Churches in the United States may have a number of problems, but we often feed our people with generosity and abandon. Families that are experiencing sickness, grief, or other life-disrupting events are usually not lacking for casseroles or pasta.
U. S. churches also shine when it comes to gathering for meals. Though our offered dishes tend to lean in predictable directions—meat and cheese: yes, leafy greens: not so much—the Sunday pot luck is usually a hearty feast.
However, a pot luck meal is decidedly unlike another vital, Christian meal—the Lord’s supper—in at least two important ways. Seeing these differences will help us better appreciate both kinds of meals.
We Don’t Bring Food to the Lord’s Supper
Part of the beauty of a pot luck is that everyone who is able contributes. There’s no concern about matching serving plates or coordinated side dishes. We make food at home and take it to share.
But, not to put too fine a point on it, the Lord’s supper is the Lord’s supper. He instituted it (Matthew 26:26–29) and he provides the meal. Jesus sets the table and determines the guest list. He even gives those who are invited the inclination to attend.
We could never cook well enough to earn a seat at this table. We couldn’t do anything to deserve a reservation. This is the wonder of the Lord’s table—Jesus gathers his people around this sustaining meal by grace through faith.
We Know What’s on the Menu at the Lord’s Supper
At a true pot luck meal, the menu is a surprise. (The stuffiest among us might push for a phrase more like “pot providence,” but that introduces an entirely different set of questions these days.) We pick from among the dishes offered, but those dishes are made at the whim and inclination of someone else in the fellowship. Though it’s not likely, it’s possible such a gathering may produce 14 giant bowls of spaghetti and three trays of brownies.
At the Lord’s supper, we know exactly what’s available. We get Christ himself!
Read these words carefully.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23–26)
There are many different views on exactly what’s going on when we take the Lord’s supper. However, Paul indicated that the bread and cup were offered by Jesus to his apostles as his body and blood. We also are to “eat this bread and drink the cup.” We are to take in Christ and all of the nourishment he provides.
Jesus’s use of a meal here is illuminating. However much we depend on eating food and drinking water, we depend much, much more on Christ! Do we understand our need for Jesus to be this deep and desperate?
We know—at least intellectually—what happens to us if we do not eat for a time; we may have read about what happens to the human body when it goes too long without water. What would happen to you without Christ? How dramatically would your soul shrivel, spasm, or seize without the work and grace of Jesus? If we could not come and be nourished by the very Son of God, where would we be?
Come and Proclaim
What generosity our God shows by regularly feeding us and providing what we need! We are welcomed, loved, and nourished at his table.
So, come! Jesus is given for you. Join with your brothers and sisters to “proclaim the Lord’s death” until he comes!
A Small Work 
I’m thinking that this is why fasting is important. We grow fat and comfortable in being well fed and do not see that is God who feeds us with what we need. As always, I’m blessed to ponder what you’ve written.
Thanks for the encouragement and the interaction. I do think there’s a connection in what you’ve mentioned. I wrote a little bit about the importance of fasting here.
It is amazing to me how many Protestant churches have substituted potlucks and dinners for the Lord’s supper, perhaps without realizing this is what they are doing. The Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Confession both say that the sacraments are part of the Sabbath command to be done in ordinary worship, but many Protestants try to make it “special” by neglecting it most of the time. They have fellowships after church every week because they love those times. But they don’t “love” the sacrament enough to want to do that every week.
Good observation! For myself, I can say that my growth as a Christian (at least as I perceive it) and my enjoyment of the Lord’s supper have increased side by side.
Hymns like the following help us remember/focus on our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as He asked us to do, and to give Him the worship He deserves:
(1) Amidst us our Beloved stands, and bids us view His pierc-ed hands,
Points to the wounded feet and side, blest emblems of the Crucified.
What food luxurious fills the board when at the table sits the Lord;
The wine how rich, the bread how sweet, when Jesus deigns the guests to meet.
If now, with eyes defiled and dim, we see the signs but see not Him;
O may His love the scales displace, and bid us see Him face to face!
Thou glorious Bridegroom of our hearts, Thy present smile a heaven imparts!
O lift the veil, if veil there be, Let every saint Thy glory see.
(2) Lord, we would ne’er forget Thy love, who hast redeemed us by Thy blood,
And now as our high priest above dost intercede for us with God.
Lord, we would ne’er forget the pain, Thy blood-like sweat, that shameful tree,
The wrath Thy soul did once sustain from sin and death to set us free.
Here in the broken bread and wine we hear thee say “Remember Me!
“I gave my life to ransom thine, I bore the wrath to set thee free.”
Lord we are Thine, we praise Thy love, one with the saints, all one in Thee,
We would, until we meet above, in all our ways remember Thee.
If you were to read scripture rather than the catechisms or confessions, you would recognise that the Last Supper was undertaken in the context of a Passover meal which Jesus shared with his disciples. It WAS in the context of a shared fellowship meal and that symbolism is an inherent part of the sharing of the bread and wine. Churches would do well to follow the pattern Jesus instituted and to observe the Lord’s Supper – sharing the bread and wine – in the context of a shared fellowship meal. If your church is too big to do this – then the problem is with your church and not with the way the Lord’s supper is undertaken. I have no views as to whether a church pot luck meal is appropriate or not, although I see little wrong with it, as long as the bread and wines are shared together in an appropriate fashion as part of that meal. PLEASE read SCRIPTURE and not just regurgitate confessional tradition.