‘Every Lord’s Day’: A Study of the Sacrament of the Altar in Scripture and the Confessions And Its Use in the Church Triumphant
By the Rev. William Smith Jr, Pastor, Trinity Lutheran Church, Appleton City, Missouri
Presented to the congregation on Sunday, November 26, 2023
More than four years ago, I stood before the congregation here acknowledging that “the Lord has called me through His Church into the ministry of Word and Sacrament,” that I “believe and confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice”; that the creeds are “faithful testimonies to the truth of the Holy Scriptures”; that the “Unaltered Augsburg Confession [is] a true exposition of Holy Scripture and a correct exhibition of the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church”; that everything in the Book of Concord is “also in agreement with this one scriptural faith”; that I will perform the duties of my office “in accordance with these Confessions, and that all (my) preaching and teaching and (my) administration of the Sacraments will be in conformity with Holy Scripture and with these Confessions.”
According to our constitution, this congregation also “accepts and acknowledges all the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament as the divinely revealed Word of God, verbally inspired, and acknowledges and accepts all the symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church, contained in the Book of Concord of 1580, to be a true and genuine exposition of the doctrines of the Bible” (Article III) ... and ... “According to the scriptures and the book of Concord, all doctrinal differences and religious questions are to be judged and adjusted” (Bylaw V).
It’s important to note this agreement between your congregation and your pastor. In these vows, we declare that we stand together, that we confess the same things before God and each other. We agree that any doctrinal differences and religious questions are to be judged and adjusted — not by individuals or majority, not by the rule of your pastor or elders or council or assembly — but according to the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, and the Book of Concord, which includes the Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Small Catechism, the Large Catechism, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, the Smalcald Articles, and the Formula of Concord, both the Epitome and the Solid Declaration. Individuals are at liberty to disagree with your pastor and congregation, but the pastor and congregation are not.
It is in this light that two years ago, your Elders and I began a serious discussion about offering the Holy Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood every Sunday. To aid our discussion, the elders and I have studied what the Sacrament is; what the blessings and benefits of receiving the sacrament are; and the history of its use within the Christian Church. We have studied Scripture and the confessions and the doctrines of the Church. We have reached the point where we need to share what we have learned, what we would like to do, and why we would like to do that. This paper was prepared for you so that you can study what we have learned.
3.
You have heard me speak many times of the Divine Service. When I use this term, “the Divine Service,” I have always spoken specifically about the Services of Word and Sacrament together, as our Lutheran Service Book clearly defines the Divine Service. Our service book defines the Divine Service as “the name of the regular, weekly service that includes the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.” The service book takes this definition from Scripture, which teaches that the Divine Service was celebrated every Lord’s Day (Acts 2:42, 20:7; 1 Cor 11:17-26). Our confessions, which give a correct exposition of Scripture, state plainly that we offer the Service of the Sacrament, aka the Mass, “every Lord’s day and on the other festivals.” We do this because we recognize the Lord’s Supper is a sacrament given to many (Mk 14:24) by our Lord (1 Cor 11:23) for the forgiveness of sins (Mt 26:28). Therefore, the Lord’s Supper is Gospel. Not only does it preach Christ crucified and risen (1 Cor 1:26), we also observe the administration of the Sacrament goes hand in hand with the Gospel (Rm 6:3-5; 1 Cor 11 26), and the church practices this “when they come together” (1 Cor. 11:17, 18, 29, 33, 34; 14:26). The reason the church does this is because of the Lord’s exhortation to “do this” in the proclamation of the Gospel (Lk 22:19, 1 Cor 11:25).
As Luther teaches us in the Small Catechism, the benefit of such eating and drinking is that, “These words, ‘given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,’ show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.” Then Luther adds, receiving the sacrament does such great things because it is, “Certainly not just eating and drinking (that) do these things, but the words written here: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’ These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main things in the sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: ‘forgiveness of sins.’” Luther could not emphasize the Gospel of the Sacrament in stronger terms. Six times in five questions of the Catechism, we hear that the purpose of the Lord’s Supper is for “the forgiveness of sins” and that it is “for you.”
Why then would we consider not offering this Gospel to those who desire to receive the forgiveness of sins? Congregations call their pastors to preach and teach this Gospel and to administer this Gospel. Jesus has called all of us to “do this ... in remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:24, 25) ... words I need to clarify, could be translated more accurately as “do this ... into the remembrance that is mine.” Although we need to remember Jesus when we receive the Sacrament (1 Cor 11:27-29), Jesus is the one who remembers you. That is the Gospel. That is a point of emphasis in Paul’s proclamation in 1 Corinthians. Jesus is the one who comes to you. Jesus is the one who remembers why you need forgiveness. Jesus is the one who has attached his promise to his gift given for you. Do this for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you meet (Mt 26:26-28, Mk 14:22-24, Lk 22:19-20, 1 Cor 11:23-25).
