It is a reminder to God’s people at the very start of the week – before they have accomplished a single thing that week – that in Christ, God’s disposition toward them is one of blessing, grace, peace, and love. God’s benediction (blessing) is not something we earn by performing satisfactorily or being good enough over the past week. God’s blessing is – like everything else in the gospel – a gift of His free grace to fill His empty people.

When I was younger and growing up in a Lutheran congregation, I knew the worship service was almost over when the congregation sang a scripture song (canticle) that began: “Thank the Lord and sing His praise…” following the communion.
On one occasion of singing this song, I remember leaning over to my dad and saying, “Yep, thank the Lord this is almost over!” He was less than pleased by my comment.
As a young child, I was excited about the end of the worship service because it meant an end to sitting still and the beginning of running around, being silly, and — of course — lunch!
But now as an adult and a minister in a Reformed Church, I still look forward to the end of the worship service and particularly the final element: the Benediction.
The Structure of Reformed Worship
There is a logic to a Reformed worship service. It begins with God calling the people to worship Him. We don’t come into God’s presence except by His command and invitation.
Following the “Call to Worship” are various elements that exalt God before us as we renew our covenant with Him and praise Him for who He is and what He has done for us.
The worship service ends with the “Benediction.”
The Blessing of God
The word benediction simply means good word; it is a blessing. Benedictions appear in most of the letters of the New Testament (the Epistle of James, notably, concludes without one).
Typically the benediction in a worship service is taken directly from a passage of Scripture.
Sometimes the object of blessing is God:
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24–25)
But more often the object of blessing is the people of God:
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor. 13:14)
Sometimes a benediction is a compilation of Biblical texts as in the case of this onecommonly used by Ligon Duncan:
Peace be to the brethren and love with faith, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ until the day breathes and the shadows flee away. Amen. (cf. Eph 6:23, Cant. 2:17)
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We’ve talked about how the bread and the wine are necessary. They each play a role in helping us to see in a visible way the death of Jesus Christ and through that sign to more deeply be encouraged in the gift. One by a faith revealed, and the other by a faith disclosed. The spiritual is where in some sense the action happens in Communion. It is by the union we have through the Holy Spirit where the connections take place through faith and the spiritual nourishment is applied when we rightly and properly partake of the outward elements.

Words like mystical, supernatural, enchanted, etc… sound like they belong more at home in a fantasy novel than they do being associated with a Presbyterian church. However, we would do well to remember that we should be comfortable with such terms, especially when our minds turn towards the sacraments of the Church. We confess our thoroughgoing skepticism no more than when we get uncomfortable with the stuff that happens outside our brain. Yet, our fathers in the faith in Scotland and elsewhere worried not about such modern hang-ups. It would be quite beneficial to us to re-embrace the weird in the Christian faith.
What does all that then have to do with the Lord’s Supper? In no other place in our religious life do we need to think outside the confines of what we can perceive with our senses than when it comes to what happens when we partake of the bread and the cup at Christ’s table. For our Q/A today we will read more on what the Westminster Divines understood about these truths.
Here are the two for today:
Q. 170. How do they that worthily communicate in the Lord’s supper feed upon the body and blood of Christ therein?
A. As the body and blood of Christ are not corporally or carnally present in, with, or under the bread and wine in the Lord’s supper, and yet are spiritually present to the faith of the receiver, no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their outward senses; so they that worthily communicate in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper do therein feed upon the body and blood of Christ, not after a corporal and carnal, but in a spiritual manner; yet truly and really, while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death.
Q. 171. How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord’s supper to prepare themselves before they come unto it?
A. They that receive the sacrament of the Lord’s supper are, before they come, to prepare themselves thereunto, by examining themselves of their being in Christ, of their sins and wants; of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith, repentance; love of God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those that have done them wrong; of their desires after Christ, and of their new obedience; and by renewing the exercise of these graces, by serious meditation, and fervent prayer.
In God’s way of doing things the body and the soul are meant to work together for the betterment of the individual believer. We confess that the human being is both physical and spiritual. How that works exactly is above our paygrade. What we do comprehend is that both are creations of the Lord and they both inhabit our identity. They are not to be understood as either fighting against one another (like a cartoon where each have a different voice) or that one is more important to God than the other. They are equal in power and glory.
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Elisabeth Elliot’s story reminds me of the importance of grappling with mystery and certainty, the realization that the more we know, the more we see there’s more to know. Here is a portrait of a valiant woman who knew her sins but, better yet, knew her Savior.

When I finished Lucy Austen’s biography of Elisabeth Elliot a few weeks ago, the book went first to my desk, not my shelf, because I knew I’d have to write something about this remarkable woman’s story. Elisabeth rose to prominence as the widow whose husband Jim died in 1956 with four of his fellow missionaries at the hands of Waorani men in the jungles of Ecuador. Her life was long, her ministry vibrant. Austen’s portrait reveals a woman of courage and conviction who developed spiritually and theologically over time.
In this telling, there’s no halo over Elisabeth’s head, no smoothing out all the rough spots. Austen’s admiration for her subject comes through, but the way she shows respect for Elisabeth is by refusing to sugarcoat the challenges that arose or ignore the doubts that hovered over her hardest years.
Strange and Compelling Love Story
Readers unfamiliar with the story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot may be surprised at its roller-coaster highs and lows, and just how long it took before they agreed to marry. From the outset, the reader senses they were both right for each other and tortured in the way they sought God’s will for their relationship.
The twentysomething Jim could sometimes be callous, often immature, clearly in the throes of a throbbing passion for God yet confused because he was confident God had called him to a life of celibacy. Torn between his devotion to God and his interest in Elisabeth, opinionated to a fault yet with a charisma and grace that charmed and influenced those around him, Jim was both honest and obstinate. Often unaware of how his vacillating affected Elisabeth, his words and actions carved channels of both love and sorrow. They were called first to the mission field and only then to each other, and once married, the couple’s life was marked by intensity: a fierce devotion to God and to each other, and to the people they hoped to reach with the gospel.
Life After Tragedy
If you’re familiar with the story, you may think the most interesting part of Elisabeth’s life is wrapped up in the mission she shared with Jim, their commitment to a dangerous and remote place in the jungle while still in their 20s, and the circumstances surrounding his death. But Austen’s biography devotes more attention to Elisabeth’s life after the tragedy on the beach.
First, we see the grieving widow with a young daughter honor the story of her husband and his fellow missionaries by giving the world an account of their dedication. Then we see her return to the area, labor for many years in language development and Bible translation, and eventually live with and observe closely the tribe responsible for Jim’s death. Along the way, she wrestles with doubt and disillusionment, ponders the miracle of conversion, and bemoans the monotony of a missionary’s life. She struggles relationally with Rachel Saint (the sister of one of the missionary men killed), always wondering how to rebuild and restore what was broken. Once she becomes a writer and speaker in the United States, Elisabeth bucks the expectations set for a missionary widow, refusing to give American audiences the gauzy and inspiring stories they most want to hear, choosing instead to be honest about her experiences and observations.
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