Sacraments: A Tapestry of Traditions

Aloha friends,

In her discussion on the sacraments, Phyllis Tickle defines this church tradition in accordance with her Anglican tradition saying sacraments are,

"an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof".

It's a poetic definition.  In the United Church of Christ, sacraments are,

"...ritual actions in worship which, according to Scripture, were instituted by Jesus. In the sacraments of baptism and communion we ask the Holy Spirit to use water, bread, and wine to make visible the grace, forgiveness, and presence of God in Christ."

The light from both definitions illuminate and create shadows or questions.

• For baptism, do we sprinkle at infancy or do we dunk in adulthood?
• Should we come forward to take communion from a pastor or should we receive the individual elements in our seats?
• Does the significance of a sacrament come from our understanding of it's symbolism or does it have an inherent power regardless of our understanding?  In other words, what role does the Holy Spirit play in the sacraments?
• Christ instructed his followers to do many things, what separates some of them sacraments?

There is an undeniable and inscrutable mystery to the sacraments.  Perhaps this is why I loved Phyllis Tickle's other comment on the them.

"Sacraments are an invitation into the mystery of God’s unbreakable bond with humanity."

When we speak of God as the Trinity, we are speaking of a mysterious relationship, one that we are invited to take part in.  Perhaps the sacraments are one of the ways that we enter into that sacred and beautiful bond.  We certainly hear this in the way that the United Church of Christ talks about baptism and communion.  In the UCC Book of Worship it says, "Through baptism a person is joined with the universal church, the body of Christ" and that communion is "an earnest prayer for the presence of the Holy Spirit to unite those who partake with the Risen Christ and with each other, and to restore creation, making all things new".

The sacraments are a mystery and they are a visible vow.  Through the sacraments we publicly pledge ourselves to God and we receive God's promise to us and to all of creation.  Perhaps this is why the most poignant question for me in Phyllis Tickle's discussion on the sacraments is,

"How shall we visibly seal our lives to God?"

Or to put it another way,

"How can our lives become an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace?"

In thinking about this question and about the sacraments (specifically the sacrament of penance), I was reminded of a beautiful application of this question highlighted in Donald Miller's book, "Blue Like Jazz".  Check out the video below that discusses how they fleshed out grace.  



I'm looking forward to seeing you next week when we jump into our next Animate theme, Money: The Joy of Sharing.  Here is a clip of next week's speaker Shane Claiborne to give you some background and insight on his perspective.