* The third in a series on the topic of weekly communion.
Part one: The Flow of the Service.
Part two: Does Scripture Tell Us "How Often?"
With the recent adoption of weekly communion here at
Northminster I’ve been taking this space to provide some perspective on this practice. We have looked at the flow of our
service—how the service moves to its culmination at the Table with Jesus. And last week we briefly looked at some
of the biblical data regarding the frequency of celebration of the Lord’s Table
in the New Testament. Today I want
to highlight of a few items from church history regarding this issue.
The early church seemingly partook of the Lord’s Table on a
weekly basis. One of the earliest
documents outside of the New Testament is the Didache (ca. 50-150).
The Didache gives us insight into
the early church practice on a number of issues. Here is one section relevant to the Table of the Lord:
On
the Lord’s own day gather together and break bread and give thanks, having
first confessed your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. (14.1)
The early church father Justin Martyr (ca. 100-165) also
gives us a glimpse into the early church practice:
And
on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather
together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the
prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased,
the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good
things. Then we all rise together
and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and
the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his
ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to
each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to
those who absent a portion is sent by the deacons.
During the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church practiced
communion much less frequently.
The Fourth Latern Council in 1215 only required the Lord’s Supper once a
year. The Protestant reformers
John Calvin and Martin Bucer called for a return to weekly communion as part of
their reform efforts.
As we participate in weekly communion we are standing in
solidarity with the early church and key teachers in our Protestant and Reformation
heritage.
