Confirming Faith Week 11, The Sacraments

Last week we discussed the Sacraments in general, and Communion in particular. We were privileged to have Kathy King, an AMiA misionary, share with us a study on the Eucharist.

I don't have her handout on line but here is the one we used for background.

Confirming Faith Week 11 The Sacraments

Have you ever seen a movie in which a courageous band of soldiers defend or rescue their regimental colours or standard, or watched a news clip of raging mobs burning and stamping on the Stars and Stripes? What’s with a piece of cloth anyway?

What do the items in the following lists have in common with each other? What are the similarities and differences between the lists?

A dollar bill A photograph of money
A marriage certificate A gold band on the third finger of the left hand
A license to practice medicine A white lab coat
An officer’s commission from the queen A soldier’s uniform
A maple leaf The Canadian flag
An icon on you computer desk top The wallpaper on the screen.
A hug An E-card from Dayspring

Do you recall the illustration about the million dollar cheque when we talked about the Holy Spirit? What conditions had to be met by for the recipient to actually be a million dollars richer?

As we begin to think about the Christian sacraments we will quickly find ourselves wrestling with concepts of “reality” on the one hand and “symbolism” on the other. As always at COOL, we respect a range of perspectives, but, to be a bit provocative, the first column represents a catholic understanding of reality, the second a protestant view of symbolism. The Anglican way attempts to keep the two together. Sometimes that’s a stretch. In the world of the Old and New Testaments, symbolism and reality were closely connected. That was the case for the first 1000 years or so of the Christian church. That is still the approach of the Eastern Church and of the Anglican middle way.


What is a sacrament?
A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual reality. It is a tangible way in which God’s grace is received by faith. The word comes from Latin sacramentum which was the oath of allegiance taken by a soldier. Eastern Christians call them “mysteries” because God works through them in ways we cannot fully define.

How many are there?
Christians have had a variety of answers as to which practices should be considered sacraments. About 800 years ago the Roman Church set the number at seven. The Eastern Church recognizes the same seven but is not fussy about the number. The Protestant reformers reduced them to two. Some Protestants discarded them altogether. Some call them “ordinances” instead of sacraments. Anglicans regard two (Communion and Baptism) as sacraments of the gospel which Christ himself commanded be observed and which “are generally necessary for salvation”, but we also use the other five “commonly called sacraments” or sacramental rites. Only the first two apply to all Christians, although confirmation could. This week Kathy King will be leading a discussion on the Eucharist. Next week we look at baptism and confirmation with Cynthia’s help. Later we hope to touch on the others briefly.

The seven are:
The Eucharist (Communion, Lord’s Supper or Mass)
Baptism in water.
Confirmation (or chrismation, not to be confused with cremation!)
Marriage
Confession (also called Reconciliation or Penance)
Ordination
Anointing the sick (unction)

How are the reality and the symbol connected? What one believes about this affects how one responds.
Roman Catholics would say that the symbol becomes the reality when the proper words and actions are performed by the proper person (the priest). Baptism makes one a Christian. The bread and wine become Jesus’ body and blood and therefore can be worshiped after they are consecrated.
Some Protestants would say they are purely symbolic; they only point to the reality which is spiritual. One becomes a Christian by conversion; baptism is an optional outward symbol of what has already occurred within. The bread and juice remain bread and juice and left-overs can be discarded.
Anglicans and some other Protestants would say that the symbol conveys the reality when received by faith. Anglicans therefore reverently consume any remaining elements at communion because they have been set apart for holy use.

Two dangers to avoid.
When approaching the sacraments one should avoid the two extremes: An overly “real” approach can lead to superstition and idolatry or to a mechanical view of how God acts which neglects the importance of faith and a right attitude of heart. The other extreme lacks the proper reverence for God’s actions. To neglect the sacraments is to be disobedient to Jesus and to lose out on what he has to offer through them.

What is the point anyway? The bottom line.
God knows how we are made. He made our senses. He is Spirit and we are to worship him in spirit and in truth. We are also to worship him with all that we are. If we elevate the importance of physical things we can make idols out of them. Nevertheless, he knows we need things we can see, touch, feel, taste, smell. The one who is Spirit became material in Jesus so we could see the human face of God. Similarly, Jesus and his apostles used physical things: wine, bread, oil, water, and human hands to be means of receiving his grace. Try as we might we can never fully comprehend how he works. We simply receive with thanks what he gives.











The Eucharist: the following section is a bit technical and historical and is provided for reference only:

Based on the command of Christ and the example of the apostles who broke bread from house to house, Christians have been receiving spiritual sustenance at the Lord’s Table since the church began. What Christ intended as a fellowship meal in his memory has unfortunately often been an occasion for disagreement over exactly what happens in the Lord’s Supper. For the first few centuries Christians did not speculate on exactly how the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ but accepted that they were so. As early as 150 AD Justin Martyr (Apology 65-66) wrote:

For we do not receive them as common bread and drink; but as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation; similarly we have been taught that the food which is blessed by the word of prayer transmitted from him, and by which our blood and flesh are changed and nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.

This is the faith that was passed on by the apostles only two generations earlier. Even today the Eastern Church accepts that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ at the epiclesis (prayer for the Holy Spirit) but they do not presume to explain how. A holy mystery is by definition inexplicable. We in the West tend to be reductionist, reducing things to their component parts, separating what rightly belongs together and insisting on either/or when both/and might serve better. So it was that in the ninth and tenth centuries controversy arose in the West between those (such as Ratramnus and Belanger of Tours), who described the elements as symbols, and those (eg Paschasius and Lanfranc) who insisted on their physical reality. Finally, in 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council adopted transubstantiation as the Roman church’s official position.

Roman Catholic scholars borrowed philosophical concepts from Aristotle to explain exactly how this occurs. They also taught during the Middle Ages that Jesus was re-sacrificed by the priest each time Mass was said. Rome no longer expresses it that way but still regards the Mass as a sacrifice. The Reformers, teaching from the clear words of the book of Hebrews, maintained that Jesus’ one sacrifice was totally sufficient and unrepeatable, and that he is our only high priest.

The Reformers disagreed on the best way to replace the Roman Catholic sacramental theology. Luther believed in the ubiquity of Christ’s body and that the Body and Blood of Christ very received in, with and under the elements of bread and wine (“consubstantiation”). Zwingli in Zurich is said to have taught that the elements were merely symbols and that the Lord’s Supper is only a memorial. Calvin took a different line, teaching that the sacraments are means of grace but that the Body and Blood of Christ are received in a spiritual manner by the faithful. Cranmer, as Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of the Reformation, held several different positions: Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed, at different times. What has come down to us in the Anglican Liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer is essentially a Reformed service of Holy Communion which, as befitting the via media, is sufficiently nuanced or ambiguous enough to permit for a range of understanding of the Eucharist between, but not including, transubstantiation on the one hand and mere symbolism on the other.

Queen Elizabeth 1 is credited with the following verse regarding the Lord’s Supper:
"Christ was the Word that spake it:He took the Bread and brake it;And what that Word did make it,That I believe and take it."
Perhaps that is the right way to approach this mystery.