Episcopal 101: Part Two: The Sacraments by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy In response to the question: "What are the sacraments?" from the Catechism we read: "The sacraments are outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace." (BCP pg. 857) "What is grace? Grace is God's favor toward us, unearned and undeserved. By grace, God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts and strengthens our wills." (BCP pg. 858) There are two great sacraments − called "great" because they were given by Christ to Christ's Church. Traditionally, they have been considered necessary for salvation. They are baptism and Holy Communion. Over time, five lesser sacraments have evolved in the life of the Church. They are: unction, holy matrimony, confirmation, holy ordination, and the reconciliation of a penitent or penance (known by some as confession). First, we begin with Holy Baptism, the chiefest of all the sacraments. Holy Baptism: "It is dark. A shivering band of people has commandeered a cistern. In the depths of the earth the sound of moving water is heard. The slightest shuffling of feet echoes throughout the chamber. Most of the band is quiet, though a few whisper. Above the ground, heard only faintly from below, a rooster crows, marking the day's beginning. Soon farmers and merchants will be rising from sleep to take up their daily occupations, unaware of the activity underground. They would not understand the quiet rites, nor approve, and might even take action against the participants if they had knowledge and opportunity. Meanwhile below, a leader has come to the fore, a man of serene but slightly severe appearance. He whispers some words in the almost eerie setting. Some of the people begin to take off their clothes, folding them and setting them aside. With great solemnity and in many cases no little fear they approach the bowl of the cistern where water bubbles and flows. The children are put forward and dipped first, after some questions which in many cases are answered for them. Then come the older children and the men. They are asked a number of very serious questions: after answering, and being placed under the water, they come out struck dumb by an experience of both physical and spiritual shock. Finally, the women remove all their ornaments and loosen their hair. They are to have no alien objects, no rings or jewelry, or bandages on them. Warily they step into the water and come out, dressing again in the new brightening glow of candles and torches. The leader is very busy with various kinds of oil which he seems to be blessing and pouring on the people. He is asking questions and hearing answers and repeating formulas. Somehow his magisterial appearance and manner assuage the fright of the people near him. He seems satisfied with the proceedings, and gives orders for an exit to be prepared. The group makes its way through some passageways into a larger room. Here others who have themselves undergone the experience on an earlier occasion greet them warmly and invite them to a meal of bread and wine at which sacred words are spoken and hymns are sung. The people now seem relieved and are obviously happy. They have been baptized." (From Baptism, by Martin Marty) Ceremonial washing had often been a part of the world's religions. In Judaism, proselytes − that is to say, pagan converts − were "baptized" as an introductory rite into the Jewish faith. John the Baptist connected this act more directly with repentance in which baptism sealed a turning away from sin toward the Kingdom of God which was at hand. Jesus' participation in this act was not done because he needed forgiveness, for he was without sin, but done in order to identify with the people, and God's "great Amen!" − "this is my beloved Son" (Luke 3:21-22) − indicates the rightness of this action. Jesus gave to us an imperative command in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) to go and make disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Through the outward and visible sign − water and word, both essential − is imparted an inward and spiritual grace. In Baptism, it is God's word that shapes, creates, informs, reaches out, acts and enacts. We are recipients whether we were baptized as adults or infants, with much instruction or little; baptism is a free gift that we, as believers, spend our lives trying to work out its implications. In Baptism, our old self dies − our sins as well as our virtues, our injustices as well as our righteousness, our body and our soul, our reason, our faculties − all are purged so that the new Spirit of God, born in us, can enter in. We become, through baptism, a new person. We become a part of the Body of Christ and the Mothering Church receives a new child. We are a living cell in the body of Christ and a part of the people of God. We are admitted into the priesthood of all believers because Christ is formed in us. In baptism, we participate in Christ's death and resurrection. Most powerfully for those immersed − but an echo for those of us sprinkled − our baptism is a symbolic death, and entombment in a watery grave and then deliverance, a rising, into resurrected life. In Baptism, the Holy