Communion Frequency in the Lutheran Confessions

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples saying: "Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me." In the same way also He took the cup after supper, gave thanks, and gave it to them saying: "Drink of it all of you; this cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins. This do as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."¹

Questions about the frequency of Holy Communion have been raised quite often in the past several years, in various corners of the Lutheran Church.² One example is in the "Lord’s Supper" issue of the Good News journal, where we read in the "Questions & Answers that Clarify" column:

Question: How often should one attend the Lord’s Supper? Answer: At the time of the Reformation, the Lutherans continued the universal practice of the Church since Biblical times of celebrating the Sacrament at least every Sunday and holy day. (AC XIV 34)³

Inasmuch, then, as the Mass is not a sacrifice to remove the sins of others, whether living or dead, but should be a Communion in which the priest and others receive the sacrament for themselves, it is observed among us in the following manner: On holy days, and at other times when communicants are present, Mass is held and those who desire it are communicated. Thus the Mass is preserved among us in its proper use, the use which was formerly observed in the church and which can be proved by St. Paul’s statement in I Cor. 11:20ff. and by many statements of the Fathers. For Chrysostom reports how the priest stood every day, inviting some to Communion and forbidding others to approach.⁴

It is highly commendable for Lutherans to seek guidance from the Book of Concord on a topic as important as this one is for the life of the church, and for the life of each individual Christian. We subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions "because they accurately reflect the teaching of Scripture. They are relevant today because they reflect the unchanging and ever timely word of God."⁵ The Confessions certainly do speak to the issues that are involved in the current discussions on Communion frequency, and we should not be afraid to learn anew from the Confessors of our church as they unfold for us the teaching of Holy Scripture. In this way we can humbly apply to ourselves the directives of Hebrews 13:7, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith."⁶ Indeed,

The Symbols of the orthodox Church of Christ are the matured fruits of the deepest devotion, experience and learning of its greatest and wisest members in its most trying ages; and as we may practically learn much from the biographies of the good, so we may learn much more from the Spirit-moved biography of the Church and the principles and testimonies which mark her life of faith. They are the sign-posts set up by the faithful along the King’s highway of salvation to designate the places of danger to those who come after them, to warn and admonish us where we would otherwise be liable to err and miss the goal of our high calling in Christ Jesus. They are not laws to rule our faith, for the Word of God alone is such a Rule; but they are helps and tokens to enable us the more surely to find the true import of the Rule, that we may be all the more thoroughly and sincerely conformed to that Rule. They are the human tracks which the best of the saints have left, by which we may the better detect the way which God has laid out and opened for the fallen and sinful children of men to travel, that they may fill their Christian vocation and come to everlasting life.⁷

When Jesus instituted his Holy Supper "he handed his disciples natural bread and natural wine, which he called his true body and blood, and said therewith, ‘Eat and drink.’"⁸ Therefore "we confess our belief that in the Lord’s Supper the body and blood of Christ are truly and substantially present and are truly offered with those things that are seen, the bread and the wine, to those who receive the sacrament."⁹ This is so because "when we follow his institution and command in the Lord’s Supper and say, ‘This is my body,’ then it is his body, not because of our speaking or of our efficacious word, but because of his command in which he has told us so to speak and to do and has attached his own command and deed to our speaking."¹⁰ "For wherever we observe his institution and speak his words over the bread and cup and distribute the blessed bread and cup, Christ himself is still active through the spoken words by the virtue of the first institution, which he wants to be repeated."¹¹

The Reformers believed that our Lord’s gracious institution should in fact be repeated whenever "communicants are present." Practically speaking this would usually mean, in the words of the Apology, that "Mass is celebrated every Sunday and on other festivals, when the sacrament is offered to those who wish for it..."¹² The Apology also quotes the statement of St. Epiphanius that "Assemblies for Communion were appointed by the apostles to be held on the fourth day, on Sabbath eve, and on the Lord’s Day."¹³ We have already noted that the Augsburg Confession refers to the fact that Holy Communion was offered "every day" in the time of St. John Chrysostom, and in the Large Catechism Martin Luther similarly describes the Sacrament as a great treasure "which is daily administered and distributed among Christians."¹⁴ Luther had recommended in 1523 that the daily masses in Wittenberg be discontinued, but he immediately added that "if any should desire the sacrament during the week, let mass be held as inclination and time dictate; for in this matter one cannot make hard and fast rules."¹⁵ When the city of Nürnberg, through Lazarus Spengler, sought Luther’s guidance on these matters in 1528, he offered this response:

Should anyone request my counsel in this way, then I would give this advice: ... that you should celebrate one or two Masses in the two parish churches on Sundays or holy days, depending on whether there are few or many communicants. Should it be regarded as needful or good, you might do the same in the hospital too. ...you might celebrate Mass during the week on whichever days it would be needful, that is, if any communicants would be present and would ask for and request the Sacrament. This way we should compel no one to receive the Sacrament, and yet everyone would be adequately served in an orderly manner. If the Ministers of the Church would fall to griping at this point, maintaining that they were being placed under duress or complaining that they are unfitted to face such demands, then I would demonstrate to them that no merely human compulsion is at work here, but on the contrary they are being compelled by God Himself through His Call. For because they have the Office, they are already, in virtue of their Call and Office, obliged and compelled to administer the Sacrament whenever people request it of them, so that their excuses amount to nothing; just as they are under obligation to preach, comfort, absolve, help the poor, and visit the sick as often as people need or ask for these services.¹⁶

Some of the early Lutheran Church Orders also stipulated that "the weekly celebration of the Sacrament be supplemented by weekday celebrations following the daily offices, whenever the people so desire."¹⁷

Because therefore it has been accepted as a practice in the Christian church, that in the public assemblies of the church after the preaching and hearing of the Word, this Sacrament is celebrated, therefore this custom must not be departed from without urgent necessity. ...it is...clear from Acts 20:7, 1 Cor. 11:20,33, that when the Christians did gather at one place, they were accustomed to celebrate the Eucharist.¹⁸

St. Luke reports in Acts 20:7, in regard to the congregation at Troas: "On the first day of the week when we gathered for the breaking of bread, Paul preached to them."¹⁹ In 1 Corinthians 11:20,33, St. Paul simply assumes that when Christians "come together" as a church, it is, or should be, "to eat the Lord’s Supper."²⁰ Clearly,

There is a great deal of evidence from the history of the church that supports an every-Sunday communion in addition to an every-Sunday sermon. That the early Christians received the supper whenever they gathered on the Lord’s day is obvious as one reads in the Acts and 1 Corinthians.²¹

