7.The Significance of the Memorial Meeting
Our Sunday service is properly a memorial. It is
not a sacrifice, as the “Catholic” church insists; neither is it a
“sacrament”, that is, an act which mechanically appropriates grace
to the doer. It is simply a memorial, a means of remembrance:
“This do, as oft as ye drink it, in
remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25).
If we are to live up to the New Testament
pattern, we must be a family gathered around a table, partaking of a meal and in
so doing remembering an absent member. It is an uncomplicated act, an act of
loving companionship, of warmth and familiarity, not of pomp and
ceremony.
We do not break bread and drink wine in order to
assert any superiority over outsiders. We do not break bread and drink wine as a
substitute for the rigorous discipline of service to God in its many features,
to which the Truth calls us. Neither do we break bread and drink wine to
encourage personal feelings of self-righteousness or complacency. (Especially on
this last we must beware, because frequent repetition, instead of fostering
memory, can in fact encourage forgetfulness of the true
principles.)
But, purely and simply, we partake of these
emblems in order to remember: first, God’s love; second, Christ’s
sacrifice; and third, our duty.
There are two absolutely essential aspects of
worship: baptism and the memorial supper. Baptism is the process by which the
believer is “born” into his new “family”. And the
Breaking of Bread is the perpetuation of that “family life” begun at
baptism, by the repeated affirmation of the believer’s membership in the
marvellous “family of God”!
Why are there two different emblems? The obvious
answer is that the bread represents Christ’s body and the wine his blood.
But that answer seems somewhat inadequate since either one alone might convey,
almost as well as both together, the sense of sacrificial death. Is there some
further distinction?
Perhaps it is this: the bread represents the
strength of our Lord’s life — a life totally dedicated to the will
of the Father. The wine more aptly represents his death — the blood
willingly poured out as a climax to his life’s work.
The bread was broken and passed to each disciple.
Each disciple drank a portion from the cup. But we must not suppose that this
parcelling out of the emblems implies, in any sense, that Christ can be divided
among us, or that we in any sense partake of only a portion of the blessings
involved. All the blessing belongs to every individual among us. The bread must
be broken in order that many can share it — there just is no other way
to accomplish the practical object of providing for each brother and sister to
eat of it. But the body, which the bread represents — Christ’s
spiritual, multitudinous body — cannot be broken; it is one! “For we
being many are one bread, and one body” (1 Cor. 10:17). And the body is
“knit together” in love with the Head, which is Christ himself (Col.
2:2,19).
The Component Parts
It may be profitable to consider, item by item,
the component parts of the Memorial Meeting, as to the significance of
each:
1. First of all, in keeping with Hab. 2:20, we
enter the meeting room and take our seats, as much as possible in a spirit of
quietness and meditation. Now is the time for serious thought and preparation
and self-examination. Despite the ordinariness of the surroundings, if that is
the case, we are nevertheless coming into the very presence of God! As for being
late, when it is avoidable: This is not just wrong because it has the potential
of disturbing our brothers and sisters, but also (and especially) because it is
an appointment with God. Is this important? Consider the parable of the virgins
in Matt. 25: the foolish virgins, not being prepared ahead of time, came late to
the marriage feast, to find the door shut against them!
2. General appearance and dress: In this, as in
many areas of our life in the Truth, no hard-and-fast rules can (or should) be
imposed. But surely we can be governed by intelligence and common sense. How
would we dress for a “special occasion” such as meeting some
important human dignitary? And how would we behave at such a meeting? Let us
answer such questions for ourselves, and then realize, with wonder and awe, that
we are going on Sunday morning to “meet” the Lord of the Universe
and His Son!
3. The presiding brother: Presiding is perhaps
the most important duty of all, more important to the memorial meeting than even
exhorting. The presiding brother’s is the first voice to be heard; it is
his duty to set and maintain the tone of the meeting; and by his presence,
attitude, and words to give unity and continuity to the whole service. His duty
is also to introduce the central feature of the whole worship service, the
partaking of the emblems. This should require preparation (and prayer!) at home,
even before coming to the meeting. Our minds are drawn to that first Memorial
Meeting, in the upper room in Jerusalem, where Jesus was the first presiding
brother, conveying an all-pervasive calm and confidence to his brethren, by
which he demonstrated to them God’s presence and God’s
love.
