What is this?

This is a resource for families, singles, and couples – for young and for old. We hope that this resource will help you grow as disciples together by facilitating some discussion around the topic of the sermon. We know that it is not ideal that we are not able to have fellowship time after our service. But we recognize that this is also an opportunity to discuss some elements of the service without the typical distractions that we may have. The questions will not be perfect, but give an outline of possible questions to consider. If you have the chance to read this over ahead of time I want you to ask yourself: “how would you ask these questions differently?”

A note for families

Today I want to give an opportunity to talk about the Lord’s Supper with your families. It is okay if you do not have all the answers around the Lord’s Supper – part of its joy is that it points us towards a great mystery. However, if you want to deepen your knowledge on the Lord’s Supper before Sunday (or before discussing this with your family). You can find more information in a separate document. If you don’t have a family with you – try some of the questions out yourself or with others with you. Just try not to look at some of the suggested answers.

Preliminary Questions Guiding us to the Lord’s Supper

• What is so important about food and drink?
• When you are a baby or a child, who gives you food and drink?
• So what is so important about the food and drink God gives us?
• Where does God give it to us? Why does God give it to us?
• We best remember by celebrating: What are we remembering/celebrating?

What is it about the symbols of bread and wine? What do they remind you of?

• Bread: Bread is for the journey. It nourishes us and helps us to grow.
• Juice/wine: Juice/wine is the color of blood, which suggests both death and life. Families bring out wine for celebrations and for hundreds of years the church has brought wine to this to remember that it too is a celebration!

How are the meanings of the Passover and the Lord’s Supper the same?

• Death Passed Over: Death ‘passed over’ God’s people, marked as God’s own. Death ‘passes over us,’ God’s people marked as God’s own in Jesus Christ, in baptism.
• Sin Passes Us Over: With Moses, God’s people ‘pass over’ from bondage to freedom, from death to life! In Jesus Christ, we ‘pass over’ from sin’s bandage to freedom, from death to new life! …This is what the family celebrates! There is joy in knowing our salvation and the feast to come when God gathers us at the Table.

Most of the questions have come from: https://www.crcna.org/FaithFormation/toolkits/welcoming-children-lords-supper-toolkit/wondering-about-sacraments-children
If you want more information about the Lord’s Supper – please contact Pastor Steve.

From Our World Belongs to God, paragraphs 37 and 38.

In discussing who we are as the people of God, our contemporary testimony quickly moves to the sacraments. As God’s New People we are called into all sorts of patterns of life that remind us of who he is, what he has done for us, and how we are changed because of it.

Below each paragraph there are passages of scripture that you are invited to explore to see where scripture teaches us these things.

37. God meets us in the sacraments,
communicating grace to us
by means of water, bread, and wine.
In baptism,
whether of the newly born
or newly converted,
God reminds and assures us
of our union with Christ in covenant love,
the washing away of our sin,
and the gift of the Holy Spirit—
expecting our love and trust in return.

Matthew 3:13-17, with Matthew 28:19, establishes baptism as a gospel sacrament. That baptism is for children as well as adults and is accompanied by the gift of the Spirit is indicated in Acts 2:38-39.
Titus 3:5 calls baptism a washing away of sins.
Romans 6:1-11 and Galatians 3:27 show how it forms us as members of Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:1-10 indicates that baptism in itself is not a guarantee of salvation.

38. In the Lord’s Supper,
Christ offers his own crucified body and shed blood
to his people,
assuring them a share
in his death and resurrection.
By the Holy Spirit, he feeds us
with his resurrection life
and binds us to each other
as we share one loaf and cup.
We receive this food gladly,
believing, as we eat,
that Jesus is our life-giving food and drink
and that he will come again
to call us to the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Matthew 26:17-29 and parallels establish the Lord’s Supper as a gospel sacrament.
On the meaning of the Lord’s Supper, see 1 Corinthians 5:7-8; 8:1-13; 10:14-21; and 11:23-26. See also Jesus’ strong words on his presence in the Lord’s Supper in John 6:48-58.

CRC’s Position on the Lord’s Supper from CRCNA website:

Position:  Along with baptism, the Lord’s Supper (holy communion) is a sacrament in the CRC. “All baptized members who come with age- and ability-appropriate faith in Jesus Christ are welcome to the Lord’s Supper” (Church Order, Article 59-a), to receive the nourishment and refreshment of the bread and cup of the Lord “as sure signs” in remembrance of Christ’s body and blood poured out for us in his once-for-all sacrifice on the cross Heidelberg Catechism (H, Q. and A. 75-82).

Synod 1995 adopted a report regarding children at the Lord’s Supper (see www.crcna.org/SynodResources). Synod also appointed a study committee on faith formation in 2007 to report findings and make recommendations on Lord’s Supper participation and public profession of faith at subsequent synods. Synod 2011 adopted the Faith Formation Committee’s report and recommendations providing guidelines for “the participation of baptized children at the Lord’s Supper and the practice of public profession of faith for use in the churches” (Acts of Synod 2011, p. 831).

Synod 2006 adopted a report by the CRC Interchurch Relations Committee on the Lord’s Supper and the Roman Catholic Mass (see www.crcna.org/SynodResources), stating that the closing three paragraphs of Q. and A. 80 of the Heidelberg Catechism “do not accurately reflect the official teaching and practice of today’s Roman Catholic Church and are no longer confessionally binding on members of the CRC.”

FaithFormation Toolkit – Welcoming Children to the Lord’s Supper
https://www.crcna.org/FaithFormation/toolkits/welcoming-children-lords-supper-toolkit/wondering-about-sacraments-children