The Gospel is the glad tidings of the incarnation of the Son of God, his atoning death for us, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension into heaven, his session at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. It was Christ’s will that this Gospel should be preached to all nations until the end of the world. But the Gospel was to be not only a message of what had happened in the past and what was going to happen in the future; the proclamation of the message was to be accompanied by the celebration of that Sacrament, which in itself was a showing of the Lord’s death till he come. Without this Sacrament the Gospel might be understood as one of the many religious messages in the world. Without the proclamation of the Gospel this Sacrament might be understood as one of the many religious rites in the world. But the Gospel is more than a religious message, and the Sacrament more than a religious ceremony. Both the Gospel and the Sacrament contain one and the same gift, forgiveness of sins -- not only a message that there is forgiveness, and not only a ceremony which would illustrate that message, but rather the forgiveness itself, which no one can give except him who died as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world, who will come again in glory, and who is present in his Gospel and his Sacrament. This close connection between the proclamation of the Gospel and the Sacrament of the Altar explains the fact that at all times the Eucharist has been the centre of the church’s worship and life. At the Lord’s Table the church has been gathering since the days of the apostles. There, at Holy Communion, it experiences the ‘communion of saints’. There it is one in the unity of the one body and one Spirit in the bond of peace, each member partaking of the one bread which is the body of Christ. Church-fellowship has been altar-fellowship from the beginning of the church, no unbaptized person being admitted to the solemn assembly where the people of God meet their Saviour and Lord. ...this Sacrament was in every respect the life of the church. It was never to be separated from the Gospel. The church of the first centuries was the church of the Eucharist. A Sunday, a Lord’s Day, was unthinkable without the Lord’s Supper. But if ever the church was a preaching church, the church of the apostles and the Church Fathers was. The same is true of all great periods of the church. The sacrament and the sermon belong together, and it is always a sign of the decay of the church if one is emphasized at the expense of the other.²²

According to this apostolic and catholic principle, at least in regard to the church’s observance of the Lord’s Day and of major Christian festivals, "There is no proper Service, without the preaching of the Word; there is no complete Service, without Word and Sacrament."²³

By the time of the Reformation a serious decay in this respect had in fact settled into the religious life of western Christendom. Philip Melanchthon observes in the Apology that among the Lutherans’ papal opponents "there are many regions where no sermons are preached during the whole year, except in Lent," and that even when sermons are preached they often deal with little more than "human traditions, the worship of the saints, and similar trifles."²⁴ In the Augsburg Confession he describes the erroneous but influential teaching

that our Lord Christ had by his death made satisfaction only for original sin, and had instituted the Mass as a sacrifice for other sins. This transformed the Mass into a sacrifice for the living and the dead, a sacrifice by means of which sin was taken away and God was reconciled. Thereupon followed a debate as to whether one Mass held for many people merited as much as a special Mass held for an individual. Out of this grew the countless multiplication of Masses, by the performance of which men expected to get everything they needed from God. Meanwhile faith in Christ and true service of God were forgotten.²⁵

It would be a mistake to regard Luther’s tangle with Rome on the Sacrament of the Altar as an effort to minimize the importance of it. He did indeed accuse the Romans of de-emphasizing the Word. And his concern was to restore the Word to its proper place beside the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. ... At the same time it must be said that Luther maintained the church’s reverence for the Sacrament. And what is more, he gave it back to the people. He rejected as unbiblical the idea that the priest could celebrate Mass for the people while they sat in their pews praying with their rosaries instead of partaking of the body and blood of the Lord. And both in his preaching and writing he impressed on the people the necessity of frequent Communion for the sustaining and strengthening of their Christian life.²⁶

The balance between Word and Sacrament must be maintained. While the Romans tipped the balance to the Sacrament at the expense of the Word, Luther saw the Swiss reformers and the enthusiasts as reversing this and de-emphasizing the sacraments to the point of neglect. Most serious of all to him was their rejection of the real presence of the body and blood in the Sacrament. This was taking the very heart out of the Supper and was a blatant denial of the clear words of Christ.²⁷

Among the Reformed, "This is my body" means "This represents my body" or "This is a symbol of my body."²⁸ They confess, in effect, "that since the body of Christ has ascended into heaven it is not truly and essentially present here on earth in the sacrament."²⁹ Luther minces no words in describing such theologians as "enemies of the sacrament" who "change God’s Word and ordinance and misrepresent them," so that "They, indeed, have only bread and wine, for they do not also have the Word and instituted ordinance of God but have perverted and changed it according to their own imagination."³⁰ The Reformed abandonment of weekly Communion in favor of a quarterly observance or something similar was a predictable and natural consequence of their abandonment of Biblical sacramental theology.

Luther’s appreciation of historic continuity and of classic and accepted forms of expression led him to retain as much of the historic order and content of the services as possible, together with music, vestments, lights, and the usual ceremonies not contrary to the spirit of the gospel. This spirit of the gospel was made active and powerful in and through the old forms, which were purified and simplified. The ancient balance of the Word and Sacrament was thus restored. Believing with all his soul in the "given-ness" of the gospel, Luther attached an almost sacramental authority to the uttered word which proclaims God’s will and mercy. At the same time veneration for the Sacrament as the seal of forgiveness and a means of grace in which "Christ and his saints come unto thee," kept him in accord with the historic church in concluding the chief service of every Lord’s Day and festival with the Lord’s Supper. The custom which became general in Lutheran churches two centuries later of reducing the Sunday morning service to a preaching service and only infrequently celebrating Holy Communion, as in the Zwinglian and Calvinistic churches, must not be laid at Luther’s door. He would be stirred to indignation by the infrequent observance of the Sacrament in many Lutheran churches today. All this was more than mere conservatism. It was keen value-judgment. Luther fearlessly cut out errors and impurities and with equal earnestness sought to preserve the good.³¹

Men have talked and written as if the doctrine of our Church, on this point, were a stupid blunder, forced upon it by the self-will and obstinacy of one man. The truth is, that this doctrine, clearly revealed in the New Testament, clearly confessed by the early Church, lies at the very heart of the Evangelical system -- Christ is the centre of the system, and in the Supper is the centre of Christ’s revelation of Himself. The glory and mystery of the incarnation combine there as they combine nowhere else. Communion with Christ is that by which we live, and the Supper is "the Communion." Had Luther abandoned this vital doctrine, the Evangelical Protestant Church would have abandoned him. He did not make this doctrine -- next in its immeasurable importance to that of justification by faith, with which it indissolubly coheres -- the doctrine made him. The doctrine of the Lord’s Supper is the most vital and practical in the whole range of the profoundest Christian life -- the doctrine which, beyond all others, conditions and vitalizes that life, for in it the character of faith is determined, invigorated, and purified as it is nowhere else. It is not only a fundamental doctrine, but is among the most fundamental of fundamentals.³²

