How to Connect with Sacrament
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· 71 viewsSacraments are more than reminders about God’s covenant; they are moments of participation within God’s covenant.
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Most of the things we do in church make a certain amount of sense. Prayer is not unique; it is our way of experiencing communication with God. The Bible is God’s way of revealing himself to us. We sing as a way of giving expression of worship to God. Speaking and reading and singing are things that people do all the time in many different settings. It is no surprise that the church would do the same.
Today we are going to consider something that we do in church which maybe doesn’t make all that much sense; I’m talking about sacraments. When you think about it, sacraments are a bit odd. Ever since the time of Jesus, the church has held this weird initiation ceremony which involves dunking a person under water. The earliest Christians in the Roman world were sometimes branded as cannibals because of their regular worship ritual which they claimed was eating the body of Jesus and drinking the blood of Jesus.
Maybe you’ve been a part of church for a long time and this is something you just take as normal because you have been a Christian most of your life. But we have to admit, these things that we do called sacraments are kind of goofy rituals. Yet, we still hold onto these things as a crucial part of what we do in church. Let’s take a closer look today at sacraments. I want us to use a passage from Hebrews 10 as our way of looking into the importance and meaning of sacraments in our worship.
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Sacraments and the connection to grace
Sacraments and the connection to grace
Alright, there’s a lot going on in this passage from Hebrews and maybe it is not immediately clear how these verses connect to sacraments. We’ll get to that. First, perhaps we should narrow down exactly what we mean when we say sacrament. Here is what our teaching from the Heidelberg Catechism has to say about it.
Q66 — What are sacraments?
A — Sacraments are visible, holy signs and seals.
They were instituted by God so that
by our use of them
he might make us understand more clearly
the promise of the gospel,
and seal that promise.
And this is God’s gospel promise:
to grant us forgiveness of sins and eternal life
by grace
because of Christ’s one sacrifice
accomplished on the cross.
two sacraments: baptism and communion
In the church of our Reformed tradition, we say there are two sacraments: baptism and communion. Communion is sometimes referred to by other names; the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist. Perhaps you are familiar with the Roman Catholic Church and know that Catholics have seven sacraments. The Protestant reformers narrowed that list to two sacraments. Here’s the reason why. The Reformers looked for clear biblical teaching that Jesus himself gave instructions for these rituals to be continued by the church as signs of God’s covenant grace. During the last supper which Jesus celebrated with his disciples, he gave the instructions for them to “do this in remembrance of me.” And the final instructions Jesus left with his disciples in the Great Commission of Matthew 28 was to go and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Both of these rituals that we call sacraments have been a regular practice by the church ever since Jesus instituted them as part of our worship practice in the church.
sacraments are sacred activities
But besides being activities instructed by Jesus to continue, what else do these two sacraments have in common that make them such an important part of our worship? After all, we call them sacraments because—as the name implies—there is something sacred happening when baptism or communion happens. What makes these things sacred activities? For help with that, let’s go back to Hebrews 10 for a few moments.
Hebrews — connecting Old Testament to Jesus
First thing to note is that there is connection of Old Testament and New Testament going on in this passage. The author is making reference to the old system of temple sacrifices offered by the Levite priests. Also, there is quoting of Old Testament scripture taken from Psalm 40 and Jeremiah 31. Look at the point Hebrews 10 is making about the Old Testament system of sacrifices. Over and over again the priests would have to make sacrifices for the sins of the people. That system never actually took away the guilt of people’s sins, it just covered over their guilt for a time; but always had to be repeated because the guilt of sin remained.
