I am really overloaded right now after my week long intensive church planting class. Because I do not like not posting regularly, I thought I would bring out another post from my archives. Because so many of you are new to novus•lumen, I like introducing you to pieces I’ve previously written that are buried in my archive. I thought this would be an encouraging, thought-provoking piece for this Lord’s Day.

I have been working my way through Leviticus before I begin seminary this fall and I am struck by the concept of the sacrificial offering. Though Jesus gave the once-for-all sacrifice and sat down as Chief High Priest afterwards (thanks Hebrews 10!), I am intrigued by the idea of the physical sacrifice that God once demanded from us for our sins. I saw for the first time that it was the sinner/sacrificer who slaughtered the lamb/goat/bull for their own sins and presented it to the priest to sacrifice before the Lord. That means people had a physical representation and reminder of the consequences of their sin and offense to YHWH.

This broke open a totally new way of viewing and appreciating the sacrament of communion.

While I certainly do not propose breaking out the levitical sacrifice, I really, really deep down think now after reading and meditating through this section of Leviticus that communion can be that very physical reminder of our sin, it’s consequences and the beauty of Jesus’ sacrifice. After attending an Episcopal gone Anglican (CANA) church for a year and a half and experiencing regular communion, I came to appreciate the sacredness of this very communal experience. I grew-up in a non-denominational church that “celebrated” communion four times a year, an experience that was incredibly individualistic, personal, and detached from the original intent on Jesus providing this sacrament in the first place.

After experiencing a regular, communal sacramental experience, I feel a huge disservice is done to followers of Jesus whose faith communities do not regularly provide space for reflecting upon and experiencing the rite of Holy Communion that this Jesus-provided mystery offers.

These thoughts coincide with an excellent post by Michael Spencer on internetmonk.com and subsequent quality discussion. In a post entitled, “Laugh or Else: The Reasons Baptists Give for Not Celebrating the Lord’s Supper More Often”, he examines this very subject from a Southern Baptist perspective with the same indictment: “Southern Baptists know they are wrong on this issue. They know the Bible isn’t describing Quakerism in the books of Acts and I Corinthians. They know Spurgeon wasn’t crazy. They know they’ve erred and they need to make it right. Pastors who will never admit there’s no mention of Mother’s Day in the Bible know that communion once every 12 weeks is ridiculous…We need to schedule communion once a month and design our corporate worship to emphasize and explain it as the New Covenant Passover…The whole flock will be fed, strengthened and reaffirmed. The scripture will be obeyed. Jesus Christ will be remembered and we will fellowship in his death and life.”

And in thinking even more about this, it really makes sense given the architecture of the buildings and services: they are word not sacramental.

A few years ago a friend of mine clued me into this when he was sharing some things he learned from a religion and architecture class he had in college. He was sharing how Anglican/Episcopalian (and I think RCC churches) have a sacramental architecture, because everything about the building points toward the altar, where the sacraments are blessed, remembered and distributed. Whereas “bible-believing” churches like SBC/non-denominational churches are built around the pulpit and the spoken word.

The same is true for the architect of the service, at least in my experience in the Episcopal/Anglican service (and RCC?), everything about it was leading and building to the culmination of the communal experience of the Holy Sacrament of communion. Not true in the services of Baptist, non-denominational, etc… They revolve around the preaching of the Bible; everything about the service points toward the spoken word.

Now I say this not to set communion over and against the sermon. But from my perspective, the Sunday gathering (or Saturday or Friday or whenever the “event” happens) is about re-capturing our identity as followers of Jesus and as a tribe and community of the Son of God. So my question is: should we re-discover that identity in a speech or a remembrance experience of the sacrifice of Jesus? Shouldn’t we begin our week by recapturing our identity as a tribe of Jesus-followers rooted in the blessing of the cross, celebrated through communion?

Again, I believe followers of Jesus are done a disservice by their faith communities by not regularly experiencing communion. If we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” whenever we eat the bread and drink from the cup, why wouldn’t we regularly participate in this proclaiming and identifying act?

-jeremy