There is no doubt that "The Reformer’s longing for frequent Communion to be restored to the heart of the Church’s life proceeds directly from his understanding of the Person and Work of Christ, which is the central theme of his whole theology."³³

From such a perspective, the Blessed Sacrament of our Lord’s body and blood is not, and cannot be, an appendix to the Gospel that exists only at the periphery of our Christian experience. For Luther, and for all who are able to find an expression of their own faith in his Large Catechism, "the whole Gospel and the article of the Creed, ‘I believe in the holy Christian church, the forgiveness of sins,’ are embodied in this sacrament..."³⁴ Whenever we discuss the Real Presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar, "We are talking about the presence of the living Christ, knowing that ‘death no longer has dominion over him.’"³⁵ With a gentle admonition, and with a warm invitation, Luther reminds us that the eternal Son of God, in his Holy Supper,

offers us all the treasure he brought from heaven for us, to which he most graciously invites us in other places, as when he says in Matt. 11:28, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will refresh you." Surely it is a sin and a shame that, when he tenderly and faithfully summons and exhorts us to our highest and greatest good, we act so distantly toward it, neglecting it so long that we grow quite cold and callous and lose all desire and love for it. We must never regard the sacrament as a harmful thing from which we should flee, but as a pure, wholesome, soothing medicine which aids and quickens us in both body and soul. For where the soul is healed, the body has benefitted also. Why, then, do we act as if the sacrament were a poison which would kill us if we ate of it?³⁶

This Holy Supper, in its own special way, offers and bestows everything that the Gospel offers and bestows.³⁷ As we confess in the familiar words of the Small Catechism, the benefit of our sacramental eating and drinking is told to us by Jesus himself

in the words "for you" and "for the forgiveness of sins." By these words the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given to us in the sacrament, for where there is forgiveness of sins, there are also life and salvation.³⁸

is appropriately called the food of the soul since it nourishes and strengthens the new man. While it is true that through Baptism we are first born anew, our human flesh and blood have not lost their old skin. There are so many hindrances and temptations of the devil and the world that we often grow weary and faint, at times even stumble. The Lord’s Supper is given as a daily food and sustenance so that our faith may refresh and strengthen itself and not weaken in the struggle but grow continually stronger. For the new life should be one that continually develops and progresses. Meanwhile it must suffer much opposition. The devil is a furious enemy; when he sees that we resist him and attack the old man, and when he cannot route us by force, he sneaks and skulks about everywhere, trying all kinds of tricks, and does not stop until he has finally worn us out so that we either renounce our faith or yield hand and foot and become indifferent or impatient. For such times, when our heart feels too sorely pressed, this comfort of the Lord’s Supper is given to bring us new strength and refreshment.³⁹

offers counsel and help against sin in more than one way, for God is surpassingly rich in his grace: First, through the spoken word, by which the forgiveness of sin (the peculiar function of the Gospel) is preached to the whole world; second, through Baptism; third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar; fourth, through the power of keys; and finally, through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren. Matt. 18:20, "Where two or three are gathered," etc.⁴⁰

If the Means of Grace were mechanically interchangeable, rather than organically ordered, it would make sense to say: "Today we have Baptism and, therefore, we do not need Communion." Such an argument, however, is quite impossible. It should be equally impossible to argue: "As long as we have preaching regularly, and the Lord’s Supper occasionally, the Means of Grace are in action, and all the rest is adiaphora." What must be seen is that in the Lutheran Confessions as in the New Testament the Eucharist is not an occasional extra, an exceptional additive for especially pious occasions, but a regular, central and constitutive feature of Christian worship. Preaching and the Sacrament belong together not anyhow, or helter-skelter, by statistical coincidence, but as mutually corresponding elements within one integrated whole.⁴¹

A morning service on Sundays or festivals without communion is like a broken column... God is rich toward all who seek him, and those who come to his table shall be satisfied with the abundance of his house. Nor ought anyone to say that frequent celebration serves to bring the Sacrament into contempt, for those who are rightly prepared will always hunger for this bread and thirst for this drink; and the more frequently that they commune, the firmer becomes the persuasion that all of the earthly life is only a preparation for the celebration of the great Supper on High. ... It should not often occur that the Communion is altogether omitted from the morning service.⁴²

According to Melanchthon it did not often occur, at least not in Wittenberg during those years when the Reformation movement was exercising its most vigorous influence. In 1531 he wrote to the Margrave of Brandenburg: "As to your Highness’ inquiry how it is held here, I would say that we hold no Mass when there are no communicants; and here at Wittenberg and at many other places there are always many communicants on Sundays, and the Churches are full."⁴³

In respect of the Lutheran Confessions an extraordinary development seems to have taken place. Even those sections of world Lutheranism which have cultivated a strong consciousness of Article X of the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, are hardly aware of its practical implementation and ramifications in Article XXIV. The tendency has been to maintain the Sacramental Presence as a matter of doctrine, but to let the practice of the Sacrament drift from its central position in the church to a more peripheral, supplementary status, as in the Reformed pattern. The strong corporate, communal implications (I Cor. 10:17) have been largely lost. This is not the view of the Lutheran Confessions. Article XXIV of the Augsburg Confession and of the Apology sees the Mass or Liturgy as consisting of preaching and the Sacrament, and as something to be done every Sunday and holy day. Nor is this merely a temporary accommodation. Luther himself, for instance, in his Latin Mass of 1523, defined the mass as consisting, "properly speaking," of "using the Gospel and communing at the Table of the Lord." In fact, he rejects, in the same work, the Roman custom of omitting the Consecration on Good Friday, and says that this is "to mock and ridicule Christ with half of a mass and the one part of the Sacrament."⁴⁴

