{"id":41515,"date":"2021-03-04T11:47:11","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T16:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=41515"},"modified":"2021-03-12T07:58:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T12:58:06","slug":"it-is-expedient-that-the-church-meet-together-often-to-partake-of-bread-and-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2021\/03\/it-is-expedient-that-the-church-meet-together-often-to-partake-of-bread-and-wine\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt is expedient that the church meet together often to partake of bread and wine\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the Book of Moroni is an instruction manual to \u201cbuild a church,\u201d as Michael Austin suggests, with the \u201cnuts-and-bolts how-to-run-a-church stuff that anybody trying to reassemble what the Nephites built will need to know,\u201d[1]<\/a> then Doctrine and Covenants Section 20 represents an effort to take that manual, adapt it and expand on it for the restored Church of Christ.\u00a0 Known as the Articles and Covenants, the section is something like a charter for the Church in the early 1830s, capturing how to function as a church and the basic information about the Church (with occasional updates up to the time of publishing the Doctrine and Covenants in 1835).\u00a0 Want to know the Church\u2019s history?\u00a0 Read verses 1-12.\u00a0 Core doctrines and beliefs?\u00a0 Read verses 13-36.\u00a0 Requirements for baptism?\u00a0 Go to verse 37.\u00a0 Basic ecclesiastical offices, their functions and how to be ordained?\u00a0 See verses 38-67.\u00a0 Expectations for church members after joining?\u00a0 Verses 68-71.\u00a0 How to perform core ordinances?\u00a0 Read verses 72-79.\u00a0 How to handle inter-congregational gatherings and Church discipline?\u00a0 See verses 80-84.\u00a0 Several key sections in Section 20 are drawn from Moroni\u2019s writings, including, notably, the sacrament prayers.<\/p>\n

The sacrament of the Lord\u2019s Supper and the way we approach those sacrament prayers in Section 20 (and Moroni) has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0 When gatherings of church members were suspended worldwide on 12 March 2020, instructions were given that \u201cbishops should counsel with their stake presidents to determine how to make the sacrament available to members at least once a month.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 The way this played out varied, but generally resulted in homes with priesthood holders being allowed to perform the sacrament and then those in homes without someone ordained to the priesthood not having access to the sacrament unless they were willing to risk exposure to the disease through inviting men ordained to the priesthood to come into their homes.\u00a0 For example, my bishop issued the following guidance on 14 March 2020:<\/p>\n

If there is a worthy priesthood holder in the home, you are authorized at this time to perform\u00a0sacrament\u00a0in your home.\u00a0\u00a0This authorization only exists until we are allowed to hold\u00a0sacrament\u00a0meeting again in the Church.\u00a0\u00a0It should be done in a reverent manner.\u00a0\u00a0My biggest concern is for widows, single adults and part member families.\u00a0\u00a0As I have pondered on this, let us manage it this direction.\u00a0\u00a0Ministers and neighbors will be asked to assist in this ordinance.\u00a0\u00a0This will assure that each person will have the opportunity to partake of the\u00a0sacrament.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus, while my bishop indicated that he wanted to extend the opportunity to everyone to have the sacrament, doing so relied on either having an ordained priest, elder, or high priest in the home or having a neighbor or ministering brother who was ordained come into your home.<\/p>\n

