Confirmation Lite. 2nd Sunday in Lent, 28 February 2021
Good morning again, and welcome to the second session of Confirmation Lite, an overview of the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement, as our Presiding Bishop calls us!
Last week I said, and think to stick with it, that today we'll talk about the sacraments.
When I was growing up in the Episcopal Church we learned the Offices of Instruction in the old Book of Common Prayer by reading and rehearsing them aloud with the rector. The Offices of Instruction were essentially a repetition of the Catechism, also printed in the BCP. We could, but do not, do the same thing today with the Catechism, an outline of the faith in question and answer format, the series about the sacraments:
The Sacraments
Q. What are the sacraments?
A. The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.
Q. What is grace?
A. Grace is God's favor toward us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills.
Q. What are the two great sacraments of the Gospel?
A. The two great sacraments given by Christ to his Church are Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist.
Holy Baptism
Q. What is Holy Baptism?
A. Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ's Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.
Q. What is the outward and visible sign in Baptism?
A. The outward and visible sign in Baptism is water, in which the person is baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Q. What is the inward and spiritual grace in Baptism?
A. The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God's family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit.
Q. What is required of us at Baptism?
A. It is required that we renounce Satan, repent of our sins, and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Q. Why then are infants baptized?
A. Infants are baptized so that they can share citizenship in the Covenant, membership in Christ, and redemption by God.
Q. How are the promises for infants made and carried out?
A. Promises are made for them by their parents and sponsors, who guarantee that the infants will be brought up within the Church, to know Christ and be able to follow him.
The Holy Eucharist
Q. What is the Holy Eucharist?
A. The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament commanded by Christ for the continual remembrance of his life, death, and resurrection, until his coming again.
Q. Why is the Eucharist called a sacrifice?
A. Because the Eucharist, the Church's sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, is the way by which the sacrifice of Christ is made present, and in which he unites us to his one offering of himself.
Q. By what other names is this service known?
A. The Holy Eucharist is called the Lord's Supper, and Holy Communion; it is also known as the Divine Liturgy, the Mass, and the Great Offering.
Q. What is the outward and visible sign in the Eucharist?
A. The outward and visible sign in the Eucharist is bread and wine, given and received according to Christ's command.
Q. What is the inward and spiritual grace given in the Eucharist?
A. The inward and spiritual grace in the Holy Communion is the Body and Blood of Christ given to his people, and received by faith.
Q. What are the benefits which we receive in the Lord's Supper?
A. The benefits we receive are the forgiveness of our sins, the strengthening of our union with Christ and one another, and the foretaste of the heavenly banquet which is our nourishment in eternal life.
Q. What is required of us when we come to the Eucharist?
A. It is required that we should examine our lives, repent of our sins, and be in love and charity with all people.
Other Sacramental Rites are addressed in the Catechism, Book of Common Prayer p. 860f. And seeing that this session is Confirmation Lite,
Q. What is Confirmation?
A. Confirmation is the rite in which we express a mature commitment to Christ, and receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and the laying on of hands by a bishop.
Q. What is required of those to be confirmed?
A. It is required of those to be confirmed that they have been baptized, are sufficiently instructed in the Christian Faith, are penitent for their sins, and are ready to affirm their confession of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
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We say there are two sacraments, Baptism and Holy Communion, called "dominical" sacraments because the Bible traces them to the Lord Jesus ("dominical" means "Lord").
"High Church" Episcopalians (sometimes called Anglo-Catholic, in ceremony and theology) may count seven sacraments to include five other sacramental events that evolved over the life of the church: confirmation, marriage, ordination, reconciliation of a penitent (commonly called private confession); and unction of the sick (commonly called extreme unction or last rites), which involves prayer and anointing with oil that has been blessed by a bishop of the church.
With covid precautions, both sacraments have become quite constrained.
One of the joys of a baptism Sunday used to be sharing the baptismal water with those gathered by sprinkling it over the heads of the congregation; we no longer do that. In fact, for reasons of strict sanitation against covid, we no longer keep the baptismal or holy water in the font for people to touch and make the sign of the cross upon entering or leaving church. We've lost a lot, and I don't look for it to return, and I think that if it does return people will not be comfortable with it.
Holy Communion in Anglicanism, the Episcopal Church, always included both bread and wine, the wine of the common cup; but understanding that you could receive "either or both", and that receiving just the bread or just the wine is theologically and sacramentally the same as receiving both bread and wine. In recent years, people have become concerned about sharing the common cup, so that many (maybe most) people coming to the Altar rail for communion have been receiving just the bread (or dipping the wafer in the chalice, called intinction - - which from a sanitation viewpoint is no different from drinking from the chalice that other people have been sipping, and wine that sometimes engages people's unwashed fingers holding the wafer). With covid precautions the bishops have forbidden us to bunch up at the Altar rail together, and forbidden us to share the cup, so we are lining up mindfully spaced, to receive only the bread (the "host" as is common in the Roman Catholic Church), which, as I say, has always been acceptable in the Episcopal Church anyway.
My opinion is that the church will never return to offering the chalice to the People, even if or when covid dies out; and that if we ever do offer the chalice again, people will be even more uneasy and uncomfortable with it, and people will have found that even if the chalice is offered, they prefer just the wafer.
Wine is still consecrated in the chalice during the Eucharistic Prayer, but we are not allowed to offer it, only the Celebrant may drink it.
It's very common, but always surprising to me, to hear people say that what attracted them into the Episcopal Church was Holy Communion, and the sacredness we accord it. It is covenantal for us, Jesus offering it to us as his Body broken, and the New Covenant in his Blood.
In that regard, I'll add that General Convention's Canon 1.17.7 reads, “no unbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this Church.” But that canon, many people in the church (half? IDK, but including us here at HNEC, and including our bishop) set aside on the theology of welcoming hospitality; that Jesus himself, in feeding the multitudes, never ever restricted whom he would feed or who could eat, but fed everyone present who wanted to come; that the Altar and Holy Communion belong to the Lord, not to the Church, and everyone is welcome. That's our policy and practice at HNEC: all are invited and welcome.
What questions or subject for discussion?
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Bible passages and art about baptism and communion and covenant.
John the Baptist. Mark 1:9-11.
Jesus "to fulfill all righteousness" (it's the right and proper thing to do to join the movement) Matthew 3:15
God and Noah. Genesis 9:8-17
Abraham's covenant Genesis 15:9-21, Genesis 17:10-12
David and Jonathan covenant, exchanging clothes and weapons. 1 Samuel 18:3,4
Jesus' feeding events
Jesus' at the Last Supper, "the new covenant in my blood" ... Mark 14:22f.
Jesus blood on the cross
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Art. The Baptism of Christ. Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn 1660, reed pen in brown ink, wash, on paper, 16.5 × 25.2 cm Dresden, Graphic Collection of the State Art Collections Attribution to Rembrandt is uncertain
Art: Plautilla Nelli c.a. 1568 AD https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/first-last-supper-woman-painter-florence We know of course that they did not sit on chairs or benches as we do at a dining table, and as most art depicts, but sat reclining on the floor, perhaps on cushions, at a low table. I have added (scroll down) five more artists' representations that seem likely more historically accurate.
My favorite is the bottom one, because no biblical account says that only Jesus and The Twelve were present, and I visualize being there Jesus' entire close circle of friends, perhaps including Martha, Mary, and Lazarus or someone John or whoever was the Beloved Disciple. You can see Judas Iscariot at the top left, hurriedly and angrily leaving.
Most artists visualize a rather grand upper room, with heavy columns supporting a substantial structure: what do YOU imagine the room was like?
Art: close-up Christ and St John, Plautilla Nelli