The Lutheran Church restored the "primitive synthesis" of the early church by including in balanced proportion the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacrament in the principal service of the day. This service was held in its entirety on appointed Sundays and all great festivals. Some orders recognized that on certain days in towns and villages there might be no communicants. Permission was given in this event to conclude the Service with appropriate prayers and the Benediction. This exceptional provision later became the regular use. In the beginning, however, it was part of a plan to maintain the historic order of the Mass and to encourage the faithful to communicate. ... This was the Service as Luther and the conservative Reformers knew it. Great preachers themselves, they made the Sermon a significant part of the Service. They did not mutilate the liturgy to do this, however, or banish the sacrament to a separate service. ... Luther and his associates never would have approved of the "half-mass" commonly found among us today as the normal Sunday worship of our congregations. For two hundred years, or nearly half the time from the Reformation to the present, the normal Sunday service in Lutheran lands was the purified Mass, or Hauptgottesdienst, with its twin peaks of Sermon and Sacrament. There were weekly celebrations and the people in general received the Sacrament much more frequently than before. The ravages of war, the example of Calvinism, the later subjective practices of Pietistic groups in a domestic type of worship, and the unbelief of rationalism, however, finally broke the genuine Lutheran tradition.⁴⁵

It is true that "in the earliest Christian times as well as in the Reformation era we occasionally find something we might call ‘neglect of Holy Communion,’ yet it cannot even remotely be compared with the neglect of Holy Communion that appeared so obviously when rationalism invaded the liturgical life of the Lutheran Church, a neglect that has not been overcome decisively down to our own time."⁴⁶ As already noted, in the Augsburg Confession and its Apology "at least weekly eucharistic celebration is proposed as normative," but this proposal, "since Pietism and Rationalism exerted their destructive effect on the worship life of our Church, has represented a sadly unfulfilled desideratum of the Lutheran Confessions."⁴⁷

One of the most serious relics of Rationalism and Pietism, and the age of indifferentism that followed, is our deplorable practice of infrequent celebrations of Holy Communion. ...the reformers of the sixteenth century certainly intended that there would be a celebration of Holy Communion once a week, as the old rubrics so clearly show, as well as additional celebrations on all festival days within the week. This was carried out at first, although Helvetic influence soon crept in, then the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War, then the blight of Pietism and Rationalism. ... After a century or two of such disorder, the practice of infrequent Communion has taken on an air of respectability, and men who point to the deplorable record of certain church bodies in this respect, are spoken of as pro-Romanists, and enemies of the liberty which is ours under the Gospel. In a gathering of church leaders, when the custom of infrequent Communion was mentioned, several of the older men became terribly upset, declaring that if Communion be celebrated more than say six times a year, the people will lose all respect for it. But who would advocate four to six sermons a year, lest the people lose respect for the preaching of the Word?⁴⁸

the rhythm of the church-year. The basic units of this gentle, natural rhythm are the week and the year. This cycle is...broken by the false off-on or even off-off-off-on staccato of "Communion Sundays" and "non-Communion Sundays." The proper change from Sunday to Sunday should be in the specific meaning and application of the Sacrament, not in having or not having it. The Eucharist is the whole Gospel in action. This one Gospel, like a precious diamond, has many facets or aspects, of which one or two are especially highlighted in each Sunday’s or festival’s Gospel pericope. And through whatever concrete facet the full Gospel is celebrated on a given day, that is the specific meaning, or the mode of application of the Sacrament on that day. The Sacrament is always the full Gospel-gift, of course. But on Christmas Day we receive it under the aspect of the Lord’s Nativity, on Epiphany in celebration of His Baptism, on Laetare Sunday as the Divine Bread of Life revealed in the miraculous feeding of the multitude, and so on. In other words, the Sacrament, like the Gospel itself, must never be seen as some one narrow aspect or some unvarying "standard ration" in the feast that is Christianity. It is rather the whole reality, under many wonderful aspects, each especially observed and celebrated at various times. Each time it is as new and fresh as are the daily mercies of God. We have here the Kaleidoscope of God, which, at each weekly or seasonal tilt, exhibits the same divine generosity in ever new and exciting configurations.⁴⁹

might well be reworked in such a way that a weekly celebration is regarded as the normal, rather than the exceptional procedure. It can be made clear that a service which ends abruptly with a prayer and a hymn after the sermon is an incomplete service. The opinion now seems to be that this is the normal thing, and everything from the Prefatory Sentences onward is something added. The laity too often speak of the first half of the service as the "regular service," and the second half as "the Communion Service." This is highly incorrect. The regular, normal service is the Holy Communion, from the Introit to the end of the Post Communion. If it be broken off with a prayer and hymn after the sermon it is a truncated service.⁵⁰

In North America today, the rubrics for the main Sunday Service in most Lutheran hymnals still give directions about what to do "When there is no Communion." This is true of Lutheran Book of Worship (used in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada),⁵¹ Lutheran Worship (used in the Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod and the Lutheran Church -- Canada),⁵² and Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal (used in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod).⁵³ This is not true, however, of the new hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, where directions are given instead about what to do "When there are no communicants."⁵⁴ This shows a marked improvement in theological and liturgical understanding, and a very welcome return to the thought patterns of the Lutheran Reformation. The day may come when this understanding is reflected throughout the orthodox Lutheran world, and when there will no longer be any such thing as a "non-Communion Sunday" for Lutheran parishioners

who hunger for Christ’s body and blood and who are prepared to receive it. The fact that some of those present do not wish to receive should not prevent others from receiving. ... The Eucharist Service is to be the chief Sunday service as a matter of course, and the people are to be encouraged to commune.⁵⁵

The point about communicants being "prepared" to receive the Lord’s Supper is a very important one, and the Reformers were very careful always to emphasize that the administration of this sacrament is to take place within the context of a comprehensive pastoral ministry. The Lutheran pastor’s offering of Christ’s body and blood to the members of his congregation is to be preceded by examination and Absolution. The Apology describes this kind of pastoral care in a statement that has already been quoted in part: "In our churches Mass is celebrated every Sunday and on other festivals, when the sacrament is offered to those who wish for it after they have been examined and absolved."⁵⁶ We read in the Augsburg Confession that

The people are accustomed to receive the sacrament together, in so far as they are fit to do so. This likewise increases the reverence and devotion of public worship, for none are admitted unless they are first heard and examined.⁵⁷

Among our opponents there is no catechization of the children at all, though even the canons give prescriptions about it. In our circles the pastors and ministers of the churches are required to instruct and examine the youth publicly, a custom that produces very good results.⁵⁸

In his Shorter Preface to the Large Catechism, Luther says that his effort in preparing the catechism "has been undertaken for the instruction of children and uneducated people."⁵⁹ He adds that