In late May, meetings were allowed to resume in my area.\u00a0 On the 28th of May, we were informed that sacrament meetings would be held on a monthly basis in my stake, with limitations on number of people allowed, cleaning protocols, etc.\u00a0 Outside of that monthly sacrament meeting, our stake presidency stated that: \u201cYou are also encouraged to continue with your Sunday worship practices at home.\u00a0\u00a0Administration of the\u00a0sacrament\u00a0at home continues to be authorized for the other Sundays of the month where you will not be attending a\u00a0sacrament\u00a0meeting in-person.\u201d\u00a0 On the same day, President Russell M. Nelson shared a Facebook post about how his wife appreciated the opportunity she had of \u201chearing my husband bless the sacrament,\u201d and celebrating the decision to begin gradually resuming sacrament meetings.\u00a0 He noted, however, that: \u201cI am especially concerned for those who desire to partake of the sacrament but do not have a worthy priesthood bearer in their home. They should let their bishop know that they would like to have his delegated representatives come to their home to administer the sacrament.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Both of these messages\u2014local and general\u2014offered encouragement to receive or perform the sacrament in the home and at Church (when possible), but offered little in the way of what to do if you did not have a worthy priesthood holder in your home and felt strongly about reducing risk of exposure by avoiding having people in your immediate family enter your home.<\/p>\n

There was, however, one general Church statement that gave indications about what to do if you were unable to receive the sacrament.\u00a0 Guidance issued by the Church on 16 April noted that: \u201cIn unusual circumstances when the sacrament is not available, members can be comforted by studying the sacrament prayers and recommitting to live the covenants members have made and praying for the day they will receive it in person, properly administered by a priesthood bearer.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Jana Riess pointed out, however, that the situation is not actually unusual\u2014according to her estimate, only about 39% of adult women who are active Church members in the United States are married to an active priesthood-holding man.\u00a0 And, she noted, \u201cI have had a couple of well-intentioned men in my area offer to bring the sacrament to my house, which I appreciate.\u00a0 But there\u2019s no way in heck I am going to endanger anyone\u2019s health over this by having them come inside.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 That would indicate that there is a significant portion of the Church who experienced these \u201cunusual circumstances where the sacrament is not available,\u201d especially among those who were concerned enough about a deadly pandemic to limit visits from individuals outside of their household.<\/p>\n

In a comment on a post over at Wheat and Tares<\/em>, Dave B. bluntly captured the issue at hand here:<\/p>\n

The whole story about how oh so important the sacrament is that we take it every week and with home church we should do it in our homes rings false when the big exception is \u201cexcept for single moms and women living alone, then it\u2019s no big deal, just read the prayer and think of Jesus for five minutes, same thing.\u201d\u00a0 What if we only \u201crenew our covenants\u201d once a year?\u00a0 Do they expire after three weeks or something?[6]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The situation raises some important questions about the sacrament, such as: Why do we do it?\u00a0 How frequently is it necessary to perform it? \u00a0How closely is our salvation tied to the ordinance?<\/p>\n

In a way, Dave\u2019s comment brought some of my own flawed assumptions about the sacrament to the fore.\u00a0 Previously, I\u2019ve thought about salvation and the sacrament in terms not that different from a Netflix subscription.\u00a0 In the analogy, baptism and confirmation is the process of subscribing to salvation in the afterlife and times spent participating in the sacrament are weekly payments that are required to renew that subscription (with the exceptions of stake conferences and general conferences).\u00a0 The thought in the back of my mind was that if you didn\u2019t keep up on the weekly payments, your subscription would expire until you repented and resumed those weekly renewals by returning to Church.\u00a0 In light of the Church\u2019s guidance through the pandemic, however, the reality seems to be different than what my analogy indicates.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written previously on the subject of why we participate in the sacrament of the Lord\u2019s supper<\/a> and how frequently we can partake of the sacrament<\/a>.\u00a0 Both discussions are relevant here.\u00a0 To boil the first down, there are a few specific reasons given in the scriptures for why we participate in the sacrament:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Doctrine and Covenants 20 states that we need to \u201cmeet together often to partake of bread and wine in the remembrance of the Lord Jesus.\u201d[7]<\/a> Paul similarly stated that \u201cas often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord\u2019s death until he comes.\u201d[8]<\/a>\u00a0 We participate in the sacrament to remember the Lord\u2019s death, with an eye looking forward to his Second Coming.<\/li>\n
  2. The sacrament is a chance to develop bonds of love as a community united in our devotion to Christ. As St. Paul put it: \u201cThe cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ?\u00a0 The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?\u00a0 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 We become one community\u2014one body of Christ\u2014through sharing \u201cthe emblems of the flesh and blood of Christ.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. The sacrament is an opportunity publicly testify of our commitment to the Christ through making promises to God to \u201ctake upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them\u201d in return for the promise that we \u201cmay always have his Spirit to be with them.\u201d[11]<\/a> We make those covenants each time we partake of the bread and water.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Thus, the three main reasons given in the scriptures are to remember the Last Supper and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, to become united as a community of believers, and to witness that we will follow the Lord and take his name upon us.<\/p>\n

