15 August 2004

Weekly celebration of Lord's Supper

I've written in the past of my support for the weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper. (See also my "The Lord's Supper: How Often?" Reformed Worship, no. 15, March 1990, pp. 40-1.) Unfortunately, while Lutherans and Anglicans have gradually come on side of this over the decades, Reformed Christians have noticeably lagged behind, despite the expressed support of John Calvin himself. Thus I am always encouraged to learn of a congregation whose leadership has moved intentionally to recover this evidently more biblical practice. One of these is Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Columbia, Missouri, whose website explains:


We don’t leave the house of God without first sitting down at his table. Jesus is our gracious host, feeding us with the bread and wine. Our practice of weekly communion grows out of the practice of the ancient church. Throughout his life, Jesus showed himself as a friend of sinners by sharing food with them (Luke 7:34). On the night of the Last Supper, he took the bread and wine of the ancient Jewish Passover feast and gave it a new meaning. He offered the broken bread to his disciples as his body broken for them. He gave them the cup of wine, representing his blood, which would soon be poured out for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 14:22-24). The earliest Christians continued this practice of table fellowship by sharing a special meal together which we variously call the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:26).

Exactly right. We can only pray that other churches in the Reformed and Presbyterian family will follow the example of Christ Our King and celebrate communion on a weekly basis.

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