Some churches believe that there is a mandate for partaking of the Lord's Supper every week, primarily based on Acts 20:7 which speaks to the Apostle Paul in Troas. The verse reads, "On the first day of the week, we assemble to break bread. Paul spoke to them, and since he as about to depart the next day, he extended his message until midnight." (remember that the next time you thing your pastor preached to long!)
There are just some things, as a commitment to mutual respect, that we must acknowledge will not be sorted out until we all get to heaven. I believe the frequency of the Lord's Supper is one of them. But mutual respect does not mean we cannot have humble, affirming dialogue about why we have different beliefs and different practices.
Why am I writing about this in reference to today's reading? Because in Genesis 9, God gives Noah and his family some basic instructions in preparation of the creation of new society. One was that no meat could be eaten that still contained blood and secondly that in any case of one person taking another person's life, the perpetrator must be killed. Does this mean that any person today who professes faith in Christ can never eat such foods or must support a criminal code that only calls for capital punishment in every instance of murder? Of course not, because as the Apologetics Study Bible notes point out (my current favorite daily reading Bible), we recognize the difference between teachings in Scripture that are timeless and those that are time bound. Paul commands that women must wear head coverings in church...I can't speak for every church, but at City Life we do not have a knitting ministry to provide head coverings to our ladies! This is one of the primary sources of the multitude of denominations today, disagreements between what is time bound and what is timeless.
Did the early church celebrate the Lord's Supper every time they met for their weekly worship service? Personally, I don't think Acts 20:7 is a very strong support of this since Paul was only there in Troas for 7 days. This was Paul's last day with them so one could make a strong argument that the context of Acts 20:7 is that they "broke bread" with Paul because he was a special guest and they wanted to share in this sacred moment with him. For me, I have to ask the question, if God intended us to share in The Lord's Supper every time we gathered, it seems that the instruction would be much more clear throughout Scripture. The only other mention the implies frequency is in 1 Corinthians 11:33 where Paul wrote, "Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another." But here again, there are many scholars who point out that the dominant word here is "when" meaning that every congregation must decide for themselves about frequency.
I thumbed through a book not too long ago by an author name Perry Stone who said he believed that The Lord's Supper was something to partake of every day that the this was the practice of the early church. I think that is quite a stretch and has little historical support but still, in the end, we just don't know, it is unclear.
I would argue that the frequency of The Lord's Supper is not a timeless principle. We must make room for one another's preferences without perceiving others as being wrong if we are not dealing with an absolute. If someone were to argue that the deity of Christ is not a timeless principle, well, that would be a problem! But if we take matters that are supposed to be relative from one congregation to another and make them absolutes, we end of with division and legalism. By the same token, if we take absolutes and reduce them to relativity, we end up in compromise. My definition of unity is that we must let absolute commonalities transcend relative dissimilarities.
So, for my brethren who partake of the Lord's Supper every week, go for it! If you want to partake every day, then by all means do! Or, if you want to celebrate it once every month, then enjoy! Let's make room for one other in love, devotion, and respect!
Pastor Fred
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