STUDIES IN THE LORD'S SUPPER
What Would You Do?
Denny Smith
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Sometimes things come up related to serving the Lord's Supper that catch us by surprise and we do not know what is the right thing to do. If we are directly involved we want to do what is right and yet there is no time to study the matter out. It is my desire to discuss some things I have been involved in and/or observed over the years that to my mind have caused problems.
I begin with late arrivals. About every congregation it seems has its habitually late arrivals. One wonders why? It certainly does not show respect for God to be habitually late unless there is an awfully good reason for it. Besides, in most congregations the Sunday morning worship comes after the Sunday School. Come for the Sunday School and you will never be late for worship. Nevertheless, these individuals have gotten into a bad habit from which it is difficult to wean them. They are just going to be late and that is the way it is. You can count on them in that regard.
This creates problems for those who serve the Lord's Supper. What do you do if they come in after the bread has been served but before the fruit of the vine? What if they come in while the prayer is being given for the fruit of the vine for example? What do you do if they come in immediately at the end of the communion service? Of course if one just perceives the communion to be a matter of gulping down a piece of bread and swallowing a little grape juice then there is no problem at all. Just run real quick and grab the trays and let them have it.
When one has missed the prayer or prayers of thanksgiving, eats the Supper on the run so to speak, and has no time to meditate is such a one eating in a worthy manner? Are we who are in charge of that part of the service or helping with it being facilitators of others wrong doing when we serve them under such circumstances (remember they have missed a part of the communion service by coming in late)?
What if one comes in while the fruit of the vine is being passed? You are helping pass. What would you do? Would you go up, get the bread (forget about any thanksgiving for it at that point in time for that is past), and say by your actions in doing so that thanksgiving doesn't matter, that it is fine to partake of both the bread and the fruit of the vine simultaneously, that all that matters is just gulping the emblems down? Needless to say being late like this creates real problems for those who are serving the Lord's Supper and who desire to do the right thing. Often either way you go with it you wonder if you have done the correct thing.
There is such a thing as coming together "not for the better but for the worse" (1 Cor. 11:17). Those who are habitually late arrivals who cannot partake of the Lord's Supper in a proper manner with their brethren ought to consider whether or not their actions fit into that category.
I once had a very unusual situation arise on a Sunday when I was the one heading the communion table. I thought everything had gone fine as it usually does. However, I was sitting on the very front row and after services before I had time to walk away I was approached by a lady who was a visitor who said she had been passed over during the passing of the fruit of the vine. She obviously wanted to partake here after services.
This hit me like a ton of bricks. No time to think or study it out as to what ought to be done. What do you do? What would you have done? We are no longer in the worship service, people are milling around visiting and talking, and surely the Lord's Supper is more than just a swallow of grape juice.
I handed the problem over to a deacon I considered a faithful man who was my elder (talking age here) who was standing at the table at the time gathering up the trays to put them away. He did not hesitate to offer her the tray and she thus partook. I have never felt comfortable with what was done. What was the proper course of action under the circumstances? There was no easy answer for the lady nor for us two men. What do you do?
I know what should be done by anyone who finds themselves being passed over. The time to resolve that and be scriptural beyond doubt is at the time it happens. If needed get up and go to the back and meet the passers there and partake at that time. Don't wait until services are over.
What is a prayer? We all think we know and are in agreement on this subject. At least, I thought that was the case. I have found out that is not true. As it relates to the Lord's Supper can one rather than say a prayer read a prayer and that do? What if it is a prayer written by one who is not a Christian? Am I suppose to make his prayer mine? If I read a prayer rather than say one whose prayer is it, is it mine or the guy's that wrote it? If I read it is it coming from my heart? Is reading a prayer the same as saying a prayer?
I think you would be surprised how much disagreement there is on what constitutes a prayer. Can one write a prayer? One can write a prayer in the sense that one records what was said but that is not what I am asking. Do prayers have to be uttered or can we just write them, read them, and that do? If that will do could we just pass the prayer around on pieces of paper at services and each one read it to himself/herself and that do? Can one even write a prayer? Is there such a thing? There is no use in saying yes because it has been done for that simply assumes what is to be proven, that it has been done, for that is where the disagreement comes in. What you call a prayer I might call something else.
