On June 12, 2025, The Christian Chronicle's Bobby Ross Jr. released a story about the Arlington (Virginia) Church of Christ. That congregation removed the pews from the center of its auditorium and replaced them with tables. Now, worshipers leave their seats and gather around those tables to share the Lord's Supper with each other.
The article stirred up strong opinions among Christian Chronicle readers. Some affirm how the Arlington Church of Christ is trying a fresh and purposeful practice of the Lord's Supper. Others, however, believe that the new practice distracts worshipers from a solemn remembrance of the death of Jesus.
The energetic conversation among readers led The Christian Chronicle's opinions editor, Dr. Jeremie Beller, to write a column of his own. He wasn't the only Bible scholar to weigh in. Christa Sanders Bryant, an author, teacher, and PhD student in Biblical studies at Faulkner University shared the article and some thoughts of her own.
In this episode, Bryant shares her own experiences with the Lord's Supper and how her biblical research reveals what 21st century Church of Christ folks may be missing from the church's first century practice.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
BT Irwin (00:03):
Family and friends, neighbors and, most of all,
strangers.
Welcome to the ChristianChronicle Podcast.
We're bringing you the storiesshaping Church of Christ
congregations and members aroundthe world.
I'm BT Irwin.
May what you are about to hearbless you and honor God.
What is the right way, thebiblical way, to do communion,
(00:25):
the Lord's Supper, in the Churchof Christ?
We all know that the biblicalcommand and example is to
partake of it every first day ofthe week.
I dare say you will not find acongregation with Church of
Christ on its sign out frontthat does not observe the Lord's
Supper every Sunday.
But how each congregationpractices the Lord's Supper can
be different from how eachcongregation practices the
Lord's Supper can be differentfrom one to the next.
(00:48):
For example, at thecongregation where I grew up, we
did the Lord's Supper beforethe Sunday morning sermon, after
the third song to be exact.
Imagine the scandal.
The first time I went to acongregation that did the Lord's
Supper after the sermon, Iremember asking my parents on
the ride home if thatcongregation was aware of its
(01:08):
transgression.
If you're used to doing theLord's Supper one way for so
many years, it can feel justwrong to do it any other way.
Large is the fleet of churchbuses that it would take to hold
the many folks who have, overthe years, left their
congregations.
Over changes thosecongregations made to their
practice of the Lord's SupperChanges as seemingly lightweight
(01:29):
as, whether it happens beforeor after the sermon, changes
like those may seem even morelightweight when we remember how
the pandemic in 2020 and 2021forced every congregation to
rethink its practice of theLord's Supper.
Raise your hand if the sound ofripping cellophane is now as
much a part of your Sundaymorning assembly as prayers,
preaching and singing.
I thought the changescongregations made during the
(01:51):
pandemic would make it lesslikely that Church of Christ
folks would take issue with eachother over future changes
congregations might make to thepractical parts of the Lord's
Supper.
For example, some congregationsmay go back to passing trays
and some may stick to rip andsip.
Or some congregations maychange the format and timing of
the Lord's Supper within theirassemblies, as long as they
(02:12):
gather every Sunday to partakeof unleavened bread and fruit of
the vine in remembrance ofJesus Christ.
How that happens is a matter ofwhat works for each
congregation within the boundsof biblical command and example.
That's what I thought, but acouple of weeks before we
recorded this episode, theChristian Chronicles' Bobby Ross
Jr published a story about theArlington Church of Christ in
(02:33):
Arlington, virginia.
When that congregation beganmeeting again after the pandemic
, they took the disruption as anopportunity for refreshment and
renewal of their assemblies.
In particular, they asked iftheir practice of the Lord's
Supper was as biblical andsubstantial as it could be.
They concluded together thatthey could do better.
So, after much prayer,reflection and study, they made
(02:56):
some changes to their practice.
They removed the pews from thecenter of their auditorium and
replaced them with tables forthe bread and fruit of the vine.
Now the folks in the pews getup from their seats and gather
around the tables as they sharethe Lord's Supper with each
other.
When Bobby's story appeared onthe Christian Chronicles
Facebook page, it fermented likea forgotten bottle of Welch's
(03:18):
grape juice from March 2020.
Some folks from our ChristianChronicle audience affirmed the
Arlington Church of Christ fortrying to be more biblical and
intentional about the Lord'sSupper.
Others, however, took strongissue.
For example, a sister named Suewrote quote If I'm looking into
someone else's eyes, I'mfocusing on them instead of
Christ.
The focus should be on Christ,end quote.
(03:39):
A sister named Betty wrotequote.
We should sit quietly andcontemplate Jesus' suffering and
love for us.
The Lord's Supper is not afellowship event end quote.
A sister named Trisea wrotequote the Lord's Supper is not a
buffet.
It's to commemorate thesacrifice of our Lord and Savior
, jesus Christ.
Sitting with our heads bowed inhumility to Him is most
(04:00):
appropriate.
End quote.
A sister named Amy wrote quote.
Seems this would definitely bea distraction and take away from
examining yourself during theLord's Supper.
End quote.
A sister named Doris wrote quotethe Lord's Supper is not a
social event.
It is a solemn memorial of ourLord's death.
What could be more solemn thanpartaking of the bread and fruit
of the vine and contemplatingthe Lord's suffering?
(04:22):
End quote.
And a sister named Joyce wrotequote.
The Lord's Supper is a time toreflect upon the death, burial
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If you want something to dowhile the bread and cups are
passed, read about the death,burial and resurrection.
End quote.
So Bobby's story about theLord's Supper at the Arlington
Church of Christ is turning outto be one of our most exciting
(04:44):
stories of 2025 so far.
So exciting that our opinionseditor, dr Jeremy Beller, felt
compelled to write a column inresponse to the response the
story is getting.
We'll post that column in theshow notes.
Another person who read thepiece and felt a strong response
to it is our guest today.
Krista Sanders Bryant is aChurch of Christ lifer who is an
author and teacher when she'snot raising five count them five
(05:08):
daughters.
She is a recent recipient ofthe Master in Biblical Studies
from the Kearley Graduate Schoolof Theology at Faulkner
University in Montgomery,alabama, where she is now
pursuing the PhD in BiblicalStudies.
As part of her graduate program, she wrote many papers on the
Lord's Supper, including a31-pager she titled the Form,
(05:28):
function and Fellowship of theEucharist.
You won't find too many peoplein the Church of Christ who are
better prepared to think andtalk about the Lord's Supper.
We welcome to the show KristaSanders-Bryant.
Christa Sanders Bryant (05:38):
Thank you.
BT Irwin (05:39):
So I want to start by giving you a chance to do a
little bit of storytelling whatis a personal story?
By giving you a chance to do alittle bit of storytelling what
is a personal?
Christa Sanders Bryant (05:47):
story that gets at what the Lord's
Supper means to you.
When I was a young wife, one ofthe elders' wives at our
congregation offered to teachall the younger wives how to
make communion bread and Icouldn't come to the class.
So I told her.
I said I can't come that daybut I would love to learn how to
(06:08):
do it.
Is there another time or is?
Can you give me the recipe?
Can you know something?
And she's like oh yes, I'llmeet you up here at the church
building another time.
And she said that you need toread the recipe before you come
and if you've made communionbread before, you know it is not
difficult.
The recipe should be a smallcard and she handed me a packet
(06:30):
that was eight pages long.
And so I start flipping throughit and it gives all the
ingredients and it gives thesteps, and for every little
thing there was something abouthow much of an opportunity this
was to serve the Lord and toserve the congregation.
And one of the steps was tomake it easier for the
(06:54):
congregants to break the bread.
Take your fork and delicatelymake holes in the bread so they
can break it off easier.
But when you do that and whenyou're taking your fork, think
about the nails that wentthrough Jesus's hand.
And every little step hadsomething to remember, to
remember the crucifixion, andthat was so at the time I got in
(07:18):
the car and I showed it to myhusband and we kind of laughed a
little bit about how long itwas and um, but that stuck with
me.
I mean, that was 20 years agoand we still talk about that
packet and how incredible thatwas.
And in contrast, that withCOVID and I went and I got this
cardboard box out fromunderneath the table and I
(07:40):
scooped out communion kits andput it into a for lack of a
better word small trash bag toput out on the door for people
to come pick up, and what adifference that was.
And I think in that moment ofpulling the communion cups out
of the box and putting them onthe porch, I thought about that
(08:01):
package.
Yeah.
And like what are we doing?
Yeah, what are we really doing.
And that that moment stuck withme because it was such a
clinical thing Almost.
I don't want to say dirty,because it wasn't dirty, but it
was just so common.
Yes.
(08:21):
Compared to what we did with.
You know, when you poke thebread with a fork and think
about the nails that wentthrough Jesus's hands to
scooping them up and puttingthem in the trash bag to put on
the, to put on the porch forpeople to come pick up, and I
don't know, it was such, a, sucha contrast in my brain and I
(08:42):
think in that moment I thoughtwhat are we really doing?
