I was reading the Exodus story in the past couple days, and was struck by a few things that I want to share here.

The story of the deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh is a type for the deliverance of the Church from sin and death.  God comes to redeem His people, his chosen ones, and to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey.  But as we read Exodus, we find that God early on gives a specific purpose for Israel to leave Egypt.

Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to to the LORD our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”

~Exodus 5:1-3

There are a couple times before Israel’s final deliverance that Moses and Aaron make this less drastic request of Pharaoh.  And of course, as God had told Moses He would, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart against this request.  But I want to point out that there is a particular purpose in the request itself.  YHWH tells Pharaoh to let Israel go in order that they might hold a feast to Him.

Now, as we continue reading through the Pentateuch we find that a feast has a specific purpose.  It is not just a grand ol’ time where the people of God gorge themselves and get drunk like the pagans at their feasts.  Rather, it is a solemn occasion of remembrance.  Yes, the feasts are joyous celebrations, but they are held for one purpose: worship of the One True God.  So essentially, God is telling Pharaoh to let Israel go out into the wilderness to worship, and the means by which they are to worship is the feast.

When Moses restates YHWH’s demand, he makes this even clearer.  Now  rather than call it merely a feast, he says that they must go to sacrifice to YHWH.  The feast and the sacrifice are inextricably linked.

In the same way, God has redeemed us from the power of sin and death . . . for what?  To worship.  It is the expressly given purpose of our deliverance.  It is the chief goal of man’s existence, which we can only fulfill in Christ.  And when we gather as the Church to worship, we offer the sacrifice of our songs and praises, our acclamations, and of our very selves.  And we partake in a feast to the LORD our God, which Christ gave us at his last supper before going to the cross.

There is another interesting point we can glean from the various encounters with Pharaoh.  Initially, the demand is simply that he let God’s chosen people go out into the wilderness for three days to observe the feast and the sacrifice.  But we know, of course, that Pharaoh will not comply with these demands.  Not until his nation has been destroyed by plagues and he himself lies drowned in the Red Sea.  At that point the deliverance promised by God to Israel is complete.  It is not only for a short time that He delivers Israel to observe the feast, but it is a permanent deliverance.

Just so, when God commands us to worship, we cannot do so until He has ultimately delivered us.  There is no going to worship God and then returning to Egypt.  That is an impossibility.  Sin and death as principalities are cruel and unyielding masters that will not allow us to leave for a time, worship God and then return to them.  In order to engage in true worship, we must be freed in a permanent and ultimate way with no thought of going back to the place from which we came.

I think there is some significance to the three days journey into the wilderness even though the journey never happened as first asked of Pharaoh.  It is perhaps enough that Moses stated the three days as the original demand.  Israel must go into the wilderness for three days to make sacrifice.  Christ as the ultimate representative of Israel is the final fulfillment of this.  For on behalf of His chosen people, after instituting the feast of the Lord’s Supper He journeyed into the wilderness of death for three days, Himself being the final sacrifice to atone for sin.

There is one more thing I want to bring out from this part of the Exodus story.  Sometimes Pharaoh seems to be on the verge of complying with the demand of YHWH, but he always seems to put limits on his obedience.  At one point, Pharaoh even tells Moses that he will let the people go . . . but there’s a catch:

Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?” So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the LORD your God. But which ones are to go?” Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”

But he said to them, “The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. No! Go, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.

~Exodus 10:7-11

Pharaoh will allow Israel to go . . . but only the men.  It is as if Pharaoh says, “Isn’t that enough?  Your covenant heads may go and worship and sacrifice.  The children need not.”

No doubt some will point out that he simply wished to keep the children behind as a guarantee that his slaves would actually return.  And as far as Pharaoh is concerned this is probably true.  But I think there is more than just that going on here.  Moses will not concede these limits put on God’s demands, and he gives the reason.  The whole family unit must be allowed to go.  The men, the young and old, their sons and daughters must go . . . why?  For we must hold a feast to the LORD.

What does this tell us about how God regards the children of believers in relation to worship?  Simply this: they must be included in the worship of God’s people, and in the feast.  It is not right for the parents to worship and leave the children aside.  God wants even the little ones to observe the feast and the sacrifice.  The old and young, our sons and daughters alike must be taught to worship.  It is for this reason that He redeems the little ones as much as the men (the covenant heads) from sin and death, just as He would not accept that Israel’s little ones should be left in the hands of Pharaoh.