    The language of \u201crenewing\u201d baptismal covenants that played into Dave B.\u2019s comment and my Netflix analogy is not actually found in the scriptures but seems to come from Elder Joseph Fielding Smith and Elder Bruce R. McConkie in the mid-20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 One of the earlier references was in the October 1950 general conference, where Elder McConkie stated that: \u201cSo important is this [baptismal] covenant in the eyes of the Lord that he has provided for us a means and a way to renew it often. The ordinance whereby we renew this covenant is the ordinance of the sacrament.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 It\u2019s an observation that we make covenants similar to the ones we make at baptism each time we partake of the sacrament, thus making them new again (re-newing) and it has become common to discuss the sacrament in these terms.\u00a0 More recently, however, Elder Neil L. Anderson noted that despite common use of the phrase when discussing the sacrament, \u201cthe title \u2018renewing our baptismal covenants\u2019 is not found in the scriptures \u2026 and it can\u2019t be the keynote of what we say about the sacrament.\u201d [13]<\/a> \u00a0Elder David A. Bednar added further differentiation between baptism and the sacrament by teaching that while baptism provides an \u201cinitial cleansing of our soul from sin,\u201d the sacrament does not.\u00a0 Both ordinances do, however, offer us the promise of having the Spirit of the Lord with us if we keep our covenants, which is the actual sanctifying force that cleanses us from sin.[14]<\/a>\u00a0 Thus, language of renewing covenants should probably be understood in terms of recommitting ourselves to the same covenants anew again each time we participate in the sacrament rather than in terms of renewing a subscription.<\/p>\n

    So, how do we make sense of the insistence that we take the sacrament frequently on the one hand and the Church\u2019s guidance that \u201cmembers can be comforted by studying the sacrament prayers and recommitting to live the covenants members have made\u201d when they can\u2019t participate in the ordinance on the other?\u00a0 Historically, the frequency of participating in the Lord\u2019s Supper has varied between different Christian faiths and at different times in history.\u00a0 Generally, however, Protestant churches observe Communion monthly or quarterly while it is common in Catholic or Orthodox churches for lay members to participate only a few times each year (even though they are offered the opportunity more frequently).\u00a0 Early converts to the Church of Christ carried these (primarily Protestant) approaches with them from their previous faiths and participated in the sacrament less frequently than we do today.\u00a0 President Brigham Young began to encourage Latter-day Saints to partake of the sacrament each Sabbath day as early as 1845, but it wasn\u2019t common for them to actually do so until the end of the 19th<\/sup> century.[15]<\/a>\u00a0 This indicates to me that it isn\u2019t strictly necessary to participate on a weekly basis, even if that has been common practice.<\/p>\n

    Given the core reasons I listed above, however, that is not to say that there aren\u2019t reasons to partake of the sacrament when possible.\u00a0 President Joseph Fielding Smith taught that:<\/p>\n

    We have been called upon to commemorate this great event [the Atonement of Jesus Christ] and to keep it in mind constantly. For this purpose we are called together once each week to partake of these emblems, witnessing that we do remember our Lord, that we are willing to take upon us his name and that we will keep his commandments. This covenant we are called upon to renew\u00a0each week, and we cannot retain the Spirit of the Lord if we do not consistently comply with this commandment. If we love the Lord we will be present at these meetings in the spirit of worship and prayer, remembering the Lord and the covenant we are to renew each week through this sacrament as he has required it of us. [16]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    This is one of the strongest statements I can find on why we partake of the sacrament frequently.<\/p>\n