Its contents represent the minimum of knowledge required of a Christian. Whoever does not possess it should not be reckoned among Christians nor admitted to a sacrament, just as a craftsman who does not know the rules and practices of his craft is rejected and considered incompetent. ... I well remember the time when there were old people who were so ignorant that they knew nothing of these things -- indeed, even now we find them daily -- yet they come to Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar and exercise all the rights of Christians, although those who come to the sacrament ought to know more and have a fuller understanding of all Christian doctrine than children and beginners at school.⁶⁰

Begin by teaching them the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, etc., following the text word for word so that the young may repeat these things after you and retain them in their memory. If any refuse to receive your instructions, tell them that they deny Christ and are no Christians. They should not be admitted to the sacrament, be accepted as sponsors in Baptism, or be allowed to participate in any Christian privileges. On the contrary, they should be turned over to the pope and his officials, and even to the devil himself. In addition, parents and employers should refuse to furnish them with food and drink and should notify them that the prince is disposed to banish such rude people from his land.⁶¹

stating what it is, what its benefits are, and who is to receive it. All these are established by the words by which Christ instituted it. So everyone who wishes to be a Christian and go to the sacrament should be familiar with them. For we do not intend to admit to the sacrament and administer it to those who do not know what they seek or why they come.⁶²

the people are instructed often and with great diligence concerning the holy sacrament, why it was instituted, and how it is to be used (namely, as a comfort for terrified consciences) in order that the people may be drawn to the Communion and Mass. The people are also given instruction about other false teachings concerning the sacrament.⁶³

Those who intend to commune shall give notice to the pastor or one of the ministers the day before, or before Mass in the morning. The ministers shall ask of them in a discreet way whether they know the Ten Commandments, Creed and Lord’s Prayer, whether they know and hold the right doctrine concerning the Sacrament, what fruit they expect from a worthy use of it, and especially whether they hold enmity or wrath against any one. Thus may they discover how the people understand these matters, how much profit they derive from sermon and catechism, and how much they need kind instruction. But they must be careful not to mortify either young or old by their examination and thus for a long time keep them from the Sacrament. They shall diligently admonish the people to seek Absolution in preparation for the Sacrament. ... Those are to be excluded from the Communion who live in willful error and heresy, or in open undeniable vice, or scorn the express Word of God. Also the irrational and fools, children who cannot understand, and those who neither know nor will learn the Ten Commandments, the Creed nor the Lord’s Prayer.⁶⁴

The deplorable conditions which I recently encountered when I was a visitor constrained me to prepare this brief and simple catechism or statement of Christian teaching. Good God, what wretchedness I beheld! The common people, especially those who live in the country, have no knowledge whatever of Christian teaching, and unfortunately many pastors are quite incompetent and unfitted for teaching. Although the people are supposed to be Christian, are baptized, and receive the holy sacrament, they do not know the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, or the Ten Commandments, they live as if they were pigs and irrational beasts, and now that the Gospel has been restored they have mastered the fine art of abusing liberty.⁶⁵

These circumstances help us to understand why faithful Reformation-era pastors usually wanted to meet personally with individual communicants, before communion. They knew that the people, by and large, still had a very limited understanding of law and Gospel, and of the other chief articles of Christian doctrine. As the "stewards of the mysteries of God"⁶⁶ who "must give account"⁶⁷ for the souls entrusted to them, the early Lutheran pastors recognized the discipline of pre-Communion examination as a very useful means by which they could guide communicants in their own self-examination and in their preparation for a worthy reception of Christ’s body and blood, mindful of St. Paul’s warning that

whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.⁶⁸

With regard to the time, it is certain that most people in our churches use the sacraments, absolution and the Lord’s Supper, many times in a year. Our clergy instruct the people about the worth and fruits of the sacraments in such a way as to invite them to use the sacraments often. ... The openly wicked and the despisers of the sacraments are excommunicated. We do this according to both the Gospel and the ancient canons. But we do not prescribe a set time because not everyone is ready in the same way at the same time. In fact, if everyone rushed in at the same time, the people could not be heard and instructed properly. ... Christ says (I Cor. 11:29) that those who receive in an unworthy manner receive judgment upon themselves. Therefore our pastors do not force those who are not ready to use the sacraments.⁶⁹

Here one should follow the same usage as with baptism, namely, that the bishop be informed of those who want to commune. They should request in person to receive the Lord’s Supper so that he may be able to know both their names and manner of life. And let him not admit the applicants unless they can give a reason for their faith and can answer questions about what the Lord’s Supper is, what its benefits are, and what they expect to derive from it. In other words, they should be able to repeat the Words of Institution from memory and to explain that they are coming because they are troubled by the consciousness of their sin, the fear of death, or some other evil, such as temptation of the flesh, the world, or the devil, and now hunger and thirst to receive the word and sign of grace and salvation from the Lord himself through the ministry of the bishop, so that they may be consoled and comforted; this was Christ’s purpose, when he in priceless love gave and instituted this Supper, and said, "Take and eat," etc. But I think it enough for the applicants for communion to be examined or explored once a year. Indeed, a man may be so understanding that he needs to be questioned only once in his lifetime or not at all. For, by this practice, we want to guard lest the worthy and unworthy alike rush to the Lord’s Supper, as we have hitherto seen done in the Roman church. There they seek only to communicate; but the faith, the comfort, the use and benefit of the Supper are not even mentioned or considered.⁷⁰

that private absolution should be retained and not allowed to fall into disuse. However, in confession it is not necessary to enumerate all trespasses and sins, for this is impossible. Ps. 19:12, "Who can discern his errors?"⁷¹

According to the Large Catechism, this "third sacrament, formerly called penance," is "really nothing else than Baptism," since repentance "is nothing else than a return and approach to Baptism, to resume and practice what had earlier been begun, but abandoned."⁷² Confession and Absolution function essentially as the semi-sacramental bridge between Holy Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar in the life of the Christian. Regarding this pastoral application of the "third sacrament," the Augsburg Confession tells us that

Confession has not been abolished by the preachers on our side. The custom has been retained among us of not administering the sacrament to those who have not previously been examined and absolved.⁷³

...we also keep confession, especially because of absolution, which is the Word of God that the power of the keys proclaims to individuals by divine authority. It would therefore be wicked to remove private absolution from the church. And those who despise private absolution understand neither the forgiveness of sins nor the power of the keys.⁷⁴

Concerning confession, we have always taught that it should be voluntary and purged of the pope’s tyranny. We have been set free from his coercion and from the intolerable burden he imposed upon the Christian church. Up to now, as we all know from experience, there has been no law quite so oppressive as that which forced everyone to make confession on pain of the gravest mortal sin.⁷⁵

