Each week the Church throughout the world gathers for worship. We gather to commemorate the resurrection of Christ and the inauguration of the new creation. We gather to offer sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to the God who made us and saves us for himself. We gather in order to receive from the Lord the blessings of Christ’s atoning sacrifice and ongoing ministry through the means of grace he has appointed for that purpose. We sing and pray, we hear the Word and thank God for it, we confess our sins and our faith, we commune at the Table and with one another. The Church’s gathering on the Lord’s Day is a special event, one which should mean more to us the longer and more often we do it.
It is strange to me that some Christians, including a lot of Reformed ones, resist the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It is, at the very least, an indication that we have not yet understood the Supper or the Church’s celebration of it to the extent that we should. Even more perplexing are the arguments made against weekly communion. “We don’t want it to become too familiar so that people take it for granted.” One hopes they use a different standard for how often they make love to their spouse. “It takes too much time and might require us to shorten the sermon.” Perish the thought that the service might last as long as a standard box office film (not even one directed by Peter Jackson) or that what the Lord has to say to us at the Table might be given a higher priority than whatever the preacher planned to say that week. “We just don’t understand why people want to do it weekly. That’s not the way we’ve typically done it before.” I trust those with this objection continue to use an abacus and ride in a horse and buggy. Perhaps we should make the same argument for those who spend tens of thousands of dollars on central heating and air conditioning for the church building. We never needed it before, and that money could be spent on missions, teaching the nations that the Lord’s Supper is so special we ought not to celebrate it very often!
It might be obvious to even the most casual observer that the Church does the same things week after week, year after year, century after century, in the corporate worship of the living Lord. We sing psalms and hymns, offer prayers, read Scripture, receive God’s promise of forgiveness, and eat and drink in memorial to Christ. Which of these things ought we to be content to do without? I don’t mean which are sinful to exclude due to providential circumstances. We usually miss the Lord’s Supper on 2-3 Sundays each year, typically because our pastor is being pathetic. We abbreviated the service a few years ago after the fire department was called, and I daresay it was not carnality and spiritual apathy that prompted us to do so. It may be prudent and providential to go without some elements of the Church’s service at times, but if we have the ability and opportunity to meet the Lord in all the means of grace he has ordained for our good, wouldn’t we want to do so?
The sameness of the liturgy (and not just our specific liturgy but the whole Church’s form of worship) week after week is part of the point; it is a design feature that facilitates the Lord working on us in the way he intends to do. In the same way that the robe hides the minister’s shirt and pants and the collar limits the distraction of a crooked bow tie, so the order of service, its regularity and familiarity, its gospel-rhythm and biblical structure, its catholicity and simple sincerity, is designed to help the worshiper forget what he is doing and focus on what he is doing. He’s no longer paying attention to the everchanging elements. “Is that Daffy Duck on the pastor’s cumberbund? What order are we going to do things in this week? Who is taking each speaking part, and will they be dressed in a gorilla costume again?” Instead of looking at the liturgy, you begin to look through the liturgy. A recovering stroke patient has to focus intensely to walk a few steps in a rehab office, but a person who is (generally) healthy can walk several miles around the neighborhood and meditate on any number of things without ever once thinking about the act of walking.
As we gather for worship tomorrow, come with joy into God’s presence. Remember that the familiarity and repetition is part of the mechanism by which God is working on you. Remember that the Table is set every week for the restoration and celebration of your soul, just as your table at home is set every day for the sustenance and satisfaction of your body. Be glad for the opportunity and privilege of meeting God and being met by him once again. He has called us to joyful fellowship, and we do not need less of it. We only crave and will always profit from more. --JME