    Still, I think there are ways to reason out ways to understand our current situation from President Smith\u2019s statement.\u00a0 In his understanding, we need to partake of the sacrament because we: 1) Are commanded to commemorate and remember the Atonement of Jesus Christ, 2) Need to follow a commandment to repeatedly make the covenants of the sacrament in order to have the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit, and 3) Show our love for the Lord through worship and prayer while attending sacrament meetings.\u00a0 As for the first point, studying the sacrament prayers and recommitting to live the covenants members have made does fulfil the commandment to remember the Atonement of Jesus Christ, regardless of whether we partake of bread and water.\u00a0 For the third point, I believe that doing what we can to worship and remember the Lord at home when we\u2019re not in a position to attend sacrament meetings in person still demonstrates our love for and commitment to Him.<\/p>\n

    As for the second point, as members of the Church, we have already undergone baptism and confirmation and received the sacrament in the past, making the covenants that the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit are contingent upon.\u00a0 Certainly, meeting together to strengthen each other and recommit as a community to follow and obey Jesus Christ through the ordinance of the sacrament helps us to live in a way that maintains our connection with the Holy Spirit, and it fulfils the scriptural guidance that: \u201cIt is expedient that the church meet together often to partake of bread and wine in the remembrance of the Lord Jesus,\u201d[17]<\/a> but it doesn\u2019t seem like it is strictly necessary to do so in order to live a life that is in communion with the Spirit.\u00a0 I suspect how one approaches this point relies, however, a great deal on whether the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is viewed as a channel of grace that allows access to the Holy Spirit through the ritual itself or whether we gain access to the Holy Spirit through observing the covenants we make during the ritual.\u00a0 If it is the ritual itself that is the channel of grace, then we really do need to partake of the bread and water on a regular basis to have the Spirit in our lives.\u00a0 If it is observing the covenant that we make during the ritual, then as long as we are still following the agreements we make, we can still always have his Spirit to be with us.\u00a0 President Brigham Young taught that: \u201cIf bread and wine are blessed, dedicated, and sanctified, through the sincerity and faith of the people of God, then the Spirit of the Lord, through the promise<\/em>, rests upon the individuals who thus keep His commandments<\/em>, and are diligent in obeying the ordinances.\u201d[18]<\/a>\u00a0 Elder David A. Bednar taught that: “The act of partaking of the sacrament, in and of itself, does not remit sins. But as we prepare conscientiously and participate in this holy ordinance with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then the promise is that we may always\u00a0have the Spirit of the Lord to be with us.\u201d[19]<\/a>\u00a0 If the sacrament doesn’t offer a remission of sins in and of itself, as Elder Bednar indicates, and it is through the promise of the covenant and through keeping the Lord’s commandments that the Spirit of the Lord rests upon individuals, as President Young indicates, then I believe there is a fairly strong case that the ordinance is not the channel of grace in and of itself, but the covenants made during the ordinance are the channel of grace–i.e., so long as we live our lives in a way that we remember Christ, take his name upon us, and keep his commandments we can have the Spirit’s presence in our lives.<\/p>\n

    Thus, I think we can argue that while regular opportunities to gather as a community to partake of the sacrament to remember Jesus Christ and strengthen each other through observing our mutual covenants with God does help us stay in tune with the Spirit (and, ultimately, receive exaltation), we can say that weekly observance of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is not strictly necessary to achieve that goal, particularly in circumstances where our opportunities to gather are limited by circumstances like the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0 This is, perhaps, not much of a comfort to those who wish to participate in the sacrament but do not have the opportunity to do so at this time, but it does at least indicate that it is still possible to observe much of the spirit of the sacrament in difficult times like the ones we live in today.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Further Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n