Jesus willingly steps in on behalf of the people because he loves his people
But what Jesus did in the New Testament is different. The bulls and goats sacrificed in the Old Testament did not do so voluntarily; they were taken on behalf of the people. Jesus, however, willingly steps in on behalf of the people because he loves his people that much, that he would voluntarily take their place and take the consequences of their sin. And because Jesus does this out of his own perfect obedience to the will of the heavenly Father, it becomes an everlasting exchange which took place once and for all time. Jesus took upon himself all the guilt for all the sin of the world once and for all in that moment of his suffering and crucifixion. And at the same time, Jesus gave his perfect righteousness to his people which is forever sealed upon the church by the Holy Spirit.
sacraments are a connection to the covenant promise of God that comes to us by God’s grace and is completed for us in the sacrifice of Jesus
God does this by a sheer act of grace because of his great love for the world. God has forever locked in this salvation of his people by grace as part of his new covenant. The old covenant required priests to keep performing these sacrifices over and over. The new covenant in Jesus is accomplished and complete. This is what sacraments connects us to in worship. It is a connection to the covenant promise of God that comes to us by God’s grace and is completed for us in the sacrifice of Jesus. This is the primary reminder and focus of our sacraments; they always point to the covenant love of God forever extended to his people.
when sacraments happen in worship, we don’t just hear about God’s covenant grace, we participate in it
Sacraments are more than just reminders of what Jesus did for us. Sacraments are very real connections to what Jesus did for us. When sacraments happen in worship, we don’t just hear about God’s covenant grace, we participate in it, we are connected to God’s covenant grace within the sacraments. Like some of you, the pandemic year of 2020 meant my family had to skip graduations. This past spring in 2021 we had the chance to travel to Chicago because the entire Trinity College class of 2021 was invited back to participate in an actual graduation. My daughter already had her degree from Trinity College for a year. There was nothing magical in returning for the graduation ceremony that somehow changed her educational status. That part had already happened. But we all went back for a graduation ceremony one year later because there is more meaningfully significant about actively participating in the event. It’s one thing to get a diploma sent to you in the mail. It’s something more profoundly significant to put on the cap and gown, walk across the stage and be handed the diploma personally by the provost. The difference is one of going from passive recipient to connected participant.
sacraments move us from being passive recipients of God’s covenant grace to being connected participants with God’s covenant grace
That’s what sacraments do for the church. They move us from being passive recipients of God’s covenant grace to being connected participants with God’s covenant grace. And sacraments do this by using ordinary everyday connections. Washing and bathing is a regular part of every human culture. Eating and drinking is a regular part of every human culture. Jesus takes these two very regular cultural activities and brings them to a level of connected participation with God’s covenant grace. Baptism is a washing which reminds us that God washes us clean from the guilt of sin by his covenant promise to extend grace to his people. Baptism is an extension of God’s faithfulness in the Old Testament now fulfilled once and for all in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God’s people went down into the Red Sea and came up the other side set free from the bondage of Egypt. Forty years later God’s people went down into the Jordan River and came up the other side to take the inheritance of the promised land. In the New Testament, Jesus goes down into the grave and comes up three days later to free God’s people from bondage to slavery and bring the inheritance of eternal life.
Likewise, communion takes the Old Testament meal of the Passover feast which served as the reminder of God’s faithful promise to his people to take them back as his own special people. Jesus himself fulfills that Passover promise in the New Testament by providing his own body and blood in order to claim his beloved people back as his very own flock. In sacraments we do not merely hear about these expressions of God’s covenant grace, we actively connect and participate in these events by being a part of the sacrament.
I especially like the way in which communion is an activity which engages all of our natural senses. We see the bread and the juice before us. In the traditional setting, unleavened bread is used in communion—a thin crispy cracker; when it is broken apart and distributed we would hear it crack. With the bread and the juice, we feel it, we smell it, we taste it. Communion is a sacrament which connects us to the covenant grace of God while at the same time connecting with every one of our natural senses. I think this is also what makes communion such a great expression of God’s grace for children. Jesus invited children to come near him and held children as an example of child-like faith for all of us. Children know how to use their senses. Children can see and hear and touch and smell and taste. Sacraments come to us as an expression of God’s covenant grace which is meant to connect with every single one of us. We all participate together in God’s covenant grace—sacraments regularly remind us of that.
