ON BREAKING BREAD A SECOND TIME ON LORD’S DAY

I told the congregation that it was the first time in all my years among the churches that I had seen it done, and that it was a real blessing to me. I had just taken the Lord’s Supper for the second time on that Lord’s Day. It was the evening service. There were some there that had not assembled with us that morning. So we had the Supper again, all of us. There was no difference, the same as that morning, and I noticed that most, if not all, in the congregation shared in that communion a second time, as I did.

This was at the Lowell Church of Christ in Lowell, Indiana, a congregation that dates back to the 1840’s. It is now instrumental, but continues to go by the name it has always worn. In recent years a non-instrument church has gone into business a few blocks from them. A sign on the highway sets the would-be visitor at ease, for it reads: “Church of Christ - Vocal Music.” How better can one keep the kingdom of Cod straight than that?

I explained to these brethren who had served me the Supper the second time that they were well within the province of scripture, for Jesus says, “As often as you break this bread and drink this cup you show forth the Lord’s death till he comes.” In fact, this is a far sounder course than what is usually practiced by those churches of my acquaintance: serving the Supper a second time to a few in the congregation (or isolating them in some room apart) while the rest of us have no part in it. In the scriptures the Supper is obviously a congregational act, and if the congregation does not take part, then those few that do partake may as well do so at home. I have seen churches serve the Supper to one lonely soul, standing there all by himself amidst a hundred brethren or more. While I have never experienced this, I should think one would be embarrassed or feel conspicuous in such an instance.

It is most appropriate that all the saints who are assembled break bread whenever it is served, wherever that it or however often. If a couple chooses to have the Supper at their wedding, then let all of the believers who are there join them. In the scriptures it is almost certainly a congregational act, not an individual one. I am not saying it is wrong for it to be served other than congregationally, but I am saying that in the scriptures the Supper finds its meaning in relation to the corporate assembly of saints. 1 Cor.10:17 for instance: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

I have never missed breaking bread on Lord’s Day except for a time or two when I was in the hospital. If I were for some reason hindered from attending the regular assembly where the Supper is served to all, I would not elect to partake of it by myself or with a few others in a later assembly. Nor would I want it brought to me at the hospital. If I could not be there when the assembly breaks bread, the Lord would excuse me. It is the Body that is to break bread, both as a memorial to what Jesus did and is and as a testimonial that we are all one in him.

The cup and the loaf have no efficacy in themselves. they are not sacraments in that they, in the very act of taking them, bestow grace to our souls, our good Roman Catholic friends notwithstanding. It is a family act in that brothers and sisters are assembled to glorify their Father and to bear testimony to what their savior means to them.

When I was a boy preacher at Freed-Hardeman College, a friend and I tried in vain to make our way through mud and rain to a preaching appointment out in the country. We arrived, wet and muddy ,just as the saints dismissed. Someone did take us home and fed us, but we missed the Lord’s Supper, and my views were very traditional back in those days. I couldn’t dare miss “the elements” for I might die before next Sunday. So once back at the college, my friend and I looked up old Spence, the school’s big black janitor who also served as custodian to the white man’s church, and got him to open the closet so we could partake of the elements before the Lord’s Day passed. I can see that big, lovable soul even yet, looking at me as he was arranging the trays and asking, “Did you get yourn?”

Did you get your? goes far in describing the Church of Christ view of the Lord’s Supper. It accounts for a second serving of the Supper to only a handful. Each one is to get theirs! That being the point, why not just have the brothers who miss in the morning take the Supper on their own at home, or take it at work over in a corner somewhere? If one poor soul can stand alone in an auditorium and partake of it, while scores sit there and wait while he does so, then he could surely do so alone in a more intimate setting.

But at Lowell, I did take the Supper in the evening service, a second time for that day, because the congregation had assembled for that purpose. And if they had assembled the following Thursday for the same purpose, I would have joined in, even though I do believe, because of what history says as well as the scriptures, that the usual time for the Body breaking bread is “the day of the Sun,” to quote Justin Martyr.

I told them that as a boy preacher I would go out in the afternoons and speak to assemblies after meeting elsewhere in the mornings, but would not break bread with them since I had “already had mine.” But that I had learned more about the meaning of the Supper, that it is a communion of believers and the Lord. So now, wherever I am, if believers have met to break bread, I as their brother break with them, however frequent that may be. On the occasions that I am with a church that has two morning services, I take part in both memorials. Now really, does it make sense to sit with brethren who are communing with the Lord and not commune with them? The idea that “I have had mine” is Romanism and it is also beside the point. The point is that God’s family has gathered to break bread, and I as part of that family should join in.

Our churches would do well to discard the second serving of the Supper altogether (and teach that those who cannot attend the assembly are excused) or else follow the spiritual wisdom of the saints in Lowell and have a second assembly for the Lord’s Supper, with all the congregation sharing in the proclamation.—The Editor