Spirit comes as purifier and purger forgiving all sins and freeing us for a life of grace. Indeed, Baptism gives birth to faith which is the sure understanding that waking or sleeping, we belong to the Lord. Baptism is the conferring of a new identity. Martin Luther daily would begin his day with the sign of the cross, a calling on the Trinitarian God and a cry: "I am baptized!" For Luther, Baptism was a daily claiming of relationship as he claimed that repentance is a return to baptism, to resume and practice what had earlier been begun but was abandoned. In the end, however, baptism is a mystery that we "walk in." We'll end with another passage from Martin Marty; who eloquently describes Baptism in this way: "The Christian says: Baptism is my departure out of chaos into the order of the forgiven life. It is my visitation by the Spirit which broods over this water of life. It is my deliverance from the destroying floods, my passage through the Red Seas of sin and enmity. I am humbled by it as was Job, inspired by it as was the Psalmist. Baptism is my trip to the Jordan. In this water I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, sharing his living water. None of these events, activities, pictures, signs, symbols, pre- or post-figurations distract from the one meaning, that there I seek and find the joy of forgiveness. Rather they are the countless colors that add riches to the full portrait. They are the grace notes that parallel God's melodic line. They are the story of my life, a life which is born in baptism. They all deal with water and with the Word of the One who restores me to life. They are my waters of Siloam and my pool of Bethsaida, my entrance to new life of the Kingdom." (Marty) The Holy Eucharist or Holy Communion: Ancient Israel was set apart from the other nations of the earth by the Law, the Torah; which in part defined the people by what they could and could not eat and how they were to prepare the foods which they were allowed. This definition of clean and unclean, purity and defilement was what identified the Israelites as the people of the covenant, a people holy and set apart. In our culture today, many people are very concerned about what they consume. This is less so for religious reasons and more so for reasons of health and longevity. A popular expression in the 60's and 70's, still heard occasionally today, was: "you are what you eat!" It is a good thing, generally, although some people do carry it to extremes in their condemnation of others who do not share their dietary commitments. In Christianity, Jesus mandated that his disciples eat and drink of him. At the Last Supper, at a table with his friends, he took bread and broke it; took wine and blessed it and said: take these gifts, my Body and Blood, and eat them and drink them in remembrance of me. The word anamnesis (remembrance) is the opposite of amnesia (to forget) but it does not mean a fond memory, like slides of last summer's vacation. Nor is it a solemn memorial as many people do on the anniversary of the death of a loved one in which they visit a grave and place fresh flowers there. No, rather think of remembering in this way: When someone survives a terrible accident and loses a limb through amputation, for some time they report phantom pain or itching in the missing limb. Although the arm is no longer there, the brain carries the consciousness of that part of the body and refuses, on some level, to accept the dismembering. What a miracle it is when medical science can reattach severed parts and make someone whole again. It's like that in our relationship with Christ. When we eat and drink of him, we are re-membered; made a member again. Our severed souls are restored to wholeness in Christ. For a fleeting moment, the pain of separation due to the consequences of sin and alienation is bridged as the phantom pain of being in that separation is assuaged. St. Augustine of Hippo said: "our souls are restless, until they rest in God." And so, in the Eucharist, you are indeed what you eat. In consuming Christ, we become, like the Virgin Mary, "Theotokos" (Christ Bearers.) Not only in the sense of finding righteousness before God − although that is a good and right thing to do − not only in the sense of finding true and lasting health − a spiritual health for everlasting longevity − but also in that in eating and drinking of him, we become more and more re-membered to him. And like the ancient Israelites, we become defined by our sharing of this food of Eucharist as people holy and set apart for God. As Anglicans, we say of these elements of Bread and Wine that there is a "real presence" there that is to us a mystery that can not be explained but only experienced and received. The outward and visible signs of Holy Communion are bread and wine. Unction: The sacrament of unction involves the anointing of the sick with holy oil blessed by the Bishop. Each Holy Week, all the clergy gather with the Bishop to renew their ordination vows and receive cruets of oil to be used throughout the year in healing. In times past, this sacrament was called "extreme unction" or "last rites" because it was only used when a person was near death. This is unfortunate