Word, Table, and Bath

Mainly Table

I have to be completely honest, as a member of the Disciples of Christ Church (DOC) I never really thought about liturgical theology.  Maybe that’s because of the simplicity of our worship service.  Another possibility may be that since we as a denomination are about as young as this country is (170 + years old) that we haven’t had enough time to mature in our theological discourse, or it may be that it has to do with the fact that as Disciple’s we are a community of believers that have a hard time finding consensus on anything. 

There are plenty of jokes that Disciples have and most of them revolve around our open-mindedness on most things theological.  One joke goes; A Baptist and a Disciple of Christ were standing before the pearly gates.  Jesus himself met them: "I have one question that you must answer: Who do you say that I am?" The Baptist answered, "The Bible says . . ." Jesus interrupted, "I didn't ask about the Bible, I asked you!  You cannot enter at this time!"  The DOC then said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!" Jesus said, "Yes, that is correct!  The DOC went on to continue, “But on the other hand.”   Another joke goes; A new couple had attended a Disciple’s of Christ worship service for the first time.  After the service the couple met with the pastor and asked her if the church believed in the Trinity and the pastor responded, “Well, of course we do.”  Then after hesitating for a moment she said, “Well, that depends.”

“That depends,” is a big punch line in most of our jokes about ourselves, but it’s true.  However, there are three things liturgical in nature that we do agree on in the DOC church and that is the Word, the Table, and the Bath.  However, central to our liturgical thought is the Lord’s Supper.

I loved what Nicholas Cabasilas wrote, “As far as the ceremonies performed in the [E]ucharist liturgy are concerned, they all have some connection with the scheme of the work of redemption” (Johnson 53).  As a Lutheran (ELCA) Youth Minister for seven years I found myself utterly confused by Martin Luther’s disdain for the Roman canon of the Mass, in which he wrote that, “they go ahead and every day offer him up more than a hundred thousand times throughout the world” (Johnson 56).  I can’t think of a more beautiful thing than the Eucharist being played out over and over throughout the world, even if my theology of the Lord’s Supper may not be in keeping with Catholic dogma, the idea of the church universal celebrating the Lord’s Supper as often as possible connects us with the Christ event in its entirety and joins us to “God’s revelation in the saving action of his incarnate Son and the redemption and healing of the church” (Johnson 61).

For Disciple’s, the Lord’s Supper is central to our liturgy.  It is by which we surround everything else, the Word, Baptism, and the communion of believers as friends and family in Christ.  There is an elder in our church who often says, “I would go hungry if I weren’t a Disciple of Christ, for it feeds me, sustains me until I am drawn back week after week to be fed by Christ’s redemptive power.  Without the Lord’s Supper I would be weak, I would be less human, I would be less forgiving, I would be less of a man.”