16. Explain the role and significance of the sacraments in the ministry to which you have been called.
Article VI of The Confession of Faith states, “We believe the Sacraments, ordained by Christ, are symbols and pledges of the Christian’s profession and of God’s love toward us. They are means of grace by which God works invisibly in us, quickening, strengthening, and confirming our faith in him.” The sacraments are more than just ways we express our faith and remember God’s grace, they are “means of grace”; they are ways in which we live our faith and experience God’s grace. God takes simple, very earthy elements of bread, wine, and water, and creates for us a way in which we can experience God’s grace in real and memorable ways. These physical reminders, symbols of God’s creative power, become for us vehicles of the divine presence.
I have a high view of the sacraments and they are integral to my work as a pastor. We humans need something that we can experience – see, touch, taste, smell, hear – to draw us into the presence of God. The smell of the bread, taste of the wine, and sound of the pouring water are experiences that connect us to our Creator. However, the sacraments go beyond that, to the level of mystery, where God mysteriously becomes entirely present with us, in us, and through us. As I recognize the sacraments as the mediated presence of God’s divine grace, they become for me a means to draw together the diverse community that gathers around the font and table. In no other experience are we truly “one” the way we are when we observe the sacraments.
When we meet another person at the font or at the table, gone are the barriers that would separate us. At this sacred moment we live the vision of the Christian community that takes seriously the affirmation by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). The sacraments open to us a world without barriers, a world without divisions, a world united by the living Christ; and draws us beyond any barrier that would separate us from God.
As a United Methodist, I affirm and support the understanding of the sacraments as explained in the documents “By Water and the Spirit” and “This Holy Mystery.” As one who is called to the ministry of ordained elder, I take very seriously the administration of the sacraments. I consider it a sacred trust and privilege that God would allow me to be an instrument of God’s divine service in and to the body of Christ through sacramental authority. But it is also humbling as I reflect on how God uses an imperfect vessel like me to share the bounty of God’s grace. It is the mystery of the sacraments – God comes to us imperfect creatures through simple physical means and offers the gift of perfect union with God in a mysterious and miraculous way.