The less said explaining the sacraments, the better. Pastors administer the sacraments, and people want to know what they mean, so we do need to explain them. But for the most part I just let the sacraments be. They have their own power. They are older than we are, more important than we are, more powerful than we are, and they will be in the church, serving the church and God’s people, long after we are gone. Our job is to administer them as humble servants, prudently, with all the respect, order and modesty they deserve. […]
Sacraments are funny things. They are short and simple, they involve the simplest elements in our environment, and they require few words. The more we get out of the way the better. Yet they change people. People remember them for their whole lives.
Respect.
At the heart of the life of the church is the eucharistic celebration, in which those who gather around the Lord’s table are taken up again and again into his sacrificial action, made partakers of his dying and of his risen life, consecrated afresh to the Father in and through him, and sent out into the world to bear the power of cross and resurrection through the life of the world. This is how the Eucharist is interpreted in the great consecration prayer (John 17). The church represents the presence of the reign of God in the life of the world, not in the triumphalist sense (as the “successful” cause) and not in the moralistic sense (as the “righteous” cause), but in the sense that it is the place where the mystery of the kingdom present in the dying and rising of Jesus is made present here and now so that all people, righteous and unrighteous, are enabled to taste and share the love of God before whom all are unrighteous and all are accepted as righteous. It is the place where the glory of God (“glory as of an only son”) actually abides among us so that the love of God is available to sin-burdened men and women (John 17:22-23). It is the place where the power of God is manifested in a community of sinners. It is the place where the promise of Jesus is fulfilled: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). It is the place where the reign of God is present as love shared among the unlovely.
currently listening: Blue by Joni Mitchell
If the church is the bearer of the presence of the kingdom through history, it is surely not as the community of the righteous in a sinful world. To imagine that would be to fall victim again to the seduction of the vox populi against which the prophets testified and of which the cross of Jesus is the final repudiation. The presence of the kingdom is a hidden presence, hidden in the cross of Jesus, but precisely in its hiddenness it is revealed to those to whom God through his Spirit grants the gift of faith. If we say—as we must—that the reign of God was present in Jesus, that it was present in his living, his dying, and his risen life, we have to go on to say that in a secondary, derivative, but nonetheless real sense the reign of God is present (hidden yet revealed to eyes of faith) in the community that bears his name, lives by faith in his person and work, is anointed by his Spirit, and lives through history the dying and rising of Jesus. It is a sinful community. It is, during most of its history, a weak, divided, and unsuccessful community. But because it is the community that lives by and bears witness to the risen life of the crucified Lord, it is the place where the reign of God is actually present and at work in the midst of history, and where the mission of Jesus is being accomplished. This affirmation is not made as the conclusion of a survey of the history of the church and its present reality. On the contrary, it is made as an integral part of the confession of faith. Because I believe in one God the Father, one Lord Jesus Christ, and one Holy Spirit, I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. And I believe that the reign of God is present in the midst of this sinful, weak, and divided community, not through any power or goodness of its own, but because God has called and chosen this company of people to be the bearers of his gift on behalf of all people.
Kristyn and I arrived home last night from a lovely and refreshing couple days in Fort Worth (including a great stay at the Rosen House Inn). While there, we made sure to stop by the public art project Beauty in Becoming by my sister, Lynne'. We were at the dedication in 2022, but it’s cool to see how it’s settling into the fabric of Trinity Park.
At the heart of the life of the church is the eucharistic celebration, in which those who gather around the Lord’s table are taken up again and again into his sacrificial action, made partakers of his dying and of his risen life, consecrated afresh to the Father in and through him, and sent out into the world to bear the power of cross and resurrection through the life of the world. This is how the Eucharist is interpreted in the great consecration prayer (John 17). The church represents the presence of the reign of God in the life of the world, not in the triumphalist sense (as the “successful” cause) and not in the moralistic sense (as the “righteous” cause), but in the sense that it is the place where the mystery of the kingdom present in the dying and rising of Jesus is made present here and now so that all people, righteous and unrighteous, are enabled to taste and share the love of God before whom all are unrighteous and all are accepted as righteous. It is the place where the glory of God (“glory as of an only son”) actually abides among us so that the love of God is available to sin-burdened men and women (John 17:22-23). It is the place where the power of God is manifested in a community of sinners. It is the place where the promise of Jesus is fulfilled: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). It is the place where the reign of God is present as love shared among the unlovely.
The reign of God is a reality that can only be announced in parables. It is a “mystery,” at once both hidden and revealed: the characteristic language of parable…. The announcement of the kingdom will not of itself automatically open [people’s] eyes to its presence, for the reign of God is present under the form not of power, but of weakness. It is strictly a mystery, a reality that remains hidden unless it is revealed by the action of God. […]
The supreme parable, the supreme deed by which the reign of God is both revealed and hidden, is the cross…. Here is the supreme parable: the reign of God hidden and manifest in the dying of a condemned and excommunicated man; the fullness of God’s blessing bestowed in the accursed death of the cross. Who could believe this unless it was given to them by an act of God’s sovereign grace? To know the power and the wisdom of God in the weakness and foolishness of the cross is not an achievement of ordinary human discernment. It is not the work of “flesh and blood.” It is the gift of God to those who are called to receive it (1 Cor 1:24). That the cross is indeed victory and not defeat is made manifest in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The resurrection is not the reversal of a defeat but the manifestation of a victory.
A great deal of the substance of the Western Christian tradition—its liturgy, theology, and church order—was formed during the long period in which Western Christendom was an almost enclosed ghetto precluded from missionary advance. Church and people were one society struggling to maintain itself against a superior power. There was little possibility that the church could see itself as a society sent out in mission to all peoples.