What would you do if you were in an assembly getting ready to partake of the Lord's Supper and this was done? Would it make it harder for you to meditate on Jesus' death? Since when are denominationalists suppose to pray on behalf of the church anyway? When this kind of thing happens do we partake in a worthy manner?
How about passing the bread and the fruit of the vine simultaneously with but one prayer for both? I have seen this done. If Jesus did not care how we proceed why was he so detailed in telling Paul by revelation how he instituted the Lord's Supper as we read about it in 1 Cor. 11? What is wrong with following the Lord's example? Can He be wrong? (This was done on Sunday evenings, not Sunday mornings.)
Have you ever been in an assembly where the brethren sang while partaking? Why did they, why do they? Well, I have read where some seem to think that the singing makes the Supper more meaningful, it helps them keep their mind on it better. We have things backwards often times. We innovate and want the objectors to prove we are wrong when it ought to be the other way around. The obligation ought to be on the innovator to prove his new practice to be right. Unfortunately, often his attitude is that whatever seems right to me must be right. His practice is based on his feelings, how he thinks, how he feels, rather than on what he knows.
For those of us who do not trust the feelings of our singing during communion brethren to be our guide it makes their meaningful worship worrisome to us. We fear God might see things differently than they do. If you were to abstain from singing yourself their singing would be a distraction from your personal meditating but I did not think it was suppose to be that way. I did not think we were suppose to put a stumbling block in our brother's way. Why not wait until your brother partakes and then all sing together? Paul says (1 Cor. 11:33), "Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another." Our singing brethren are in effect saying, no not me, I am not waiting, I am singing now even if you have not eaten yet.
But, it is a fine state of affairs in the church when the Lord's Supper is not meaningful enough as it is on its own merits. Jesus suffers and dies for us, saves us, and gives us a home in heaven and we cannot keep our mind on the cross for even 10 minutes without help. One also cannot help but wonder why if we can do two acts of worship at once why we cannot do more. Why not have someone lead the prayer at the same time? We could at the very least pass the bread, the fruit of the vine, and the collection basket simultaneously if the passers could handle it for we are already saying by our practice that we can do more than one act of worship at a time. No need to wait until you finish one to start another.
We are to do all things decently and in order (1 Cor. 14:40). It is a little hard to read the word studies (Strong, Thayers) on the word "order" and see how singing while others are partaking of the Lord's Supper, all simultaneously, is doing things in order and how it classifies as waiting on one another.
Have you ever seen this? A brother in a small congregation where I was in attendance jumps up to help pass communion in beach attire type clothing, shorts and tennis shoes (whether he was wearing socks or not I no longer remember). This man was not a youngster either but an older man I would judge to be in his fifties. We are not talking here about some kind of neat dress shorts (that would have been bad enough) but rather the beachcomber type of wear. What do you do other than try and put your eyes back in their sockets? This brother was relatively young in the faith but still had a few years behind him. Where is our teaching? We do not need a dress code but surely there are some limits as to what is proper and fitting.
How about our prayers at the table? Not long ago, as of the time I write this, a brother who is also a teacher in the congregation of which I speak was in charge of the communion table. In his prayer for the bread he prays to God the Father thanking Him for coming to earth and giving His life for us. Get that, it was the Father and not the Son. Then in the prayer for the fruit of the vine he prays only this time it is the Son who came to earth and gave His life. What can you say? Do you want to amen such a prayer (reference to the prayer for the bread)?
Here is a problem I have never seen or heard discussed but is serious and a problem for which I have no answer. We all know when observing the Lord's Supper we are to be reverent and thinking on the things of the Lord, in particular Jesus' sacrifice. This is very, very difficult to do while one is helping pass the emblems. You have to watch very carefully who is being served and who is next to be served lest you miss someone. Often multiple trays are being passed and brethren sit in odd configurations meaning one must concentrate on what he is doing. Usually what happens is we who help pass end up at the back quickly partaking with little to no thought as to what we are doing. There is no time for thought unless it be a split second thought much like a basketball player on a fast break who acts not so much from deep thought and reflection as from instinct. Are the passers to be blamed? The circumstances make a proper observance nearly impossible. What is to be done? What can be done? I have no answers but do know it ought not to be the way it is. If we say the way we are doing it is fine then I say it is fine to have no reflection whatsoever. Just eat, just drink. Make that gulp.