Yeah, wow, what a story.
Yeah, what are we really doingand how do we remember God in
this moment?
And that was five, four or fiveyears ago, and since then this
has been on my heart and on mymind how, how do we do it?
(09:05):
Why do we do it?
BT Irwin (09:08):
Okay, before we go on, I got to know, do you still
have that eight page?
Christa Sanders Bryant (09:12):
I do not .
In fact I asked Dwayne lastnight.
I was like do we have thispaper?
He's like I don't think we haveit, but she had made copies and
she had, like she passed themout to everybody.
So I'm I'm wondering if some ofmy friends still have it.
I love that.
That was 20 years ago.
BT Irwin (09:29):
I grew up at a church where one of the elders' wives
made all the communion bread andtaught other people how to make
it too, and I think I was in my20s before I tasted the cracker
or the monster, whatever it isthat most congregations use.
(09:49):
The way you ended up here onthe show is when the story about
the Arlington Church of Christcame out a few weeks ago.
You shared that the Lord'sSupper has been a subject of
close concentration and specialstudy for you over the last year
or two, and now I think I knowwhy.
So that season appeared tobegin for you, probably like it
did for a lot of us during thepandemic Right.
(10:10):
How has that taken shape then,over the last four or five years
?
Christa Sanders Bryant (10:14):
So during COVID I started my
master's degree at Palmer andyou know you're always looking
for paper topics.
You're always looking for papertopics and for the last year
I've probably written four tofive papers just on the Lord's
Supper in some some way, eitherthe one that I sent you or three
(10:39):
or four others that have todeal with the wording of certain
sections, or comparing to twoparts of it, or picking out
different things and reallyfocusing on every step of it.
And I think you know, when yougo to worship it's not something
that you just do, it'ssomething that you engage in,
(11:02):
and I want to make sure that howcan we best be engaged in the
Lord's Supper and not just, youknow, take a little piece of
cracker and drink a little bitof juice and check that box and
go on?
BT Irwin (11:16):
So when you saw the article that Bobby Ross wrote
about Arlington Church of Christ, you read it, like lots and
lots of other people did, butthat inspired you to share it
and talk about it too.
Christa Sanders Bryant (11:29):
Yeah, I think what drew me to the
article originally was not eventhe topic, it was the picture,
and the picture of the table inthe middle of the auditorium and
the idea of table fellowship,and that's something that we've
lost, especially in the 21stcentury.
And I wanted to know okay,here's a church that realizes
(11:50):
we've lost something integral tothe original feast and they're
doing something about it.
And I don't know that they'redoing all parts of it like they
did in the first century, but Ido know that they're making an
effort to say how can we makethis better?
That's, I think, what made meso excited, because there is an
(12:11):
element of, you know, we we callit communion because we commune
with God.
You know we're supposed to be,but there's also this idea that
we commune with God.
You know we're supposed to be,but there's also this idea that
we commune with our fellowchurch member, and we've lost
that.
I mean, when most of us go tochurch, we either stare at the
person in front of us, at theirhead, we don't look at the
person next to us, unless we'repassing the tray, and so it's a
(12:36):
very individual, it's a veryisolating experience and there's
not that communion.
And how much more meaningful isit when you see the 80-year-old
widow woman taking communion,who's gone through horrible,
horrible things with the loss ofher spouse and maybe her life
(12:56):
has been difficult in takingcommunion, and it's being so
much more special and pertinentto her.
And then me, who has not beenthrough that experience, to see
her celebrate the life of Christin a way that I can't relate to
, but know that she is, but knowthat she is.
BT Irwin (13:23):
Does that give you hope for your future or make
Christ more meaningful to you?
At the top of the show I readsome of the comments that the
Arlington Church of Christ storyreceived from our Christian
Chronicle audience.
Many were affirmative, but manycriticized or questioned what
the congregation did with itspractice of the Lord's Supper,
and the most common objectionsseem to come from a place of
(13:44):
concern that gathering aroundtables in the middle of the
auditorium would distract peoplefrom the self-examination and
solemnity of what is indeed amemorial to Jesus Christ.
Christa Sanders Bryant (13:58):
I think if we go back and we look at
that scripture in 1 Corinthians11, verse 28, there is an adverb
in that sentence that is,before you examine yourself
before, you don't examineyourself during the taking of
the sacraments that moment isfor you to think about Christ,
(14:23):
it's not to think about yourself.
And so you examine yourselfbefore so that when you do come
to the table you're already in astate of remembrance and in a
state of right, living with God.
And I think we forget that,like we run up to communion, oh,
now I've got to examine myselfand be holy for this moment.
(14:45):
And that should have happened,you know, way before.
So I think we forget that.
And so if you are takingcommunion around people and it's
hard to to self examineyourself because you're looking
communion around people and it'shard to to self-examine
yourself because you're lookingat other people that there's a
purpose for that.
When christ sat down at thetable with the passover, they
didn't sit by themselves, theysat around the table all looking
(15:09):
at each other.
When the church, in troas andacts, sat at a table looking at
each other.
And so that's, I think,something that's cultural to us
in the 21st century that wewould have to learn how to
manage that, how to get throughthat.
But yeah, we are supposed toexamine ourselves before and
(15:29):
then.
I think when we talk aboutsolemnity, solemnity doesn't
mean silence.
We've all been to a funeral andwe've all been to a funeral,
yes, and we've all been to ameal after that funeral, and
that's not necessarily a happy,joyful time Talking about the
person that died and theinfluence they had on your life
or things that they did.
(15:50):
Can we not take that idea of afuneral meal where that person
who has died and is the subjectof that meal, can we not replace
that with Christ and say howdid Christ's death affect me
this week?
If this might be a little bittoo technical, but in the first
(16:11):
century the bread was taken atthe very beginning of the meal
and the and the cup was takenafter the meal was eaten.
And so you're not going tobreak the bread and think about
Jesus's death and and thinkabout you know what he did and
his sacrifice, and thenimmediately look up and say, hey
, guess what happened to me atwork this week and you know
(16:32):
you're going to want to discussthat with people and talk about
it, and we've lost that, we'velost that tradition and we've
lost that process.
And so I think it's a verydifficult thing for people to
think about.
How can we do this in a waythat honors God?
BT Irwin (16:47):
I like that you brought up a funeral meal, a
wake, a repast, it's calleddifferent things in different
cultures, but've few times in mylife have I experienced a meal
that was more meaningful andmore just, overwhelmed with both
laughter and tears, as afuneral meal.
(17:09):
There's there's storytelling,there's laughter, there's crying
, there are moments of silence,stories about the person, and I
have vivid memories of somefuneral luncheons that I
attended over the years.
So I like that you brought thatup.
You wrote a 31-page paper theForm, function and Fellowship of
(17:31):
the Eucharist.
I wonder if we could touch on afew of the points that you make
in the paper and to the point.
I think of the discussion folkswere having on Facebook and that
we're having today.
You wrote in your paper, quoteit was precisely the lack of
remembrance that Jesus so wantedhis followers to avoid.
(17:52):
Yet two millennia later, thefeast looks little like the meal
of the first century.
The Enlightenment, historicaltheology and other influences
have changed the practice of thememorial.
Feast were only a small remnantof what Jesus instituted
remains end, quote.
I reckon those are jarringwords for a lot of folks in a
(18:14):
Church of Christ audience for alot of folks in the Church of
Christ audience.
Christa Sanders Bryant (18:22):
The Church of Christ, which I have
been a part of since I was bornon a Sunday and I have been at
the church since that firstSunday we take great pride in
being the church of the firstcentury.
We advertise that, we tellpeople, we try to be the church
of the first century.
We're non-denominational, we're, you know, we want to do things
like jesus did and, of course,being in the 21st century,
(18:43):
that's not always going to lookalike.
There wasn't powerpoint or airconditioning and all that stuff
that we, that we enjoy.
But I think this is one ofthose things that we could do
and we could do well today thatwe have lost the first century,
(19:06):
for years spent time around thetable talking about jesus and
his death and his resurrectionand what that meant and what
that meant for his people andwhat that meant for the church,
and and that was that wasinspiring to them.
So now we take a little, alittle cup, a little piece of
(19:28):
bread, a little thing, and it'svery ceremonial, it's very
ritualistic and we pass it inwithin, depending on the size of
your congregation or whetheryou use the little all in one
things communion can takeanywhere from five to 15 minutes
(19:48):
, and it's.
It's not what it looked likethen and I don't know
necessarily that it's a sin, notthat it looks like that but I
think we've missed something andI think we've missed the
remembrance that Jesus wanted.
When we taste the juice as itgoes down, you know, sometimes
(20:11):
it's bitter and sour and wethink about that.
How much of that are wethinking about?
That Jesus's blood was shed forus.
You know, when they did it inthe first century especially
when you read it in Mark Jesustook a pitcher and he poured the
juice into his cup.
