Here's What Happens

This is the message given Sunday, September 24 in the Wheatland Parish.  The scriptures were Luke 22:7-20; Matthew 3:1-3, 13-17; and Acts 19:1-7.

            We’ve talked before about how we tend to slip into using jargon sometimes.  We use terms that we know, because they refer to things we work with every day, but which other people don’t know because they don’t deal with them very often, if at all.  As we continue with United Methodism 101, that’s true of our topic for today.  Today, we’re going to talk about the sacraments.

           

We use that term, “sacraments”, in church, but we never really talk about what it means. The word “sacrament” means a visible sign of grace instituted by Jesus Christ.  Grace is given by, or at least symbolized by, a sacrament.  The sacraments are, in traditional United Methodist terminology, one of God’s means of grace.

So that raises some questions.  The first one is, simply, what are they?  What are the things we consider to be these visible signs of grace?  Well, in the United Methodist Church, we have two of them.  One of them is baptism, and the other is Holy Communion. 

We should point out that there are churches that have more.  For example, in the Catholic church and in the Greek Orthodox church, they consider baptism and communion as sacraments, but they also consider confirmation, marriage, penance, the taking on of holy orders, and the anointing of the sick as sacraments.

The reason we consider baptism and communion to be sacraments is that these are things Jesus told us to do.  We read in Luke how Jesus said we were to take the loaf and the cup to remember him.  We baptize because, at the end of Matthew, Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told us to do these things, and so we do them.  And, on one level, maybe that’s all we need to know.  I mean, we believe that Jesus Christ is God the Son—a part of the trinity that is God, along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.  If God tells us to do something, then we’d probably better do it, whether we understand it or not.

It’s better if we at least try to understand it, though.  After all, we’re not God’s slaves, we’re God’s children.  And while there are times that we have to just tell children to do something, we’d really rather they understood why we want them to do those things.

            So, what is it that we think actually happens when we take communion?  What is it that we think actually happens when we’re baptized?

Different denominations look at it differently.  Some take Jesus’ words “this is my body” and “this is my blood” literally, and say that the bread and the juice actually, physically become the body and blood of Christ in some way.  Some go the exact opposite way, and say that there’s no actual presence of Christ at all, but that taking communion is simply a symbolic remembrance of what has been done for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As United Methodists, our belief falls somewhere in between.  We don’t believe that the bread and juice actually, physically change—the bread is still bread and the juice is still juice.  Yet, we believe that communion is more than just a symbolic act.  We believe that somehow, not physically but spiritually, Jesus Christ is present in the bread and the juice, and that in some way, God’s Holy Spirit can come into us through the taking of holy communion.

That’s why communion is open to everyone in the United Methodist Church.  I’m sure you’re aware that some denominations say you have to be a member of that denomination to take communion.  There are some that even say you have to be a member of the local church to take communion in that church.  We don’t do that.  We believe that we all need to feel God’s grace and that we all need God’s Holy Spirit to come into our hearts. 

Also, because communion is a matter of God’s grace, there’s nothing we can do to earn the right to take it.  We don’t have to be good enough or meet certain qualifications and standards to take communion, because none of us could ever be good enough to deserve God’s grace.  It’s a gift from God that’s open to each one of us.  As United Methodists, we don’t want to do anything that might discourage someone from feeling the grace and love of God.

Now that’s not to say, of course, that communion, or even baptism, are the only ways we can feel God’s grace.  God can give us grace in any way God chooses.  Still, communion and baptism are two of the ways God does choose to give us God’s grace, and we all need as much of God’s grace as we can get.   That’s why John Wesley said we should take holy communion as often as we can.  Wesley would be disappointed in his United Methodists for only taking communion once a month.  He’d say we should have it every week.  In fact he said that, if possible, we should take it every day.

I’ve mentioned juice a couple of times.  In the United Methodist Church, we use grape juice in communion.  Many denominations use wine.  Wine, of course, is what it says in the Bible.  We use grape juice, though, because of people who may struggle with alcoholism.  We don’t want to hurt someone who’s fighting that struggle, nor do we want them to feel they cannot take communion. By using grape juice, we again prevent people from feeling excluded from communion, while also not making someone’s struggle with alcohol worse.  And by the way, the process for preserving grape juice was invented by a man named Dr. Welch, who was a United Methodist.

So that’s communion, let’s talk about baptism.  Why do we baptize people?  What do we think happens when we do that?

Well, first let’s talk about what it’s not.  It’s not our golden ticket into heaven.  United Methodists don’t believe that being baptized automatically gets us into heaven, and we also don’t believe that we cannot get to heaven if we’re not baptized.  Our entrance into heaven is a matter of God’s grace and our faith in Jesus Christ.  It’s not something we can get by a ritual.  It’s a matter of the heart.

Still, we do think baptism is important.  Again, it’s one of the ways God uses to give us God’s grace.  Baptism, in the United Methodist Church, signifies entrance into what we call the household of faith.  Another way of saying this is that baptism is a recognition that we’re part of the family.  Now, we don’t mean that in an exclusionary way.  Again, baptism is not a salvation issue, and it’s not a love issue, either.

What we mean is that, when someone is baptized, that’s an affirmative statement by that person, or by someone on their behalf, that they want to be part of the family of God, that they want to accept their status as one of God’s children.  That’s why some denominations don’t baptize babies.  They say this is a decision each person needs to make for themselves, and you have to be old enough to understand what you’re doing before you can be baptized.

As United Methodists, we respect that position, but we disagree with it.  We believe that everyone, of any and all ages, is one of God’s children.  Jesus told us to let the little children come to him and not do anything to get in their way.  Baptism is one of the ways we do that, even with children who are too young to understand what baptism is all about.  We do, when you’re older, ask you to understand and confirm your baptism—that’s what confirmation is all about.  But we become God’s children long before that.  Of course, if someone was not baptized when they were a baby, and wants to be baptized at an older age, we’re happy to do that.

Also, because baptism is a recognition that we’re part of the family, we don’t baptize anyone more than once.  We can do a ceremony in which someone remembers and acknowledges and affirms their baptism, but we don’t re-baptize anyone.  Re-baptizing someone would be like saying that somehow they’d lost their status as one of God’s children, and we don’t believe that can happen to anyone.

Commonly, United Methodists baptize by sprinkling water on someone, but it can also be done by pouring water over someone, or by immersing them in water.  We accept all forms.  We also accept baptisms done by other Christian churches.  If someone is baptized as a Catholic, or a Lutheran, or a Presbyterian, or a Mennonite, or as part of any other Christian denomination, they do not need to be baptized again to be part of the United Methodist Church.

Obviously, the sacraments are not the only ways we can receive God’s grace.  The ways God can give grace to us are unlimited.  Still, these sacraments, communion and baptism, are two ways we know that God has chosen to give us God’s grace.

So, the next time we take communion, or the next time you see a baptism, or if anyone here has never been baptized and is thinking about it, remember what it’s really about.  Any time we have the chance to feel God’s grace and to receive God’s grace, we should take it.  We are all sinners in need of God’s grace and mercy.  The good news is that God is always ready to give us that grace and mercy.  We are, and always will be God’s children, members of God’s family.