Ready to Surrender

As a Christian and as a pastor, worship is important to me. How we worship, why we worship, when we worship, the ways we worship, and what/who we worship are all important to me. Yet, so often these things are not important to the others I am talking to. Often times when talking about worship with pastors and leaders the conversation is reduced to "How many were there?" and "How moved were they?"

When I talk about the need for a renewed worship, people respond with discussions of transitioning from "traditional music" (hymnal) to "contemporary music" (everything published after the hymnal). Or I hear statements like I did a couple of weeks ago with a group of pastors, when one pastor stated publicly, "I actually quit going to worship for a period of time before becoming a pastor. I mean, I understood why we worshiped but I just didn't have anything in common with the church people. But now that we have a "cowboy church" I just feel such a great sense of unity."

Sanctifying Worship Saturday Silliness

Good to know that the Anglicans have the same traffic problems that we do most of the time...

(Thanks to cartoonist Dave Walker at CartoonChurch.com for the chuckles and use of his art.)

Lord's Supper IOU

A friend of mine served a church in a rural area and was going to be gone on Christmas Eve. This created some problems, because for years this church had participated in a Christmas Eve Communion Service. With his absence, there were no ordained elders, district licensed pastors, or even local licensed pastors to stand in his place. Because of this, the churched struggled with what to do.

A. Not serve Communion

B. Serve communion but in violation of the manual and without the presence of clergy.

As he was sharing this, it got me thinking about our heritage. As a part of the camp meeting movement we inherited a lot of the frontier practices of early Methodism. We know that Wesley encouraged elders to celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Lord’s Day.

Marriage Supper of the Lamb

I was asked to lead our Communion service for yesterday. As I reflected on the lectionary readings, a passage kept popping up in my head: Revelation 19. It reads:

⁴ The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:

“Amen, Hallelujah!”

⁵ Then a voice came from the throne, saying:

“Praise our God,
all you his servants,
you who fear him,
both great and small!”

⁶ Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

D.I.Y. Communion

In my area I have noticed an interesting and somewhat disturbing trend of "Do It Yourself Communion." For example, a local non-denominational church posted in the local paper, "On the first Friday of every month, the _______ Church will be open from 9:00 a.m.--5:00 p.m. with prepackaged bread and juice available throughout that time. Whenever it is convenient for you feel free to pop in, and take Communion or take it with you, and take some home to your family as well."

(I have seen similar statements coming from Nazarene Churches as well, so please don't think I am picking on this particular church, their statement just reminded me of this practice. )

So here are my questions:

What would motivate us to serve communion this way?

What if anything about this statement should disturb us?

What does this statements say about the ecclesiology of the participating local church?

What does it say about their understanding of Communion?

What role does a sacramental versus an ordinance understanding play in "D.I.Y. Communion"?

How is this similar/dissimilar to home communion?

What would you tell a member of your congregation who proposed that your church participate in something similar?

I look forward to learning from your responses.

Brian

Protestant Crucifix

A few years ago I came across a term that I had never heard before. A 17th century Protestant writer, Daniel Brevint, described the communion table as a 'Protestant Crucifix'. It made me think a lot about the words we use when we describe what we do at the Eucharistic Table. The writer sought to provoke the reader to think of the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist.

In response to this theme of sacrifice and the altar as the Protestant Crucifix, Charles Wesley penned the following hymn:

Would the Saviour of mankind
Without His people die?
No, to Him we all are join'd
As more than standers by.
Freely as the Victim came
To the altar of His cross,
We attend the slaughter'd Lamb,
And suffer for His cause.

Words When Serving Communion

What do you say to the recipient when you serve communion?  When you offer the bread?  The cup?

Many liturgies include specific instructions for what the minister should say, such as:

Nazarenes: "Memorial" or "Real Presence"?

I was at a CEU seminar the other day with Dr. Henry Spalding, provost at MVNU, and previous professor of theology/philosophy at ENC, TNU and NTS. I asked a question about the spectrum of understandings regarding the sacraments present in the denomination. His answer was long and quite good. Two comments in particular stood out, but we shall address them one at a time:

"There is no way anyone can read anything but a memorialist view in what our Articles of Faith actually say."