And then they took that pitcherand they all poured juice into
their own cup.
(20:32):
And there's something about thevisual effect of seeing blood or
the juice, the red juice, gofrom one pitcher and think about
the spilling of blood.
And just like the blood comesout of the body, it came out of
the pitcher and that's a visualthing that you know that was a
lot of blood or that was a lotof liquid and that's important.
(20:53):
And when you break the breadyou have to break away and
especially if you have likehomemade communion bread, it's a
little bit more work.
You have to put a little bit ofeffort into it and think that
was his body and they broke it.
You know we don't participatein any of that, we just do the
(21:14):
bare minimum and I think thatjust makes me sad.
BT Irwin (21:18):
The bare minimum.
Those words, they, they strikea minor chord with me.
I I had to write a graduatepaper a couple of years ago and
part of that paper involvedobserving and timing the things
that we did on Sunday morning.
And we there were two or threeSundays where the total amount
(21:40):
of time we spent on the Lord'ssupper was 60 seconds.
We're still ripping and sippingum at our, at our congregation,
and and I I thought that feelslike the bare minimum, right as
a prayer rip and sip.
And now we're on to theannouncements and let's get out
(22:02):
of here and head to lunch.
So those words bare minimum thatyou just said right there, I've
said to my wife a few timesabout the Lord's Supper.
I feel like we're doing thebare minimum.
We can check the box and say wedid it because they did it in
the first century, but kind oflike you said when you were
(22:22):
putting those rip and sip cupsin the garbage bag, what are we
doing here?
What are we doing?
One of my takeaways from yourpaper is the biggest change or
biggest missing piece maybe thebiggest change, maybe the
biggest missing piece from theLord's Supper in the first
century in our practice of theLord's Supper in the 21st
(22:43):
century Church of Christ is whatyou call the agape feast, which
is an actual full meal, what wewould call a fellowship meal in
our congregations today.
You write, quote perhaps thechurch should revisit the agape
feast and its incorporation forthe weekly meeting.
End quote.
Christa Sanders Bryant (23:02):
Yeah, the church in the first century.
When I was researching this, Ifound it really interesting that
they had a worship service verysimilar to what our worship
service is, but they didn'tinclude the Lord's Supper.
It was a separate event.
Sometimes the worship servicehappened at the synagogue and
that worship service was foreverybody, if I mean anybody
(23:24):
could come in off the streetsand be a part of that worship
service.
But the agape feast, the mealwas only for those who were in a
covenant relationship with God,who had been baptized, who are
part of the group, and they cametogether and they took bread
together and they ate the meal,and then they ended that meal by
(23:46):
taking the cup and rememberingthe blood, and so it was
bookended by those two eventsand the meal happened in between
.
That would be a very powerfulexperience and I think it's
funny in some ways thatnonbelievers were not allowed to
(24:08):
be part of the meal and we kindof maybe arrogantly, say, oh,
we take the Lord's Supper as ateaching moment for our kids or
as a way to show believers howimportant it is, but it wasn't
for that.
(24:28):
I mean, it wasn't a teachingmoment.
It was for them to puteverything else aside.
There was not supposed to beany of them in that moment.
It was supposed to be all aboutremembering Christ and his
sacrifice and what that meant tomaybe to them as a congregation
, and remember this was, youknow, in the first century,
(24:53):
people being persecuted and andyou know, how does that, how
does that resonate with them inthat moment that we can't relate
to.
So I think the meal there issomething to that meal.
Now, the Jews understood thatand they'd had practice with
(25:17):
that because of the Passover,and we don't have practice with
that, so it's a foreign conceptto us.
How do you have a remembrancemeal that is um, that is
significant and solid, and Idon't know that we, we do that
well.
BT Irwin (25:33):
It'd be hard to do.
Yeah, you think about.
Uh, you know, my congregationhas 250 people, so to have a
meal for 250 people every week,it's I think.
I don't know if you've used theword convenience yet.
Oh, no, but that's a word thatcomes up.
A lot is convenience and itwould be very inconvenient to
(25:56):
have a meal every week if you'vegot 50 people.
Way more convenient to linethem all up in military
formation in pews and have thempick up the rip and sip cups on
the way in the door.
Christa Sanders Bryant (26:08):
Right.
BT Irwin (26:09):
And that's how you end up with communion that takes 60
seconds.
So I like that you brought upthe agape feast.
It certainly does challenge alot of what we think we know
about the first century andabout the Lord's Supper and how
we practice it today.
And I wonder if you find thisinteresting.
There's a church in the citywhere I live I live in a suburb
(26:31):
of Detroit and there's acongregation there called Middle
Eastern Bible Fellowship, andit is made up entirely of
Christians from the Middle Eastthat are what I would call
exiles.
Uh, they have fled their homecountries, uh, and they've ended
up here, and so the serviceevery week is in Arabic.
The entire service is in Arabic.
(26:52):
They have about 300 people andum I, uh.
I sat and had coffee one daywith the pastor at the church.
He was fairly critical of theChurch of Christ.
It was interesting.
I found out that I'm a member.
He said y'all do communion, allwrong.
That was the first thing hesaid.
He said you do it every weekand you're really proud of that,
(27:14):
but you don't do it the waythey did it in the first century
.
And one of the things that thatcongregation does is the first
hour of every Sunday morning theentire hour is devoted to the
Lord's supper, the entire hour.
And then, after the Lord'ssupper is done, they take a
break and then they have theirworship assembly, kind of like,
(27:36):
you know, with the singing andthe prayer and the sermon and
everything.
But he said y'all Church ofChrist.
People sure are proud of doingthe Lord's Supper every week,
but you do it all wrong.
And this is how we do it at ourchurch.
We give it a full hour, justthe Lord's Supper.
Christa Sanders Bryant (27:55):
That would be fascinating to go and
see, especially to see how theyconduct it.
BT Irwin (28:02):
Yeah, I've been there and it's challenging because
every single word is in Arabic.
Christa Sanders Bryant (28:06):
Oh.
BT Irwin (28:09):
Which also he pointed out with great pride.
He said Arabic is as close toAramaic as you can get, said,
Arabic is as close to Aramaic asyou can get.
So when we speak the words ofJesus in Arabic in our church,
that's as close as you can getto hearing Jesus speak in his
native tongue.
But when you said somethingabout the first century church
going, uh, worshiping at thesynagogue or having their
(28:31):
assembly and then having a mealseparate, you immediately made
me think of Middle Eastern Biblefellowship and, uh, that and
that coffee I had with theirpastor there.
So I think one of the placeswhere folks may get hung up if
I'm looking at all thecommentary we got on the story
is if the Lord's Supper is to bea memorial, a remembrance of
(28:52):
Jesus's death.
How does that fit with whatmost of us picture when we
imagine a big family meal?
Uh, words like feast andfestive.
So we just talked about anagape feast.
Um, that doesn't jive with whatmost americans think of as a
memorial or a remembrance.
(29:12):
I'm thinking of memorial day,when you go to right and taps
and you know everyone's verysolemn and so, um, maybe we've
already hit on this when wetalked about a funeral meal, but
I, I think people have a hardtime thinking of the Lord's
supper as a feast, as afellowship, when they feel like
I'm supposed to be sad, I'msupposed to be downcast, I'm
(29:33):
supposed to, you know to, to besolemn and quiet.
Christa Sanders Bryant (29:37):
And I guess there is an element of
sadness to it.
You know, christ died becausewe sinned and we messed up and a
sacrifice had to be made.
But what other thing in lifecan we be joyful about if not
the death of Christ?
Yeah, he died, and he diedbecause we were sinners.
(29:58):
But shouldn't we be so excitedand so happy that he did so,
that we have the hope of heaven?
And I don't.
I don't think being solemn andbeing joyful are two mutually
things.
I think you can have both.
I think you can be extremelysolemn and extremely serious and
(30:22):
be extremely grateful that thathappened.
The word Eucharist gets itsmeaning from the word
thankfulness in Greek and itshould be a time of thanksgiving
.
I think there is joy inChrist's death.
It's ugly and it's horrid andit's painful and I would never
(30:45):
want to experience it, and Iwould be the first one to tell
you that if I was there Iprobably couldn't watch and you
know I would have to hide myface.
I wouldn't want to see it.
But on the other hand, howgrateful can we be that it
happened and what a relief thatis that me, with all of my sin
and all of my issues and all ofmy problems, can still have the
(31:08):
joy of heaven and the hope ofbeing with him, because he did,
and that's an inspiring thought.
And to lose that in the Lord'sSupper, to only think about the
ugly part of it, it is sad and Idon't want that for my kids.
(31:28):
I don't want that for the otherpeople in the congregation,
because I want them to leavethere with hope, not just
sadness that they've seen.
BT Irwin (31:35):
You know cause I was raised to bow my head and close
my eyes and imagine Jesus on thecross when I was a kid, growing
up, and that's, that was whatmy parents did and that's what I
learned how to do, and theresult of that is that the
Lord's supper became a time forme to feel ashamed of myself,
(32:00):
right.
