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What is God doing? How God works through you and through things. Understanding Sacramentalism.
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Highlights Sacramentalism is the belief that God works through physical things to effect our lives. What sacramentalism declares is that there is nothing outside of God’s strength. There is no more of an ultimate spiritual declaration than this: God can use whatever he wants to speak to us, change us and work in our lives, even physical elements transformed by his grace. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, opens with the incredible declaration that God created the heavens and the earth. Since God is spiritual, this fact alone says something. Before we quote Scripture, it says that God, a spiritual being can work to bring about physical change. This is a statement of incredible power and flexibility on God’s part. Then, when Genesis says, that God spoke, and things were created, it gives great power to the word of God spoken. It opens up for us a whole world of possibilities as to what happens when the word of God is spoken over physical elements such as a body or bread and wine. The implication is that God’s words spoken over us can change us. We are physical bodies. And this movement of the spoken re-creative power of God’s word is an incredible thing to think about. When you sit in church and listen to sermons, and you realize that God is speaking through the speaker to you, then what they have to say is transformational. When the person who speaks the word of God over the elements, the spiritual reality of God acting over those elements is beyond the limited scope of reason and is empowering. The word spoken can bring about the change of wine into Christ’s life giving blood and the bread into his sustaining body. When you have the pastor or priest pray over you and anoint you with oil, then you have the possibility of the oil being changed into a transformational agent. This means that God’s power, re-creative power, can be given to those who are sick–transforming their physical bodies by a spiritual presence in the physical reality. When you have the pastor or priest declare the word of God at a marriage, then there is a transformational nature of the man and woman that makes more than just a contract-like marriage possible. You have the possibility of a man and a woman being transformed into a spiritual reality that saves people from wanting to die of despair in marriage. All of these transformative things happen through the word of God, the Spiritual Life, using the physical realities of our lives to achieve other worldly things. Bread and wine give Sustenance and Life. Vows give transformational marriage. So, sacramentalism is the belief that God is strong and mighty enough to work through physical elements to help us ‘get spiritual’ in our lives. That is why we can touch a Bible and read it through physical eyes and have our hearts changed in a physical way. This work of God through the physical also means that God cares not just about your spiritual being, but your physical well being, too. Take care of your body, exercise and pray. Take care to do good deeds with your body. Take care of yourself as a total being, God came to deliver you as a totally physical spiritual being. Your assignment: Click on Dig Deeper and meditate on the scripture lessons there.
Dig Deeper Click Here to Go to Assignment. It is no accident that when the world needed someone to bridge the gap between God and the people who were supposed to follow him that a human being emerged on the scene. Deliverance wasn’t and isn’t found in only a spiritual being, but a transformational physical human being, Jesus Christ. Yet, the Christian claim about Jesus is more than just that he was human. The claim is that the humanity he received from the Virgin Mary was inextricably tied to the divinity of the Second Person of the Trinity. The Second Person of the Trinity is "Son" of "Father, Son and Holy Spirit." Why is this important? This coupling of the Spiritual "Son" and the humanity of "Mary" indicates that God is concerned with both your spiritual and physical well being. This spiritual working through the physical opens up all kinds of wonderful possibilities. Possibility Number One: We can receive a spiritual act of membership through a physical means. This is Baptism. Possibility Number Two: We can receive a physical presence of Christ within our bodies through a physical means. This is Holy Communion. Possibility Number Three: We can receive a tangible physical act of forgiveness which simultaneously works a spiritual act of cleansing. This is Confession. Possibility Number Four: We can receive a gift of the Holy Spirit later in life that urges us to continue in the faith which was proclaimed to us. This is Confirmation. Possibility Number Five: We can have people who are called to a spiritual higher calling who serve as a means of Christ’s presence among us. This is Ordination. Possibility Number Six: We can have a spiritual union between people that is achieved through a physical joining. This is Marriage. Possibility Number Seven: We can receive spiritual power for healing through a physical medium. This is Anointing with Oil.
Monday: Genesis 1(Out of nothing, the Spirit creates physical things and then gives them life.) Do something that gives someone a chance at life. Tuesday: John 1.1-14 (Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrament, God-man) Find a place to celebrate Holy Communion today. Wednesday: Jeremiah 31.31-34 (The promise of cleansing through Jesus Christ) Go clean up the side of a busy road nearest your home. Thursday: Ezekiel 36.23-32 (The promise of that cleansing through baptism, see also Romans 6) Go tidy an elderly person’s yard today. Friday: 1 Peter 3.18-22 (Baptism is what saves us through the Holy Spirit cleansing us) Give a donation to your local homeless shelter, or better, volunteer at your local homeless shelter to help save someone else. Saturday: Luke 24.13-35 (The Eucharist is an encounter with Christ through the Bread) Go through your cupboards and give your best food to the local Food Bank. Sunday: John 6.52-65 (The Bread is his flesh and the wine is his blood) Go to worship today. Click here to receive updates.
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