That comment was a little surprising to me. Is it possible to see in our AoF's a real presence theology? Is it possible to see anything but a memorialist theology? His comment really got me thinking.

"Disposing" of the Elements

In an effort to keep my promise to add content more regularly and revitalize the conversation 'round these parts, I was looking back through old posts. I knew there were at least a few instances where I had an idea for what I thought would be a good topic to post about, and created a draft but never finished and published it.  This was one, but I hadn't even begun writing it - just had a title! (weird, I know.)

I think it's a good thing to bat around, though - certainly something we have had some discussion about at Xenia Naz: what to do with the elements - the cup in particular - after communion?

MED524 (Frequecy of the Lord's Supper) Adopted!

According to www.gacorlando.com, MED524 dealing with the frequency of the Lord's Supper was adopted today at General Assembly. The new statement will read:

"... Acknowledging John Wesley's advice that elders should "administer the Supper of the Lord on every Lord's day," and recognizing that a weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper was the New Testament and historic norm, we encourage pastors to see quarterly administration as a bare minimum. We further encourage them to move toward a more frequent celebration of this means of grace..."

Thanks to Br. Todd and the SW Indiana District, as well as JB and the Minnesota District for sponsoring this resolution and working toward a more sacramental alignment with the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Tradition to which we belong.

A Pastor's Responsibility to Prepare

Twice yesterday, I came across accounts of pastors administering the sacraments. Each pastor seemed to have a different approach to his responsibility to prepare the one receiving the sacrament to receive the sacrament. Consider these two scenarios.

1) A pastor has a young college student attending his church. That college student is a self-proclaimed atheist. The student has been in attendance at several communion services, but has never received because of his atheism. This particular service, however, the student came to the altar to receive communion. Before serving him, the pastor asked him a question, "Has something about your atheism changed?" The student convincingly answered affirmatively and for the first time received the sacrament as a follower of Christ. Later the pastor and the student got together to discuss this perceived change.

2) A pastor has felt the need to encourage his people to experience the sacrament of baptism. So he prepares a beautiful worship service that will conclude with a baptism service. He includes videos of people talking about baptism and preaches a sermon discussing the sacrament. At the close of the sermon, instead of the traditional "altar call," there is a baptism call. Many people stood up, came forward, and right there and then got baptized.

These two pastors seem to take very different approaches to "preparing" their people to rightfully receive the sacraments. So my question is this: (1) What is a pastor's responsibility to the church and to the people to prepare candidates for receiving the sacraments' (2) What do you do to prepare your parishioners or how does your pastor prepare you/your congregation to receive the sacraments?

Chewing the Host

...or, Weirdest Discussion Thread. Ever.

Make sure you get to the second page to read this "tasty" (pun intended) comment:

most of the time it goes down fine without a chew but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.... short of choking

I remember as a child an old nun told me that chewing the host was "snapping the bones of Christ"

considering what happens to the host after you swallow it chewing is probably not an issue

And I thought some of our discussions (like Joseph's quandary about serving communion to someone with a feeding tube) got pretty "out there"...!

Hymn-of-the-Month (x2): March Madness edition

A long time ago, I proposed to do a Hymn-of-the-Month each month, with a sacramental theme naturally, and really wanted to get others involved in the process of choosing a hymn to highlight. However, after one measly effort, I let it drop, much to my embarrassment - odd, too, since this is an easy way to toss up a new post without major time investment.
So anyway, here's an effort to revive the Hymn-of-the-Month. To welcome back feature that was never even given the chance to become a feature, you get a 2-for-1 deal because it's March, the month of my birth, and my first-born's birth as well (any day now)! If you've got a good hymn, "sacramental" or otherwise - or anything, for that matter: reviews of books, albums, liturgies, worship services you've attended, etc - that you'd like to share in a future month, by all means, post it. "The more, the merrier" around here.
And to be clear, this is in no way to be confused with the "March Gladness" promotional that has recently been brought to my attention. [gags self]
The common theme of "(un)veiling" struck me when considering these two eucharistic hymns: that Christ is somehow simultaneously both concealed and revealed, both hidden and known, in the Church's celebration of the Supper. Rather than go too far with my own exposition of these two texts - and inevitably get caught up in questions about whether it is Christ in the bread and wine, or Christ in the ecclesial, liturgical performance, etc (the correct answer, by the way, is both) - I'll shut-up and let Saints Thomas and Wesley speak for themselves to provoke and inspire you as they might.

