Although the brotherhood remains committed to keeping the New Testament
pattern of worship, through the years, we have seen slight changes in how we
proceed. If something is a matter of preference and we agree there is a
better way, we make a change. We have been where they sing three songs and
then read; other places they start with four. Years ago we met a sister who
said, “Somebody is going to have to pay for scattering all these songs here
and there in the worship.” The congregation had a song after reading and
another after the teaching. In another place a brother said, “We don’t have
Scripture for a closing song.” He was reminded, “The Bible says in the
upper room, after Jesus had set up the Lord’s supper with the disciples,
‘when they had sung an hymn, they went out...’”
In one place a brother became very concerned over someone laying his Bible
on the table when he offered thanks for the Communion. Later that brother
told us, “Nothing ought to be on the table but the bread and the cup.” He
was reminded that the Lord’s supper was instituted during the Passover
supper and many vessels were on that table. He said, “Oh, I guess I was
thinking about it wrong.” Brethren, we need to humbly consider what others
point out to us. Furthermore, brethren need to be careful how they handle
matters that arise. Do not disrupt the worship of God’s people to debate
things!
“ALWAYS DO IT THIS WAY”
Once in a while, a brother will get it in his head that because we have
proceeded in a particular way we must continue to do it this way. Through
the years in some places the congregation stood to offer thanks for the
Lord’s supper, while other congregations did not. Years ago, in some places
nearly the whole congregation knelt to pray. Now, you see very few kneel.
In some places the worshippers went up to the front and laid their
contribution on the table. One man demanded that it must be done that way
because the Bible says to lay it “by Him” and referred to 1 Corinthians
16:1,2. We need to be careful that we don’t turn our preferences into rules
that we demand others obey.
The Pharisees turned their traditions, such as washing one’s hands before
eating, into rules that they forced others to obey. They made their own
traditions more important than the commandments of God. Jesus told them
that they had even “made the commandment of God of none effect” by their
traditions, and then applied the words of Isaiah to them saying, “This
people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their
lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8,9).
“HOME CONGREGATION”
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, at Siskiyou Street in Los Angeles, the
worship services were never prearranged. No one was appointed to lead a
song or word a prayer or wait on the Lord’s table. Brethren were called on
during the course of the services. On Lord’s day the speaking was done by
faithful brethren who were willing to participate. Sometimes the brethren
would be seen at the back of the building discussing the teaching before the
worship began. One brother would “take the lead” and call out the name of
another to take part in the services and so on. Ordinarily, the members of
the church would know the passage of Scriptures which would be taught the
next Lord’s day morning. This would afford them opportunity to study before
hand to gain more from the teaching.
Some brethren would feel the need to speak, others didn’t, but the faithful
men from service to service handled the teaching. Two or more brethren
always taught in the worship on Lord’s day morning unless a meeting was in
progress. Evidently, someone came along and convinced them that it might be
better to make arrangements ahead of time and they began to do that. If a
group today does not prearranged their services, we have no quarrel with
them, even though we prefer the service be arranged ahead of time.
“BREAD BREAKERS”
Before moving to L.A., our family worshiped where they had “a special
breaking” of the bread before the congregation partook. Those who saw it
this way read that when Jesus took the bread and, “had given thanks, he
brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you:
this do in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24). They reasoned, in
order to make it His “broken body,” Jesus must have broken the loaf in two.
Our family studied the apostle Paul’s account, comparing it with the other
accounts of the Lord’s supper, and concluded that the breaking which Jesus
did must have been for His partaking. He said to the disciples, “this do”–
they were to do what He had done. If Jesus just “broke”, then they must
simply break. If He did not eat, then the disciples were not to eat. But
they were told to “take eat” as well as “this do,” therefore, His breaking
must have been to eat. As the family studied, they saw that there was no
special act to symbolize the “shedding” of Jesus blood to make the fruit of
the vine His “shed blood.” They then realized that they had been doing
something different from the pattern with a “special breaking” so they made
a change. Each communicant breaks and partakes. This was not a matter of
preference!