I was.
I was concentrating on that, theagony and the pain and the
torture that Jesus experiencedbecause of me, because of my sin
, and so the Lord's Supperbecame a time of just feeling
wretched about myself, howsinful I am, how guilty I am.
(32:20):
Look what I did to Jesus and Iwonder, if is that?
What is that?
What the Lord is going for whenhe tells us to do this in
remembrance of him?
Is that we would just feelwretchedly ashamed of ourselves?
Uh, at the at the Lord's table?
Or do you think he asked us to?
(32:40):
He commanded us to remember himfor more than that, or
something different from that.
Christa Sanders Bryant (32:47):
If you're leaving the Lord's Supper
feeling wretched about yourself, then your concentration is on
you and it's not on God.
BT Irwin (32:56):
Wow, wow.
Christa Sanders Bryant (33:00):
You know the word worship in Greek,
proskuneo, to bow down, to bowdown with your face to the
ground.
Nothing of you is in thatmoment of worship.
It is all Christ.
And when we take the Lord'ssupper, it is a moment when he
said do this in remembrance ofme.
(33:20):
He doesn't say do this in orderto feel shame, do this in order
to remember your sin, do thisin order to remember you're not
worthy.
Do this to remember of you andme, who made you worthy.
And that's a powerful thing.
I will agree.
(33:42):
I've heard that most of yourlife, you think about what Jesus
did and how awful it was forhim, and that your sin was what
put him there.
It was, and that's true, that'shappening.
But it was also a choice thathe made.
He decided that I didn't askhim to sacrifice himself so that
(34:08):
I could go to heaven.
He decided that for allhumanity and how grateful we
should be If we are walking awayfrom the Lord's Supper simply
ashamed of our sin, and wedidn't do it in remembrance of
him.
BT Irwin (34:25):
We did it in remembrance of me.
Wow, wow, that's powerful.
So you wrote Krista quote forthose in the church who simply
take the bread and sip the cupin acknowledgement of the risen
Savior, perhaps have not trulycelebrated the Lord's Supper as
it was fully intended, end quote.
(34:46):
That's a pretty strongstatement.
Christa Sanders Bryant (34:47):
That was one of those statements that
for me was kind of a turningpoint in what I thought, because
it is so easy to go and just tosip the cup and take the bread.
And I'm a mom of five kids andmy kids are all older and can
sit through church now, butthere was a time where they
couldn't, and you know you'redoing your best just to get the
(35:11):
cup to your mouth without alittle hand like smacking it
away at some point.
And I remember another mom saidyou know, if I can just get
through the Lord's Supper, thenI felt like I worshiped God that
day and that kind of struck meas another moment of huh.
If I can just, you know, take aminute, remember him, I've
gotten through worship.
(35:31):
And I said I wanted it to bemore than that.
I wanted my children to seethat it's more than that.
And there is so much that we'velost so much tangibleness of the
original feast that we've lostby just picking up the little
plastic cup and taking thelittle wafer, of breaking the
(35:52):
bread, of pouring the cup, ofseeing the juice or what should
be the blood pass from one cupto the other, of feeling the
breakingness, of looking intosomebody else's eyes who's
remembering what God has donefor them.
We've lost so much of that andyou know, have we really
(36:16):
remembered?
If we just you know have a60-second memorial feast, you
know it might cross through ourheads, it might remember some
story we heard about thecrucifixion or about Christ.
But have we really thoughtabout and remembered who Christ
(36:37):
was, that he did this, and notjust that it happened?
BT Irwin (36:40):
So I know we have a lot of congregational leaders
listening to this show, not onlyin the United States but around
the world, and you said thishas been one of your main areas
of study and thinking over thelast five years.
Now You've written graduatepapers on it.
(37:00):
You've been reading andresearching a lot.
You were delighted by the storythat we ran in the Christian
Chronicle.
As these congregational leadersare maybe letting you help them
think in a different way aboutthe Lord's Supper, let's just
freestyle here a little bit.
(37:21):
At the end you mentioned onething pouring the fruit of the
vine from a pitcher into a cupso you can see the flow of blood
.
Right, that's a very fivesenses thing.
We've talked about the breadand piercing it with the fork
right and thinking about thenails piercing Jesus's hands,
(37:44):
piercing it with the fork rightand thinking about the nails
piercing Jesus's hands.
We talked about the tables thatArlington Church of Christ set
up in the middle of theirauditorium.
If congregations are kind oflike you right now, feeling led
in a direction where we want theLord's Supper to come alive
again, so to speak, to recapturesome of that spirit of the
(38:05):
first century you know it's atouchy subject in our
congregation you change any onelittle thing and it can be a
little dangerous.
But how would you recommend acongregation or even an
individual whose congregationmaybe isn't going to change, or
even an individual whosecongregation maybe isn't going
to change?
How would you recommend thatpeople start to move in that
(38:28):
direction of rediscovering theessence of the Lord's Supper for
their congregations or forthemselves?
Christa Sanders Bryant (38:34):
I think one thing that has been so
instrumental for me is goingback and reading the accounts of
the last supper in the gospelsand reading all the accounts of
the Lord's supper throughout theNew Testament.
If you, you know I often say ifyou were on a desert island and
(38:55):
you didn't have the history oftradition behind you and you
just wanted to read about theLord's Supper without all of the
stuff that we know, you justhave the Bible.
What would the Bible teach us?
And you read it.
You know, and as a member ofthe Church of Christ, that's
(39:17):
what we pride ourselves on.
But if you read the account inMark, mark is the one that says
you know, I'm pouring the blood,I'm breaking my body, and
that's it's almost written in acommand.
So if you were reading that, itwould, it would be a command.
And then you read about theagape feast in Corinth.
(39:38):
And even that was a messed upthing they were doing, it wasn't
right, but they were stillparticipating in a feast, they
were still getting together totalk about it and to remember
the Lord.
(39:59):
You know, they had that example.
And if you think about the timeperiod, corinth was 25 years
after Christ's death.
For 25 years they celebrated anagape feast in different cities
like the Passover meal in thechurch.
That's how they did it and youknow we don't have.
(40:21):
You know one, two, three, fourand you have a checklist that
you go through we have.
The more you study the Bible,the more you'll see how the how
communion was actually reallydone.
And you don't need all thetraditions and you don't need
all of the things that we havebuilt in to make communion
(40:43):
special, all of the things thatwe have built in to make
communion special.
I think it was you who said wewere to examine ourselves, but
nobody really knows what thatmeans or how to do it.
Like what does that mean?
To examine yourself?
Like?
I have ideas, but for thechurch in Corinth that meant are
(41:05):
you going to share your foodwith the person next to you?
Are you going to honor thatperson?
Are you partaking of this mealin such an unworthy manner that
you can't even be kind to yourneighbor?
That's what they meant in theBible.
And so when we are partaking ofour meals, are we doing it in a
worthy manner?
That's laid out in scriptureand not whatever we've made it
(41:29):
out to be in the churches ofchrist and you know we've heard
sermons about it and in lessonsand classes and people always
have their own ideas, they bringtheir own thoughts to that
whole idea, but they've turnedit into something that maybe it
wasn't in the Bible.
And I think if you really wantto worship God and you really
(41:51):
want to take the church, thetake communion, like the first
century did, just read the Bible, just read it, and that will
give you so much more insightinto what Christ did than all of
the noise of our tradition.
Like how we got to communiontoday.
(42:11):
I don't really Something I'vebeen confused about for a really
long time.
How did we get to where it is?
Is it just a matter ofconvenience?
Was it coming out of thePresbyterian convenience?
Was it coming out of thePresbyterian church?
Was it coming out of theCatholic church?
Was it something else thathappened?
How did we get here?
That for me to say to mycongregation, hey, let's do it
(42:38):
as part of a meal would be wecan't do that.
How did this tradition becomeso embedded in us?
We can't do that.
You know, how did our thistradition become so embedded in
us that we don't take scriptureas seriously as we should?
BT Irwin (42:52):
Krista Sanders Bryant.
Thank you for reading the Biblethrough fresh eyes, studying it
, writing graduate papers on it,continuing to turn it over and
over in your mind, and forgiving us all a lot more to
think about in our practice ofthe Lord's Supper in our
congregations.
We sure appreciate you forbeing on the show.
Christa Sanders Bryant (43:12):
Thank you so much.
It was a pleasure to share someof these things with y'all and
hopefully people will listen andmake some changes.
BT Irwin (43:21):
The pleasure was all ours.
We hope that something youheard in this episode encouraged
, enlightened or enriched you insome way.
If it did, thanks be to God andplease pay it forward.
Subscribe to this podcast andshare it with a friend.
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(43:42):
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(44:05):
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The Christian Chronicle podcastis a production of the
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(44:28):
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Podcast your Voice Studios inthe Motor City, detroit,
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Until next time.
