1. What does the Lord's supper/ Eucharist mean to you?
2. How important is preparation for this, and what form does it take?
3. What does baptism mean to you?
4. How important is preparation for baptism and what form does it take?
When I began the conversation with my church about being
called to rostered ministry, the question of how central to my call was being
able to administer the Sacraments was *the* question that made all the other
questions fade into the background. The presence of Christ in the bread and the
wine and the living-ness of God’s promise of forgiveness and new life sustain
me.
One of my favorite descriptions of the sacraments comes from
Dirk Lange and Christian Scharen, two of my worship professors at Luther Seminary:
Baptism brings you into the family of God and coming to the Table teaches you how to live in that family.
(Hopefully I haven't butchered the paraphrase)
It's a question others may debate, but for me, infant baptism is one of the ways we witness the depth of God's grace and understand that it a gift freely given by God to each of us. An unearned gift. We are forgiven and it does not come from any merit or worthiness of our own at all.
What I want for adults and for families though is for the catechumenate process of learning what God promises and how we are called into life, to renew our lives daily and live into the fullness of life in Christ, to be transformational.
Similarly, I want people to grasp the joy of being welcomed to the Table and of being loved despite our brokenness. For my congregation, part of preparing to come to the Table is participating in the order of confession and forgiveness where we hear our sins are forgiven. Even on my ugliest, most bitter day; my most despairing or exhausting day; my grief or anger. Even then.
How about you?
p.s. Sally also asked whether we had a quote, poem or song that helps us come before God in a sacramental way...will you share yours?
4 comments:
Christina, thanks for sharing the joy! You asked for poems, etc. Here's one of mine. Sometimes I think of it during worship...because we all come to the table from the edges.
On the jagged edge of
The cliff
Of a land called The Unknown,
We stretched out our arms
To find our balance
And what we found
In thin air
Was what we already had
(But had forgotten):
Grace—
And more grace—
Heaping blessings into our open hands,
Overflowing,
Filling in the rugged terrain of our anxious path,
Making for us firm ground
To travel on
Toward
That
Unknown
Land—
The place you call us to explore,
The place of jagged edges.
Beth Krolak
From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. John 1:16
Some days are more ragged than others -that's wonderful - thank you!
Great stuff, I like the way you've explained the welcome of Baptism :-), and love Beth's poem in the comments.
this is beautiful, thank you! and about Beth's lovely poem, some days, years and decades are more ragged, rugged and jagged than other. Peace!
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