In looking at our views and teachings on the Lord’s Supper, we need to recognize another outside influence. Besides our U.S. culture, we are also affected by religious culture. The American Restoration movement was not born in a vacuum. It came out of Protestantism which in turn came from Catholicism. Ideally, all of our views came from the Bible and the Bible alone, but that’s just not the case. The fish doesn’t know that he’s wet. It’s hard to see the impact that our environment has on us.
Our assemblies betray us. So much of what we do reflects centuries of church traditions. This in and of itself is not wrong, yet its dangerous to fail to recognize the influence those traditions have had on us. The format of our assemblies, the songs that we sing, the furniture we use, the standardized communion trays… all of these things show an outside influence. Have our views toward the Lord’s Supper remained unaffected? Personally, I think not.
That influence can come from acceptance of what others have done or can come as a reaction to what they’ve done. I think that the Catholic view of the Supper as a reenactment of Christ’s sacrifice has had a strong influence on our making a funeral atmosphere the standard ambience for taking the supper. The view of the Supper as a sacrament has led many to place an emphasis on the act of taking the Supper each week, to the point that many come, take the Supper and leave; we offer Sunday night “make up” communion for those that missed Sunday morning. As for reactions, we can see that the controversies over the elements (are they literally the body and blood of Christ?) have led us to emphasize the symbolic nature of the elements.
Again, I turn to you for help on this point. How do you see us as having been influenced by the beliefs and practices of others concerning the table of the Lord?
Your comments on this culture influence is flawless. I agree 100%. I had to look at the possibility of the Supper as a full meal and it took me 4 months non-stop studying before realizing what I had been doing was not the Lord’s Supper at all. I was very disappointed at the thought of being so wrong on such an important act of worship. You are doing a fantastic job on your teaching the Lord’s Table correctly. God bless you and your labor in Jesus.
After leaving the church, then reading “Pagan Christianity” as well as “House Church”, I came to understand the supper as a common meal that should be taken in a spirit of equality, servitude, communally, and brotherly love. Before I could come to this understanding I had to stop reading my bible for a couple of years before I could forget all of my ingrained biases Id picked up from growing up in the church. For a couple years I worshiped with a house church that practiced the supper almost as it should be. It was taken in proximity to a common meal, but not an integrated part of a common meal weekly. Other folks from other protestant traditions still had a sacramental mentality about it though, as they requested we do it quarterly instead, because they felt it was becoming to common.