The Lord's Supper in three tenses
An overseas Advent Christian minister asks, "Is the Lord's Supper a celebration only of the past event of 'the body which was given' and the 'blood of the new covenant?' Or does it also have present and future meaning?"
Christ's presence in Communion
"Is the Lord present when we participate in the Communion?" someone asks. "If so, is he 'really' present or only symbolically? Why do many churches not call the bread and wine what Jesus and Paul called them, namely, the body and blood of Christ?"
The Lord's Supper -- frequency
A Church of Christ brother inquires, "I was taught to partake of the Lord's Supper only on Sundays, and only in the morning service, unless I was absent that morning. Are there biblical reasons not to partake of Communion on any day other than Sunday, or limiting it to Sunday morning?"
An Advent Christian brother asks, "Is the 'form' or 'order' of the Lord's Supper -- Bread first, then the Wine, or Bread and Wine together -- important because of the order in the Gospels and in I Corinthians, or is it important for some other reason?"
A gracEmail subscriber asks: "I'm so accustomed to unleavened bread as the 'correct' element of the Lord's Supper. Can you explain the introduction of leavened bread at the communion table?"
A recent gracEmail explained why leavened bread is permissible in the Lord's Supper, to which a subscriber in Asia responded: "You may be a scholar, but some of us have a working knowledge of Greek.... Do you mean that we should be flexible in our choice of elements for the Lord’s Supper?"
Without doubt it was one of the most meaningful communion talks I have ever heard. The speaker wasn't standing up front, but sitting in a pew behind me. The message wasn't delivered into a microphone, but in a whisper. This talk didn't come from the presider at the Table, but from a father in conversation with his young daughter.
A Texas subscriber writes: "I would like to have more information regarding the love feast. It seems to be related to the Lord's Supper or Communion."
A gracEmail subscriber asks the meaning of the term "sacrament" and whether the notion is consistent with the New Testament and the gospel.
I once described my home congregation here in Houston, Texas as "tilted toward the liturgical," and a reader asked what that meant.