Last week, while flipping through the channels on tv, I came across the movie Gladiator with Russell Crowe, just as it was getting started. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll remember that it is set in ancient Rome at about the same time as Jesus lived. The main character, Maximus, played by Russell Crowe, remembers his time as a wheat farmer when he lived with his wife and their son. But now, Rome is at war, and he has left his normal life behind to lead his men into battle as a general in the Roman army. Rome is unique among empires in that it had no standing army – as long as the nation was at peace, they had no actual soldiers, only guards to keep watch at the edge of the empire. But when war was declared, healthy men were expected to fulfill their duty to the Roman Empire by reporting for military service.
When a man volunteered for military service, it wasn’t simply a matter of strapping on some armor and grabbing a weapon. They took a sacramentum, a Latin word for oath. The sacramentum involved a vow that a man would give his complete and total allegiance to Caesar and the general under which he served. When they took the sacramentum, soldiers pledged that they would serve the empire by following every instruction their general gave them. When Maximus took the sacramentum, he was utterly subjected to the authority of his military commander.
It is from this principle of the military sacramentum, the oath to reorient one’s entire life to submit to the authority of the leader, that Christians took the word sacrament. The Christian sacrament involved the same idea of pledging to submit our lives completely to the authority of Jesus Christ. But instead of vowing to support the emperor, Christians offered commitment and loyalty to the King of Kings, Jesus himself through the sacrament.
Today, we are exploring the sacraments in the fifth sermon in our "Back to the Basics" series on the basic, foundational principles of the Christian faith. Let us pray…
From the earliest days of the faith, Christians have known that there are things that help us to know and experience God’s presence, God’s healing and love in our lives. We have known that there are things we can intentionally do to help us be open and ready to receive God’s gifts. When we come to worship, we join together in song and in prayer, someone reads a portion of the Bible, and someone speaks about the Bible’s meaning for us today. All these things help us connect with God and experience God’s presence. Often, during prayer, people will talk about feeling the presence of God or experiencing a peace in their souls that wasn’t present before.
There are things that we can do that God uses to make God’s love and presence was made known to us.
Over time, two special actions have became known as specially powerful ways that God uses to reach us and get through to us. They were both actions that were initiated by Jesus himself, and although the actions themselves don’t really seem remarkable in and of themselves, Christians have always known that God makes use of these actions to make His love known to us in very real and profound ways. They became known as the sacraments, baptism and holy communion. Through the very basic elements of baptism and communion, water, bread, and wine, God’s presence can be experienced in a mysterious and powerful way.
Baptism forms the starting point for the Christian life, and it is fitting that all four gospels reveal that baptism was the starting point for Jesus Christ’s ministry. Matthew, Luke, and John tell the story of the baptism of Jesus as the first thing he does as an adult, and the Gospel of Mark makes the baptism of Jesus the very first thing we hear. Let’s read from Mark’s account:
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit dscending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved. With you I am well pleased.” Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
In this short account, three very powerful things happen. They are not too different than what happened to a Roman man who joined the military and gave a sacramentum. A new identity is given. The power of the the Holy Spirit is given, for a Roman soldier that power would have been the power given by Caesar, for Christians, it is the very power of God. And, finally, a new vocation is given, a ministry to accomplish. And, through the sacrament of baptism, Christians today experience the same things when they come to the waters as Jesus did at the beginning of his ministry.
The first thing is that a new identity is established. Jesus may have known who he was prior to this moment, but at his baptism, his identity was declared to the world when the voice from heaven said, "You are my Son, the Beloved. With you, I am well pleased." It couldn’t have been any clearer – Jesus was publicly identified as the Son of God. He was given a new name, God’s Beloved. And we discover that God was pleased, was well pleased, with Jesus.
When we are baptized, we take on a new identity as Christians and as members of God’s family. In Romans 8, Paul describes it as receiving a "spirit of adoption," because we’ve now been adopted into God’s family in a special way. Now although our identity is fixed as God’s family members at our baptism, we reaffirm that decision to be part of God’s family repeatedly throughout our lives. This past year, as we went through confirmation with the youth, that was our main purpose – to offer young people a chance to choose for themselves whether or not to reaffirm their identity as members of God’s family. We believe at baptism, God says "yes!" to us. Confirmation gives youth an opportunity to say "yes!" to God and “yes” to the identity of Christian!
Secondly, Jesus received the power of the Holy Spirit at his baptism. God speaks to Jesus saying, "This is my Son," but when "the Spirit descended like a dove on him," Jesus received the power the Holy Spirit gives. He needed that power to keep him going when he was faced with challenges and trials.
When we are baptized, we also receive empowerment from the Holy Spirit, allowing us to pursue God’s will with a strength that comes from beyond us. We live the Christian life knowing that we are not doing it on our own, but with God’s power with us. At our baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit and special, known as spiritual gifts, that are to be developed and used for the common good to build up the kingdom of God. It’s our job to develop those gifts so that we can be powerful examples of God’s love and grace in the world. (And that brings us to the final thing that happens at our baptisms.)