PURCHASED BREAD
During our early days at Siskiyou Street the congregation used a matzo loaf
for the communion bread. Matzo bread is unleavened bread used in the modern
Jewish Passover Supper. You may not be familiar with it but it is on
grocery shelves even today. We’re not sure who came along and convinced the
brethren to do differently, but someone in the congregation began to make an
unleavened loaf at home to take to worship each Lord’s day. Was it wrong to
purchase proper bread for the Communion? Of course not! Brethren, we
cannot find where it is wrong to buy it, so we must be very careful not to
bind upon others our opinion in such matters. If we can buy grape juice to
use in the Communion it would certainly be all right to buy the bread, but
we prefer that someone in the congregation bake it.
Through the centuries, the Roman Catholics made many changes to the teaching
found in the New Testament. They invented various new doctrines, like
auricular confession – whispering of your sin into a priests ear causes it
to be automatically forgiven; like penance – the infliction of various
punishments on the those who confess sins; like indulgences – the priest,
for a price or act of penance, would forgive a sin before it is committed.
(Incidently, this was invented as a money making scheme to raise funds to
finish the Basilica in Rome). The Roman Catholics invented still another
doctrine called Transubstantiation. In all of these doctrines and practices
the priest is elevated to a position to exercise power over the masses.
TRANSUBSTANTIATION
In Transubstantiation it is believed that when the priest pronounces the
appropriate prayer over the bread in worship it becomes the literal body of
Jesus. The record tells us that when Jesus met with His disciples He took a
loaf, offered thanks, gave it to His disciples and said, “Take, eat: this is
my body, which is broken for you...” They saw Him before their eyes, they
heard His voice, they felt His touch as He had washed their feet. Were the
disciples in the upper room to believe that Jesus was saying that the bread
that He took and gave to them was His actual, literal body or did He mean
for them to understand that it was to represent His body? Honest people
will agree that the loaf which Jesus took and gave to them was to represent
His body.
We recall the story told us by our family members about a girl we will call
Lupe. She must have been a devout Roman Catholic. Lupe worked as a maid at
a hotel in El Paso in the early 1900's. She probably attended mass often and
believed all the doctrines the Catholics taught. Her job was to clean the
guests’ hotel rooms and make their beds. While going about her work in a
certain priest’s room curiosity got the better of Lupe as she spied a small
box on the chest of drawers. She decided to peek inside and attempting to
open the lid she slipped and the contents of the box fell out. Soon the
priest returned to his room finding poor Lupe totally distraught because she
had dropped “The Host”. You see, Lupe superstitiously believed she had
caused the literal body of Christ to fall into the chamber pot by the bed.
Well, the priest “absolved Lupe of her sin” and consoled the miserable girl
by performing some ritual over what they both believed was the literal flesh
of Jesus. Oh, how sad!
We know that the only time a loaf of unleavened bread is the Lord’s body, is
when it is sanctified, that is, placed in the worship for the purpose of
representing the Lord’s body and the prayer of our thanks and for the Lord’s
blessing is asked. Then and only then is it the Lord’s body to the
Christians in that worship. It is literal bread before it is placed there;
it is literal bread during the time it is there; it is literal bread after
the prayer; it is literal bread when eaten by the members of the Church, but
with a spiritual meaning – to those who commune it is the Lord’s body.
After the worship is it something other than literal bread? No! Should
Christians, after the worship, continue to see what is left of the loaf as
the Lord’s body? No! Is there any direction given in the New Testament on
how to dispose of it? No! One person said that it ought to be burned, but
the New Testament doesn’t teach that. We simply say, it is our opinion that
we need to be respectful when disposing of it.
ARE YOU LUPE?
