Pondering the Lord's Supper

At Grace, we have chosen the first Sunday of the month to celebrate the Lord's Supper - "reenacting" the momentous Passover meal Jesus shared with His disciples to begin an unbroken church tradition. The Lord's Supper goes by some other familiar names: most notably "Communion" and the "Eucharist." My personal preference is to call it the "Lord's Supper" because the other phrases often have associations with particular denominations or carry secondary meanings. Furthermore, "Lord's Supper" reminds us of who it's all about.

We have chosen once a month rather than weekly or quarterly or some other schedule because we want to keep it a frequent tradition, but not so frequent that it becomes a mindlessly repeated act. Many churches celebrate it weekly with great meaning, and we have no criticism of that practice. We believe that monthly is best for who we are at this time.

Janette Jasperson, Irena Jasperson, Hannah Flowers, and I'm sure many others who I'm not aware of, have faithfully prepared the serving plates, the bread, and the juice month of after month, and I'm grateful to them for their unsung labor. They "prepare" the Lord's Supper for us. In the same way, we should "prepare" ourselves for the Lord's Supper.

One way to prepare yourself is to fast for 12 or 24 hours before we celebrate it on the first Sunday of the month (such as this coming weekend). Then, you are breaking the fast specifically with the elements of the Lord's Supper. I've done this several times, and it's very meaningful to me - but I don't do it every time so that it remains meaningful when I choose to do it. The time of fasting, then, is a time to reflect, pray, and prepare your heart for how the Lord's Supper reminds us of Jesus' sacrifice for us on the Cross to pay for, and then wash away, our sin.

Whether you fast or not, another way to prepare for the Lord's Supper is to set aside time the night before or the morning of to have an unrushed hour to pray, particularly for the purpose of examining your heart, checking your motives, confessing your sin to the Lord, repenting of your sin (which is not about feeling bad, but about turning away from your sin), and receiving forgiveness. Then, you're not rushed during the Lord's Supper to try to "take care of business" in a short amount of time. The Lord's Supper becomes a way to celebrate forgiveness instead of just capping off a short time of prayer (which, quite frankly, is what it can become if we're not careful).

The Lord's Supper is something we particularly do in community - we take this all together, just as Jesus' disciples shared the elements together. There is an "us-ness" about it. The prayer and reflection are very personal, but the public declaration that I claim Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior is very public. Intentionally so.

Lastly, it doesn't need to be a pastor "presiding" over it or the elders to be the ones to serve it. There is nothing to stop us from having other believers speak, pray, and serve, and we have mixed that up on a few occasions. We should be in the habit of having others serve on occasion.

To read more about the Lord's Supper, read the accounts of Jesus and His disciples (Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 22; John 13), the accounts of the early church making the Lord's Supper important to their worship (Acts 2:37-47; 20:7-12), and how Paul teaches the church at Corinth how best to celebrate it (1 Cor 10:14-33; 11:23-34).