Now concerning private confession before communion, I still think as I have held heretofore, namely, that it neither is necessary nor should be demanded. Nevertheless, it is useful and should not be despised...⁷⁶

In his own preparation for going to Communion Luther usually sought and received private Absolution, but he also declared as a matter of principle: "And I, Doctor Martin Luther myself, sometimes go unconfessed, just so that I shall not myself make it a necessary habit in my conscience."⁷⁷

To confess sin does not mean (as among the papists) to recite a long catalog of sins, but to desire absolution. This is in itself a sufficient confession, that is, acknowledging yourself guilty and confessing that you are a sinner. And no more should be demanded and required, no naming and recitation of all or some, many or a few sins, unless you of your own accord desire to indicate something that especially burdens your conscience and calls for instruction and advice or specific comfort, such as young, plain folk and also others often require.⁷⁸

Out of this principle evolved the practice of a general confession and general Absolution, in the public assembly of the congregation, which took place either on Saturday (at Vespers) or on Sunday morning before the celebration of the Sacrament.⁷⁹ Many sixteenth-century Lutheran Church Orders explicitly call for such a usage.⁸⁰ Veit Dietrich’s Agendbüchlein für die Pfarrherrn auff dem Land, published by the Nürnberg City Senate in 1543, specifies that in the Saturday Vespers service the Sermon is to be followed by the Public Confession, with Absolution and Retention.⁸¹ A general confession and general Absolution were included as a part of the Sunday morning Communion Service in the churches of Württemberg, as described in 1577 by Lucas Osiander, Jacob Andreae, and Martin Crucius:

The church assembles at an appointed time. Hymns are sung. Sermons are preached concerning the benefits of Christ for mankind. Again, hymns are sung. An awesome exhortation is read, which in part explains the words of institution of the Most-Holy Supper, and in part demands that each person should prepare for a worthy communion. A general but sincere confession of sins is made. Forgiveness is publicly pronounced. With devout prayers we ask the Lord to make us partakers of the heavenly gifts and benefits. The words of institution of the sacrament are read, after which the congregation approaches with reverence and receives (offered by the holy minister) the body and the blood of Christ. Again we give thanks to God in prescribed words for the heavenly gifts. Finally, the holy minister of God says the blessing over the assembled congregation, and all are dismissed to go to their homes.⁸²

For good or for ill, the general confession has now supplanted private confession with the pastor as the most common method through which Lutheran communicants prepare themselves spiritually for their sacramental participation. This does not mean, however, that Lutheran ministers are no longer obligated to administer the Sacrament in a pastorally responsible manner. Whenever possible, pastors should still utilize some kind of pre-Service announcement or registration process so that they will have at least a basic idea of who intends to commune, and they should still make themselves available to those who desire individualized pastoral attention before their communion. As we read in the Treatise, "The Gospel requires of those who preside over the churches that they preach the Gospel, remit sins, administer the sacraments, and, in addition, exercise jurisdiction, that is, excommunicate those who are guilty of notorious crimes and absolve those who repent."⁸³ This is, after all, the Lord’s Supper, and not our supper, and those who administer it in accordance with the teachings of our Lord and his apostles -- in our time just as in the time of Chrysostom -- will be "inviting some to Communion and forbidding others to approach." Whether it is done in private or in public, in the confessional or in the pulpit, it is always necessary for pastors

to explain with great diligence who the unworthy guests at this Supper are, namely, those who go to this sacrament without true contrition and sorrow for their sins, without true faith, and without a good intention to improve their life and who by their unworthy oral eating of the body of Christ burden themselves with judgment (that is, temporal and eternal punishments) and profane the body and blood of Christ. True and worthy communicants, on the other hand, are those timid, perturbed Christians, weak in faith, who are heartily terrified because of their many and great sins, who consider themselves unworthy of this noble treasure and the benefits of Christ because of their great impurity, and who perceive their weakness in faith, deplore it, and heartily wish that they might serve God with a stronger and more cheerful faith and a purer obedience. This most venerable sacrament was instituted and ordained primarily for communicants like this, as Christ says, "Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). Likewise, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." [Matt. 9:12] Likewise, "The power of God is made perfect in weakness." [II Cor. 12:9] Likewise, "As for a man who is weak in faith, welcome him, for God has welcomed him" (Rom. 14:1,3). For whoever believes on the Son of God, be his faith strong or weak, has eternal life (John 3:16). And worthiness does not consist in the weakness or certainty of faith, be it greater or smaller, but solely in the merits of Christ, of which the distressed father of weak faith (Mark 9:24) partook no less than Abraham, Paul, and others who had a cheerful and strong faith.⁸⁴

The Lutheran laity are similarly obligated to make sure that this "most venerable sacrament" is administered in their midst only by qualified men⁸⁵ who have been properly "called to preach the Gospel and administer the sacraments to the people."⁸⁶ They must never forget that "The church has the command to appoint ministers; to this we must subscribe wholeheartedly, for we know that God approves this ministry and is present in it."⁸⁷ When the Lutheran Church is true to its own standards, its candidates for the Ministry of Word and Sacrament are not ordained to this office until they have been carefully tested and examined "as to whether they are legitimately called, whether they rightly hold the fundamentals of salutary doctrine and reject fanatic opinions, whether they are endowed with the gifts necessary to teach others sound doctrine, and whether they can prove their lives to be honorable, so that they can be examples to the flock..."⁸⁸ The Lutheran conviction "that nobody should publicly teach or preach or administer the sacraments in the church without a regular call"⁸⁹ means, in part, that "The only administrators of the Holy Communion are the ministers of the Word, who have been legitimately called, like Aaron, Heb. 5:4; also because those alone should administer this Sacrament who are able to examine the faith of the men using this Sacrament."⁹⁰ Hence the general practice of the church is that

the administration of the sacraments in our congregations is entrusted to those in the pastoral ministry. Certainly others may be asked to help distribute the Lord’s Supper. But pastors are asked to oversee and preside. ... This work fits well with the role of the pastor as the spiritual overseer. The administration of the Lord’s Supper, for example, often involves spiritual judgment. Decisions commonly need to be made by the administrant about who is properly prepared to receive the sacrament, both in the public worship services and in the visitation of shut-ins. This requires a knowledge of the sheep and is definitely the work of spiritual oversight.⁹¹

How often should the Lord’s Supper be offered? It should be offered whenever there are communicants, defined Confessionally as baptized Christians who have been properly instructed, who confess the faith of the church,⁹² who have examined themselves, who have repented of their sins, and who in faith seek the forgiveness, life, and salvation that Jesus gives us in this Holy Sacrament.⁹³ If there are within a congregation at least some people like this on every Lord’s Day and festival who wish to receive Holy Communion, then Holy Communion is to be offered on every Lord’s Day and festival (except, of course, on those occasions when the pastor is absent). This is the clear and unambiguous teaching of the Lutheran Confessions.