These three words “as often as,” which have been translated out of one Greek word, really mean “whenever” you meet (1 Cor 11:25). The words “as” and “often” have their own Greek words ... (ὡς and πολλάκις) ... neither of which are used here. Instead, we get just one Greek word (ὁσάκις).
This does not mean our English translations are incorrect to say “as often as.” A synonym for whenever is as often as. We practice the same thing with all of the other Gospel words we hear: praying, forgiving, loving, abiding, and returning to our baptism. We do all these as often as we can, whenever we can. We don’t say the Lord’s Prayer only twice a month; we say it as often as we meet. In fact, when we follow our catechetical training, we say the Lord’s Prayer at least five times a day (before and after sleeping and before each meal). We also remind ourselves to return to our baptisms every day, or at least “as often as” we can. We announce forgiveness every time we gather, not only in confession and absolution, but every time you hear the words “The Lord be with you.” When the Lord is with you, you have the forgiveness of sins, because the Lord can’t be with you otherwise (Eph 5:27-28). It therefore stands to reason that you also cannot receive the Lord’s Supper too often. One day, you will not have an opportunity to receive it at all (you know, you’ll be dead).
The Church has always taught this, too. From the beginning, the Church has offered the Lord’s Supper whenever it meets. Luke records the first practice in Acts 2. After Peter finished his Day of Pentecost sermon that led to the baptisms of three thousand souls, the church “was continually persevering in the apostles’ doctrine and in the fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers” (Acts 2:42). What Luke is describing here is the first Divine Service. Notice how the breaking of bread is in the midst of preaching and the prayer of the church, just like today. Some may ask, well, where is the wine in Acts 2:42? If you see no wine, can it really be the Lord’s Supper? Indeed, it can be! Why? First, the breaking of bread is the first action of Jesus in his institution of the Holy Supper ... Jesus broke bread ... hence why it is called the breaking of the bread. Second, wine is featured in every feast throughout Scripture, along with the breaking of bread. The first feast is recorded in Genesis 14[:17-20], where Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High, who is a shadow of our Great High Priest Jesus, brought out bread and wine in celebration of peace, which is forgiveness. One of the most prominent feasts is the Passover feast (Ex 12, Lev 23), which teaches us to remember the passing over of sins and is the setting in which Jesus broke bread. The Passover feast was a foreshadow of the Lord’s Supper.
One of the most compelling reasons Scripture gives to offer the Lord’s Supper whenever we meet is because it is in this meal that we then “know” that Jesus is actually with us. Beginning on the evening of the first Easter Sunday, the Church began recognizing that our risen Lord was actually with them when they broke bread (Luke 24:13-35). On the road to Emmaus, two disciples were walking with Jesus, talking with Jesus, and listening to Jesus ... for seven miles! In this meeting with their Lord, they saw and heard Jesus but failed to recognize that he was actually with them ... until Jesus took bread, broke it, and gave it to the disciples. It was at that moment that their eyes were opened! Then they realized that Jesus was actually with them! As Luke records, “Then ... they knew him” (Lk 24:31). Knowing is an intimate thing in Scripture.
That is why the early church began offering the Lord’s Supper whenever they met. Some twenty years after the church began devoting themselves to “the apostles’ doctrine, the breaking of the bread, the prayers, and fellowship” (Acts 2:42), Paul notes again that the church was still offering the sacrament on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7). The Greek word that describes their gathering together uses the perfect tense. This means they not only did it once in the past, they continued to do it, gathering on the first day of the week, literally for the purpose of breaking bread. This practice continued for several centuries. The Didache, which was written in the late first century and used for several hundred years to teach the faith (like the Catechism), notes how this bread was broken so that “your church may be gathered together from the ends of the earth.”
The first major changes in practice of the Lord’s Supper came between the sixth and ninth centuries as the papacy rose to power. Under Gregory the Great, the Roman church stopped preaching the Gospel during the service. Then “the act of the communicants receiving the body and blood of Christ was supplanted by the priests offering a sacrifice.” It was not long before the priests began speaking the service in a language (Latin) the people did not understand. Eventually, receiving the sacrament became more legalistic. By the time of the Reformation, Christians received the Lord’s Supper (only in one kind, mind you) only once a year, at most.
