Monday, August 25, 2025

It is the 25th of August 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A very happy Monday to you- I have been inundated, in a good way, with emails about church practices. It shouldn’t be surprising to me that people get animated when it comes down to what we’re doing during a… err… worship? Service? Gathering?

Keep them coming- you’ve got questions and I’ve got some answers and can find others for you- it’s what I do.

A shout-out to Dylan in Mesa, Arizona, who wrote to me and said that all the developments, changes, and questions about worship could be solved if only we had a Pope…

I promised Collin that I would answer his question, a question about the practice of communion.

Now, Collin is in Amity, PA- population about a thousand- there in the bottom left corner of the state. Not a whole lot going on- two covered bridges… I can’t see a covered bridge without thinking about Ichabod Crane. Western PA and Eastern PA are very different places.

Collin asked about the elevation of the bread during Communion- sometimes called “the Host” this comes from the Latin Hostia, which means sacrifice offering. Every last thing about the Lord’s Supper gets dissected, and I can probably tell what corner of the Christian world you are in by how you talk about Communion, the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, etc…

Let's get to Collin’s question about the elevation of the… bread? Loaf? Is it leavened or unleavened? Usually in the West, the Roman Catholics and many Protestants use unleavened bread- that’s the flat, unrisen bread that ties back to the Exodus. In the Easter church, leavened bread is traditionally used as a symbol of the Resurrection. I was in a church recently that elevated the bread (a big round loaf), and then at the rail, we received wafers.

The elevation of the bread is an old practice in the Eastern church and a relatively new, well, Middle Ages, 12th-century innovation. I love church practices that we think “it's always been done like this,” but… It’s not the case. In the 1100s, the Church of the Latin West (a better term than “Roman Catholic” for the Medieval Church) decided that the host needed to be “elevated so that it can be seen by all”. Before this, it was lifted up to the breast of the celebrant and then placed on the altar.

(Ooh, altar language is more Post-Constantine stuff….)

In the Medieval church, the Lord’s Supper, and how it was practiced, came under scrutiny, and it makes sense… You are largely uninvolved with the action until it’s time to go forward, and how the Lord’s Supper is celebrated took on a totemic role. That is, it became the symbol of identity- how you did it said who you were.

And this leads to the next controversy- a Reformation era controversy about the Bread (not “host” as Protestants tried to break from the “sacrifice of the mass” language). It was standard in the East and West to elevate the host and then, as the words of institution are read and at “this is my body, broken for you,” the celebrant would break the bread- this is called the “fractio” and is a central part of the celebration of the Eucharist.

But something happened during the Reformation.

As you might know, it was the theology of the Lord’s Supper that fractured the Reformation movement. Luther wanted to keep the language of “real presence” that Christ is present in the Lord’s supper- not in a “substantial” way (philosophically speaking) but “in with and under” the elements. Many Reformed wanted a “spiritual presence” or a different mode of presence, and it was at Marburg in 1529 that the groups forever split.

The Lutherans in places where there were other Reformation Christians would elevate the bread but then NOT break it- no fractio. Many of the other Reformation Christians took to breaking the bread after elevating it as a symbol of the bread remaining the bread. And so it became the Lutheran tradition to not practice the fractio- claiming it upheld their belief in the “true presence”… now, the Catholics held to a real, real presence and DID practice the fractio.

 I like this story because it makes you observe the context of the theological practice, and there are changes over time based on the development of doctrine and practice and church divisions. So- next time you have communion, the Eucharist… etc… notice what’s happening and what that says about your church.

As always, send me your church history questions at danv@1517.org.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and the last part of Psalm 10: 

Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.
    Do not forget the helpless.

Why does the wicked man revile God?

    Why does he say to himself,

    “He won’t call me to account”?

But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;

    you consider their grief and take it in hand.


The victims commit themselves to you;

    you are the helper of the fatherless.

Break the arm of the wicked man;

    call the evildoer to account for his wickedness

    that would not otherwise be found out.

The Lord is King for ever and ever;

    the nations will perish from his land.

You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted;

    you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,

defending the fatherless and the oppressed,

    so that mere earthly mortals

    will never again strike terror.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 25th of August 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who presides over a Divine Service… he is the Lutheran Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who likes to wear shorts and flip flops to church… I'm the helplessly low church Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.