What is superstition? In our secular age, it is common to define it as the religious practices of someone else, practices that you don’t believe in. But this is too easy.
Superstition should be best understood as any devoted spiritual practice that is mindlessly conducted and pursued, and yet tenaciously practiced. False faith would be when someone genuinely thinks about what he is doing, and really believes it, but his faith is placed in the wrong object. True faith is when the heart and mind are right, and the object of faith is faithful and true.
All three of these have been seen as approaches to the Lord’s Supper. There have been those who come to this Table, and they do so while on autopilot. This is just what you do, don’t ask me why. An example of false faith would be when someone comes to the Table, really and sincerely believing that the bread literally turns into the body of Jesus. He is still wrong, but his faith is real. We should not adopt the common practice around us of dismissing as superstitious any faith that we do not share. This is so that we can make helpful distinctions, and not so that we can agree with what we disagree with.
True faith understands that God has promised to meet us here, and the way we “show up” is by faith. Of course, we have to be physically present, but that is not sufficient. We show up to be blessed by God when we come here believing His Word, His gospel, His promises.
When we look at the doctrinal divisions in Christendom, we need to recognize that there is superstition on “our side” of these divisions. We have people coming on cruise control also. So we should want to come in such a way as to testify to the world that this is true Life, and we are coming to it as a true people.