Luther changed all that. It was the Lutherans who restored the practice of offering the Lord’s Supper “every Lord’s day and on the other festivals.” Lutheran pastors began preaching the Gospel and administering the Sacrament every Lord’s day. We enjoyed this practice until Lutherans came to America, when suddenly the people did not have enough pastors to administer the sacrament. The movements of pietism and rationalism in the 17th and 18th centuries added even more strain to the Lutheran church and her worship practices. Pietism relies on what you feel ... that is, on preparing your heart. Rationalism is rooted in what you think ... that is, preparing your mind. Because of these movements and the Great American Revival that swept the country, the practice of the Sacrament being offered every Lord’s Day was lost again. As circuits were formed, the practice of quarterly communion began to take root, largely because it took that long for the circuit rider (a pastor) to visit our churches. It took decades to embrace monthly communion, and decades more to begin offering it twice a month. But the Church Triumphant has been actively restoring the practice of offering the service of our Lord that actually delivers to you the forgiveness of sins.
This is a compelling reason for offering the sacrament every Lord’s day and on the other festivals. As John preaches in his epistle, we always need the forgiveness of sins. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”; “if we say that we have not sinned, we make [God to be] a liar” (1 Jn 1:8, 10). We are always in need of the forgiveness of sins.
2.
This does not mean that just because the Lord’s supper is offered every Lord’s Day that every Christian needs to receive it every Sunday. We compel no one to come to the Supper just because it is offered (LC V 42). We put no Law on the gifts of the Spirit. “The one observing the day, observes it to the Lord. The one eating to the Lord, eats for he gives thanks to God. And the one not eating to the Lord does not eat yet gives thanks to God” (Rm 14:6). Again, the Lord’s Supper is offered for the purpose of delivering the forgiveness of sins. Jesus lives to deliver the gift of his body and his blood given and shed for you.
Make no mistake, we need to hear the Gospel too. Faith that saves comes through hearing, and hearing through the Word of God (Rm 10:9). We are saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8). This faith in Jesus, the Jesus who lived and died and rose for you, actually saves you. But this is why we also need the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper proclaims the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. “Whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26).
God’s Word and Sacrament are not two things; they go hand in hand. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). And Jesus uses his Word to deliver this sacrament for the forgiveness of sins. Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). Salvation is in no other name (Acts 4:12).
Jesus gave us his Supper to help us remember this too. Whenever we eat his bread and drink his cup, we remember how God passed over our sins on account of the death of his firstborn son, just like the Israelites did during their Passover meal when the Lord passed over their firstborn sons (1 Cor 11:26; Exo 11, 12:29). Whenever we eat his bread and drink his cup, we remember that the forgiveness of sins comes in a tangible way that we can touch and see, notably through his body and blood in, with, and under bread and wine. Jesus gave us the Lord’s supper so that we are enabled to hear the word of the Lord himself say that your sins are forgiven on account of his body given for you and his blood shed for you. And Jesus also teaches us through John’s Gospel, “this is the bread that comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. ... He who eats this bread will live forever” (Jn 6:50-51, 58).
1.
We can find no reason beyond so-called tradition, sentimentality, or piety not to offer the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. Our confessions say plainly, and in no uncertain terms, we offer the Lord’s Supper “every Lord’s day and on the other festivals.” We do this “so that the people may learn to believe God and to expect and ask from him all that is good. This worship pleases God (Col 1:9-12). Such use of the Sacrament nourishes true devotion toward God.” Therefore, “because (the Divine Service) is for the purpose of giving the Sacrament, we have communion every holy day, and if anyone desires the Sacrament, we also offer it on other days, when it is given to all who ask for it. This custom is not new in the Church.”
Therefore, the Board of Elders is recommending that we should begin offering the Lord’s Supper every Sunday and on the other festivals.
We have not determined a date to do this. We know that there may be individuals in the congregation who wish to abstain from time to time, perhaps every other week. But we know that the Lord’s Supper will provide us all with the forgiveness of sins; it will strengthen our God-given faith because in it and through it and with it, the Gospel is proclaimed; it will nourish our communion (fellowship) with God and each other; it will bring us in accord with our own confession of Scripture, the Book of Concord, and our constitution; and we will be enabled to receive the gifts of the Lord, most notably the forgiveness of sins, whenever any one of us needs it. Let us do this with hearts, voices, mouths, and tongues, forever proclaiming God’s salvation every Lord’s day ... in Jesus’ name.