4. Music and singing: This can become something
of an ordeal in small meetings, when those who play and those who sing may be
all too aware of their inadequacies. So it must be remembered that our hymns are
not important as a display of technical skill, but only for the spiritual
quality of the worship itself. It is entirely possible to sing (and play) in the
spirit which Jesus condemned:
“These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me” (Matt. 15:8).
In short, the words and their message must always
be the motivating principle in our hymns.
5. Reading of Scripture: The crucial point to
recognize here, as in every Bible reading, is that God is speaking to
us:
“This is what the Lord says:
‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house
you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all
these things, and so they came into being?’ declares the Lord. ‘This
is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my
word’” (Isa. 66:1,2).
Just as with prayers, there should be no
unnecessary movements, no interruptions, and no noise. Whether we speak to God
(in prayers and hymns) or God speaks to us (in Bible readings), we are dealing
with divine communications!
6. Collection: Although we were not redeemed by
corruptible things such as silver and gold, we cannot escape from their use in
the service of God. Indeed, there is something satisfying in the thought that
the world’s monies can be put to other-worldly uses. It is our privilege
to consecrate what we have of this world’s goods to the service of the
Giver of all things.
In our day there remains the need for money and
materials for the service of our God. There is the rent or purchase of a meeting
room or hall; there are the poor, the elderly, the children and young people to
whom we have special responsibility; the word must be preached, the meetings
advertised; there are the funds collected centrally for special causes and
special occasions.
How do we give? How much do we give? We should
give willingly and without grudging as though giving were, as indeed it is, a
service to Christ personally. How much? That depends upon the giver. There is a
twin gauge: our ability to give (our means and income) and our spirit (our
liberality or otherwise).
Some churches use tithes by which to bring in the
money they need: others employ businessmen with a flair for touching
people’s hearts and pockets and find their annual income increased by many
thousands of dollars. We do none of these things and, perhaps, rightly so. But
our own system of giving should not be an excuse for minimum contributions. The
left hand may not know what the right hand is doing, but the Lord knows
nevertheless.
7. Prayers: Public prayers should be relevant
(i.e., related to the object at hand, whether an opening prayer, prayer on
behalf of others, thanks for bread or wine, etc.) and not repetitious. Prayers
should be fresh and spontaneous, if possible; in common, everyday language
— not stilted, artificial “Sunday only” speech. When all else
fails, the pattern of Jesus in what is commonly called “The Lord’s
Prayer” will surely set us on the right road again.
8. The exhortation: The exhortation is not
primarily a Bible study talk — so it should not be particularly technical
or detailed. Neither is it the best place to teach, or re-teach, the first
principles of our faith. Instead, it is primarily an introduction to the emblems
of bread and wine, and therefore an aid to remembrance and self-examination. An
exhortation should emphasize God’s holiness and purity and love; and the
awesome responsibility of our calling to serve Him. It should not discourage,
but rather encourage and comfort (which is the primary meaning of the Greek word
translated “exhort”). It should, above all else, show us Christ.
Wherever our thoughts and words take us as we contemplate God’s message,
there we will find Christ: the central character in the Bible. If the
exhortation has done its work, we will leave the Memorial Meeting feeling and
acting as though we have been changed for the better:
“When they saw the courage of Peter and
John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished
and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts
4:13).
9. The memorials themselves have been
sufficiently discussed above, as to their importance and significance. Let it be
merely added that in “showing the death of Christ”, our service on
Sunday morning is in a sense a funeral. In attending a “funeral” we
are showing respect for the dead (in this case, one who was dead, but is now
alive, gloriously and eternally alive!), and for the occasion. And we are
recognizing, for ourselves as well, the solemnity of both life and death, and
how, in our daily lives, we can come in contact with eternal things. “Ask
not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” Surely, if we grasp this
fact, we need not worry that we will forget to examine
ourselves.
10. Conclusion: After a final hymn and prayer, a
brief musical interlude closes the meeting. This is not a convenient background
to cover the noise of shuffling feet and whispers about lunch plans. Rather, it
is a final quiet moment to gather together the threads of thoughts from the
worship, and to prepare to face the rest of the day and the week to follow
— being sure that Christ is going with us as we leave the place of
meeting.
Remember, our service can be beautiful and holy
even without the external trappings of an expensive building and a large
congregation. Christ on a mountain side, or in a secluded room, with no more
than a dozen friends, could lead the holiest of all services. And so it may
still be:
“For where two or three come together in
my name, there am I with them” (Matt. 18:20).