I had intended to first look at the Church Calendar from an Old Testament point of view, as well as from a Christian conception of time. I still want to do that, but first I think it might be good to take a look at the practical effects and uses of the Church Year.

Much has been said of the “pagan origins” of certain Christian holidays.  The one that springs immediately to mind is Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve), stemming from the Celtic Samhain.  Other holidays that receive objections of paganism are Christmas and even Easter (Pascha).  We look at these origins and wonder, why did the Church adopt pagan festival days for its Christian holidays?  One view is that this was an error of the Roman Church, which was synchretizing with the paganism of the world and corrupting itself.

I suggest there is another more Biblical way of looking at it—namely, that the Church Year is, in fact, the apostle Paul’s Mars Hill apologetic applied on an epic scale.  So let’s take a look at what exactly Paul does at Mars Hill in Acts 17.

“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

Acts 17:22-32

The two quotes that Paul uses here are from the Greek writers Epimenides and Aratus.  Is Paul endorsing a Greek conception of God?  Of course not.  Rather, he is taking their philosophical insights and religious practices (even their sacrifices!) and turning them on their head, wresting them from the paganism in which they were formed and re-purposing them to describe and illuminate the One True God.

In essence, Paul tells them that they have been sacrificing to God, whom they did not know . . . And here’s your chance to know Him! He takes their philosophers and poets and assumes that they had discovered a measure of truth . . . so, men of Athens, here is the rest of the story!

This is an apologetic method that most Christians today wouldn’t dream of using, for fear of appearing to endorse paganism.  But this was Paul’s method.  It was John’s method in the prologue to his Gospel account when he described the second person of the Godhead as the Logos.  And it was the method that the Church adopted throughout history as it formed its Calendar.

It started with Easter.  Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  So the Church began to celebrate the true Passover, leaving the shadow behind.  Incidentally, I don’t like to call it Easter, but Pascha.  Eostre is the goddess of the dawn.  She represents rebirth and fertility.  The Church displaces her and instead preaches Resurrection.

Christmas takes place around the winter solstice, when the pagan cults celebrated the returning of the sun.  It is the point in the year where darkness begins to recede and light begins to gain ground again.  The Church took this and said: You celebrate light overtaking darkness, but in ignorance.  Let us teach you about the True Light that shines in the darkness, Jesus Christ, who came into the world at its darkest hour.

At Samhain, the Celts celebrated the harvest.  On this day they believed that the spirits of the dead could pass between the world of the living and the underworld.  The Church fixed All Hallows Eve and All Saint’s Day at this point, in effect telling the pagan cults: You celebrate the dead in ignorance.  Let us teach you the truth that the souls of saints who have fallen asleep are with the Lord, and will rise on the last day.

Of course, the Church has a long way yet to go.  The application of this Mars Hill apologetic has not been perfect or entire in history.  Especially in this modern age, because so many Christians have relinquished their claim on these days, and on time itself, the Church has allowed paganism to creep back in.  We still have Easter bunnies and eggs, and yule, and ghosts, goblins and ghouls running free in our neighborhoods on Halloween.  There is still a great deal of work to do if we are to effectively displace paganism from the year and preach the Truth.

But the concept is sound and Biblical.  Wrest away from the devil what was never his to begin with, and turn it on its head in order to illuminate the Truth of Jesus Christ and his rule over time and space.

I think we should think of Eden more as Adam’s home base.  It was a place of worship.  And it was his headquarters, the place where he walked and talked with God, and where God gave him his marching orders.  And the first order was this: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”  From there, Adam was to go forth and take dominion.  Eden may have been his home, but the world was his workplace.

It is the same for us.  Each week we meet with God face to face in Word and Sacrament.  We dine with Christ and we receive his instruction.  But from there we are to go forth.  The world is the field of conquest and we are to take the field and establish dominion.

Before the fall, Eden was not all there was.  It was home base, but just as an army is not formed to remain at home base, man is not to remain cloistered in Eden, and we are not to sit idle in the Church.

Sanctus

In Isaiah the prophet is given a view into heaven.  He sees YHWH sitting on a throne above all the earth, his robe filling the temple.  Interesting that the temple is seen by Isaiah to be in heaven, not in Jerusalem.  Or is it both?  That might be an interesting idea to explore later.  It is quite possible that YHWH is in the Jerusalem temple here, as the seraphim are standing above Him.  In any case, his robe is in the Temple, and fills it.  The worship of the seraphim is responsive:

And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
~Isaiah 6:3

So YHWH is present in the Temple on earth while the angels glorify Him above.  Does this remind us of any scene of the New Covenant?  It should.  In Revelation the apostle John sees a similar sight.  Or is it identical?