Thee we adore, O hidden Savior, thee,
Who in thy sacrament dost deign to be;
Both flesh and spirit at thy presence fail,
Yet here thy presence we devoutly hail.

O blest memorial of our dying Lord,
Who living bread to men doth here afford!
O may our souls for ever feed on thee,
And thou, O Christ, for ever precious be.

Fountain of goodness, Jesus, Lord and God,
Cleanse us, unclean, with thy most cleansing blood;
Increase our faith and love, that we may know
The hope and peace which from thy presence flow.

O Christ, whom now beneath a veil we see,
May what we thirst for soon our portion be,
To gaze on thee unveiled, and see thy face,
The vision of thy glory and thy grace.
St. Thomas Aquinas (13th century); translated by James Woodford (1852)
Meter: 10 10 10 10
Music: Plainsong, Mode v (Adoro te, devote) (Solemnes)
* * * * *

Author of life divine, who hast a table spread,
Furnished with mystic wine and everlasting bread,
Preserve the life thyself hast given,
And feed and train us up for heaven.

Our needy souls sustain with fresh supplies of love,
Till all thy life we gain, and all thy fullness prove,
And, strengthened by thy perfect grace,
Behold without a veil thy face.
John (or Charles?) Wesley (1745)
Meter: 66 66 88
Music: Author of Life (John Stainer, 1875)

Oh, and while we're on the topic of sacred music, as I type this I'm listening to the new Wilco album (due out in May - please don't ask how I came into possession of it...), and it is really good. So's the new Arcade Fire album, Neon Bible, which begs for theological engagement.

Prayers of the Eucharist, or "so many liturgies, so few Sundays..."

In the previous post's comment thread, Brian (UrbanMonk) began to take us a bit deeper into discussion about the possible structures of our eucharistic celebrations and the range of possible prayers that we might utilize. Although I'm not sure how "eloquently" (his word) I can comment, he did allude to my interests in liturgical history and eucharistic theology, which I took as an invitation to expand a bit on the subject.

Now, while I naturally have convictions and preferences about liturgy, I hesitate to make any strong recommendations of particular "best" liturgies, because I know different folks have different views and theological opinions about the eucharist. But I will indicate a few things for those who might be interested in trying out or adapting certain historic rites and prayers.

My doctoral supervisor's late father, Ronald Jasper, was a prominent liturgist in the Church of England, and headed up the ecumenical Joint Liturgical Group in the 60s and 70s. He co-edited an anthology with Geoffrey Cuming, now in its 3rd edition, called Prayers of the Eucharist: Early and Reformed (Liturgical Press, 1990), which despite its boring cover design is an excellent resource, covering everything from Jewish table blessings through the 1790 Prayer book of the Protesant Episcopal Church. However, note that it contains only the anaphora or eucharistic prayer of a given liturgy, NOT the whole liturgy. Liturgies of the Western Church, ed. Bard Thompson (Fortress Press, 1961/1980) is a good resource for complete liturgies beginning with Justin Martyr and ending with Wesley's Sunday Service - but it's only the major liturgies, e.g. the Roman Rite, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Bucer, Knox, etc, and they're all Western, which to me is a bummer. Have a look at Richard Baxter's 1661 liturgy ("The Savoy Liturgy"), which is in both of the aforementioned books, and in the Jasper and Cuming book, the Nonjurors' Liturgy of 1718, both of which I think are of particular interest for those with Wesleyan proclivities.

Baxter's epiclesis: "This bread and wine, being set apart, and consecrated to this holy use by God's appointment, are now no common bread and wine, but sacramentally the body and blood of Christ." This statement has a charming simplicity about it, especially when considered in context of the whole liturgy, which over and over emphasizes sanctification, both of us and of the meal, which is "meat and drink indeed." And I love this exhortation at the start of the liturgy of the sacrament:

"The benefit of the Sacrament is not to be judged of only by present experience and feeling, but by faith. God having appointed us to use it, and promised his blessing, we may and must believe that he will make good his promise; and whatever we feel at present, that we sincerely wait not only him in vain."

