Reflections on fhte Requency of the Lord's Supper

The following study has been taken (by persission of the Rev David Miller) from the website of Redeemer AOC Church in Atlanta (www.redeemeraoc.com):


REFLECTIONS ON THE FREQUENCY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER: A Thought for Ash Wednesday
March 9, 2011 | 0 Comments

REFLECTIONS ON THE FREQUENCY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER: A Thought for Ash Wednesday
by David J. Miller, Ph.D., Vicar, Redeemer AOC, Loganville, GA, 03/9/2011
We receive the gifts and graces of God with much gratitude, but ultimately we need the Giver, not the gift! There’s always a danger that we can focus on the gift and forget the Giver. Faith always has, as its object, the Lord God Himself.
I want to raise a matter that I think is important for us to discuss.
About a year ago, I received an email from our bishop, +Jerry Ogles. He was writing on the subject of weekly Communion, and urging the churches to consider that it was not consistent with the history and practice of the Anglican Orthodox Church. He wrote:
“Bishop Dees (the founder of the AOC) felt, as do I, that the weekly Communion makes the observance of the Lord’s Supper too common and less appreciated. He also believed that it detracts from the sobriety of the event. While there is nothing wrong per se with a weekly observance, there is certainly not anything amiss in the monthly observance… The weekly practice … (was) strongly influenced by the Oxford Movement of the nineteenth century whose intent was to take the church back to the apostate practices of Rome.”
The Anglican Reformers of the sixteenth century intended that Morning and Evening Prayer be the main services of the church, with Holy Communion ordinarily on a once or twice monthly basis, and this was how it was until about the last quarter of the twentieth century, when the trend towards Anglo-Catholicism succeeded in bringing about changes. Among those changes were, in addition to weekly Communion, the introduction of Roman-style vestments (like the alb, the chasible and the bishop’s mitre and cape) along with prayers for the dead, which were added to the 1928 BCP. All these trends were increased with the introduction of the 1979 Episcopal prayer book. It wasn’t long before Anglican churches began installing sanctuary lights, which originally were to alert worshippers that the transubstantiated host was in residence in the ombrey, a box attached to the front wall beside the altar (formerly called the Communion Table).
Many in the Episcopal Church and Anglican splinter groups have found the pull towards Roman Catholic ritual and practices irresistible; and I do think it’s important that we take a distinctive stand for the Reformed Faith.
I had always been an advocate of weekly Communion, and I’m taking the time to bring this up because Scriptural and historical facts have influenced me to reconsider that position. I’d like to suggest a monthly observance in the morning service, as a general rule, with observance on other special Sundays and holidays throughout the year as they occur on the Church Calendar. Scripture does not say how frequently we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper; but in the Roman Catholic reaction to the Protestant Reformation, called the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church moved to a virtual idolatry of the Eucharist, elevating it to “the primary act of Christian worship,” hence the weekly observance. Read 2 Kings 18:4-5, Isaiah 1:12-15 and John 3:14-18 with this thought in mind. Mankind may easily slip into valuing the ordinances more than the Lord. I am reminded that John Calvin said our hearts are “idol-factories.”
I do not in any sense want to minimize the importance of the Lord’s Supper, but I do want to keep it in perspective. By observing it monthly, I believe it will actually enhance our appreciation of Communion as a special time of “renewing our vows” to our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is of His renewal of His covenant promises to us.
Bishop J. C. Ryle’s comments may be helpful here:
“We see continual proof that the Lord is not tied to the use of any one means exclusively in conveying grace to the soul. Sometimes He is pleased to work by the word preached publically, sometimes by the word read privately. Sometimes He awakens people by sickness and affliction, sometimes by the rebukes or counsel of friends. Sometimes He employs means of grace to turn people out of the way of sin. Sometimes He arrests their attention by some providence, without any means of grace at all. He will not have any means of grace made an idol and exalted, to the disparagement of other means. He will not have any means despised as useless, and neglected as of no value. All are good and valuable. All are in their turn employed for the same great end, the conversion of souls.”
All of these considerations give the lie to the idea that the Eucharist is “the primary act of Christian worship.” That just is not true, and it is another example of theological fuzzy (at best) thinking, not only from the Roman Catholic position, but also from among many of today’s Anglicans. It’s difficult to find any one “primary act” of worship; if we could, I think it would have to be something general that would incorporate all the elements expressed so well in the Prayer Book’s introduction to the prayer of confession for Morning Prayer, (BCP p. 6):
“And although we ought, at all times, humbly to acknowledge our sins before God; yet ought we chiefly so to do when we assemble and meet together to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul.”
The “primary act” of worship, thus Scripturally understood, would have to be something like this: “To come together with God’s people to offer God the gratitude of our hearts for all His blessings to us in Christ Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Such a definition would be an example of maintaining the Scripture’s balance.
When we serve Holy Communion each week, we also never get to use the services of Morning or Evening Prayer, which is, I think, a loss. Remember that it is by the Spirit’s activity in ministering the Word to our minds and hearts that our Lord Christ makes Himself known to us. The sacraments are, to quote St. Augustine, “visible words,” and along with preaching (the Word explained) and fellowship/discipline (the Word made practical), are one means of grace, not the sole means of grace.
We always need to be aware of the necessity of maintaining balance in our ministry. In times of brutal persecution, we might need to have Communion every time we gather together, but in more ordinary times, we may need a different balance. Historically, the churches that have over-emphasized the sacraments have tended to de-emphasize the teaching ministry of the Scripture, and that we must never do. By the same token, there are some churches today that so de-emphasize the sacraments and preaching, that music and emotional experience have become the idolatry! Always the issue of worship comes down to balance. We need “to think and act Biblically.”
Our goal and prayer must always be to honor the Holy Spirit’s balance revealed in Scripture. This balance is to be expressed in every aspect of the Church’s life and ministry. Let us increase our expectations in faith of the Spirit’s working in all ministries of His Word, whether by reading, teaching, song or sacrament, always “waiting upon the LORD:”
Psalm 27:14 14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
In the service of our Lord Christ,
David+