The Sacraments

 Baptism and the Lord's Supper

There are many things in life that pull us away from the divine. The sacraments are ritual acts or sign-acts that pull us toward the divine.  The holy is present in the sacramental acts. Sacraments move us from experiencing prevenient grace toward justifying grace. They move us from that inward sense that there is something more, some great goodness out there and in here, toward the sense that the great goodness accepts us and is approaching us, even abiding in us.

There are two sign-acts in which Jesus participated: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These two are recognized as sacraments in The United Methodist Church.  As either sign-act is performed, the power of the Holy Spirit is called upon by the person performing the act and by the community of believers present and participating in the act. This holy power passes, by faith, to the person or persons receiving the sacrament.

The components of both Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are simple, everyday objects: people, water, bread and grape juice: gifts from God recognized millennia ago by the Hebrew people, as described in the Bible. People are drawn together, to community. Water has always been drunk and used for cleaning. Water is life-giving but can also be a force of destruction. Water represents life. There are many places in the Bible where God provides water in the wilderness or calms stormy seas. [Numbers 20:8-11; Exodus 15:22-25, 17:6; Judges 15:19; Mark 4:38-39; Matt 8:24-26]

Grain, wine and fruit, bread and grape juice, likewise, have always been eaten and drunk and were part of the typical Hebrew diet and of ritual sacrifice as grain, drink and fruit offerings. [Genesis 4:3; Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 2:1-16, 5:13, 6:14-23, 19:24, 23:13; Numbers 15:5] Washing, drinking and eating become means of grace, doorways to the divine, when they are enacted in a way that opens the spirits of the participants, people in community, to the presence of the Holy Spirit. The rituals and the meaning behind them enable the understanding and perception of the ordinary to become imbued with the extraordinary. Faith is an important component, because without faith, the heart of the recipient is closed, and the meaning denied.

John the Baptist called people to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1:4, Luke 3:3) In Baptism, the covenant made between God and Abraham, through Abraham’s pledge to uphold and teach the law, is transformed. Ritualistic cleansing has roots in ancient Hebrew culture. In Baptism, the ancient legalistic cleansing with water that made the unclean clean becomes a sign-act of repentance, turning away from sin, and spiritual cleansing. The Holy Spirit, sent as our advocate by the risen Christ, is received by the laying-on-of-hands during baptism. Baptism is witnessed by the community, the Body of Christ, promises are exchanged, and the Lord’s Supper follows as a sign of joining to the community of faith. Ritualistic cleansing was performed to remove the unholy so that one could approach the holy. Baptism is understood on a theological level to wash away the guilt of sin. On a practical level, it marks us as Christ’s and is a sign-act to publicly proclaim our journey of faith surrounded by and guided by the congregation.  It is beautiful and profound.

As I read By Water and the Spirit, I find a lot of tension between these statements: “Working in the lives of people before, during, and after their baptisms, the Spirit is the effective agent of salvation.” and “Water is administered in the name of the triune God by an authorized person and the Holy Spirit is invoked…” (By Water and the Spirit, 7) If the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives all the time and baptism serves as a symbolic public recognition of the baptized person as one with the Body of Christ, why must the baptizer be authorized? If the Spirit is always with us, why must the Spirit be invoked? Is it because, although God is at work, we cannot see it? Is religion basically a way for people who have difficulty seeing the Spirit at work in the world to be continually reminded that God is near? Was the ritual of baptism developed to focus our attention and remind us of things that are happening, but often invisible to us, because we are so distracted by the world? 

I believe that the baptizer should be authorized, and the Spirit explicitly invoked, because that helps us accept the gift and avoid some of the doubt that so easily causes us to deny the gift. I am speaking of the gift of grace and adoption. The Holy Spirit is always working in our lives, but we are so easily distracted by the world that attention must be paid to counteracting those forces that would pull us away from our awareness of God and the Holy Spirit. The authority of the baptizer strengthens faith in the act of baptism and opens the hearts of the participants to the presence and work of the Spirit. One should not, however, shift too much power from the Spirit to the baptizer. This might call into question the baptism of someone who was baptized by an elder whose authority was later revoked. Revoking the authority of the baptizer does not revoke the baptism. The baptism is performed by the authorized person but received from the Holy Spirit and cannot be undone. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God fulfilled the prophecy of a new covenant and called forth the Church as a servant community (Jeremiah 31:31-34, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). The baptism of infants and adults, both male and female, is the sign of this covenant. (By Water and the Spirit, 7).

When Jesus met with his disciples in the upper room to celebrate Passover, he added a new component to the Passover meal: “Take; this is my body….This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many…” (Mark 14: 22, 24) During the Lord’s Supper, the significance of the bread and wine in the meal is shifted from remembrance of the Passover covenant and body and blood of the lamb in Exodus to the covenant, body and blood of Christ. The new covenant made between God and all people, through the sacrificial life and death of Jesus Christ, is remembered and we are united, by faith and the work of the Holy Spirit. When we confess our sins, ask for forgiveness through Christ our Lord, and praise God during the Great Thanksgiving, we are praying to be united, as one people and one with Christ. Sharing and eating the bread and cup seal the proclamations that we have made. We recall Christ’s suffering death and sacrifice and recommit ourselves as his servants. Christ is with us and in us, if we are willing, and we are filled with the Holy Spirit. This strengthens us to do the work of disciple-making.

My call is to facilitate the deepening of the faith of individual Christians and their commitment to a sense of social holiness, especially where they live.  This acts to bridge congregations with their communities and strengthen their commitment to making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. As a deacon, I would assist an elder or licensed local pastor with the preparation and practice of the sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism, welcoming those from within the congregation and those from the community, and helping to strengthen their understanding of the meaning and purpose of the sacraments.

The meanings of Holy Communion and Baptism are as deep and complex as their visible practice is simple.  When we practice Holy Communion, we eat a meal of grain and drink the fruit of the vine. With Baptism, we wet a brow or sprinkle a few drops of water. These are common, everyday practices made uncommon by their connection to the history and practices of the Hebrew people.  Working in community, I would expect to encounter people with all types of faith, from atheist to any form of theist.  Someone observing communion might understand it as simply eating and drinking bread and juice.  The symbolic meaning would vary, depending on their background and experiences.  In a similar manner, Baptism might be seen as a simple ritual by someone with little understanding of Christianity. Part of my role would be to help the ministry team to navigate interactions with the community and to educate people about the United Methodist understanding of baptism as representing repentance, cleansing and new birth and the Lord’s Supper as redemption and union as the body of Christ. (Book of Disciple ¶ 104 74).