because in our theology, we would want to maintain that a person is never beyond the healing power of God even when they are near death. It is a sacramental reminder of the healing love of God. When we go to God in faith and ask for healing, healing always happens although it may not be the healing that we expect or want. In this context, it is important to understand the difference between "healing" and "cure" for a cure means an absence of disease whereas healing means a restoration of meaning and purpose and connection to God and to others. Again, healing is always given; sometimes, it involves a curing as well. The outward and visible sign is holy oil and the laying on of hands with prayer. Holy Matrimony: Marriage is, in a sense, the sacrament the people do for themselves. That is to say, that in the other sacraments, we are describing God's action or movement toward us. Holy Matrimony is the sacrament that the partners do with each other in exchanging vows with each other which the Church then asks God to bless with power and grace. An added blessing in the contemporary Prayer Book is the recognition of the fragility of marriage and the need which we have for the support of the whole community. We ask: "will all of you witnessing these promises do all in your power to uphold these two persons in their marriage?" And we say, in a loud voice: "We will!" Marriage is a public contract lived in a public context. The outward and visible signs are the exchange of vows, the joining of hands and the giving and receiving of rings. In the Book of Occasional Services, there is provision for the renewal of vows suitable for the anniversary of the marriage. (At St. Augustine's, it is our policy that this sacrament is not restricted to heterosexual couples alone but is available as a "covenant celebration" for gay and lesbian couples). Confirmation: In the earliest days of the Church, whole families were converted and baptized into "the Way" by Bishops. As the Church grew larger and larger, Bishops appointed local presbyters or priests to preside over the Holy Communion in individual churches; although that was always understood to be an extension of the Bishops Mass. The pattern was that of the Bishop celebrating an early service at his Cathedral and acolytes, on horseback, bringing a fragment of the consecrated bread to the local churches throughout the diocese to honor, at least symbolically, the organic unity between priests and their Bishop. A small fragment of the consecrated bread dropped into the chalice at the time of the breaking of the bread to this day is a reminder of that history and honoring of that same unity. This was fine for the Eucharist but the bishop still wanted to preside in the Holy Baptism. The problem was a logistical one. Since the Bishop was able to come only infrequently, as churches grew larger and larger and the diocese bigger and babies were dying without the benefit of Baptism and were thus believed to be consigned to the fires of Hell, the Bishop had to hand over this responsibility to local priests as well. This left the Bishop with no liturgical function in the local church and some began to question why we need Bishops at all. Thus the sacrament of confirmation − or "making firm" − was created to be a completion of the initiation begun in baptism. To enforce the need for this to be done at all, reception of the Holy Communion was withheld until after the rite of confirmation. Confirmation today is not seen to be a completion of Baptism at all. Baptism is complete and sufficient unto itself. Rather, confirmation is seen to be an affirmation of the vows oftentimes entered into on our behalf by our parents and sponsors when we as infants were baptized. It is the form by which we receive those coming into this branch of the Catholic Church and it stands as a reaffirmation for those who have drifted away from the Church and want to make a public proclamation of their recommitment to it. In recent years, a new theology is emerging which sees confirmation, as it were, as an "ordination of the laity" as the laity affirm their public acceptance of a maturing in Christ and take on a ministry in the Church and the world. Some have begun to see it as a "rite of passage" by which we acknowledge young people as fully adult in the Church and now able to take on adult roles in the life of the local congregation. Although confirmation emerged in response to a need for Bishops to retain a unique liturgical function particular to their order in the local church as well as the Cathedral, it remains vital because it speaks to a need of many Christians to publicly own and reaffirm as mature adults their baptismal faith in Christ. The outward and visible signs of confirmation are the laying on of hands by the Bishop. Holy Orders (Ordination): The making of deacons, priests and bishops is called ordination. It is the recognition of a Call to a special role among the ministers of the Church, namely, all of you. It is not a setting apart for ministry. There are four orders of ministers in the Church: the largest and most important group being the laity. The Ordained are set among the laity for a particular role: deacons as servants, priests