The church environment in which I was raised never used the word sacrament. We had ordinances. And there were only two, Baptism and Communion.
When I was eight years old I wanted to be baptized. I don’t remember exactly what I thought baptism was all about, but I knew it was part of following Jesus, and I wanted to follow Jesus with my whole heart. Sadly, and it seems somewhat arbitrarily, the church of which my family was a part would not baptize children until they were nine years old. Since Mom had no objection, we went to a church across town that would baptize an eight year old. At that time I remember affirming my love for Jesus, my belief that he died for my sin and rose from the dead, and my commitment to follow after him all the days of my life. I was then, praise God, baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
As I grew older I remember thinking it odd a church would actually withhold baptism from a follower of Jesus. The reason for this, it was explained, was that the central purpose of baptism was to be a public profession of faith. And how could we know for certain an eight year old actually possessed a faith of his own to publicly profess? Similarly, the symbolism of death and resurrection was meant to symbolically refer to something that had already happened in the life of the Christian. And how could we be sure an eight year old had in fact been crucified and raised with Christ? The ordinance, it was taught, conferred no special grace nor offered any other particular spiritual benefit other than being an opportunity for obedience, so putting it off for another year didn’t really matter. I had a hard time finding support for all this in Scripture, and couldn’t help thinking there must be more to Baptism than all that.
I had a similar experience with Communion. As a boy I remember wanting to take Communion every week; it was my favorite part of worship. But our church only participated in this ordinance once a month or so. Whenever we did celebrate Communion it felt almost like an afterthought or an inconvenience to our service. It had to be squeezed in somehow to a schedule already chock full with Bible teaching and song singing.
When Communion was explained we were all assured there was nothing uniquely special about the bread or the grape juice. Communion, like baptism, was a purely symbolic action. The bread and juice were merely mnemonic devices, designed by Jesus to help us remember his death. I remember thinking that was an odd purpose for Communion. After all, how could I ever forget something so important to me as the death and resurrection of my God? As with baptism, I couldn’t help thinking there must be more to the Body and Blood of Jesus than mere memorial.
Later, in Bible College as I read Church history and theology I was confronted with the term “sacrament.” Sacrament is a transliteration of the Latin sacramentum, which is itself a translation of the Greek mysterion, or “mystery.” I learned that for the vast majority of Church history Christians have understood those actions I knew as symbolic ordinances, as sacraments, holy mysteries through which God conferred something of his grace on his people. I immediately resonated with this idea of Baptism and Communion as sacrament. As a result I have, for several years, been engaged in study, conversation, and prayer in an effort to better understand the meaning and purpose of these holy mysteries. I’ll share some of what I’ve been learning in my next post.
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