Infrequent participation in the Lord’s Supper on the part of the laity was one of the problems that the Lutheran Reformers inherited from the Medieval church. "As to the frequency of the reception, in the primitive church the Christians at first used to communicate daily,"⁹⁴ and

In the ancient church all who took part in the Mass of the Faithful received communion. This later came to an end when masses of people came streaming into the church, and Communion was often replaced by the distribution of bread that was blessed but not consecrated at the end of the service. In the Middle ages Communion was very infrequent. To receive Communion four times a year -- at the three high festivals and at one lesser one -- was a sign of the highest piety.⁹⁵

Church leaders did recognize this as a problem, but they often responded to it in a legalistic way. According to Canon XVIII of the Council of Agde, held in the year 506, "Laymen who do not commune at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost shall not be considered or reckoned as Catholics."⁹⁶ Pope Innocent III, at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, required all the faithful to commune at least once per year, at Easter.⁹⁷ At this council he also

had the obligation of confession of all sins raised into a dogma, and obliged all believers under threat of excommunication to make confession at least once a year, as preparation for the Easter communion. The Provincial Synod at Toulouse in A.D. 1229 insisted on compulsory confession and communion three times a year, at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost.⁹⁸

No one is to be compelled to believe or to receive the sacrament, no law is to be made concerning it, and no time or place should be appointed for it. We should so preach that, of their own accord and without any law, the people will desire the sacrament and, as it were, compel us pastors to administer it to them. This can be done by telling them: It is to be feared that anyone who does not desire to receive the sacrament at least three or four times a year despises the sacrament and is no Christian, just as he is no Christian who does not hear and believe the Gospel. Christ did not say, "Omit this," or "Despise this," but he said, "Do this, as often as you drink it," etc. Surely he wishes that this be done and not that it be omitted and despised. "Do this," he said. He who does not highly esteem the sacrament suggests thereby that he has no sin, no flesh, no devil, no world, no death, no hell. That is to say, he believes in none of these, although he is deeply immersed in them and is held captive by the devil. On the other hand, he suggests that he needs no grace, no life, no paradise, no heaven, no Christ, no God, nothing good at all. For if he believed that he was involved in so much that is evil and was in need of so much that is good, he would not neglect the sacrament in which aid is afforded against such evil and in which such good is bestowed. It is not necessary to compel him by any law to receive the sacrament, for he will hasten to it of his own accord, he will feel constrained to receive it, he will insist that you administer it to him. Accordingly you are not to make a law of this, as the pope has done. All you need to do is clearly to set forth the advantage and disadvantage, the benefit and loss, the blessing and danger connected with this sacrament. Then the people will come of their own accord and without compulsion on your part.⁹⁹

now that we have the right interpretation and doctrine of the sacrament, there is great need also of an admonition and entreaty that so great a treasure, which is daily administered and distributed among Christians, may not be heedlessly passed by. What I mean is that those who claim to be Christians should prepare themselves to receive this blessed sacrament frequently. For we see that men are becoming listless and lazy about its observance. A lot of people who hear the Gospel, now that the pope’s nonsense has been abolished and we are freed from his oppression and authority, let a year, or two, three, or more years go by without receiving the sacrament, as if they were such strong Christians that they have no need of it. Some let themselves be kept and deterred from it because we have taught that no one should go unless he feels a hunger and thirst impelling him to it. Some pretend that it is a matter of liberty, not of necessity, and that it is enough if they simply believe. Thus the majority go so far that they become quite barbarous, and ultimately despise both the sacrament and the Word of God. Now it is true, we repeat, that no one should under any circumstances be coerced or compelled, lest we institute a new slaughter of souls. Nevertheless, let it be understood that people who abstain and absent themselves from the sacrament over a long period of time are not to be considered Christians. Christ did not institute it to be treated merely as a spectacle, but commanded his Christians to eat and drink and thereby remember him. Indeed, true Christians who cherish and honor the sacrament will of their own accord urge and impel themselves to come.¹⁰⁰

But suppose you say, "What if I feel that I am unfit?" Answer: This also is my temptation, especially inherited from the old order under the pope when we tortured ourselves to become so perfectly pure that God might not find the least blemish in us. Because of this we became so timid that everyone was thrown into consternation, saying, "Alas, I am not worthy!" Then nature and reason begin to contrast our unworthiness with this great and precious blessing, and it appears like a dark lantern in contrast to the bright sun, or as dung in contrast to jewels. Because nature and reason see this, such people refuse to go to the sacrament and wait until they become prepared, until one week passes into another and one half year into yet another. If you choose to fix your eye on how good and pure you are, to work toward the time when nothing will prick your conscience, you will never go. For this reason we must make a distinction among men. Those who are shameless and unruly must be told to stay away, for they are not fit to receive the forgiveness of sins since they do not desire it and do not want to be good. The others, who are not so callous and dissolute but would like to be good, should not absent themselves, even though in other respects they are weak and frail. ... No one will make such progress that he does not retain many common infirmities in his flesh and blood. People with such misgivings must learn that it is the highest wisdom to realize that this sacrament does not depend upon our worthiness. We are not baptized because we are worthy and holy, nor do we come to confession pure and without sin; on the contrary, we come as poor, miserable men, precisely because we are unworthy. The only exception is the person who desires no grace and absolution and has no intention to amend his life.¹⁰¹

Indeed, the very words, "as often as you do it," imply that we should do it often. And they are added because Christ wishes the sacrament to be free, not bound to a special time like the Passover, which the Jews were obliged to eat only once a year, precisely on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first full moon, without variation of a single day. Christ means to say: "I institute a Passover or Supper for you, which you shall enjoy not just on this one evening of the year, but frequently, whenever and wherever you will, according to everyone’s opportunity and need, being bound to no special place or time" (although the pope afterward perverted it and turned it back into a Jewish feast).¹⁰²

