Questions from Our Readers

When I started writing for this rubric almost seven years ago, I took it upon myself to try to answer any question, as long as it falls within the perimeters set by the editors, and that the subject matter asked lends itself for the instruction and edification of the entire readership of our publication. Such a lofty goal becomes harder to fulfil when a good and proper question is asked (because it is an expression sometimes heard) and the author has to go online to end the search for an answer as to what is even meant with the very words of the expression! Granted, to Google something is not a safe way to find out the truth of a matter, and I rather would have resorted to a Bible dictionary or something similar, but that search did not produce any results. Hence, with nowhere else to turn, this is what I ended up doing, and this is what I found:

“ A grace is a short prayer or thankful phrase said before or after eating. The term most commonly refers to Christian traditions. Some traditions hold that grace and thanksgiving impart a blessing which sanctifies the meal. In English, reciting such a prayer is sometimes referred to as ‘saying grace.’”

So, after reading this explanation I knew what my answer would be: refrain from this tradition and simply use what seems to be a safer tradition among us: “ask a blessing for (or upon) the meal.” Our Heidelberg Catechism in Lord’s Day 50 states so beautifully that God’s gifts cannot profit us without His blessing. Our food or daily bread certainly falls under God’s gifts. It is proper to ask the Lord to bless the food and drink both before and after the meal. Our Dutch Psalm book in the rhymed version has a beautiful hymn called “Bedezang voor het eten” (Song of prayer before the meal) as well as a song (prayer) after the meal. Still, reading and re-reading the phrase that grace and thanksgiving impart a blessing which sanctifies the meal made me think and wonder. Not that grace “sanctifies” a meal—but that which the Psalm book songwriter related, namely—that as our bodies are strengthened by the meal, so strengthen our souls by Thy Word. The Form for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper speaks along the same lines when it exhorts toward the close that we should not cleave with our hearts to the external bread and wine but be fed and refreshed in the soul through the working of the Holy Ghost with the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

One question remains yet unanswered in this context. What does it now mean when in Isaiah 33:16 we read, “Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure”? This text clearly points to a benefit of God’s Covenant of Grace. God’s Church may live also for their daily sustenance from a pierced hand. May we then not say that the bread of God’s people is sanctified by God’s grace? In other words, that even the outward provision of the Church of God flows from grace? Most certainly. It is all paid for by Christ’s suffering and death. However, to say “grace” and then assume that it sanctifies the meal, in my opinion, sounds superstitious.

Send your questions to: Rev. H. Hofman, 2339 Deer Trail Dr. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505, or hofman@premieronline.net.

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