Every Sunday Communion

For the past sixteen months now I have served Zion Lutheran Church as their Interim Pastor. During that time the congregation affirmed their commitment to the historic Lutheran liturgy. As part of that commitment, the elders and I led the Sunday Bible class in a detailed study of the liturgy and its various parts. Out of that study came a resolution by the Board of Elders to restore the historic practice of offering the Lord's Supper at every Divine Service on Sundays and Feast Days. This is also in accord with a 1995 resolution adopted by the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. 

 THE 1995 CONVENTION OF THE LCMS PASSED THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION:

To Encourage Every Sunday Communion RESOLUTION 2-08AOverture 2-51 (CW, pp.149-150) 

Whereas, the opportunity to receive the Lord’s Supper each Lord’s Day was a reality cherished by Luther and set forth clearly with high esteem by our Lutheran Confessions (Article XXIV of the Augsburg Confession and of the Apology); and 

Whereas, our synod’s 1983 CTCR document on the Lord’s Supper (p.28) and our Synod’s 1986 [1991] translation of Luther’s Catechism both remind us that the Scriptures place the Lord’s Supper at the center of worship (Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:20,23), and not as an appendage or an occasional extra; therefore be it 

RESOLVED, That The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in convention encourage its pastors and congregations to study the scriptural, confessional, and historical witness to every Sunday communion with a view toward recovering the opportunity for receiving the Lord’s Supper each Lord’s Day. Action: Adopted.

 For a detailed discussion of the blessings of weekly communion I encourage you to read an article by Pastor James Woelmer, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, Plano, Texas (http://bit.ly/14LvXTJ). In the article Pastor Woelmer summarizes the history of this practice from the days of the early church through the Reformation and to the present day in LCMS congregations. He makes several important points in his discussion.

• When Christianity became Rome's official religion in the fourth century there is no record of a Sunday morning non-communion order of worship. 
• The practice of laity receiving the sacrament degenerated during the Middle Ages to as little as once a year after the thirteenth century. Instead the Mass (Divine Service) was seen as a sacrifice offered by the priests, often in private without participation by laity. 
• Luther emphasized that all masses without communicants should be completely abolished. 
• One or two masses, he taught, should be celebrated on Sundays or on the days of the saints. 
• And during the week mass should be celebrated on whatever day there is a need for it, that is, if there are some communicants present who ask for and desire it. 
• As a result of the pietistic movement among Lutherans the focus turned inward as people asked if they were truly converted. As a result the objective, external gifts of God delivered in the Supper were less important. 
• Further, the growing emphasis upon Rationalism in the eighteenth century led to a deterioration of the Sacrament. 
• In the twentieth century most Lutheran congregations offered Communion four to six times a year and by the end of that century most LCMS congregations offered the Supper two weeks of the month. 

In a survey conducted by Rev. Kenneth Wieting of all LCMS pastors in 1995 four concerns were anticipated by pastors seeking to recover weekly communion. 

1. The Sacrament will be too common. 
2. The Sacrament will take too much time. 
3. There is a lack of understanding of the scriptural and historical witness to this practice. 
4. Occasional Communion is considered the Lutheran tradition. 

In conclusion Pastor Woelmer emphasizes that the Lord's Supper is the climax of the sermon. The two go hand in hand and complement one another. During the Divine Service there is one meal with two servings: the Word and our Lord's body and blood.