as presiders over the sacraments and bishops as overseers, teachers and symbols of unity. The crosier or shepherd's crook that the Bishop carries is a symbol of his or her authority as chief shepherd. The outward and visible sign is the laying on of hands. For deacons, by the Bishop alone. For priests, by the Bishop and priests together and for Bishops, by Bishops alone. Hopefully, in the emerging Church, the ordination certificates (which are presently huge) will grow smaller and smaller and the Baptismal certificates will grow larger and larger as we affirm the priesthood of all believers. Penance: We end with the rite of reconciliation of a penitent called penance; also known as "confession." One of the best explanations of confession comes from the book Knowing Jesus in your Life by the Rev. Carol Anderson, Rector of All Saint's in Beverly Hills. She writes: "In my first parish in New York when I was newly ordained, I received a phone call from a well-known secular psychiatrist. He said that someone had told him about me at a cocktail party, and suggested that I would make a good counselor for one of his patients who he believed had a spiritual problem. He asked me to see the patient who had been in therapy with him for twelve years. "I've come to believe that this person's problem is really spiritual and not psychological," he said. The man came by to see me and after twelve years of psychotherapy he knew every nuance of his personality. He knew everything about himself: what was wrong with his father, what was wrong with his mother, what was going wrong in his marriage, what was happening at work - everything. I sat and listened and didn't know what to say to him. "After all the time of getting to know myself," he went on, "I still don't like myself." I thought for a moment and said, "Instead of blaming everyone in your life for what has happened to you, have you ever confessed the things that you've done wrong and asked for God's forgiveness?" "No, I've just come to understand them, I've never confessed them," he replied. I put on my stole, gave him a prayer book and told him that he needed to admit to God and to me what he had done in his life − not just what had been done to him, but what he had done. I wanted him to name it all. I told him we could take as long as he needed, just go through everything, item by item. And he went through the whole thing. Twelve years of psychotherapy meant that a whole load of garbage came out, and with his permission I share that with you. Every once in a while he would say to me, "But I did this because…" "Don't bother to tell me why you did it, just tell me what you've done, tell God what you've done," I would reply. When he started his hands were rigid, his face was tight, and his body was ramrod straight. He was desperate when he came to see me because he could not break loose from whatever was going on inside of him. The more he talked, the more he began to relax. His body began to loosen up and in the middle of the whole thing he began to cry. Then he started to sob and said, over and over again, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." He continued: "I feel like all those tears inside me are cleansing tears. They're just washing out of me the junk I've had inside, and it feels so good just to be able to say "I'm sorry." When he finished I said to him, "Go in peace. The Lord has put away all you sins." I repeated those words and told him to listen to them again. He threw up his hands in the air and said, "I feel new. I feel wonderful! I feel released!" …the psychiatrist came to church and told me, "With all my years of training in psychology I can really help people understand their problems, come to terms with their problems and live with their problems. But I've never seen anybody get rid of them in a way that is so cleansing." Don't misunderstand: therapy can be helpful. It is like dropping a dozen rotten eggs on the floor. Therapy can help us identify that there are eggs there, that they're broken and smelly. It can help us step over them and get on with our lives. The problem is that we can always recollect the smell! But when we admit the fact that we've really screwed up, it brings us before God in such a way that God is able to say to us," I have cleaned up the mess. It is no longer there for you to pay attention to. You are now free to get on with your life, not live with the mess, but be free of it." The outward and visible sign in the sacrament of reconciliation is the sign of the cross and the pronouncement, by the priest, that we are forgiven by God. Summary: The sacraments are not magic. Their effect in our lives is made operable only by our being in a state of grace as we partake of them. That is to say, being of an open mind and heart to receive God anew into our lives. They are wonderful, free and undeserved gifts by which God uses simple things, material things, to reach out to us in love. In our class, you will have time to ask questions this lecture may have raised about the wonderful and sacred mysteries of the sacramental life. Copyright © 2008 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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