“Sign and Seal of God’s Love: A Sermon on the Sacraments”
Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, January 7, 2024
This first Sunday of the New Year is an appropriate time to celebrate Holy Communion. Today is also a time when the church remembers Jesus’ Baptism. Most of us have been baptized, whether as an infant or older. The beginning of a new year is a good time reflect on what that means. Did it make any difference in our lives? These two rites of the church – communion and baptism – are called sacraments. I’m sure you have all heard that word, but what exactly is a sacrament?
When I was dating my husband, Joe, back several centuries ago, we were separated for a summer. I was working at some churches in New York, and Joe was studying geology at a field camp in Montana. We couldn’t afford phone calls, but we wrote each other a lot – the old fashioned way, with pen and paper! One day I got a card from Joe. When I opened it, there were some small, delicate mountain wildflowers carefully pressed between the pages. They were beautiful.
Suddenly, even though Joe was thousands of miles away, his presence was right there with me. I was holding in my hands a token of his love for me – the dried flowers – and his love somehow became more real to me. Of course, I knew all along that he loved me, but this visible, tangible sign of his love melted my heart. Those dried flowers were one of the things that made me say “yes” when a few months later he proposed.
The Sacraments of the church are like that – they are tokens of love from Jesus Christ to his bride, the church. They are visible and tangible signs of God’s love for us, a love that is always there, yet is sometimes difficult to grasp with our limited human capacities. Augustine taught that a sacrament is “a visible sign of a sacred thing,” or “a visible form of an invisible grace.” John Calvin, founder of the Reformed Churches, of which Presbyterians are a part, explained that baptism and Holy Communion are outward signs “by which the Lord seals on our consciences the promises of his good will toward us in order to sustain the weakness of our faith; and we in turn attest our piety toward him.” Calvin was a lawyer, so it’s not surprising that he would use a legal term as an illustration of God’s grace. In days gone by, an official document would bear a seal – a drop of melted wax pressed with the official seal of the person signing the document. It was a way of saying “this document is authentic and trustworthy. What it says is guaranteed by the person whose seal is imprinted here.” The sacraments are seals for us on the promises of God – tangible signs that God’s grace and love are authentic and trustworthy.
How many of you enjoy a good meal with friends and family? Most people do, and Jesus was no different. He loved to sit around the table with his friends. Jesus’ first miracle was performed at a wedding feast, where he turned water into wine. After his resurrection, he broke bread with two followers from Emmaus and shared a picnic of fish with his astonished disciples by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was so fond of parties and feasts that some called him “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”
So it is fitting that Jesus should choose a meal for us to remember him by. He sat there that night with his disciples, those who loved him and whom he loved, knowing it would be their last time together around the table. As they were eating, “he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’”
Christians have observed this sacrament from the earliest days of the church, although we haven’t always agreed on what it means. The Catholic Church interprets Jesus’ words very literally: that the bread and wine in some way actually become Jesus’ body and blood. Other churches see the Lord’s Supper as purely symbolic. Presbyterians fall somewhere in between, believing that Christ is spiritually present in the sacrament, but not literally. Regardless of our theological understanding or lack of it, the most important thing is that Jesus asked us to remember him in this way, and we are doing as he asked. Jesus chose one of the most ordinary elements of our everyday experience: - eating a meal together - to remind us of his presence in our lives and his love for us. He is as close to us as those with whom we share our daily bread.
For me, one of the most significant meanings of sharing communion together is precisely that: sharing together. Jesus didn’t say, “By this shall all people know that you are my disciples: that you have exactly the correct theological interpretation of the Lord’s Supper and baptism.” No. He said, “By this shall all people know that you are my disciples: that you have love one for another.” Communion is not only a sign of God’s love for us; it is also a sign of our love for each other, and our being one family in Christ. Partaking communion together emphasizes our unity in Christ.
In the same way that ordinary bread and wine are used in holy communion, common, ordinary water communicates God’s grace to us through baptism. Water is present everywhere on earth. The amount of water on this planet is extravagant and abundant, just like God’s grace. Each time we take a drink of water, or bathe, or take a walk along the beach, we can remember God’s grace. Water is also basic to our survival. Without water we will die. Perhaps our baptism reminds us that without God’s love and grace in our lives, we die spiritually.
Baptism has been practiced in many different manners, but always with the same meaning: Baptism represents the washing away of our sin, and our union with Christ in his death and resurrection. In baptism we identify with Christ and are welcomed into the Christ’s body, the Church.
When our daughter Christa was born, she was immediately accepted as part of our family. She hadn’t done anything to earn our love: all she had to do was to be born and she was welcomed and loved. It is like that with our baptism. Like a newborn baby, none of us has ever done anything to earn God’s love. Infant baptism is a picture of how God loves and calls us before we even know our own name. Baptism says, “You belong to God. You are a part of God’s family.”
Baptism is the sacrament of initiation into the Christian church. As such, we welcome anyone who is born into the family of God as our sibling in Christ. The Apostle Paul emphasized our unity in Christ with the phrase “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Even though it may be administered differently in different denominations – by sprinkling, dunking or pouring, it identifies us as a Christian.
Baptism also symbolizes the washing away of sin. We don’t believe that little babies are guilty of sin, but once we reach the age of accountability, we are responsible to God for our actions. In baptism God affirms that the guilt of our sin is washed away, just as water cleanses the body. After a hard day’s work, a hot shower feels really good. It washes away all the grime and sweat. God’s grace works like that in our lives: we may feel ashamed or angry with ourselves for having done or said things we regret, but God is always willing to forgive us. The Apostle James writes: “If we confess our sins, [God] who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Sometimes we find it hard to forgive ourselves, but baptism reminds us that God forgives us and wants us to forgive ourselves as well. As Isaiah wrote, “I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22).
Baptism also reassures us that, just as Jesus was raised from the dead, one day we, too, shall experience a resurrection. Paul writes in Romans: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Baptism pictures for us our “dying and rising with Christ.” Those of you who have witnessed baptism by immersion will recall how the baptismal candidate is plunged beneath the water, then is raised up by the pastor,
as if arising from a watery grave. This is a vivid image of being buried and resurrected.
Regardless of the exact method of baptism, the meaning is the same: you have been born into the family of God, your sins are washed away, you have been buried and raised with Christ and are now a new creation. It is said that the great reformer, Martin Luther, wrote in chalk on his desk, baptizatus sum – Latin for “I am baptized” to remind him who he was, and whose he was – a child of God, who belonged to Jesus Christ.
Today, let’s remember our baptism: even if we were babies and can’t remember the actual baptism, let’s remind ourselves, like Luther, that we are baptized, and through our baptism, God has set his seal on us – we are a beloved child of God, and nothing can ever take that away from us. Then let’s join together at Christ’s table – to the meal where Jesus invites us, to celebrate our unity with one another, our love for Christ and his love for us, as a visible sign of God’s invisible grace. Amen.
©Deborah Troester 2024