Introducing the 7 Sacraments

St Barnabas Ealing, 12th Sunday after Trinity. Readings can be found here. 

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.  

You may be wondering why I have chosen the reading of the prodigal son to introduce a sermon series on the Sacraments. “Is this not about forgiveness and restoration?” you might be asking yourself. Well, yes it. But it is also much more than that. In fact, I want to draw attention to what many biblical theologians would consider to be the two fundamental movements conveyed in this powerful parable - that of free will and grace.  

The movement of grace seems evident here but the two clues to the extraordinary depth of the father’s forgiveness can easily be missed. In verse 20b it says “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” The biblical scholar Kenneth Bailey argues that In Middle-Eastern culture it would have been unthinkable for a father to run towards a son who had effectively treated him like he was dead by demanding an early inheritance. The very idea that this same father might even be looking for a traitor son would have been considered both mad and foolish. The point is that the father is on the look out despite being rejected by his son in almost every way possible. He is eagerly awaiting his return and when he sees him coming rushes towards him, setting his own dignity aside. 

The movement of free will is also clear in the parable but it is worth emphasising. Whilst the reprobate son decides to take his inheritance early, abandon his father and then squander his wealth, he also decides to return to his father. Granted, his motives may still have been largely self-serving but he does exercise his free will in returning.

And so it is through the remarkable meeting of grace and free will that we see the purposes of God revealed or what Jesus otherwise calls “the kingdom”. What flows from it is the restoration of relationships, dignity and a peace which passes all human understanding.  

This then, is where I want to begin as we unpack the meaning of the sacraments. As the theologian Andrew Davison suggests in his book Why Sacraments?  “the sacraments are occasions in which we encounter Christ. Or, since the emphasis should rest on him, not on us, the sacraments are occasions when Christ reaches out to us.” In light of our parable this morning, we might say they are occasions in which Christ sees us coming and runs towards us. We, for our part, exercise our free will to respond to or at the very least make ourselves present for these gifts.  Fundamentally then, Christians of the West and East believe that the sacraments are the means through which the transforming power of God’s grace is encountered, particularly in the context of the church. You will note that I said thee Church - that is when two or three are gathered in Christ’s name - not the church building. 

The Book of Common Prayer defines a sacrament “as the outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace.” This well-known phrase highlights two key components of the Church’s understanding of the sacraments: the material or outward dimension and the spiritual or inward dimension. This is very important to get right. Like the incarnation of Christ himself, the material and spiritual aspects of the sacraments cannot be separated. Throughout the history of the Church many questioned the need for the physical aspect of the sacraments - particularly in the reformation. Is this not about being ‘ritualistic’ rather than an authentic follower of Christ? Worst still, why do we need this stuff to mediate between us and Christ when the faith is really about a very personal, direct and internal experience? 

The answer to these questions come from scripture and the ministry of Christ himself. The roots are to be found throughout the Old Testament. Faith in the one true God is played out in the interaction with physical things: the sacrifice of a lamb on an altar, the painting of door frames with blood, the circumcision of first born males, the dividing of a sea. But in particular, as Christians we believe that Jesus is Emmanuel - God among us. Jesus is constantly demonstrating the nature and purposes of God not least of which is his own messianic calling through interactions and metaphors that make use of the tangible. He heals lepers and the dead by touching them. To heal the blind he spat on the ground to make a muddy paste. He turned water into wine. He draws in the sand to psychologically disarm an angry mob. He rode on a donkey. He compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed, a pearl of great price and yeast. He calls on his followers to be salt and light. He ate, slept, laughed, cried and died on a brutal instrument of torture. When he rose from the dead on the third day the heavy stone in front of his tomb is physically rolled away. Mary Magdalene does not encounter a ‘spiritually’ resurrected Jesus, but a physical one. And indeed, in our parable today, the father calls for his estranged son to be dressed in the fine things of a nobleman - a ring, a robe and new sandals. The fattened calf is slaughtered and a feast prepared. The unseen reconciliation of father and son is made visible through the signs of favour and celebration. More than that, it is actually facilitated or mediated through it. Remember, it is not the return of the prodigal son that scandalises the older brother but his father’s lavish celebration of his return. 

On the other end of the spectrum is the claim that we don’t need the sacraments of the church because God is in all of creation. We simply have to take a walk in nature or enjoy a good meal to encounter God. This conviction emerges from a good place. As Christians we hold dear to the idea that creation is holy and wholesome. However, this general sacramental awareness is grounded and nurtured through the specific sacraments of the church. If we choose to dispense with these rites, we are effectively abandoning the way Christians have collectively shaped communal experience for thousands of years.

In addition, there is a streetwise toughness to the 7 sacraments. They direct us into the awe-inspiring recognition that God is in the present moment and then beyond it to the hopefulness that is promised through the suffering and resurrection of Jesus. God isn’t just with us in the here and now, he is constantly redeeming us in this moment and our future. The incarnation is not an end in itself, it is the means of God’s saving work.  

So the sacraments recruit the material and spiritual in a way that actually prevents sharp distinction. Andrew Davison explains it in these terms:

The Christian tradition will not let the ‘spiritual’ be simply spiritual or the ‘material’ be simply material. It shows this by constantly taking material things and dragging them into church (babies, love and marriage, bread and wine, the dead) and by constantly taking spiritual things and enacting them materially.

Attentiveness to the human condition with all of it’s messiness and wonder is at the heart of Christ’s life, teaching and very being. This is why the profound spiritual questions of sin, suffering, forgiveness, freedom, well-being and eternal life are infused with the seemingly mundane substance of the sacraments - actions, bread, wine, water, oil, ash, songs and words.    

This of course echoes what I highlighted at the beginning about the parable of the prodigal son and the sacraments. Christ rushing to meet us, harnessing the very stuff of our existence. Above all the sacraments demonstrate to us over and over again that the one almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, shapes salvation in terms we understand by sending us Jesus Christ - to live with us and like us, to suffer as we do, to die as we one day all will and then to rise again. Through the power of his sacrifice we believe that we will too.   

So important are the 7 sacraments to the Church that we believe that some give indelible shape to our souls and others sustain or repair that identity. In fact, there is nothing in the joy and suffering of the human condition that the sacraments do not transform, heal or nourish.  

Of the 7, we believe 4 impart a particular character (or imprint) of Christ. Baptism incorporates us into the people of God - the body of Christ. It cannot be undone or redone. Confirmation, as its name implies confirms the work of the Holy Spirit begun at our baptism. We are given the mark of an adult member of God’s household. In marriage two individuals are grafted together through the Holy Spirit. In ordination, the call to serve the people of God is recognised and that character consecrated by the people of God through the bishop. In all 4 of these sacraments the Church holds that our identities are changed for good. The remaining 3 sacraments nourish or repair us. Principally through Holy Communion we are forgiven, fed, watered and sent out for mission. In anointing we became available for the healing of mind, body and spirit according to God’s purposes. In confession, we speak the things that hold us back from accepting the grace of God and then are restored to our heavenly father.  

In the meeting of grace and free will we experience the sacramental provision of God who is running to meet us in his son Jesus Christ. He is constantly reaching out to us in ways we understand, through signs that affirm, transform and repair the deepest realities of our hidden selves. 

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him… “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.