John Newton, the slave-trader turned hymn-writer, experienced the transforming power of the gospel and wrote about it in his most famous hymn, Amazing Grace. That theme dominated his life, as evidenced by his preaching, praying, and writing.
In another hymn, titled In Evil Long I Took Delight, Newton reflected on his pre-conversion days, how he lived recklessly for his own pleasure until God mercifully saved him. As he pictured Jesus hanging on the cross “in agonies and blood,” Newton felt a mix of emotions known to many of us when meditating on the cross:
With pleasing grief and mournful joy,
My spirit now is filled,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by him I killed.
That’s how we should feel every time we partake of the bread and cup: pleasing grief and mournful joy. Not grief without joy, or pleasure without mourning, but a mix of both sorrowful reflection and heartfelt rejoicing.
Furthermore, there's both an individual and a corporate dynamic to the Lord's Supper. As we look at Scripture, particularly First Corinthians, we learn that communion is a time for both individual self-examination ("Let a person examine himself" - 1 Cor. 11:28) and communal celebration ("Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival” - 1 Cor. 5:7-8).
Maintaining this balance is a challenge for every church. Some churches are big on celebration but weak on self-examination. Other churches stress self-examination to the neglect of celebration -- at least during their observance of the Lord’s Supper. Some church members look like they're attending a funeral -- as if Jesus were still dead! (J. A. Medders has written about this rather bluntly in his article, The Lord’s Supper Isn’t a Funeral Meal.)
Our pastoral staff, in conjunction with our music team, strives to help our congregation to maintain a spirit of “pleasing grief” and “mournful joy” as we partake of the Lord's Supper. Practically speaking, we tend to include both soft instrumental music for the sake of personal reflection, and also congregational singing to celebrate our unity in Christ. Our hope is that an appropriate blend of gospel-centered songs, combined with scriptural teaching and exhortation, will help us as a church to strike a healthy balance between individual self-examination and communal celebration.
If you have any personal insights or practical suggestions you'd like to share, please do so in the Comments section below. I'd love to hear from you.