May grace and peace be yours inabundance.
Family and friends, neighbors and, most of all,
strangers.
Welcome to the ChristianChronicle Podcast.
We're bringing you the storiesshaping Church of Christ
congregations and members aroundthe world.
I'm BT Irwin.
May what you are about to hearbless you and honor God.
What is the right way, thebiblical way, to do communion,
(00:25):
the Lord's Supper, in the Churchof Christ?
We all know that the biblicalcommand and example is to
partake of it every first day ofthe week.
I dare say you will not find acongregation with Church of
Christ on its sign out frontthat does not observe the Lord's
Supper every Sunday.
But how each congregationpractices the Lord's Supper can
be different from how eachcongregation practices the
Lord's Supper can be differentfrom one to the next.
(00:48):
For example, at thecongregation where I grew up, we
did the Lord's Supper beforethe Sunday morning sermon, after
the third song to be exact.
Imagine the scandal.
The first time I went to acongregation that did the Lord's
Supper after the sermon, Iremember asking my parents on
the ride home if thatcongregation was aware of its
(01:08):
transgression.
If you're used to doing theLord's Supper one way for so
many years, it can feel justwrong to do it any other way.
Large is the fleet of churchbuses that it would take to hold
the many folks who have, overthe years, left their
congregations.
Over changes thosecongregations made to their
practice of the Lord's SupperChanges as seemingly lightweight
(01:29):
as, whether it happens beforeor after the sermon, changes
like those may seem even morelightweight when we remember how
the pandemic in 2020 and 2021forced every congregation to
rethink its practice of theLord's Supper.
Raise your hand if the sound ofripping cellophane is now as
much a part of your Sundaymorning assembly as prayers,
preaching and singing.
I thought the changescongregations made during the
(01:51):
pandemic would make it lesslikely that Church of Christ
folks would take issue with eachother over future changes
congregations might make to thepractical parts of the Lord's
Supper.
For example, some congregationsmay go back to passing trays
and some may stick to rip andsip.
Or some congregations maychange the format and timing of
the Lord's Supper within theirassemblies, as long as they
(02:12):
gather every Sunday to partakeof unleavened bread and fruit of
the vine in remembrance ofJesus Christ.
How that happens is a matter ofwhat works for each
congregation within the boundsof biblical command and example.
That's what I thought, but acouple of weeks before we
recorded this episode, theChristian Chronicles' Bobby Ross
Jr published a story about theArlington Church of Christ in
(02:33):
Arlington, virginia.
When that congregation beganmeeting again after the pandemic
, they took the disruption as anopportunity for refreshment and
renewal of their assemblies.
In particular, they asked iftheir practice of the Lord's
Supper was as biblical andsubstantial as it could be.
They concluded together thatthey could do better.
So, after much prayer,reflection and study, they made
(02:56):
some changes to their practice.
They removed the pews from thecenter of their auditorium and
replaced them with tables forthe bread and fruit of the vine.
Now the folks in the pews getup from their seats and gather
around the tables as they sharethe Lord's Supper with each
other.
When Bobby's story appeared onthe Christian Chronicles
Facebook page, it fermented likea forgotten bottle of Welch's
(03:18):
grape juice from March 2020.
Some folks from our ChristianChronicle audience affirmed the
Arlington Church of Christ fortrying to be more biblical and
intentional about the Lord'sSupper.
Others, however, took strongissue.
For example, a sister named Suewrote quote If I'm looking into
someone else's eyes, I'mfocusing on them instead of
Christ.
The focus should be on Christ,end quote.
(03:39):
A sister named Betty wrotequote.
We should sit quietly andcontemplate Jesus' suffering and
love for us.
The Lord's Supper is not afellowship event end quote.
A sister named Trisea wrotequote the Lord's Supper is not a
buffet.
It's to commemorate thesacrifice of our Lord and Savior
, jesus Christ.
Sitting with our heads bowed inhumility to Him is most
(04:00):
appropriate.
End quote.
A sister named Amy wrote quote.
Seems this would definitely bea distraction and take away from
examining yourself during theLord's Supper.
End quote.
A sister named Doris wrote quotethe Lord's Supper is not a
social event.
It is a solemn memorial of ourLord's death.
What could be more solemn thanpartaking of the bread and fruit
of the vine and contemplatingthe Lord's suffering?
(04:22):
End quote.
And a sister named Joyce wrotequote.
The Lord's Supper is a time toreflect upon the death, burial
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If you want something to dowhile the bread and cups are
passed, read about the death,burial and resurrection.
End quote.
So Bobby's story about theLord's Supper at the Arlington
Church of Christ is turning outto be one of our most exciting
(04:44):
stories of 2025 so far.
So exciting that our opinionseditor, dr Jeremy Beller, felt
compelled to write a column inresponse to the response the
story is getting.
We'll post that column in theshow notes.
Another person who read thepiece and felt a strong response
to it is our guest today.
Krista Sanders Bryant is aChurch of Christ lifer who is an
author and teacher when she'snot raising five count them five
(05:08):
daughters.
She is a recent recipient ofthe Master in Biblical Studies
from the Kearley Graduate Schoolof Theology at Faulkner
University in Montgomery,alabama, where she is now
pursuing the PhD in BiblicalStudies.
As part of her graduate program, she wrote many papers on the
Lord's Supper, including a31-pager she titled the Form,
(05:28):
function and Fellowship of theEucharist.
You won't find too many peoplein the Church of Christ who are
better prepared to think andtalk about the Lord's Supper.
We welcome to the show KristaSanders-Bryant.
Christa Sanders Bryant (05:38):
Thank you.
BT Irwin (05:39):
So I want to start by giving you a chance to do a
little bit of storytelling whatis a personal story?
By giving you a chance to do alittle bit of storytelling what
is a personal?
Christa Sanders Bryant (05:47):
story that gets at what the Lord's
Supper means to you.
When I was a young wife, one ofthe elders' wives at our
congregation offered to teachall the younger wives how to
make communion bread and Icouldn't come to the class.
So I told her.
I said I can't come that daybut I would love to learn how to
(06:08):
do it.
Is there another time or is?
Can you give me the recipe?
Can you know something?
And she's like oh yes, I'llmeet you up here at the church
building another time.
And she said that you need toread the recipe before you come
and if you've made communionbread before, you know it is not
difficult.
The recipe should be a smallcard and she handed me a packet
(06:30):
that was eight pages long.
And so I start flipping throughit and it gives all the
ingredients and it gives thesteps, and for every little
thing there was something abouthow much of an opportunity this
was to serve the Lord and toserve the congregation.
And one of the steps was tomake it easier for the
(06:54):
congregants to break the bread.
Take your fork and delicatelymake holes in the bread so they
can break it off easier.
But when you do that and whenyou're taking your fork, think
about the nails that wentthrough Jesus's hand.
And every little step hadsomething to remember, to
remember the crucifixion, andthat was so at the time I got in
(07:18):
the car and I showed it to myhusband and we kind of laughed a
little bit about how long itwas and um, but that stuck with
me.
I mean, that was 20 years agoand we still talk about that
packet and how incredible thatwas.
And in contrast, that withCOVID and I went and I got this
cardboard box out fromunderneath the table and I
(07:40):
scooped out communion kits andput it into a for lack of a
better word small trash bag toput out on the door for people
to come pick up, and what adifference that was.
And I think in that moment ofpulling the communion cups out
of the box and putting them onthe porch, I thought about that
(08:01):
package.
Yeah.
And like what are we doing?
Yeah, what are we really doing.
And that that moment stuck withme because it was such a
clinical thing Almost.
I don't want to say dirty,because it wasn't dirty, but it
was just so common.
Yes.
(08:21):
Compared to what we did with.
You know, when you poke thebread with a fork and think
about the nails that wentthrough Jesus's hands to
scooping them up and puttingthem in the trash bag to put on
the, to put on the porch forpeople to come pick up, and I
don't know, it was such, a, sucha contrast in my brain and I
(08:42):
think in that moment I thoughtwhat are we really doing?
Yeah, wow, what a story.
Yeah, what are we really doingand how do we remember God in
this moment?
And that was five, four or fiveyears ago, and since then this
has been on my heart and on mymind how, how do we do it?
(09:05):
Why do we do it?
BT Irwin (09:08):
Okay, before we go on, I got to know, do you still
have that eight page?
Christa Sanders Bryant (09:12):
I do not .
In fact I asked Dwayne lastnight.
I was like do we have thispaper?
He's like I don't think we haveit, but she had made copies and
she had, like she passed themout to everybody.
So I'm I'm wondering if some ofmy friends still have it.
I love that.
That was 20 years ago.
BT Irwin (09:29):
I grew up at a church where one of the elders' wives
made all the communion bread andtaught other people how to make
it too, and I think I was in my20s before I tasted the cracker
or the monster, whatever it isthat most congregations use.