At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne . . . And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” ~Rev. 4:2-8

From this we may see that the way God is to be worshiped, at least in heaven, has not changed from the time of Isaiah to Revelation.  It is no accident that the Jewish Synagogue worship included the Sanctus of Isaiah in their Sabbath liturgy.  They understood that the way God is worshiped in heaven is the way we are to worship him on earth.

It is also likely that while the Sanctus was sung in the synagogue, it originated in the service of the Temple before the time of Christ.  And it was not long before the Christian Church followed suit, incorporating the Sanctus into the liturgy of the Eucharist.

Hosanna and Benedictus

Closely related to the Sanctus in both Jewish and Christian liturgy is the Hosanna.  In Hebrew it means “save us!” and is drawn from Psalm 118.

Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
~Psalm 118:25-26

The people of Israel in the day of Christ understood that this was to be used to inaugurate the coming of the Messiah.  They sang this Psalm as Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey, waving palm branches and spreading their garments at his feet.
(Matt. 21:9,  John 12:13)

The Hosanna also has connections to the book of Revelation.  There is a part in the vision that alludes directly to the triumphal entry, with all people of all tribes of all nations standing before the Lord with palm branches, just as the people of Israel did on Palm Sunday.

There is one marked difference, the contrast of which actually highlights a thematic continuity in the narrative of redemption.  Since Christ has conquered and is victorious, the Church now may say Hosanna (save us, Lord), but also says “salvation belongs to the Lord our God,” to which the angels reply in unison, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Rev. 7:9-12)

Hallelujah (Alleluia)

Looking at the Hosanna will bring us directly to another parallel between Old Covenant and New.  The Psalms were written specifically to enhance and fill the worship of the Tabernacle and Temple.  What we find in the Psalms, if found in parallel in the New Testament, should tell us a great deal about how worship is to be done under the New Covenant.

One series of Psalms—the Hallel Psalms—is particularly striking.  Notice how often is repeated the call to “Praise YHWH” (Psalm 106:1, 111:1, 112:1, 113:1, 117:1, 135:1, 146:1, 147:1, 148:1, 149:1, 150:1).  A total of eleven Psalms begin with “Hallelujah!”  Clearly the call to Praise the Lord was a pervasive and integral part of the Old Covenant Temple worship.  By now we should not be surprised that we find the same liturgical call in the New Testament.

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.  As it is written,

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.”

And again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”

And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.”  ~Romans 15:8-11

Clearly, Hallelujah is not only for Israel.

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God . . .

Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”

And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”

And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.”

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

~Rev. 19:1, 3-6

Commentary

The people of God said and sang Hallelujah in God’s Temple under the Davidic litugical reforms, the Gentiles say Hallelujah as salvation comes from Israel and floods the nations.  The elders in heaven continually say Hallelujah before the throne of Christ.  They sing Hosanna—save us in the highest—as well as the acclamation celebrating that salvation, waving palms to welcome the king.  The seraphim say Sanctus—”Holy, Holy, Holy”—continually before the throne of God, glorifying the Three-in-One.

What’s more, in each description they do it very much in the same way throughout history, employing the same kind of language, with the same reverence and with the same manner of call and response between officiant(s) and congregation.  I find it hard to understand how Christians can read these descriptions of worship in both Old and New Covenant and then say we ought not to do it that way because it is not explicitly commanded.

But it is explicitly commanded!  The liturgy is the invasion of Heaven into Earth.  This is God’s glory breaking in upon our world and the worship of His person joining all the saints through out history in the past, present, and future, into a united divine service.  We cannot say “thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” and then refuse to do not only what is done in heaven now and forever shall be in the future, but was already done in Israel for a thousand years.  There is no justification for a hiatus from reverent and vibrant liturgical worship.

The elements of the liturgy in the New Testament book of Revelation are not merely something to look forward to in eternity.  It is a description of how worship is to be done now, deeply rooted in an awareness of how worship was done then.  And we haven’t even touched on how incense, posture, musical instruments, and food are used in both Old Covenant worship and in the New.

