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JoyaTeemer: Created page with '{{info}} ''Editor’s Note:'' In this Forum each contributor was asked to respond to the following question: What advice would you give to pastors regarding the celebration of t...'

2010-06-03T20:51:18Z

Created page with '{{info}} ''Editor’s Note:'' In this Forum each contributor was asked to respond to the following question: What advice would you give to pastors regarding the celebration of t...'

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''Editor’s Note:'' In this Forum each contributor was asked to respond to the following
question: What advice would you give to pastors regarding the celebration of the Lord’s
Supper in our churches?

'''D. A. Carson:''' In brief compass, I think I’d
organize my advice into three areas.

''First'', make sure that your own theology
of the Lord’s Supper is stable, mature,
exegetically grounded, and thought
through. I suspect that one of the reasons
why we settle for mere rote in our celebration
of the Lord’s Supper is that we have
not done the work that would enable us to
be much fresher and more evocative.

Practically speaking, that means, above
all, doing careful exegesis and reading several
major, reliable commentaries on the
crucial passages—not least the words of
institution in the Synoptic Gospels, the
well-known 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 and the
less well-known 1 Corinthians 10:14-22,
and some passages that do not primarily
refer to the Lord’s Supper at all but have a
rather indirect connection (such as the
“bread of life” discourse in John 6). Precisely
what does Paul mean when he writes
that “the cup of thanksgiving for which we
give thanks” is “a participation in the blood
of Christ”? (Suggestion: Begin with the
NICNT commentary on this passage by
Gordon D. Fee!) Read some theological
works that treat this subject from different
stances.

Once in a while I suspect that our
approach to these matters may be worse
among the better trained, theologically
speaking, than among the less well educated.
A certain percentage of Baptist
pastors, well enough educated to know
something of the historic positions that others
have taken, feel somewhat intimidated
by the fact that most other positions refer
to the traditional Baptist approach (the
so-called Zwinglian position) to the Lord’s
Supper as “minimalist”—and who wants
to be “minimalist” about anything in God’s
Word? Though they are sure that the
transsubstantiation of Roman Catholicism
is wrong, and are equally suspicious of
orthodox Lutheranism’s consubstantiation,
they are less sure, perhaps, that the
Reformed heritage is mistaken on this
point. Feeling threatened, they never do
enough work in the area to find satisfying
answers, to have their doubts cleared up
one way or another. It is safer, and
certainly a lot easier, to retreat to wellknown
and comforting formulae, even if
no one is quite sure what they all mean!

If this were another sort of article, it
would be good at this point to lay out some
of the neglected turning-points in the doctrine.
But granted the constraints, my first
piece of advice—and we shall shortly see
that it is eminently practical advice—is to
read and study in this area until your grasp
of what Scriptures says is stable, mature,
exegetically grounded, and thought
through.

''Second'', carefully identify the various
''pastoral functions'' of the Lord’s Supper. Once
you are clear about these, it will become
easier to build one or another of these
themes into each Lord’s Supper service.
That will not only be faithful to the text,
but will generate fresh reflection on the part
of the congregation.

For convenience, I will list six of the pastoral
reflections I have in mind. This list is
certainly not exhaustive. All six are drawn
from 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 (though these
themes are also found elsewhere).

(1) The Lord’s Supper is a center and a
symbol of Christian unity. That is made
clear not only by the intrinsic symbolism
(we all partake of one loaf, 10:17), but also
by the context in which Paul berates the
Corinthians for their callous lack of concern
for unity in the assembly (11:17-22).
Indeed, recalling that the Greek word
behind “participation” in 10:16 is ''koinōnia'',
there is a sense in which we may see ourselves
as “the fellowship of the body of
Christ.” And that terminology prepares us
for the extraordinary emphasis on Christian
unity, despite diversity, in chapter 12.

(2) The Lord’s Supper is a time to
remember (11:24-25). In some ways it is a
shocking thing that we should have to be
given a repetitive rite to call us to remember
Jesus and his death on our behalf. But,
in fact, we can become so engrossed in
administration, praise choruses, expositions
of the Psalms, seminars on marriage
and on how to rear your children, and
countless more good things, that Jesus’
death and resurrection become the presupposition
of our faith, and no longer
its center. So in his incalculable wisdom,
Jesus bequeathed a rite, a rite to be
repeated, one of whose functions is to call
us back to basics.

When I was a boy, I detested the hymn,
“Tell me the old, old story,” especially with
lines like “Tell me the story slowly”: I was
not into “slow” teaching at all, thank you.
But as I have grown older, I have appreciated
the wisdom of so many of the lines of
that hymn: “Tell me the story often / For I
forget so soon; / The early dew of morning
/ Has passed away at noon.” There are
things Christians are to remember, for their
good. But that means, of course, that
''mere'' rote will not necessarily accomplish
that end.

