A Brief History of Communion

In the early years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, communities of his followers began gathering on Sunday evenings (“the Lord’s day,” because it was the day of his resurrection) to share in a common meal and worship together. These early communities had members from across a socioeconomic and ethnic spectrum. Becoming a community of compassion and generosity was sometimes accomplished spontaneously by the work of the Holy Spirit, but other times early Christian groups resisted allowing those qualities to flourish among them.

For example, word came to the Apostle Paul that people in the church at Corinth in Greece were hoarding the food and drink they brought to this meal rather than sharing it with those among them who were poor (see 1 Corinthians 11:17-34). Paul lambasted them for their failure to allow this special meal they shared to be what Jesus had created it to be—a time in which his sacrifice for them was remembered in their willingness to sacrifice and live for one another, and a time in which his presence was invited and welcomed by their willingness to be made more like him.

The focus simply had to be returned to the original intent. “Whoever, therefore,” Paul stated, “eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.”

A great summary of the early observation of the Lord’s Supper comes from an article by Henk Jan de Jonge titled “The Early History of the Lord’s Supper”: “The purpose of the community meal was the realization of the communion (koinonia, including equality, fellowship, solidarity, and brotherhood) which the members of the congregation felt they missed so badly in the outside world…[and to] bring about the koinonia that is its goal: koinonia with Christ and with one another” (pp. 210, 213).

The same author shows how an additional, but abbreviated, meal and worship service before dawn on Sundays eventually superseded the fuller evening meal as the one of greater importance in Christian communities, resulting in our present observation of the Lord’s Supper only being symbolic of a full meal shared in community. Apparently the growth of the church made the full meal shared by the whole community logistically prohibitive.
Nevertheless, one of the central meanings of the sacrament remains: that in the sharing of this holy meal, the entire community is united—across ethnic and socioeconomic boundaries, to name a few—to one another and to Christ.

Another development in how we celebrate the Lord’s Supper evolved over a period of centuries. An emphasis on the mystery of the sacrament and on the concern that one could inadvertently “eat and drink judgment against themselves” led to people being distanced from the Lord’s table. Physically, this became a reality as the table was placed on the raised chancel area and as far as possible from the congregation. Often, a small “fence” (more like a short railing on a deck) was placed at the edge of the chancel, creating further separation between the people and the table.

By the time of the Reformation in the 1500’s, most Christians rarely, if ever, participated in the Lord’s Supper. The mass (worship service) was conducted in Latin, a language most people didn’t understand. A portion of the communion service was done far from the people, sometimes even behind a screen to obstruct their view. The bread and wine were proclaimed to literally be transformed into human flesh and blood—that of Jesus. The wine was withheld from the people because the “blood of Christ” was too precious for them. All these factors led devout Christians to resist partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

Several changes took place during the Reformation. One was to begin serving communion just once per quarter. As Protestant churches over the last 40 years have increased the frequency of the Lord’s Supper to once a month or more, many members have been concerned that if it is taken too often, it loses its meaning. The irony is that it was decreased in frequency from weekly to quarterly to actually encourage Christians to take it more often, not less. With the removal of the impediments that were in place at the time of the Reformation, some Protestant communities have resumed weekly observance of this holy meal.

A second change that occurred during the Reformation was in how the elements (the bread and wine) were served to the church members. The Reformers returned to a doctrine of “the priesthood of all believers” that changed the role of the clergy from priest (necessary intermediary between people and God) to pastor (shepherd of a community).
To represent that change in its services of the Lord’s Supper, Huldrych Zwingli brought a new innovation to the meal: he sent the trays of bread and cups of wine into the congregation where members could serve one another. Many Protestant churches still use this as their primary, or even only, form of serving Communion.

In the early 1960’s, the Vatican II reforms of the Roman Catholic Church at long last implemented many of the changes Protestants had embraced in the Reformation. The combination of this movement in the Roman Catholic church with the ecumenical movement at work in the Protestant wing of Christianity led many Protestant churches to reconsider practices from historic Christianity that had been rejected by the Reformers in their zeal to distance themselves from Rome.

As a result, colored paraments (the cloths on the communion table, pulpit, and lectern), Advent candles, and using a “lectionary” (a three-year plan for alternating biblical texts used in worship) have all found their way back into Protestant worship without diluting the theology of the Reformation.

Similarly, Protestant churches have begun exploring different ways of serving communion. As with Zwingli’s innovation about 450 years ago, the changes feel odd, even threatening to some of us, but they also allow different theological points to be highlighted.

Intinction is one method being used by Protestants today. In this form of distributing communion, members generally come forward (though it can be done in the pews) and tear off a piece of bread from a single loaf. They then dip that bread in a cup filled with juice or wine and thereby receive both elements together. Many who enjoy this way of participating in the Lord’s Supper enjoy tearing “real” bread (not crackers, wafers, or sandwich bread) from a common loaf, coming forward to receive the elements individually, using earthen pottery rather than polished silver to remind them of Jesus’ eating the Last Supper with common people, and hearing from a church leader (lay or clergy), “This is the body of Christ broken for you.”

On the first Sunday in October, we celebrate “World Communion Sunday.” We will receive the bread and the cup in our traditional way...in the pews.

This will be a great opportunity to focus more on what the sacrament means for us than on how it’s served. It will also be a time to be reminded that our uniting with Christ unites us with people from across the globe. I hope you’ll be able to join us this Sunday!

Grace & Peace,
Dan

The Problem of Black and White

Here's my latest submission to the Sand Springs Leader (local newspaper) and the editor's response to it:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20152570&BRD=2754&PAG=461&dept_id=612242&rfi=6
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20152451&BRD=2754&PAG=461&dept_id=574610&rfi=6