R. We have communion every Sunday (in fact, almost every time we meet) because we need it.
If you look back in your Small Catechism, you’ll see that Martin Luther explains what Communion is and does. In this meal of bread and wine, Jesus comes to us and brings forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Luther once said that he would take communion hourly if he could because he needed what it offered; forgiveness of sins, life, salvation. Because it was the presence of Jesus Christ in a very real way.
We commune every Sunday because from the beginning the gathering around the Meal was an essential part of what the Christian church did. Martin Luther and the reformers reaffirmed this in the Confessions when they stated that their communities celebrated communion every Sunday and festival. This practice was also affirmed in the 1997 ELCA document, The Use of the Means of Grace.
We commune every Sunday because this is how we as Christians who happen to be Lutheran define ourselves as church. In Article VII of the Augsburg Confession it states that the Christian church is “the assembly of believers among whom the gospel is purely preached and the holy sacraments are administered according to the gospel.” We are church precisely because we gather around Word and Sacrament.
I have heard a concern among some that communion will lose its “specialness” if we do it too frequently. The question here lies in whether what makes it special is how I feel about it or in what God promises is happening there. We trust not in our own feelings, but in the command and promise of Jesus. Jesus commanded, “Do this”. So, we do it, every week. Jesus promises, “This is my body, this is my blood”. So, we trust that what Jesus promises is true, and he is present in, with, and under the bread and wine.
Now, not every service need be a communion service, but for all the reasons stated above, that should be the default when we gather.
Let me know if you have further questions by contacting me.
God’s Blessings,
Pastor Brian
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