Just like a shower or bath keeps our bodies clean, the sacrament of baptism reminds us that we are forever connected to the spotless perfection of Christ’s righteousness. Just like a meal keeps our bodies nourished, the sacrament of communion reminds us that our souls are forever connected to the nourishment of god’s grace. Sacraments remind us that we do more than just believe in What Jesus has done; we are connected to what Jesus has done; we live as active participants in the grace of God.
Holiness and the grammar of Hebrews 10
Holiness and the grammar of Hebrews 10
Let’s close this up by talking about why this matters. What difference does it make that we include these sacraments as part of our worship in the church? What are we supposed to take away from it? Look again at Hebrews 10 at one more detail I want us to see; it has to do with holiness. In order for this to make sense we need to have a little discussion about grammar. I know, it still feels like summer; I’m not ready to go back to school yet; don’t make me think about grammar. I’ll try to keep this easy.
Now, look at the two places that holiness comes up in this passage from Hebrews 10. In verse 10.
10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
“Have been made holy” — this is stated as something which is already completed; the sacrifice of Jesus has made us holy, once and for all time. Now jump ahead to the end of that paragraph in verse 14.
14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
“Are being made holy” — this is stated as something which hasn’t been completed yet; the sacrifice of Jesus is still working its effect to us holy. So, which is it? Is our holiness through Jesus completed or not?
Let’s talk grammar. In English, when a verb refers to something which has already happened, we call it past tense (In Greek it is called aorist tense). If it is action that has yet to take place, we call it a future tense verb (Greek has that too). If it is action which has started, is still ongoing, but has not yet been completed, we call that an imperfect verb (Greek has that too). In English, imperfect verbs are easily identified because they almost always have an ‘ing’ ending. You see it in the English translation of verse 14 — ‘being made holy.’
our holiness has already been made complete through the sacrifice of Jesus, but the effects of that holiness continue to be ongoing into the present
So how does that work out with holiness in here in Hebrews 10? Is our holiness already completed (past tense) because of the sacrifice of Jesus? Or is our holiness not yet completed, but still ongoing (imperfect tense) because of the sacrifice of Jesus? Hebrews 10 says it both ways, so which one is it? The answer is both because holiness in Hebrews 10 is a verb expressed in Greek as perfect tense. We don’t have that in English; there is no translation equivalent. Perfect tense verbs in Greek refer to action which has already happened and is completed, but the effects of that action continue to be ongoing into the present even though it is complete. It is action that is done, but at the same time it is still continuing to happen. And this is the way that Hebrews 10 talks about our holiness through the sacrifice of Jesus. Our holiness has already been made complete through the sacrifice of Jesus, but the effects of that holiness continue to be ongoing into the present. It is a holiness that has already happened, and yet continues to be happening all at the same time.
This is where sacraments take us. They are reminders of what Jesus has already completed and accomplished. But at the same time they point us to the connection we have with Jesus that is yet ongoing. The holiness we have in Jesus is perfect and complete. But the effects of that holiness continue to be ongoing into the present. When we come around the communion table in worship as we are doing here this morning, it is first of all a reminder of the perfect holiness we already have in Jesus through his sacrifice on the cross for us. And at the same time, this communion table propels us deeper in connection with Jesus by reminding us that the effects of this perfect holiness we have in Jesus are yet ongoing into the present.
we take a moment with sacraments here in church to connect and participate in the grace of God; and may it be the reminder that pushes us into a week of connecting and participating in the grace of God
We take that with us when we go from this place—the active ongoing connection we have with Jesus. We don’t just experience moments of participation with the holiness of Jesus here in church on Sunday. We catch a glimpse of our connection with that ongoing holiness here in the sacraments. But we go from this place into a week full of opportunities to catch glimpses of ongoing holiness. We take a moment with sacraments here in church to connect and participate in the grace of God. And may it be the reminder that pushes us into a week of connecting and participating in the grace of God.