As Reformed and Evangelical Christians, it is no credit to us that we look at the rite of the Roman Mass or the Orthodox Divine Liturgy and say,
“Oh, that’s rote.  We don’t do that” and then discard not only the corruptions but also the Scriptural elements of liturgy as “mere traditions of men.”  Or, even if we think the tradition is itself okay, we askew Biblical worship in order to avoid guilt by association.  After all, we wouldn’t want to look Catholic . . .

Methinks as Protestants we sometimes protest the wrong things, and far too loudly.  As far as I can see, the Reformed Regulative Principle not only permits us to employ a rich and engaging liturgy to worship God.  Rather, it demands it.

Next time: Keeping Time

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
~Hebrews 1:1-2

God has given us many glimpses of Heaven throughout history. But two particular covenantal administrations stand out. First that of Moses, to whom YHWH gave the law and the priestly order, and second and greater than Moses, is Jesus Christ, the new Adam, our covenant head. In Christ God’s glory is made manifest. All we need to know about Heaven we learn from Christ.

So when Jesus says to pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,” he is telling us to pray for a reality of which he is the very revelation. In fact, the Book of Revelation is called “the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

But let’s take a step back. Clearly, as we read from Hebrews, the glory of Christ replaces and overwhelms the glory of Moses. But does that mean that the Old Mosaic administration is completely useless when it comes to teaching us about worship? What exactly is the glory of Moses to begin with?

Often when one turns to the Mosaic Tabernacle administration to glean insight into how Christian worship is to be done, he is told, “You cannot do that. That is the Old, and we are living in the New. The forms and rituals of the priestly administration are past, to be replaced with worship in spirit and truth.”

I don’t think such a dichotomy can be supported by Scripture. In fact, the closer we look at passages specifically regarding worship, the more we will see a continuity between administrations. The Old is surpassed and supplanted by the New . . . but rather than something completely different from what has passed before, the New is actually a fuller and more glorious realization of the Old!

When one replaces old clothing with new, one does not reinvent the way clothing is structured or the way it works. A new shirt will have sleeves and buttons and the rest, just like the old, even if the new is made of silk and the old is made of ragged coarse wool. Both bear the same design and serve the same purpose, that is to clothe the upper body. Illustrations break down at some point because they cannot capture the richness of the covenant. But this one serves to highlight a single point:

We should expect to see continuity between revelation of Heaven in the Old Testament and that of the New, as both of these have the same designer—God—and also serve the same purpose, that is to draw God’s people into His presence to serve Him and to be served by Him at His table. And, in fact, we do find continuity. The New is clearer, less hidden, and more glorious. But the Old was true revelation just the same, of the same Heaven.

The Tabernacle was designed to represent Heaven on Earth to God’s people. The entire structure and administration was itself a model of Heaven. The mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant, where God sat and was present among His people, was flanked by cherubim. The curtain that veiled the Holy of Holies was purple, embroidered with cherubim. Everything was overlaid with gold. The Holy of Holies was the very throne room of YHWH, and was the most separate place from the unsanctified world. As we move outward from that room, we have the Holy Place, the Outer Court, the camp if Israel, and then finally, the desert outside the camp.

One of the most significant differences between the Mosaic picture of Heaven and the New Covenant is that in the Tabernacle and the Temple, only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and he only once a year to pour blood on the mercy seat. But in the New Covenant the veil no longer divides God’s throne room from His people, having been torn by Christ in his sacrifice on the cross. Therefore we no longer approach the mercy seat remotely through an earthly representative, but boldly as God’s gathered people, through our only mediator, Christ, who is also our only sacrifice.

The view has changed somewhat, but the symbols are the same because the Old Covenant symbols represented to Israel the New Covenant reality. Specific symbols commanded to be pictured in the Tabernacle are really present before God in Heaven and in the Church on Earth. So when we do away with the Old, we must at the same time embrace the reality of the New.

If the Old Covenant house of God and Israel’s place of worship was designed to picture Heaven on Earth, should we expect Heaven to be lifted up and taken away from our presence in an administration of greater and richer glory? Certainly not. At least not while we pray, “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” The Tabernacle was designed to picture Heaven on Earth, but the Church gathered in worship is designed to be Heaven on Earth:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
~Hebrews 12:22-24

Next: Continuity between the Prophetic Worship and the New Covenant

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

On Earth as it is in Heaven. What exactly does that mean? Of course it has an eschatological dimension. We look forward to the day when all of the earth will be subdued to Christ and His rule of law will be complete and absolute. This same dimension finds expression in the Eucharist, because our communion declares the Lord’s death, looking forward to the day when He will return in glory. At the Lord’s table we look forward to the blessed marriage supper of the Lamb.