(3) The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation
of Jesus’ death (11:26): by this rite, Paul
says, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until
he comes.” The verb “proclaim” is regularly
used in evangelistic contexts, in the
matrix of the heraldic declaration of the
gospel to unbelievers. That is rather different,
I think, from the way it is done in many
Baptist churches. We often leave time for
unbelievers and non-members to leave.
Paul could envisage this rite as an evangelistic
opportunity. This does ''not'' mean that
he wanted unbelievers to partake of the
elements: the context shows this was not
the case. But the celebration of the Lord’s
Supper was done in such a way, doubtless
with a combination of word and ordinance,
that the significance of the rite drove home
what the cross was about.

(4) The Lord’s Supper is not only a temporary
ordinance, but a forward-looking
one. It proclaims the Lord’s death only
“until he comes”—and that fact holds up
before us the prospect of his coming. In the
new heaven and the new earth, no one will
need a rite like this to remind us of Jesus
and his death on our behalf; no longer will
there be need for evangelistic proclamation.
As the Passover rites of the Jews
(from which, after all, the Lord’s Supper
emerged) developed over the years, it came
to incorporate the wish-prayer, “Next year
in Jerusalem!” Christians eat the bread and
drink the cup, and cry, “Until he comes!”

(5) The Lord’s Supper provides regular
opportunity for spiritual and moral selfexamination
(11:27-29). The precise interpretation
of these verses is disputed, and
this is not the place to weigh in on those
disputes. What cannot be missed, however,
is that the Lord’s Supper is a covenant
renewal ceremony. “This cup is the new
covenant in my blood” (11:25), Jesus insists.
A covenant renewal ceremony like this
affords us the opportunity to renew our
vows, but that brings renewed responsibility—
and therefore renewed obligation
to examine our hearts to ensure that this is
not, for us, some merely formal religious
rite whose significance we can safely
ignore. That would be the equivalent of lifting
our glasses and saying, “I remember
the cross of Jesus Christ!”—at the very
moment resolving to cheat on our income
taxes, to nurture bitterness against our parents,
spouse, or children, to despise the
gospel, and to mock the Master’s bloodbought
people.

(6) The Lord’s Supper can be dangerous
(11:30-32). Not all sickness is the direct
result of a particular sin, of course (reflect
on John 9!), but this passage warns us that
''some'' sickness ''may'' be.

''Third'', work out some practical ways in
which the themes you develop out of my
first point, and their pastoral functions as
developed in the second point, may be
incorporated into actual meetings.
Of course, if it is your practice to
celebrate the Lord’s Supper as a kind of
ten-minute adjunct service to a larger meeting,
then you are rather limited in what you
can do (except expand your practice now
and then!). But even in such a limited
frame, there are several possibilities. The
hymn or two you choose might be related
to one of these pastoral functions. The
prayers and brief pastoral remarks might
focus on one of those functions. Passages
of Scripture that expand on these themes
might be read, and their thematic connection
with a “standard” passage like 1
Corinthians 11:23-26 carefully noted.

Alternatively, it might be possible now
and then, or even regularly (every couple
of months?), to incorporate the Lord’s
Supper a little more closely into the entire
service, with the hymns and reading and
prayers being more closely tied to themes
and pastoral functions found within the
passages dealing with the Lord’s Supper.
If the fifth pastoral function I mentioned is
what is being emphasized, there might be
a time for individuals to pray openly in
confession, which could be for personal
sins, corporate sins, or national sins. If there
is an eschatological orientation, the entire
service could work through relevant readings
and hymns, with a sermon on (say)
John 14:1ff. or Revelation 21-22, followed
by the Lord’s Supper to remind us that we
stand between the “already” and the “not
yet” as we look back to the cross and
remember, and forward to the long-anticipated
“until he comes” and cry, “Even so,
come, Lord Jesus!” Such a service could
end on a high note: a joyous singing of
“Lo, he comes with clouds descending”
(ideally with the 18th century English
melody, with full orchestra!).
Certainly on other occasions I have used
the Lord’s Supper with an evangelistic
emphasis, used it to examine the importance
of Christian unity (part of an exposition
of John 17?), and used it to warn people
both of God’s eternal punishment and his
temporal punishments.

My advice, in brief compass, is this:
understand from Scripture what the Lord’s
Supper is about, think through what pastoral
functions it chiefly serves, and imaginatively
find ways to incorporate your
findings into the public meetings of the
people of God.

The SBJT Forum: The Lord’s Supper - Revision history

Kathyyee: Protected "The SBJT Forum: The Lord’s Supper" ([edit=sysop] (indefinite) [move=sysop] (indefinite))

JoyaTeemer: Created page with '{{info}} ''Editor’s Note:'' In this Forum each contributor was asked to respond to the following question: What advice would you give to pastors regarding the celebration of t...'