Point of interest: my colleagues at Nazarene Theological College tell me that Baxter is an influence on Wesley, but I can't say much about this connection - maybe a possible topic for further research, or for someone who knows what they're talking about to comment on!

The Nonjurors' liturgy, which certainly influenced the Wesleys via William Law, actually refers to the eucharist as a "Sacrifice", which is somewhat shocking for the 18th century Protestant context. This epiclesis says:

"...send down thine Holy Spirit, the witness of the Passion of our Lord Jesus, upon this Sacrifice, that he may make this Bread the Body of thy Christ, and this Cup the Blood of thy Christ; that they who are partakers thereof, may be confirmed in godliness, may obtain remission of their sins, may be delivered from the Devil and his snares, may be replenished by the Holy Ghost, may be made worthy of thy Christ, and may obtain everlasting life, Thou, O Lord Almighty..."

That's the stuff right there. Change all the "they"s and "their"s to "we" and "our" and you've got yourself a pretty incredible prayer of consecration. Who wouldn't be moved by that? (Give that one a couple of tries and we might find that the eucharist can be a "converting ordinance" after all!)

To go back even earlier, WAY back in fact, the Jasper and Cuming book also includes the Egyptian Anaphora of St. Basil (probably 4th century), which doesn't include a request for the Holy Spirit to change the bread and the wine but only that the "Holy Spirit may descend upon us and upon these gifts that have been set before you, and may sanctify them and make them holy of holies. Make us all worthy to partake of your holy things for [the] sanctification of soul and body, that we may become one body and one spirit..." Anything with sanctification language should work pretty well in our context(s), I would think, so this is an excellent and very ancient possibility.

If I may take the liberty to say also that I am very inspired by and proud of the ministry team at Community Church of the Nazarene, Longsight (near Manchester, England and Nazarene Theological College), who in addition to having a weekly Word and Table service was brave enough to use an adaptation of the entire Coptic liturgy of St. Basil for their service on Pentecost Sunday last year - my wife was at the service and brought me back a copy of their liturgy booklet. The version they used asks that the "Holy Spirit descend upon these gifts set forth, and purify them, change them and manifest them as a sanctification of your saints." The entire liturgy is wonderful. And as a sort of side-note, Longsight celebrates their liturgy in a very small, communal setting - usually only 10-20 people seated in an oval with a small table bearing the bread and cup at one end. They use a combination of lay and ordained leaders so that, e.g., the "priest" parts of the liturgy, the sermon, and the epiclesis, might not always be performed by a member of the clergy.

Along these lines, I have also heard about experiments with the entire congregation praying the epiclesis, which is a decided break with tradition but might have its merits in a Nazarene setting. So, for example, everyone would pray together:

"Hear us, most merciful Father, and send your Holy Spirit upon us, and upon these gifts of bread and wine, that overshadowed by His life-giving power, they may be for us the body and blood of your Son, Jesus Christ, that we may be kindled with the fire of your love, and renewed for the service of your Kingdom."

Those are the words of epiclesis in the liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church, which is my own current worship setting (although only for a short time longer...it's been incredible, but the PhD is drawing to a close and it's nearly time to move back to the USA and Nazarenedom). The SEC liturgy revisions of 1982 were heavily influenced by Eastern liturgies, so there is a definite affinity here. The whole thing is available online directly from the SEC, and earlier versions of the Scottish liturgy can be found on the queen mother of prayer-book sites, although it must be said that the earlier versions are extremely "groveling" and penitential (e.g. "We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we form time to time most grievously have committed by thought, word and deed, against thy Divine Majesty, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us...we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs from under Thy table..." &c ~1929 Scottish BCP - very Cranmerian), such as might be objectionable to Nazarenes who (as my father-in-law says) "don't believe in a sinnin' religion." The 1982 revision was a pretty significant move in a new direction, and I have grown quite fond if it, I must confess.

