What we’ve been focusing on in our Sunday school study is the way we do the Supper. The early church met together for meals, while we today do a ritual during the assembly. We’ve cut out most of the fellowship aspects of the Supper, choosing instead to focus on the individual, personal experience. I can see some advantages to the way we do it. But the original Lord’s Supper was a meal Jesus had with the apostles, not a ritual during a corporate worship assembly. There’s something to be said for the fellowship aspect.

I went to visit a friend’s church a few weeks ago. They do a meal after church every week. Actually that’s not true. They have a meal after the sermon as part of church. That’s the way they do the Lord’s Supper. And sometimes they even skip the sermon entirely and just eat together.

Perhaps my question is rather basic, but what exactly do you mean by grace, and by “grace being given”? I ask because there are many examples throughout the NT epistles where, apparently, grace is given to someone merely by the speaker’s words, as shown in benedictions and frequently in greetings or leave-takings. Or do you interpret “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” as nothing really to do with grace, the word “grace” here being just a word in a verbal formula? (Kind of like us saying, “How are you?” when we aren’t really asking how you are.)

Maybe you see what I’m getting at. I think I hold to the idea that as a believer I can impart God’s grace to you via by my words–and I can receive God’s grace via your words to me. (That would be in addition to the two ways you list. Or maybe you would put my examples as part of “the word”?)

OK, that didn’t have a lot to do with the Lord’s supper, but it did have to do with imparting grace.

What we’ve been focusing on in our Sunday school study is the way we do the Supper. The early church met together for meals, while we today do a ritual during the assembly. We’ve cut out most of the fellowship aspects of the Supper, choosing instead to focus on the individual, personal experience.

Our church has been doing fairly autonomous monthly fellowship groups in people’s homes. Sadie and I host one. We do communion every time, along with a meal and a short study. Communion is much more of an open “sharing” experience, and we use communion as another mechanism for fellowship. It has really changed the way I view the practice.

“If one is arguing that the Lord’s Supper can be performed less regularly to make room for other things in the church service, then they should be willing to admit that teaching can be left out of a service for similar reasons.” Excellent point. Acts 2.42 definitely makes it sound like the early church took the Eucharist every time it met.

I personally don’t favor one view over the other (the memorial or the grace view). Yet I find it…interesting that, as far as I know, most Christians throughout history have favored the grace view. This doesn’t necessarily mean that this is the right view, but, if nothing else, it should encourage us to at least take the view seriously.

Romans 4 (Contemporary English Version) said:

9Are these blessings meant for circumcised people or for those who are not circumcised? Well, the Scriptures say that God accepted Abraham because Abraham had faith in him. 10But when did this happen? Was it before or after Abraham was circumcised? Of course, it was before.

11Abraham let himself be circumcised to show that he had been accepted because of his faith even before he was circumcised. This makes Abraham the father of all who are acceptable to God because of their faith, even though they are not circumcised. 12This also makes Abraham the father of everyone who is circumcised and has faith in God, as Abraham did before he was circumcised.

Rituals do not have magic power to a true believer in God. Circumcision, Baptism, Communion, all have no “magic power” that “gives grace”. Abraham was not saved as a result of performing magical rituals of sacrifice or circumcision, but rather it was his FAITH that caused God to accept Abraham. The same is true of us today. Magic symbols, objects, and rituals do not belong to true Christianity. The ordinances we are commanded to follow are nothing more than outward symbols of an internal faith. To claim otherwise is to claim that we are blessed for obedience to the law, and as Romans 4:14 states: “If Abraham and his descendants were given this promise because they had obeyed a law, then faith would mean nothing, and the promise would be worthless.” Communion does not give grace, GOD gives grace as we place our faith in Him. Anything less is not Christianity.

Acts 2:42 (Contemporary English Version) wrote

42They spent their time learning from the apostles, and they were like family to each other. They also broke bread [a] and prayed together.

Footnotes:
1. Acts 2:42 broke bread: They ate together and celebrated the Lord’s Supper.