As a matter of principle, Luther refuses to get specific in telling believers how often they should receive the Lord’s Supper. If pressed he would probably say, no more than "daily," and no less than "three or four times a year," but he would not go beyond that.¹⁰³ Because of his conviction that "no law is to be made concerning it, and no time or place should be appointed for it," Luther was opposed to the papal and conciliar decree of 1215 which said, in effect, that Easter is the correct "time" for people to commune. He would certainly also be uncomfortable with any congregational "Communion schedule" that artificially limited the members’ opportunities for Communion to a certain Sunday of the month, thereby implying that the other Sundays of the month are not the correct "time" for people to commune. The well-intentioned statement that "We are to come to it as often as it is celebrated"¹⁰⁴ is likewise not fully compatible with the Reformer’s basic belief that no trace of coercion or "law" is to be present in the consideration of this question, either explicitly or implicitly. Again, to quote the Apology, "we do not prescribe a set time because not everyone is ready in the same way at the same time." From the perspective of the Gospel, he who is both Gift and Giver in this Holy Supper graciously invites us to come. He does not order us to go. Through his Word he lovingly draws us to his body and blood, and to the forgiveness that they have won for us. He does not push us.

Nevertheless, the Reformers did continually admonish and encourage the people to "prepare themselves to receive this blessed sacrament frequently," and as a result they were able to say two things: First, that "most people in our churches use the sacraments, absolution and the Lord’s Supper, many times in a year"; and second, that "Every Lord’s Day many in our circles use the Lord’s Supper, but only after they have been instructed, examined, and absolved."¹⁰⁵ And so,

While the Reformer can enjoin weekly celebration of the Sacrament on the clergy, he noticeably refrains from ordering the laity to commune weekly. His reticence here perfectly parallels his softly-softly approach toward accustoming the laity once again to receive the Supper in both kinds. Age-old custom can be overcome only gradually, and just as it would take time for the laity to get used to receiving the Chalice, so likewise gentle pastoral care and unremitting instruction would be needed in order to make inroads into the medieval habit of communing only once or thrice a year. But Luther’s refusal to dragoon the laity to the altar must not be so interpreted that we fail to mark his clear longing for frequent Communion to be the rule and not the exception of congregational life.¹⁰⁶

At the time of the Reformation "Many Wittenbergers received the Lord’s body and blood each week."¹⁰⁷ And how often did Luther himself commune? Before we answer that question we must remind ourselves that Luther would object very strenuously to any desire on our part to imitate him in our own sacramental life. He would probably give us one version or another of his "don’t-call-yourselves-Lutherans-but-Christians" speech,¹⁰⁸ and in Small-Catechism fashion might even threaten to take away our "food and drink" for thinking in such a way. Yet it is an historically interesting question that can teach us something about Lutheran sacramental piety. In any case, it is reported of Luther, during the time of his sojourn at Coburg Castle in 1530, "that he went to the Lord’s Table every fortnight; and that he followed up this custom also in after years."¹⁰⁹ Veit Dietrich, in his reminiscences of the Reformer, reports that Luther went "to the Lord’s Supper usually every fourteen days or at most three weeks..."¹¹⁰

the rule about when and how often one should go to Communion must be taken: I. From the teaching about the fruit and power of the Eucharist, namely, when and as often as we recognize that we have need of this power; II. From the teaching about self-examination, lest we receive it unworthily. On this basis people are to be taught, admonished, and exhorted to more diligent and frequent use of the Eucharist. For because Christ says: "As often as you do this," it is wholly His will that those who are His disciples should do this frequently. Therefore those are not true and faithful ministers of Christ who in any manner whatever lead or frighten people away from more frequent use and reception of the Eucharist. There are beautiful examples of frequent use of the Eucharist from the true antiquity. Some had the custom of receiving the Eucharist daily, some twice a week, some on the Lord’s day, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, some only on the Lord’s Day.¹¹¹

The first Christians celebrated it almost daily; especially in times of persecution, in order to be daily ready for death. ... The Holy Supper was regarded as the most glorious divine Armory, in which one receives the most invincible weapons for the spiritual battle. ... The holy Supper with the body and blood of Jesus Christ is the new Tree of Life, which stood in Paradise, which Christ has now again planted in His kingdom of Grace. ... O adorable, comforting mystery! The holy flesh of God, which the angels adore and the archangels reverence, becomes a Food for sinners! Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad, but still more the believing soul, which enjoys such great gifts!¹¹²

How often should the Lord’s Supper be received? It should be received "frequently, whenever and wherever you will, according to everyone’s opportunity and need, being bound to no special place or time." In the words of Gerhard, "How often this sacrament should be taken every year, cannot be prescribed definitely and by some general rule, but must be left free for the approval of each one’s conscience and for his piety."¹¹³ This, too, is the clear and unambiguous teaching of the Lutheran Confessions.

The infrequent use of this holy privilege is not only to be deplored, but an effort should be made to correct it, since it is [a] part of the congregation’s life which needs a "reformation." But this must be done in one way only, by creating a fervent desire for it, and not by compulsion or legislation. The practice of the Early Church was to gather for Holy Communion: that and the hearing of the Word were their prime objectives. This practice continued in every land and age where the Gospel was carried and disciples were made. Neither the Reformers nor the Reformation Movement attacked or objected to its use every Lord’s Day, but only to the superstitions and abominations of the Mass practices. Celebration of the Holy Communion every Lord’s Day is still found in some parts of the Church of the Reformation to this day. Whatever good or indifferent reasons may have brought about the once or twice or four or six times a year practices in this country in years gone by, they hardly obtain now.¹¹⁴

To be sure, God’s grace comes equally in both sermon and communion, not to mention baptism, absolution, counseling. This our confessions make quite clear. Concerning Word and sacrament, they say, "The effect of both is the same." Still, if a worshiper who has moved through the stages of worship -- confession and absolution, praise and thanksgiving, instruction and admonition, prayer and offering -- is then dismissed without an opportunity to receive the assurance of God’s presence in the form instituted by the Savior, isn’t something wrong? One who feels this matter keenly cannot help but know frustration. To be sure he may not wish to commune every Sunday, but shouldn’t the opportunity be there?¹¹⁵

O Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You, that of Your infinite mercy You have instituted this Your Sacrament, in which we eat Your body and drink Your blood: Grant us, we beseech You, by Your Holy Spirit, that we may not receive this gift unworthily, but that we may confess our sins, remember Your agony and death, believe the forgiveness of sin, and day by day grow in faith and love, until we obtain eternal salvation; through You, who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.¹¹⁶