A Table-Centered People -- Disciples of Christ

As I continue blogging through Michael Kinnamon and Jan Linn's Disciples: Reclaiming Our Identity, Reforming Our Practice, I want to move into chapter 4, which deals with the Lord's Supper. By whatever name we call it, whether Communion, the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, the Table stands at the center of Disciple identity. We gather each week at the Lord's Table to remember Christ's Death and Resurrection. We remember it as a sign of unity -- one loaf and one cup. Disciples were born on the frontier at the Table.

In 1801, when Barton Stone hosted the Cane Ridge Revival, a revival that touched off the Second Great Awakening in Kentucky, the center piece was the Lord's Supper. The revival that was touched off occurred in the context of the annual Presbyterian observance of Communion. Combined with the preaching that occurred around the little log church, communion was be celebrated within the church. Eight years later, in Western Pennsylvania, Thomas Campbell issued the Declaration and Address, a document that serves as a foundation stone to the Disciples identity. That document was issued after Campbell was suspended by his presbytery for inviting Christians not of his sect to the Lord's Table. Thus, we were born at the table, and it continues to be central to our identity.

While we're not the only tradition to observe weekly communion, even among Protestants, we are one of the few that allows for non-clergy to preside. It is normal practice today for the pastor to preside at the table, with an elder(s) offering the prayer for the elements, it is quite common for elders to preside -- and often do when the pastor is not present. But Alexander Campbell was more open that that -- he assumed that anyone might stand at the Table -- after all, it's not our table, it's the Lords.

We have been a memorialistic people -- sometimes in a very wooden way, but more recently we've been better understanding that to remember has the meaning of "representation." That is the bread and cup represent the person of Christ to us. It invites us to share in Christ's life and death and resurrection. Unfortunately our understanding of the Supper has been hindered by a rationalism that has boxed in the Spirit. Interestingly Barton Stone offers some help in this, for despite his Arian Christology, he had a richer understanding of the Holy Spirit than did Alexander Campbell.

The authors write:

Thus, we open ourselves to a greater appreciation for the mystical dimension of the Lord's Supper that doesn't contradict the rational value of it, but transcends it. Unity around the table can never be solely a fruit of understanding. Human fallibility, something Stone was very much aware of, always undercuts our best intentions. The Holy Spirit is in the end the power for creating oneness in the body of Christ. Our minds can hinder or help in this process, but it is finally an experience, not simply an understanding. (Disciples, p. 47).

What is the meaning and purpose of Communion? Is it not to serve as a sign of what Christ has done and as a call to unite together around the Table as his people? Is it not a place of healing? If we're to gather in such a way then we must remember that the one who presides, the one who invites, is Jesus -- not us, whether clergy or not.

Again, they write:

This is what Disciples do. We join together in worship that revolves around Communion. The impact of the sermon on the congregation waxes and wanes from week to week, bu the power of the Lord's Supper to remind us of who we are and what we are to do remains constant as long as we come to the table expecting to experience the presence of Christ himself as we break bread together as his disciples. Moreover, being conscious of the power of the table is how we have always avoided the tendency for the act of Communion to become habitual. (Disciples, p. 49).

And, as they also point out, to share in this supper is to commit ourselves to living as Jesus lived -- to do less makes this an empty ritual.