1 Corinthians 11 (Contemporary English Version) wrote

20When you meet together, you don’t really celebrate the Lord’s Supper. 21You even start eating before everyone gets to the meeting, and some of you go hungry, while others get drunk. 22Don’t you have homes where you can eat and drink? Do you hate God’s church? Do you want to embarrass people who don’t have anything? What can I say to you? I certainly cannot praise you.
….
26The Lord meant that when you eat this bread and drink from this cup, you tell about his death until he comes.
27But if you eat the bread and drink the wine in a way that isn’t worthy of the Lord, you sin against his body and blood.

Basically what we see described about the early church is that they regularly ate together and “observed the Lord’s Supper”. This was NOT a fancy little ritual with tiny cups and cracker wafers that they did as part of the worship service, but a meal they ate together “in memory of Christ” as a witness until his return. Eating it in a disrespectful manner shows disrespect for Christ’s sacrifice, and therefore is worthy of punishment. While we are never commanded to do it on any given basis, I fully agree that there is strong Scriptural precedence for observing it whenever we gather as a body of believers, and definitely whenever we dine together. The key is to be respectful in our commemoration of Christ’s sacrifice.

“Magic symbols, objects, and rituals do not belong to true Christianity.” Magic does not belong to Christianity, but God does. And God can certainly work miraculously through objects and rituals.

“The ordinances we are commanded to follow are nothing more than outward symbols of an internal faith.” Are you sure? I don’t think the NT is quite so unambiguous.

“To claim otherwise is to claim that we are blessed for obedience to the law, and as Romans 4:14 states: ‘If Abraham and his descendants were given this promise because they had obeyed a law, then faith would mean nothing, and the promise would be worthless.’” But faith impels us to act. If one is impelled by his faith to take the Eucharist, then I see no reason why God would not bless that action.

“Communion does not give grace, GOD gives grace as we place our faith in Him. Anything less is not Christianity.” Nobody’s arguing that communion gives grace. God is obviously the one who gives grace. I just think it’s possible that God chooses to give grace when believers, acting in faith, take the Eucharist.

Are you sure? I don’t think the NT is quite so unambiguous.

In that case I would highly suggest you read it.

I just think it’s possible that God chooses to give grace when believers, acting in faith, take the Eucharist.

Many things are possible, but only what the Bible teaches can be certain. The Bible does NOT teach that magic rituals obtain grace, but rather that faith is rewarded with grace. We are commanded to take the Lord’s Supper as a memorial and witness of His sacrifice, and are warned that we will face hardship if we do so in a disrespectful manner. We get “grace” from it in the same way that we get grace whenever we obediently act in faith. If you have reason from Scripture to think otherwise, I would happy to reconsider my position, but if all you have to offer is human wisdom I hope you will understand if I would rather stick to what Scripture teaches. It is easy for the church to get pulled into spiritualistic superstitions, but it is better to cling to the teachings of Scripture.

Sure, I understand where you’re coming from, and I agree. I’m not saying that I definitely believe that communion is a means by which God imparts a special grace to believers. But I don’t see where the NT ever tells us that such an act of grace doesn’t occur during communion. Communion is a time of remembrance; it is a proclamation of Christ’s death; but maybe it’s more than that; maybe. That’s all I’m saying.

I will quickly point out that the idea of grace being conferred as a “magical power” that is a work is something I would take exception to. I don’t see what I hold to as being a type of “work magic” at all. I see nothing inherently wrong with saying that God uses physical objects to do a supernatural work within us, saying it’s magic implies that it’s from a source other then God which anyone who hold to a “grace view” of the sacraments would disagree with.. I also don’t see the taking of an object as a work anymore then having faith, or making a decision is a work. It’s God that gives us to strength to have faith, it’s God who gives us the strength to take communion.

Think of it this way, is scripture a means of grace? God uses it to increase our faith does he not? Why can communion not work in a similar fashion? Or can faith only be increased by direct appeal to the intellect?