For the next who-knows-how-long, churches in many parts of the world will be unable to gather. So pastors like me are lovingly scrambling for solutions. There\u2019s no playbook for this. When the church can\u2019t gather physically, what can we do to encourage and nourish God\u2019s people?<\/p>\n
Most evangelical churches are livestreaming something resembling their Sunday service<\/a>. Although one could raise questions about the wisdom of this practice, I don\u2019t think anything in Scripture prohibits it. But what about the Lord\u2019s Supper? Can this element of the church\u2019s gathered worship be performed remotely? I answer no.<\/p>\n Let me underscore that my goal in this piece is not to slap any pastors\u2019 wrists, but simply to look to Scripture for guidance. When we have few practical precedents to appeal to, it\u2019s even more important to let God\u2019s all-sufficient Word direct our steps.<\/p>\n The Lord\u2019s Supper can\u2019t be carried out when the church is scattered. That\u2019s because the physical act of gathering is essential, not incidental, to the ordinance. In 1 Corinthians 11<\/a>, Paul refers five times to the fact that they celebrate the Lord\u2019s Supper when they all come together as a church<\/em>, as one assembly meeting in one place at one time (e.g., \u201cFor, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you,\u201d 1 Cor. 11:18<\/a>; cf. vv. 17, 20, 33, 34).<\/p>\n But is this just what they happened to do, or what we must do? Is the church\u2019s physical presence with each other essential to the ordinance? Paul would say yes. Consider 1 Corinthians 10:17<\/a>: \u201cBecause there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.\u201d The Lord\u2019s Supper enacts the church\u2019s unity. It consummates the church\u2019s oneness. It gathers up the many who partake of the same elements together, in the same place, and makes them one. (So if baptism binds the one to the many, the Lord\u2019s Supper makes the many one.) So to make the Lord\u2019s Supper into something other than a meal of the whole church, sitting down together in the same room, is to make it something other than the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/p>\n So, it\u2019s not the case that a virtually mediated, physically dispersed Lord\u2019s Supper is less than optimal: it\u2019s simply not the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/p>\n All suffering involves loss; every loss is a form of suffering. Right now, amid much other loss and suffering, Christians around the world are suffering the loss of weekly, face-to-face fellowship with one another. Compassion prompts us to mitigate that loss however we can. But we can\u2019t erase it. And so we should learn what God would teach us through the temporary loss of these embodied, tangible, necessarily face-to-face ordinances, especially the Lord\u2019s Supper. The house of feasting\u2014together, on Christ, in his Supper\u2014is closed for now. What will you learn in this providentially ordered visit to the house of mourning (Eccles. 7:2, 4<\/a>)?<\/p>\n The Lord\u2019s Supper itself is meant not only to satisfy our hearts with Christ\u2019s goodness, but also to stoke a desire for when we will see his face: \u201cI tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father\u2019s kingdom\u201d (Matt. 26:29<\/a>).<\/p>\n Let the absence of this meal make you hunger even more for that future meal.<\/p>\n