And a final word, if I may: never forget that eucharistic prayers, and the liturgies they are a part of, can as (if not more) often be instruments of polemic and ideology as they can be true expressions of worship to the Almighty - see John Knox's "Forme of Prayers" 1556 as one example: "...let us not suffer our minds to wander about the consideration of these earthly and corruptible things, which we see present to our eyes and feel with our hands [i.e. the bread and wine], to seek Christ bodily present in them, as if he were enclosed in the bread and wine, or as if these elements were turned and changed into the substance of his flesh and blood...[but] lift up our minds by faith above all things worldly and sensible..." (&c.) (Seems to me that somebody doesn't quite understand that sacraments are necessarily "worldly and sensible," embodied and bodily, and only as such do they re-present the incarnate Christ.)

I guess what I mean is, even though many of us feel strongly about the need to emphasize Christ's real presence in the eucharist, I think we need to exercise caution and a bit of restraint to ensure we're not cramming it down people's throats (!) and turning worship and celebration and communion into soap-boxing. Although I've not been given many opportunities to try it out in practice in Nazarene churches, I suspect the way to go is to just use these (or any) prayers as naturally and nonchalantly as possible and hope that the theological significance seeps in gradually to the hearts and minds of all those who participate, such that we all are sanctified and transformed.

The Real Presence: survey says...

I know what I hope the answer to this question is. And I'm pretty sure I know what the answer should be as well. But I want to know what you think, fair reader - both your own conviction and what you observe in the practices of your own church(es):
Do Nazarenes believe in the "real presence" of Christ in the Lord's Supper?

I unfailingly attempt to defend that we do...but then sometimes I wonder...

The Church of the Nazarene's 13th Article of Faith puts it thus:

XIII. The Lord’s Supper

17. We believe that the Memorial and Communion Supper instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is essentially a New Testament sacrament, declarative of His sacrificial death, through the merits of which believers have life and salvation and promise of all spiritual blessings in Christ. It is distinctively for those who are prepared for reverent appreciation of its significance, and by it they show forth the Lord’s death till He come again. It being the Communion feast, only those who have faith in Christ and love for the saints should be called to participate therein.

To appeal to another authority, John Wesley's adaptation for Methodist use of 25 of the Anglican 39 Articles states:

Article 16—Of the Sacraments

Sacraments ordained of Christ are not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God's good will toward us, by which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm, our faith in him. There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. [...]

The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about; but that we should duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive the same, they have a wholesome effect or operation; but they that receive them unworthily, purchase to themselves condemnation, as St. Paul saith.

Article 18—Of the Lord's Supper

The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death; insomuch that, to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ.

Transubstantiation, or the change of the substance of bread and wine in the Supper of our Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith...

So, whaddaya'll think?

Robert Jenson on the Sacraments

"Recently, a priest in England tried to celebrate the Supper by television. Each little group was to have its bread and wine, to be blessed by the man on the tube. The metaphysical divide of our epoch is between those who will regard such an event as an interesting experiment or even a "breakthrough," and those who, like myself, will regard it as a joke in pitiably bad taste."
(Visible Words: The Interpretation and Practice of Christian Sacraments, Fortress Press, 1978, p. 17)
Another quote, just for fun...a few pages earlier, he writes: "If the church had begun in a northern climate, doubtless its sacramental drink, if it had one, would be beer." (p. 9)
Of course, one would expect as much from a Lutheran.

Report from the Front Lines

I guess I am attempting this first blog mostly to earn the right to have my name in the prestigious list to the right (contributors). I've enjoyed reading the stuff I've found here, and I truly appreciate Brannon's efforts to make this a place where ideas can be exchanged about an area which is a passion of mine. I am a pastor in a Nazarene Church in the South. This is my 3rd church and I truly love the Church of the Nazarene. I have pastored in three different regions, with three very distinct groups of people inhabiting each Church. The Church I am in right now is largely white-collar, and we have an ever-increasing contingent of students and grad students from Baylor University attending. I have truly loved sharing with this Church my passion for worship, the Sacraments and the Christian calendar. I’ll share two interesting accounts very briefly, then try to sum up my rambling and get out as painlessly as possible.