The Shape Of Table Worship

From the very beginnings of Table worship, its various parts have been discernible.

     The service of the Table originated at the Last Supper (see Matt. 26:29) and consisted of seven parts, in which Jesus:

1.     took bread,

2.     blessed the bread,

3.     broke the bread,

4.     gave bread to his disciples,

5.     took a cup,

6.     gave thanks,

7.     gave the cup to his disciples.

     In the process of time, these seven actions were condensed into four. For example, Luke may have been aware of these four actions of the Table when he wrote "he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them" (Luke 24:30, italics added). Thus in the ancient church, the universal action at the Table compresses the four rites over the bread and three rites over the wine into four parts that incorporate the blessing and giving of bread and wine into single actions:

1.     the taking

2.     the blessing (over both bread and wine)

3.     the breaking

4.     the distribution (of both bread and wine)

     As worship developed, each of these four parts of Table worship were expanded with prayers, response, and symbolic actions. In the medieval era these sub-parts of the service became excessively elaborate with all sorts of ceremonial actions. The Reformers sought to return the worship of the Table to its more primitive simplicity, but in the process lost certain parts of Table worship grounded in the ancient tradition. Today the Reformation concern for simplicity is retained, but a greater emphasis is placed on recovering the substance of Table worship developed in the first five centuries of the church.

     The renewal of Table worship today is not merely the recovery of ancient forms for the sake of antiquity. Rather, because these forms of worship are unique in their biblical imagery, they contain a greater power to deliver the meaning of what is happening at the Table. Consequently, the revised forms of the ancient eucharistic prayers used in renewal worship today are significant because of their faithfulness to the biblical and historical tradition of eucharistic worship. As such, they deliver a keener sense of the presence of Christ and call the worshiper into a deeper response to the benefits of Christ's work made available at the Table.