(09:49):
The way you ended up here onthe show is when the story about
the Arlington Church of Christcame out a few weeks ago.
You shared that the Lord'sSupper has been a subject of
close concentration and specialstudy for you over the last year
or two, and now I think I knowwhy.
So that season appeared tobegin for you, probably like it
did for a lot of us during thepandemic Right.
(10:10):
How has that taken shape then,over the last four or five years
?
Christa Sanders Bryant (10:14):
So during COVID I started my
master's degree at Palmer andyou know you're always looking
for paper topics.
You're always looking for papertopics and for the last year
I've probably written four tofive papers just on the Lord's
Supper in some some way, eitherthe one that I sent you or three
(10:39):
or four others that have todeal with the wording of certain
sections, or comparing to twoparts of it, or picking out
different things and reallyfocusing on every step of it.
And I think you know, when yougo to worship it's not something
that you just do, it'ssomething that you engage in,
(11:02):
and I want to make sure that howcan we best be engaged in the
Lord's Supper and not just, youknow, take a little piece of
cracker and drink a little bitof juice and check that box and
go on?
BT Irwin (11:16):
So when you saw the article that Bobby Ross wrote
about Arlington Church of Christ, you read it, like lots and
lots of other people did, butthat inspired you to share it
and talk about it too.
Christa Sanders Bryant (11:29):
Yeah, I think what drew me to the
article originally was not eventhe topic, it was the picture,
and the picture of the table inthe middle of the auditorium and
the idea of table fellowship,and that's something that we've
lost, especially in the 21stcentury.
And I wanted to know okay,here's a church that realizes
(11:50):
we've lost something integral tothe original feast and they're
doing something about it.
And I don't know that they'redoing all parts of it like they
did in the first century, but Ido know that they're making an
effort to say how can we makethis better?
That's, I think, what made meso excited, because there is an
(12:11):
element of, you know, we we callit communion because we commune
with God.
You know we're supposed to be,but there's also this idea that
we commune with God.
You know we're supposed to be,but there's also this idea that
we commune with our fellowchurch member, and we've lost
that.
I mean, when most of us go tochurch, we either stare at the
person in front of us, at theirhead, we don't look at the
person next to us, unless we'repassing the tray, and so it's a
(12:36):
very individual, it's a veryisolating experience and there's
not that communion.
And how much more meaningful isit when you see the 80-year-old
widow woman taking communion,who's gone through horrible,
horrible things with the loss ofher spouse and maybe her life
(12:56):
has been difficult in takingcommunion, and it's being so
much more special and pertinentto her.
And then me, who has not beenthrough that experience, to see
her celebrate the life of Christin a way that I can't relate to
, but know that she is, but knowthat she is.
BT Irwin (13:23):
Does that give you hope for your future or make
Christ more meaningful to you?
At the top of the show I readsome of the comments that the
Arlington Church of Christ storyreceived from our Christian
Chronicle audience.
Many were affirmative, but manycriticized or questioned what
the congregation did with itspractice of the Lord's Supper,
and the most common objectionsseem to come from a place of
(13:44):
concern that gathering aroundtables in the middle of the
auditorium would distract peoplefrom the self-examination and
solemnity of what is indeed amemorial to Jesus Christ.
Christa Sanders Bryant (13:58):
I think if we go back and we look at
that scripture in 1 Corinthians11, verse 28, there is an adverb
in that sentence that is,before you examine yourself
before, you don't examineyourself during the taking of
the sacraments that moment isfor you to think about Christ,
(14:23):
it's not to think about yourself.
And so you examine yourselfbefore so that when you do come
to the table you're already in astate of remembrance and in a
state of right, living with God.
And I think we forget that,like we run up to communion, oh,
now I've got to examine myselfand be holy for this moment.
(14:45):
And that should have happened,you know, way before.
So I think we forget that.
And so if you are takingcommunion around people and it's
hard to to self examineyourself because you're looking
communion around people and it'shard to to self-examine
yourself because you're lookingat other people that there's a
purpose for that.
When christ sat down at thetable with the passover, they
didn't sit by themselves, theysat around the table all looking
(15:09):
at each other.
When the church, in troas andacts, sat at a table looking at
each other.
And so that's, I think,something that's cultural to us
in the 21st century that wewould have to learn how to
manage that, how to get throughthat.
But yeah, we are supposed toexamine ourselves before and
(15:29):
then.
I think when we talk aboutsolemnity, solemnity doesn't
mean silence.
We've all been to a funeral andwe've all been to a funeral,
yes, and we've all been to ameal after that funeral, and
that's not necessarily a happy,joyful time Talking about the
person that died and theinfluence they had on your life
or things that they did.
(15:50):
Can we not take that idea of afuneral meal where that person
who has died and is the subjectof that meal, can we not replace
that with Christ and say howdid Christ's death affect me
this week?
If this might be a little bittoo technical, but in the first
(16:11):
century the bread was taken atthe very beginning of the meal
and the and the cup was takenafter the meal was eaten.
And so you're not going tobreak the bread and think about
Jesus's death and and thinkabout you know what he did and
his sacrifice, and thenimmediately look up and say, hey
, guess what happened to me atwork this week and you know
(16:32):
you're going to want to discussthat with people and talk about
it, and we've lost that, we'velost that tradition and we've
lost that process.
And so I think it's a verydifficult thing for people to
think about.
How can we do this in a waythat honors God?
BT Irwin (16:47):
I like that you brought up a funeral meal, a
wake, a repast, it's calleddifferent things in different
cultures, but've few times in mylife have I experienced a meal
that was more meaningful andmore just, overwhelmed with both
laughter and tears, as afuneral meal.
(17:09):
There's there's storytelling,there's laughter, there's crying
, there are moments of silence,stories about the person, and I
have vivid memories of somefuneral luncheons that I
attended over the years.
So I like that you brought thatup.
You wrote a 31-page paper theForm, function and Fellowship of
(17:31):
the Eucharist.
I wonder if we could touch on afew of the points that you make
in the paper and to the point.
I think of the discussion folkswere having on Facebook and that
we're having today.
You wrote in your paper, quoteit was precisely the lack of
remembrance that Jesus so wantedhis followers to avoid.
(17:52):
Yet two millennia later, thefeast looks little like the meal
of the first century.
The Enlightenment, historicaltheology and other influences
have changed the practice of thememorial.
Feast were only a small remnantof what Jesus instituted
remains end, quote.
I reckon those are jarringwords for a lot of folks in a
(18:14):
Church of Christ audience for alot of folks in the Church of
Christ audience.
Christa Sanders Bryant (18:22):
The Church of Christ, which I have
been a part of since I was bornon a Sunday and I have been at
the church since that firstSunday we take great pride in
being the church of the firstcentury.
We advertise that, we tellpeople, we try to be the church
of the first century.
We're non-denominational, we're, you know, we want to do things
like jesus did and, of course,being in the 21st century,
(18:43):
that's not always going to lookalike.
There wasn't powerpoint or airconditioning and all that stuff
that we, that we enjoy.
But I think this is one ofthose things that we could do
and we could do well today thatwe have lost the first century,
(19:06):
for years spent time around thetable talking about jesus and
his death and his resurrectionand what that meant and what
that meant for his people andwhat that meant for the church,
and and that was that wasinspiring to them.
So now we take a little, alittle cup, a little piece of
(19:28):
bread, a little thing, and it'svery ceremonial, it's very
ritualistic and we pass it inwithin, depending on the size of
your congregation or whetheryou use the little all in one
things communion can takeanywhere from five to 15 minutes
(19:48):
, and it's.
It's not what it looked likethen and I don't know
necessarily that it's a sin, notthat it looks like that but I
think we've missed something andI think we've missed the
remembrance that Jesus wanted.
When we taste the juice as itgoes down, you know, sometimes
(20:11):
it's bitter and sour and wethink about that.
How much of that are wethinking about?
That Jesus's blood was shed forus.
You know, when they did it inthe first century especially
when you read it in Mark Jesustook a pitcher and he poured the
juice into his cup.
And then they took that pitcherand they all poured juice into
their own cup.
(20:32):
And there's something about thevisual effect of seeing blood or
the juice, the red juice, gofrom one pitcher and think about
the spilling of blood.
And just like the blood comesout of the body, it came out of
the pitcher and that's a visualthing that you know that was a
lot of blood or that was a lotof liquid and that's important.
(20:53):
And when you break the breadyou have to break away and
especially if you have likehomemade communion bread, it's a
little bit more work.
You have to put a little bit ofeffort into it and think that
was his body and they broke it.
You know we don't participatein any of that, we just do the
(21:14):
bare minimum and I think thatjust makes me sad.
BT Irwin (21:18):
The bare minimum.
Those words, they, they strikea minor chord with me.
I I had to write a graduatepaper a couple of years ago and
part of that paper involvedobserving and timing the things
that we did on Sunday morning.
And we there were two or threeSundays where the total amount
(21:40):
of time we spent on the Lord'ssupper was 60 seconds.
