WHAT DIFFERENCE DO THE SACRAMENTS MAKE TODAY?
The Sacrament of Baptism begins by telling the story of God’s love for people throughout the ages, a celebration of water, and the affirmation of humanity, made in God’s image. “In holy baptism the triune God delivers us from the forces of evil, puts our sinful self to death, gives us new birth, adopts us as children, and makes us members of the body of Christ, the church.” (Sundays & Seasons, ELW Holy Baptism, Pattern for Worship)
Baptism is a public proclamation that God proclaims you are worthy of blessing and belonging. After being splashed with water, imbued with blessing, and filled with the Holy Spirit, the pastor proclaims,
“Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 231)
This “forever” of belonging and blessing has no end.
The retelling of Jesus’ story of blessing and promise continues as in the celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. In this meal, we remember the generosity of God’s gift, through Jesus, and we take bread and wine/juice into our bodies with these words,
The body of Christ, broken for you. The blood of Christ, shed for you.
Why are the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion relevant today? In part, because we are not simply spirits encased in human bodies. Our bodies enable us to love, serve, grow, learn, suffer, heal, and find joy in life. Bodies require nourishment and that includes a regular opportunity to reconcile with God and to be filled up with God’s promises and our call to discipleship.
We live in a world that demands “sorry!” for anyone whose body takes up space in ways that are inconvenient or push past our understandings of to whom God’s blessing and belovedness extends. Sonya Renee Taylor, author of The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love, recalls,
“As a nine-year-old, I was sorry for everything. “Sonie, you left the refrigerator open!” “Sorry.” “Sonya, why is your coat on the couch?” “Sorry.” “Sonya, did you get grape jelly on the white pantsuit I paid good money for?” “Sorry, sorry, sorry...” A litany of apologies for my ever clumsy, messy, forgetful self, who spilled evidence of such all over the house. “Sorry” was my way of gathering up the spill.”
Taylor, an African-American woman writes,
“Living in a female body, a Black body, an aging body, a fat body, a body with mental illness is to awaken daily to a planet that expects a certain set of apologies to already live on our tongues. There is a level of “not enough” or “too much” sewn into these strands of difference.”
To the list above, we could add other categories of difference: neuro-atypical people, those who live with a disability, people who live with chronic pain, those who struggle with addiction, people whose first language is not English, those whose gender identity & expression, and sexual orientation, are other than the norm, and on and on we go. More than a litany of ways in which we humans are different from one another, these descriptors highlight the diversity with which God created and is still creating the world. These descriptions of the various ways God accompanies us in this life are also intended to unite the church. God has gifted each of us with difference and commonality with our siblings in Christ.
As the church, we have inherited a long history of “othering” people informed by systems from which God’s church is immersed, benefits from, and repents. While repenting of the ways the church has failed to affirm and bless all people with equity, we are coworkers of the gospel, charged with loving, healing, and creating a place of belonging for all people, as one body of Christ.
The rituals of being blessed with water and sealed with God’s promises, and being welcomed to the table to partake of the goodness from Jesus’ own body, provide affirmations of who each of us is in the eyes of God. These sacraments proclaim God’s power and affirm to you and all people,
You are beloved. You are beautiful. You are enough. You are loved for exactly who you are.
The next time the world says you do not belong as you are, or if the world demands an apology for your bodily existence, your response (with or without words) can always be, “I am loved. I belong. I am a child of God.”
UPCOMING CLASSES
Find information on our upcoming baptism and Holy Communion classes here.