after that, I will do a comparative review of “Down in the River to Pray” and BW3′s book on Baptism.
That is a great idea. I plan on reading the book on baptism too. Look forward to your posts.
The author does not deal with the issue of the perversions in the supper. I wish he dealt with Paul’s advice to the Corinthians. It could be likely that Paul stopped the practice because of insight into the problems that it created. I believe I am going to contact my friend Earl Edwards who has done some more study on this than myself.
I am glad to see many in the religious seek to go back to the Bible. I had heard of groups abandoning contemporary music but not of groups going back to taking the LS weekly. Have you ever studied the idea of whether or not it is scriptural to offer the LS twice on Sunday or is it in violation of the principle of “waiting for one another” in 1 Cor. 11. This is the current controversial topic of discussion among members of my congregation right now
cliff
Cliff, to be honest, I never even thought of that before. I will give it some thought, but in today’s world, if we are expected to wait on everyone, it seems that we would never be able to partake of the Lord’s Supper. I see the idea behind this thought, but it misses the context of believe in 1 Cor. the people are feasting while others are coming, also the congregations were smaller. Just a few thoughts on this, I will think more of it later.
Matthew:
There is a problem with a building when it hinders deep spiritual relationships with each other, or when we can’t even take the Lord Supper in the context that it was so effective in the early church.
I never accepted the idea that we had to use CENI or some other hermeneutic for establishing authority for everything we did but when it comes to the building we are free to ignore the NT example of meeting in homes and spend the majority of the contribution on a large expensive building that does little to make disciples of all people. When we pick and choose the how we are going to apply this principle that makes us inconsistent interpreters of scripture. When we ignore and try to explain away the reality that we are inconsistent then we become hypocrites, because our intention is not to understand scripture with brutal honesty but rather to keep our traditions alive.
If we truly were like the first century that we claim to be then we would not spend the majority of the contribution on large expensive buildings but rather on the things they did like the orphans and widows, beggars and reaching the lost.
The first official church building was in built in Rome in early fourth century by Constantine it is called St. Peter’s Basilica.