The Sacraments
Judith celebrating Eucharist
Saying “yes”
The sacraments are ways for each of us to say “yes” to God at various points along our journeys as individuals and in community. The orthodox definition of sacrament understands the rites as outward and visible signs of an inner and spiritual grace. Careful consideration of the whole of the seven sacraments reveals that they each mark and bless different points in the cycle of life.
Baptism
Saying “yes!” to life within the community and Body of Christ.
• Become beloved of God.
• Accept the call to Dream of God
• Be welcomed into the family of Christ’s followers and serve the Community of Life rather than the empire of domination.
Confirmation
A commitment to adulthood. A saying “yes” to God (and the community where you live out that yes) on your own promise, not the ones that your parents might have made for you. It can be likened to a Christian Bar/Bat Mitzvah.
Marriage
Saying “yes” to a special relationship in which a small community is born (though not necessarily with children). Marriage has historically been a commitment to procreation. But, in light of our developing knowledge and yearning for compassion toward gay people in the Church, and honoring their courage to come out to teach us about how they feel and how they experience relationship to God, we are searching for a change to this sacrament as a commitment to relationship instead of procreation.
Reconciliation
We used to call this sacrament “Confession.” Now the Church is focusing on connection. The term Reconciliation encompasses both the act of seeking forgiveness and saying “yes” to entering into a renewed and restored relationship.
Unction
Unction is a saying “yes” to learning the wisdom imparted by adversity.We apply the anointing of oil to signify healing. There is a difference between healing and cure. Unction is not for curing, which is a physiological return to an original state of health. That may happen, but the emphasis here is on spiritual strength and growth through an illness. Extreme Unction is anointing at the time of death – a time of blessing of all of one’s life and saying “yes” to the next adventure.
Eucharist
In gathering around the table, we remember the kin-dom of relational living that Jesus demonstrated time and again during his ministry. We give thanks for a new way to include and be included in the community of God that we call the Body of Christ.
The Greek word εὐχαριστία (“eucharistia”), from which we get Eucharist, simply means “Thanksgiving.” Some churches call it Mass or Communion. During the liturgy, words echo the character of rite by saying “…we should at ALL times and ALL places give thanks [to God].” It is a time when we gather each week to offer thanks for life and all creation and for help in seeking God’s kin-dom here on earth. We come to seek wholeness, and can only do that in community. We need each other for support and to expose our weaknesses, so we can learn where we need to be healed.
Eucharist is the highest of the sacraments because we are called to be in thanksgiving every minute. We don’t bring our thanksgivings to church on Sundays, but we take them out into the world and live them. Eucharist is saying “yes” to the challenge of bearing a thankful heart throughout each and every day.
Some people call the place where we bless the bread and wine a table. Others call it an altar. The different names signify different theological focal points. We are moving from atonement-through-sacrifice theology to a theology of atonement-through-community. The very first Christians were Jews. They made sacrifices in Jerusalem on the high holy days – especially during Passover. The act of sacrificing had become so institutionalized that Rome and the temple priesthood transformed what was once the offerings of the people into a rigid system of purification rites. Previously, the people came to the temple with their own animals and harvest tithes (tenth) to be sacrificed. But, early in the life of Jesus, this custom changed, and the people were forced to purchase their sacrificial animals and goods at very high prices directly from the temple establishment. Devout Jews, including Jesus, were outraged. Born poor and marginalized, Jesus came to understand that the ritual in which people felt included and in intimate relationship with one another was when they gathered to sit together for a meal. For Jesus, this was the Kin-dom – how God wanted for us to relate – enjoying each other’s presence. In Rabbi Jesus, Bruce Chilton suggests that Jesus was purposefully changing the ritual of temple sacrifice (from which the poor were being excluded) to that of the table ritual where anyone and everyone was welcome. This change was so revolutionary that Jesus was ultimately executed by the authorities whose authority he had challenged.