However, like the Eucharist, these words are relevant to the Church for the here and now. If we are to continually pray “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” should we not seek to see God’s will done in the present? As the Church disciples nations, as it teaches families and individuals how to relate to one another as Christians ought, it is becoming God’s instrument for the fulfillment of this prayer in the world, one step at a time.

“On Earth as it is in Heaven.”

If this is an end toward which we have a part in working, that phrase sort of demands that we ask a question, doesn’t it? If we seek to see God’s will done here as it is in heaven, then what are we looking for?  In other words, just how is it done in heaven? Instead of writing the petition off as some vague wishful hope for a future reality, perhaps we should look at the passages of Scripture that give us lucid pictures of how things are done Heaven and . . . well, do that on Earth!

When we petition God to give us our daily bread (probable direct reference to the Eucharist aside), we do not expect God to simply drop bread out of the sky. We must work for that bread, trusting God to ultimately provide. In the same way, when we petition that God’s will might be done here as it is in Heaven, this does not mean that we ought to sit passively by just waiting for it to happen. Especially when we are given such clear visions of how it is to be done.

I suggest that the clearest view we have of the heavenly workings is in the Book of Revelation. It reveals things to us about Heaven that are only hinted at or shown in glimpses throughout the rest of the Bible, though there are many other passages that we can and should draw from to form a clear picture of what is done in heaven and how it relates to Christians in the New Covenant. And the context of Revelation is the Lord’s Day. John receives the vision as he is “in spirit.”

From that point on, the great theme throughout the book—what we see first and foremost happening in Heaven—is worship. Surely this has direct application for how our worship on Earth ought to look. When we read of the hosts of heaven—the angels, the saints, the martyrs, the elders—praising God, glorifying Christ, eating a feast, etc., we need to take note of those things. Just as importantly, we ought to take note of how they do those things. If the worship of Heaven looks like that . . . how does that inform our worship on Earth, if we pray as Christ taught us to pray: “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”?

I was planning to do this all in one post, but I think it would best be spread over several, point by point. So let this serve as my introduction. Through the next several posts in this series (or however many it takes) I want to show that if we remain faithful to our Reformed heritage of Sola Scriptura, we will find that the Biblical text not only doesn’t forbid traditional liturgies of the Church, but also properly leads us into a rich form of liturgical worship, which has been grasped and developed by the Church throughout the last 2,000 years.

And lest we get stuck in man’s tradition, we must understand that as the Spirit guides the Church to maturity, our worship should move from glory to greater glory, and our liturgy must be progressively purified, refined like gold, and brought closer and closer to that which we will be doing for eternity in the presence of Christ. This maturation has been taking place throughout the last 2,000 years, and we should expect to see it continue. God’s Spirit is not done with the Church.

I can understand why some may be a bit wary of using the word Eucharist to refer to what has been called the “Lord’s Table,” the “Communion,” or the “Lord’s Supper.” After all, isn’t Eucharist a Roman Catholic term? Don’t we want to distance ourselves from doctrines like transubstantiation, the veneration of the host, and a great many other abuses of the Roman Church in history?

Well, yes, we should distance ourselves from those things. But we should not throw out what is really a Biblical name for the memorial meal that Christ gave to the Church. “Eucharist” simply means “Thanksgiving” in Greek. It is used to refer to the Lord’s Supper because at the last supper before his passion, Jesus took bread and broke it, “εὐχαριστήσας” — “having given thanks.”

In this way, Eucharist became the Church’s word to refer to the Supper, and more specifically to the Prayer of Thanksgiving itself. It is a good word, and more importantly a Biblical word. As we should strive not only for Sola Scriptura, but also Tota Scriptura, and since it is a good and Biblical tradition of the Church under the guidance of the Spirit in history, I think Reformed Christians can be peaceful about referring to Jesus’ memorial meal as the Eucharist.

There are two good reasons for calling the meal Eucharist: By calling it thus, we claim and acknowledge our historic roots in the ancient Church, and we show ourselves to be in solidarity with the saints of the last 2,000 years. And, we get to reclaim the Biblical meaning of the word, giving us an inroad to address historical abuses and misconceptions while assuring other orthodox Christians that we are, indeed, talking about the same thing.