Going on a field trip is something that every elementary student looks forward to. Teachers use field trips to make more tangible the lessons they want to teach. For example instead of just lecturing students about forests, a teacher will take students to a forest where they can smell the pine trees, collect pine cones, and catch little critters. In this way the students experience the forest, meeting it face to face.
If field trips are a good teaching tool, why aren’t there church field trips? Why doesn’t your pastor take you somewhere to meet God face to face so that his presence would become more real to you? Your pastor doesn’t have to do this because God comes to us when we gather for worship. He does so through his Word, as we learned last Sunday, but he also comes to us in a more tangible way through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. As we continue our sermon series on Lutheran worship, we’ll see that through the sacraments, God comes to us that we may come together.
Perhaps we should begin by talking about the word “sacrament.” This word is actually not found in the Bible and so it has been has been used in slightly different ways by Christians throughout the ages. Lutherans define a sacrament as a sacred act commanded by Jesus, which combines the Word of God with a tangible object like water in baptism. Through this tangible element and by divine promise, God comes to us with his forgiveness. There are only two things in the Bible which fit that definition: baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
We’ll start with a look at baptism. The word “baptize” simply means to wash with water. How you wash is not important. We could baptize by dunking an individual all the way under the water as some churches do, or we could simply pour or sprinkle water as is the custom in the Lutheran church. We shouldn’t think however that we get baptized whenever we take a shower or wash our hands. To baptize in a biblical sense means to wash with water while using God’s name.
Why does God want us to do this? Let’s let the Apostle Paul explain. He said: “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27). The water of baptism miraculously clothes us with Jesus just as the water of a bath will wrap itself around you in a warm embrace. While bathwater washes away dirt, the watery embrace of baptism is a miraculous hug from Jesus that blocks our sins from God’s sight.
And even though the sound of water dripping from your forehead has long since died away, the shower of blessings from that event has not ceased. And so your rant against anyone in authority whether teacher or politician, and those impatient words you spoke yesterday - those sins and every other transgression remain covered by the generous shower of God’s grace given to you at baptism.
But there’s more. The covering you received in baptism doesn’t just make you look good before God; it empowers you to do good! Really? Kids will pay top dollar for a jersey with a professional athlete’s name on the back thinking that this will make them better ballplayers. Have you noticed how that doesn’t work? But baptism does. Being clothed with Christ is like being given an army general’s uniform to replace the concentration camp garb you once wore. As an inmate of the concentration camp you could only obey the commands of your guards: the devil and your sinful nature. But now that you are clothed with Christ, now that you wear the general’s uniform, you’re not under your former guards’ control anymore. How sad it would have been if the prisoners the Allies freed from concentration camps at the end of World War II refused to leave their prison but continued to line up for morning roll call and then trudged off to their menial camp jobs afraid that if they didn’t, they would get it from the now non-existent guards. And yet don’t we do the same when we who are baptized give into temptation as if there is nothing we can do about it? Oh but there is! We’re not prisoners anymore. We’ve been clothed with Christ. We wear the general’s uniform. Your sinful nature will keep issuing orders to sin but no general takes orders from a private – especially a private from the enemy army!
Because your baptism still speaks of a present reality, our new baptismal font will be the first thing you’ll see when you enter our new church. When you walk past that font and hear the water flowing over the big rock that will hold our baptismal bowl, think of how God’s love and forgiveness keeps washing over you like that, daily removing guilt and renewing your resolve to serve him by showing love to others.