We are ordained by God for ministry. At his baptism, Jesus was ordained for his ministry. Jesus was given a special job to do while on earth, which as Mark tells us, was "to proclaim the good news of God” that “the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.” As the Rick Warren book explained, each Christian has a “purpose-driven life” because at our baptism, God gave us the job of carrying on Jesus’ mission on earth. God has given us the gifts and strength we need to do it, but the task is ours to do. While we receive that job at our baptism, and special gifts to accomplish it, discovering our own unique job and developing the skills and gifts and abilities to do that job takes our entire lives! It’s never easy, but one of the true joys of living as a Christian is to know that you are working on a job that God has given especially to you to do while on this earth.
Before we move to talk about Communion, I want to give you a chance to come forward to the waters of baptism, touch the water and remember your own baptism. If you are someone who has never been baptized, and you feel God tugging at your heart today, I invite you to speak with me about the great joy that comes from receiving the special grace God offers through baptism. If you have been baptized, I invite you to come forward to the front as we sing the hymn and approach the baptismal font. You may look into the waters or touch the water as you come, and remember and be thankful for your own baptism and what it means for you today. When we remember our baptism, we are remembering that, just as Jesus’ baptism so long ago, at our baptism, we were identified publicly and adopted as members of God’s family, we received the power of the Holy Spirit that still guides us and strengthens us today, and we received a special job to do to help build God’s kingdom. Through our baptism we remember who we are and whose we are, we remember that God has given us the power to live as free people. When we remember these things, we reaffirm them and recommit to living them out today and for all the days to come. Amen.
Sing 605: “Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters”
“O how deep your holy widsom! Unimagined all your ways!”
The sacraments are never easy to talk about, to define and explain. A good part of the reason they are hard to talk about is the fact that they contain so much mystery. We don’t completely understand them except that we know that they bring us into God’s presence in a special way and, each time we come to them, they help us know God better.
We do believe that God uses both baptism and Communion to communicate grace to us. And, the more we do understand about them, the more time we spend thinking about the symbols, the words and motions, and the stories behind them, the more receptive we seem to become to their power.
The story is especially central to our celebration of Holy Communion. Every time we share Communion, we tell the story of the Last Supper, the first Communion. In fact, probably the most memorable part of the entire Great Thanksgiving prayer is when we re-tell the story about the Last Supper.
The Last Supper itself was a Passover meal, a meal that the Jews celebrate each year to remember their final meal in Egypt before God led them to freedom through the Red Sea and on to the Promised Land. If you read Exodus chapter 12 you will find there the story that is told at every Passover Meal and that story is how they remember that they were enslaved in Egypt and how they cried out to God and God heard their cry and how God saved them. And as they remember the story, they remember that they once were slaves, but now are free because of what God has done for them. That story, that meal, the Passover Meal, is the defining story of the Jewish people. It reminds them of who they are, where they came from, and it reminds them of their journey from slavery to freedom, and that God hears them and saves them when they are in trouble.
That Passover meal is the meal Jesus was sharing with his disciples on the night of the Last Supper. It was the last supper of the Jewish people in Egypt before heading to the Promised Land. And it was the Last Supper of Jesus before he would head to the cross to set us free from our slavery to sin and to death and bring God’s kingdom on earth.
And so, as he passes the bread around the table with which they would remember their last night before heading to freedom, Jesus pauses with the bread and says, “this is my body, broken for you. When you eat it, Remember.”
And as he takes the cup of promise, he pauses with the cup and says, “this is my blood, poured out for the forgiveness of sins. When you drink it, Remember.”
And his disciples have been doing exactly that ever since that night, 2,000 years ago. We celebrate that Last Supper, that Communion with God, and give thanks for the great gift God has given us in Jesus. We remember the story, the sacrifice Jesus made, the freedom he brought us from sin and from death. And every time we do it, it’s as if Jesus were present all over again, hosting at the table, offering us his body and blood, giving himself to us. And, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we often find that Jesus is truly present, offering us his life again.
It’s our STORY. Holy Communion is one of the ways we remember it and celebrate it. It’s our defining story the way the Passover is the defining story for the Jewish people. It’s the story about how Jesus gave himself for us, how he died and rose again and brings us freedom from the powers of sin and death.
Everyone has stories, memories of their life that define them. What memories do you have that define who you are and what your life means? If you call yourself Christian, there is one story that should define you more than any other, it’s the story of the Last Supper, the story of Holy Communion. It’s a story that’s meant to define who you are and what your life means in this world.
For Christians, what we remember at Holy Communion is our defining story. Through it, we remember Jesus. We remember who we are as his disciples. We remember who we belong to when we walk back into the world. And we remember where we are going as a people.
And we take that story into us as we eat the bread and drink from the cup. We become part of that story, receive the gifts. How that happens is very much a mystery. We don’t always understand exactly how it happens, but it is because of our story that we know that we belong to an amazing God. And our God is a God who liberates people and who continues to set people free today. And we are a part of his story.
We come to the sacrament of Holy Communion this morning to hear that story, and take that story into ourselves, and become part of how that story is setting the world free even today.
Remember it. Remember it. Remember.