We're still ripping and sippingum at our, at our congregation,
and and I I thought that feelslike the bare minimum, right as
a prayer rip and sip.
And now we're on to theannouncements and let's get out
(22:02):
of here and head to lunch.
So those words bare minimum thatyou just said right there, I've
said to my wife a few timesabout the Lord's Supper.
I feel like we're doing thebare minimum.
We can check the box and say wedid it because they did it in
the first century, but kind oflike you said when you were
(22:22):
putting those rip and sip cupsin the garbage bag, what are we
doing here?
What are we doing?
One of my takeaways from yourpaper is the biggest change or
biggest missing piece maybe thebiggest change, maybe the
biggest missing piece from theLord's Supper in the first
century in our practice of theLord's Supper in the 21st
(22:43):
century Church of Christ is whatyou call the agape feast, which
is an actual full meal, what wewould call a fellowship meal in
our congregations today.
You write, quote perhaps thechurch should revisit the agape
feast and its incorporation forthe weekly meeting.
End quote.
Christa Sanders Bryant (23:02):
Yeah, the church in the first century.
When I was researching this, Ifound it really interesting that
they had a worship service verysimilar to what our worship
service is, but they didn'tinclude the Lord's Supper.
It was a separate event.
Sometimes the worship servicehappened at the synagogue and
that worship service was foreverybody, if I mean anybody
(23:24):
could come in off the streetsand be a part of that worship
service.
But the agape feast, the mealwas only for those who were in a
covenant relationship with God,who had been baptized, who are
part of the group, and they cametogether and they took bread
together and they ate the meal,and then they ended that meal by
(23:46):
taking the cup and rememberingthe blood, and so it was
bookended by those two eventsand the meal happened in between
.
That would be a very powerfulexperience and I think it's
funny in some ways thatnonbelievers were not allowed to
(24:08):
be part of the meal and we kindof maybe arrogantly, say, oh,
we take the Lord's Supper as ateaching moment for our kids or
as a way to show believers howimportant it is, but it wasn't
for that.
(24:28):
I mean, it wasn't a teachingmoment.
It was for them to puteverything else aside.
There was not supposed to beany of them in that moment.
It was supposed to be all aboutremembering Christ and his
sacrifice and what that meant tomaybe to them as a congregation
, and remember this was, youknow, in the first century,
(24:53):
people being persecuted and andyou know, how does that, how
does that resonate with them inthat moment that we can't relate
to.
So I think the meal there issomething to that meal.
Now, the Jews understood thatand they'd had practice with
(25:17):
that because of the Passover,and we don't have practice with
that, so it's a foreign conceptto us.
How do you have a remembrancemeal that is um, that is
significant and solid, and Idon't know that we, we do that
well.
BT Irwin (25:33):
It'd be hard to do.
Yeah, you think about.
Uh, you know, my congregationhas 250 people, so to have a
meal for 250 people every week,it's I think.
I don't know if you've used theword convenience yet.
Oh, no, but that's a word thatcomes up.
A lot is convenience and itwould be very inconvenient to
(25:56):
have a meal every week if you'vegot 50 people.
Way more convenient to linethem all up in military
formation in pews and have thempick up the rip and sip cups on
the way in the door.
Christa Sanders Bryant (26:08):
Right.
BT Irwin (26:09):
And that's how you end up with communion that takes 60
seconds.
So I like that you brought upthe agape feast.
It certainly does challenge alot of what we think we know
about the first century andabout the Lord's Supper and how
we practice it today.
And I wonder if you find thisinteresting.
There's a church in the citywhere I live I live in a suburb
(26:31):
of Detroit and there's acongregation there called Middle
Eastern Bible Fellowship, andit is made up entirely of
Christians from the Middle Eastthat are what I would call
exiles.
Uh, they have fled their homecountries, uh, and they've ended
up here, and so the serviceevery week is in Arabic.
The entire service is in Arabic.
(26:52):
They have about 300 people andum I, uh.
I sat and had coffee one daywith the pastor at the church.
He was fairly critical of theChurch of Christ.
It was interesting.
I found out that I'm a member.
He said y'all do communion, allwrong.
That was the first thing hesaid.
He said you do it every weekand you're really proud of that,
(27:14):
but you don't do it the waythey did it in the first century
.
And one of the things that thatcongregation does is the first
hour of every Sunday morning theentire hour is devoted to the
Lord's supper, the entire hour.
And then, after the Lord'ssupper is done, they take a
break and then they have theirworship assembly, kind of like,
(27:36):
you know, with the singing andthe prayer and the sermon and
everything.
But he said y'all Church ofChrist.
People sure are proud of doingthe Lord's Supper every week,
but you do it all wrong.
And this is how we do it at ourchurch.
We give it a full hour, justthe Lord's Supper.
Christa Sanders Bryant (27:55):
That would be fascinating to go and
see, especially to see how theyconduct it.
BT Irwin (28:02):
Yeah, I've been there and it's challenging because
every single word is in Arabic.
Christa Sanders Bryant (28:06):
Oh.
BT Irwin (28:09):
Which also he pointed out with great pride.
He said Arabic is as close toAramaic as you can get, said,
Arabic is as close to Aramaic asyou can get.
So when we speak the words ofJesus in Arabic in our church,
that's as close as you can getto hearing Jesus speak in his
native tongue.
But when you said somethingabout the first century church
going, uh, worshiping at thesynagogue or having their
(28:31):
assembly and then having a mealseparate, you immediately made
me think of Middle Eastern Biblefellowship and, uh, that and
that coffee I had with theirpastor there.
So I think one of the placeswhere folks may get hung up if
I'm looking at all thecommentary we got on the story
is if the Lord's Supper is to bea memorial, a remembrance of
(28:52):
Jesus's death.
How does that fit with whatmost of us picture when we
imagine a big family meal?
Uh, words like feast andfestive.
So we just talked about anagape feast.
Um, that doesn't jive with whatmost americans think of as a
memorial or a remembrance.
(29:12):
I'm thinking of memorial day,when you go to right and taps
and you know everyone's verysolemn and so, um, maybe we've
already hit on this when wetalked about a funeral meal, but
I, I think people have a hardtime thinking of the Lord's
supper as a feast, as afellowship, when they feel like
I'm supposed to be sad, I'msupposed to be downcast, I'm
(29:33):
supposed to, you know to, to besolemn and quiet.
Christa Sanders Bryant (29:37):
And I guess there is an element of
sadness to it.
You know, christ died becausewe sinned and we messed up and a
sacrifice had to be made.
But what other thing in lifecan we be joyful about if not
the death of Christ?
Yeah, he died, and he diedbecause we were sinners.
(29:58):
But shouldn't we be so excitedand so happy that he did so,
that we have the hope of heaven?
And I don't.
I don't think being solemn andbeing joyful are two mutually
things.
I think you can have both.
I think you can be extremelysolemn and extremely serious and
(30:22):
be extremely grateful that thathappened.
The word Eucharist gets itsmeaning from the word
thankfulness in Greek and itshould be a time of thanksgiving
.
I think there is joy inChrist's death.
It's ugly and it's horrid andit's painful and I would never
(30:45):
want to experience it, and Iwould be the first one to tell
you that if I was there Iprobably couldn't watch and you
know I would have to hide myface.
I wouldn't want to see it.
But on the other hand, howgrateful can we be that it
happened and what a relief thatis that me, with all of my sin
and all of my issues and all ofmy problems, can still have the
(31:08):
joy of heaven and the hope ofbeing with him, because he did,
and that's an inspiring thought.
And to lose that in the Lord'sSupper, to only think about the
ugly part of it, it is sad and Idon't want that for my kids.
(31:28):
I don't want that for the otherpeople in the congregation,
because I want them to leavethere with hope, not just
sadness that they've seen.
BT Irwin (31:35):
You know cause I was raised to bow my head and close
my eyes and imagine Jesus on thecross when I was a kid, growing
up, and that's, that was whatmy parents did and that's what I
learned how to do, and theresult of that is that the
Lord's supper became a time forme to feel ashamed of myself,
(32:00):
right.
I was.
I was concentrating on that, theagony and the pain and the
torture that Jesus experiencedbecause of me, because of my sin
, and so the Lord's Supperbecame a time of just feeling
wretched about myself, howsinful I am, how guilty I am.
(32:20):
Look what I did to Jesus and Iwonder, if is that?
What is that?
What the Lord is going for whenhe tells us to do this in
remembrance of him?
Is that we would just feelwretchedly ashamed of ourselves?
Uh, at the at the Lord's table?
Or do you think he asked us to?
(32:40):
He commanded us to remember himfor more than that, or
something different from that.
Christa Sanders Bryant (32:47):
If you're leaving the Lord's Supper
feeling wretched about yourself, then your concentration is on
you and it's not on God.
BT Irwin (32:56):
Wow, wow.