If you think that the loaf is a sacred object before the worship or after
the worship, are you not as superstitious as Lupe? You have no Scripture
for that idea and you need to abandon it. Suppose a Christian baked several
loaves of unleavened bread, one to be used in the worship and the others to
be eaten at home. Would that be wrong? Why, no! As you know, the people
in some cultures eat unleavened bread every day. Although you offer thanks
for your food at home, even if it includes unleavened bread you are not
worshiping! We must present our bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable
unto God, living daily for the Lord as well as carrying out the ordinances
of worship. All these elements are necessary for the Christian to please
God. If you want to set aside a day for personal meditation, prayer, and
fasting keep it to yourself (Romans 14:5,6). Others should leave you alone.
Jesus taught, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them.” All our prayers, both public and
private, are to be said with childlike faith in the Father. James also
taught us to, “Ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like
a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed” (James 1:6). Again he
said, “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray? Is any merry? let him sing
psalms” (5:13). What Christian hasn’t been so happy and thankful that
they’ve bursted into song? Who hasn’t been so anxious or distraught that
they’ve cast themselves on the bed or on the ground and poured out their
heart to God. These are for every righteous man and woman private
occasions.
SINGING AT SUPPER
Your giving of thanks for your food is a private prayer. Once in a
preacher’s home, while eating a common meal, the brother said, “Let’s sing;
we like to sing at the table.” He struck up a song and we all sang, and
then continued to eat. We had already prayed for the food and then we were
singing. It seems like someone might have already talked about a Bible
subject. Did it turn into a worship service? Why, no! We were still
eating a common meal. If all of a sudden we were engaged in worship, our
eating food would have to stop, the women would have to be silent and men
only would be permitted to speak one by one (1 Corinthians 14).
Was it wrong to pray at that meal? Of course not. Faithful Christians pray
at meals. Was it wrong to talk about the Scriptures while eating a common
meal? You know it wasn’t! Was it wrong to sing a gospel song during the
meal? Why, no! We can’t recall doing it ever again but it was not wrong.
In the New Testament sense of the word, does a Christian with a merry heart
begin to “worship” if they sing while taking a shower? No! Neither does
any Christian “worship” by meditating on the word of God day and night.
A WOMAN’S ROLE
Remember the inspired apostle drew a line of distinction between what a
woman is permitted to do at home and prohibited from doing in the worship
services. She cannot speak in public worship, but she may speak about the
word of God in private. That is a clear distinction. Aquila and Priscilla
were well aware of this line of distinction between public worship and the
private instruction which they felt compelled to give to the preacher,
Apollos. (Please read Acts 19:24-26). Women are not idle observers at
worship but are worshiping God, too. Although they cannot speak, they are
participants even in the teaching and learning as listeners. One might say
they are “ears” in the assembly who later can speak (1 Corinthians 12:16).
How often have you seen denominational people pray loudly in restaurants, in
hospital rooms, and on the street. Our private prayers should not be
displayed for men to see. Jesus said, “And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father
which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee
openly” (Matthew 6:5,6).
CONCLUSION
Just as with unleavened bread, grape juice is just grape juice until it is
put to use in our worship, then it is to the Christian the Lord’s blood.
What is left is grape juice; it has not been transformed into the actual
blood of Christ. Honesty demands that we recognize that the worship is a
different setting from our everyday activities. We may eat unleavened bread
and drink fruit of the vine every day and we are not worshiping. We may
pray with the proper spirit in our “closet” morning, noon and night but this
does not constitute worship. Only when the church assembles to worship God
does ordinary unleavened bread and grape juice take on the spiritual meaning
of worship.
Worship does not occur by accident to a child of God. Worship is not
something that a Christian inadvertently does. It is an occasion in which
acts are performed, ordinances are observed to honor the Father. The heart
of the worshiper must choose to do it and be fully involved in it. May we
all strive to please God daily and in our private prayers and songs
reverentially say with David, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous
sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I
shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth,
and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my
strength, and my redeemer” (Psalms 19:13,14).