There is so much more I could say about baptism but we also want to consider the other sacrament this morning: the Lord’s Supper. Like baptism, the Lord’s Supper is not an elaborate ritual. It’s just a bite of bread and a sip of wine accompanied with a few simple words from Scripture. But like baptism what our Lord does through Holy Communion is awesome. Paul spoke of it like this in 1 Corinthians 10:16. “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”
The Greek word translated as “participation” literally means two or more things joining together. In this case, the bread joins together with the real body of Christ, the very body which was nailed to the cross almost 2,000 years ago to pay for our sins. And the wine joins together with the real blood of Christ, the very blood that dribbled down the cross on Good Friday. Consider how astounding that is! A few days ago a Canadian youth was arrested in Rome for trying to walk off with a piece of the Roman ruins. Why couldn’t he just stop at the gift shop like everyone else and buy a replica of an ancient piece of mosaic? Why did he have to have the real thing? Well, because he wanted a piece of history that was worth something. Think now of what Jesus gives you in the Lord’s Supper – not a replica or a reminder of his body and blood; he gives you the real thing. When you walk back from Holy Communion, you’re carrying in your body a piece of history, and a piece of His story – the absolutely true story of his love for you and his forgiveness.
Yes, through the sacraments God himself comes to us in a tangible way and he does this so that we also may come together. That truth is clear in Holy Communion. Just look at the way we commune. We come forward together as one body. No, we can’t all come up to Communion at the same time but it’s not like the first wave is only for those who contribute to the church over 10% of their income, and the second wave for those who have been members for twenty years or longer. Young and old, new car owners and beater car owners, classical music lovers and classic rock lovers all walk forward together and in so doing we’re all confessing our equalizing need for the forgiveness that Jesus offers. And when we step away from Communion, we do so as forgiven as the person who was standing next to us. Consider what that means in the way that you will treat that person. In spite of your differences with that person in personality and likes and dislikes, you will treat him or her as God just treated the individual: with patient love and forgiveness.
The Lord’s Supper is certainly a powerful and beneficial medicine. But like most powerful medicines it’s not meant for everyone. Take a look at the warning labels on the bottles in your medicine cabinet. Many of them say things like, “Do not take if you are pregnant,” or, “Do not give to children under the age of 12.” In the same way, the Bible tells us that Lord’s Supper is only for those who have been instructed about this sacrament and understand it, for those who can examine themselves before taking this sacrament, and for those who are publicly united in faith with the congregation in which the sacrament is being celebrated. To offer this medicine to anyone who walks through our doors would be as irresponsible and dangerous as a doctor who would place open bottles of prescription medicine on the table in his waiting room with a sign saying, “Help yourself.”
That’s a good picture to keep in mind even if you are a member and regularly commune here. While you can pop medicine prescribed to you without much thought, that’s not how Jesus wants you to approach his table. He wants you to remember what you are receiving: his real body and blood. That means Jesus becomes one with you and you with him. What will you do with your Jesus-laced body after Communion? Abuse it by drinking too much? Defile it with someone who is not your spouse? Or maybe even do nothing with it even though service opportunities abound around you? When we do fall into such sins we won’t shrug them off. Instead we’ll repent and eagerly look forward to the next opportunity we have to commune and be personally assured by Jesus of forgiveness. We’ll also want to remember again that as baptized children of God, we can, by God’s power, keep from running back into those sins.
Field trips are good teaching tools. Lessons that we can taste, touch, and feel are remembered longer than lessons we just hear. God knows this of course and that’s why he’s given us the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Through a handful of tap water, a few pennies worth of bread, and a sip of wine our Lord does amazing things. He comes to us with forgiveness and strengthening of faith. Treasure the sacraments by giving thanks for them, and by making use of them! Amen.
SERMON NOTES
Fill in the blanks.
Lutherans define a sacrament as a sacred act _______________ by _________, which combines the __________of _______ with a ________________ object like ___________ in baptism. Through this tangible element and by divine __________, God comes to us with his _____________. There are only two things in the Bible which fit that definition: ____________ and the ____________ ______________.
The waters of baptism miraculously clothe us with Jesus. What’s so special about that?
Explain: “The covering you received in baptism doesn’t just make you look good before God; it empowers you to do good!”
In our new church the baptismal font will be the first thing you see when you come into church. What’s the significance of this?
Why can we say that after you receive Holy Communion you walk back to your seat with a piece of history?
How does Jesus use Holy Communion to bring sinners together?
Jot down two truths you learned or re-learned today about the sacraments. How do these truths help you appreciate God’s gift of the sacraments?
Commit the following passage and its reference to memory. “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27).