Christa Sanders Bryant (33:00):
You know the word worship in Greek,
proskuneo, to bow down, to bowdown with your face to the
ground.
Nothing of you is in thatmoment of worship.
It is all Christ.
And when we take the Lord'ssupper, it is a moment when he
said do this in remembrance ofme.
(33:20):
He doesn't say do this in orderto feel shame, do this in order
to remember your sin, do thisin order to remember you're not
worthy.
Do this to remember of you andme, who made you worthy.
And that's a powerful thing.
I will agree.
(33:42):
I've heard that most of yourlife, you think about what Jesus
did and how awful it was forhim, and that your sin was what
put him there.
It was, and that's true, that'shappening.
But it was also a choice thathe made.
He decided that I didn't askhim to sacrifice himself so that
(34:08):
I could go to heaven.
He decided that for allhumanity and how grateful we
should be If we are walking awayfrom the Lord's Supper simply
ashamed of our sin, and wedidn't do it in remembrance of
him.
BT Irwin (34:25):
We did it in remembrance of me.
Wow, wow, that's powerful.
So you wrote Krista quote forthose in the church who simply
take the bread and sip the cupin acknowledgement of the risen
Savior, perhaps have not trulycelebrated the Lord's Supper as
it was fully intended, end quote.
(34:46):
That's a pretty strongstatement.
Christa Sanders Bryant (34:47):
That was one of those statements that
for me was kind of a turningpoint in what I thought, because
it is so easy to go and just tosip the cup and take the bread.
And I'm a mom of five kids andmy kids are all older and can
sit through church now, butthere was a time where they
couldn't, and you know you'redoing your best just to get the
(35:11):
cup to your mouth without alittle hand like smacking it
away at some point.
And I remember another mom saidyou know, if I can just get
through the Lord's Supper, thenI felt like I worshiped God that
day and that kind of struck meas another moment of huh.
If I can just, you know, take aminute, remember him, I've
gotten through worship.
(35:31):
And I said I wanted it to bemore than that.
I wanted my children to seethat it's more than that.
And there is so much that we'velost so much tangibleness of the
original feast that we've lostby just picking up the little
plastic cup and taking thelittle wafer, of breaking the
(35:52):
bread, of pouring the cup, ofseeing the juice or what should
be the blood pass from one cupto the other, of feeling the
breakingness, of looking intosomebody else's eyes who's
remembering what God has donefor them.
We've lost so much of that andyou know, have we really
(36:16):
remembered?
If we just you know have a60-second memorial feast, you
know it might cross through ourheads, it might remember some
story we heard about thecrucifixion or about Christ.
But have we really thoughtabout and remembered who Christ
(36:37):
was, that he did this, and notjust that it happened?
BT Irwin (36:40):
So I know we have a lot of congregational leaders
listening to this show, not onlyin the United States but around
the world, and you said thishas been one of your main areas
of study and thinking over thelast five years.
Now You've written graduatepapers on it.
(37:00):
You've been reading andresearching a lot.
You were delighted by the storythat we ran in the Christian
Chronicle.
As these congregational leadersare maybe letting you help them
think in a different way aboutthe Lord's Supper, let's just
freestyle here a little bit.
(37:21):
At the end you mentioned onething pouring the fruit of the
vine from a pitcher into a cupso you can see the flow of blood
.
Right, that's a very fivesenses thing.
We've talked about the breadand piercing it with the fork
right and thinking about thenails piercing Jesus's hands,
(37:44):
piercing it with the fork rightand thinking about the nails
piercing Jesus's hands.
We talked about the tables thatArlington Church of Christ set
up in the middle of theirauditorium.
If congregations are kind oflike you right now, feeling led
in a direction where we want theLord's Supper to come alive
again, so to speak, to recapturesome of that spirit of the
(38:05):
first century you know it's atouchy subject in our
congregation you change any onelittle thing and it can be a
little dangerous.
But how would you recommend acongregation or even an
individual whose congregationmaybe isn't going to change, or
even an individual whosecongregation maybe isn't going
to change?
How would you recommend thatpeople start to move in that
(38:28):
direction of rediscovering theessence of the Lord's Supper for
their congregations or forthemselves?
Christa Sanders Bryant (38:34):
I think one thing that has been so
instrumental for me is goingback and reading the accounts of
the last supper in the gospelsand reading all the accounts of
the Lord's supper throughout theNew Testament.
If you, you know I often say ifyou were on a desert island and
(38:55):
you didn't have the history oftradition behind you and you
just wanted to read about theLord's Supper without all of the
stuff that we know, you justhave the Bible.
What would the Bible teach us?
And you read it.
You know, and as a member ofthe Church of Christ, that's
(39:17):
what we pride ourselves on.
But if you read the account inMark, mark is the one that says
you know, I'm pouring the blood,I'm breaking my body, and
that's it's almost written in acommand.
So if you were reading that, itwould, it would be a command.
And then you read about theagape feast in Corinth.
(39:38):
And even that was a messed upthing they were doing, it wasn't
right, but they were stillparticipating in a feast, they
were still getting together totalk about it and to remember
the Lord.
(39:59):
You know, they had that example.
And if you think about the timeperiod, corinth was 25 years
after Christ's death.
For 25 years they celebrated anagape feast in different cities
like the Passover meal in thechurch.
That's how they did it and youknow we don't have.
(40:21):
You know one, two, three, fourand you have a checklist that
you go through we have.
The more you study the Bible,the more you'll see how the how
communion was actually reallydone.
And you don't need all thetraditions and you don't need
all of the things that we havebuilt in to make communion
(40:43):
special, all of the things thatwe have built in to make
communion special.
I think it was you who said wewere to examine ourselves, but
nobody really knows what thatmeans or how to do it.
Like what does that mean?
To examine yourself?
Like?
I have ideas, but for thechurch in Corinth that meant are
(41:05):
you going to share your foodwith the person next to you?
Are you going to honor thatperson?
Are you partaking of this mealin such an unworthy manner that
you can't even be kind to yourneighbor?
That's what they meant in theBible.
And so when we are partaking ofour meals, are we doing it in a
worthy manner?
That's laid out in scriptureand not whatever we've made it
(41:29):
out to be in the churches ofchrist and you know we've heard
sermons about it and in lessonsand classes and people always
have their own ideas, they bringtheir own thoughts to that
whole idea, but they've turnedit into something that maybe it
wasn't in the Bible.
And I think if you really wantto worship God and you really
(41:51):
want to take the church, thetake communion, like the first
century did, just read the Bible, just read it, and that will
give you so much more insightinto what Christ did than all of
the noise of our tradition.
Like how we got to communiontoday.
(42:11):
I don't really Something I'vebeen confused about for a really
long time.
How did we get to where it is?
Is it just a matter ofconvenience?
Was it coming out of thePresbyterian convenience?
Was it coming out of thePresbyterian church?
Was it coming out of theCatholic church?
Was it something else thathappened?
How did we get here?
That for me to say to mycongregation, hey, let's do it
(42:38):
as part of a meal would be wecan't do that.
How did this tradition becomeso embedded in us?
We can't do that.
You know, how did our thistradition become so embedded in
us that we don't take scriptureas seriously as we should?
BT Irwin (42:52):
Krista Sanders Bryant.
Thank you for reading the Biblethrough fresh eyes, studying it
, writing graduate papers on it,continuing to turn it over and
over in your mind, and forgiving us all a lot more to
think about in our practice ofthe Lord's Supper in our
congregations.
We sure appreciate you forbeing on the show.
Christa Sanders Bryant (43:12):
Thank you so much.
It was a pleasure to share someof these things with y'all and
hopefully people will listen andmake some changes.
BT Irwin (43:21):
The pleasure was all ours.
We hope that something youheard in this episode encouraged
, enlightened or enriched you insome way.
If it did, thanks be to God andplease pay it forward.
Subscribe to this podcast andshare it with a friend.
Recommend and review itwherever you listen to your
favorite podcasts.
Your subscription,recommendation and review help
us reach more people.
(43:42):
Please send your comments,ideas and suggestions to podcast
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Reach more people.
Please send your comments,ideas and suggestions to podcast
at christianchronicleorg.
And don't forget our ministry toinform and inspire Christians
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So if you like the show and youwant to keep it going and make
it even better, please make atax-deductible gift to the
(44:05):
Christian Chronicle atchristianchronicleorg.
No gift is too small.
The Christian Chronicle podcastis a production of the
Christian Chronicle Incorporated, informing and inspiring Church
of Christ congregations,members and ministries around
the world since 1943.
The Christian Chronicle'smanaging editor is Audrey
Jackson, editor-in-chief BobbyRoss Jr and executive director
(44:28):
and CEO Eric Trigestad.
The Christian Chronicle podcastis written, directed, hosted
and edited by BT Irwin and isproduced by James Flanagan at
Podcast your Voice Studios inthe Motor City, detroit,
michigan, usa.
Until next time.
May grace and peace be yours inabundance.
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