Great is the mystery of Faith – baptism and Eucharist 

Words or Actions?  It is said that actions speak louder than words. 

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." A saying attributed to Confucius. Worship is a participatory activity, not something we merely listen to or watch, it is something we Do. This is particularly true in two of our most important acts of worship – Holy Communion and Baptism.  They are the most important, because Jesus commands us to do both:  he says:  ‘ Go – (to all nations) and make them my disciples – baptise them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit’. Matt.28.19. And of course, in our reading today, we see Jesus himself being baptised.  So he leads by word and example, word and action.

Jesus does the same when it comes to Holy Communion:  He teaches us by example  – in the last supper, after the resurrection at Emmaus, and by the sea of Galilee. We also see him breaking bread and giving thanks during the feeding of the 5,000. 

And he tells us to continue in the tradition: he says:  18 I tell you that from now on I won’t drink from the fruit of the vine until God’s kingdom has come.” 19 After taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, he took the cup after the meal and said, “This cup is the new covenant by my blood, which is poured out for you.  Luke 22.18-20. We celebrate communion in remembrance, and in obedience, and following in the tradition of the disciples.

Baptism and Holy Communion are sometimes called sacraments.  A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an invisible grace, given by God to help us become more holy.  (there are other sacraments as well as these two, but baptism and Holy Communion are the most important, because they are the ones that Jesus directly commands his disciples to carry out.  (They are sometimes called Dominical Sacraments) 

In a sacrament, very ordinary everyday things – such as bread, wine, water, oil, candles, take on extra-ordinary meanings.  They become symbolic of our life with God, as we perform special actions using them. 

Sometimes we use items such as candles on other occasions, such as for a Christingle service, or as a symbol of our prayers.  Or we might anoint someone with oil who is ill.   These are not sacraments, but we are using the symbols in a sacramental kind of a way–in other words, in a Christingle, each element means something.

In worship, all our senses are used: hearing, sight, smell, touch and taste. And using these ordinary items in extra-ordinary ways, enables this to happen. 

Let’s look at the symbolism behind baptism, starting with Jesus’ own baptism.

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus comes from nowhere: There’s no birth story, no nothing. There is John.  Baptising in the River Jordan, and telling of a Messiah who is coming. And then Jesus comes.  From Nazareth.  From his home town. He comes to John.  And John Baptises him.  And then something extra-ordinary happens.  As Jesus comes up dripping out of the river Jordan, the spirit descends on him, like a dove.  And a voice comes from heaven:  You are my beloved son; in you I take delight.  He is given an identity.  God’s Son, the beloved one, God says, I delight in you.  He belongs.    He comes from the world, to God.  And then what?  He goes out. Out into the wilderness at the start of his ministry.

Baptism goes back to before the time of Jesus – John was following in a religious tradition that symbolises repentance and forgiveness, but Jesus makes it a sign of initiation, as new disciples are baptised, by invoking the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In our baptism services, we are reminded that we need water to drink and for cleansing, and that water is essential for life – it revives us.  We come FROM the world, and receive  Sign of the cross, a symbol of –belonging TO God in Christ Jesus.  WE become his beloved children, with whom he is well pleased.

The signing with a cross is often done in oil – oil for healing, and oil for deliverance, something which is very significant for those who are baptised as adults. 

We are welcomed IN to the church, where we belong, - God says to us that we are family – children of God and brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. 

Then we are sent OUT again to serve God in the world.   We have come from Darkness to Light –and we go out with a lighted candle – to shine as lights in the world. 

And what are the symbols we use in Holy Communion?

Bread – Christ’s body. It’s ordinary bread, unleavened and wafer like, just because it’s easy to use and doesn’t make crumbs– but I could just bake a loaf and use that!

It’s fortified wine – just for convenience – because it keeps, and in our church, we don’t use a bottle at a time – but it could be just ordinary table wine, if we were a large church and used a whole bottle at a service. 

So, what does receiving Holy Communion mean to us? Have a think for a moment, and perhaps chat in your pews about it.

Anyone want to say something?

We say: ‘give us this day our daily bread’ whenever we pray the Lord’s prayer.  Bread is the staple food for much of the western world.  And most of will eat bread every day.  We take it for granted.  It becomes part of us, nourishing us, turning into the cells of our bodies, and all that makes us function healthily. In Jesus’ time, and country, wine was what everyone drank.  It was cheap and safe, so the beverage of choice.  I wonder if today Jesus would use this?

A generation or two ago, in our family we hardly drank wine at all, (does anyone remember liebfraumilch and blue nun?) Sherry was something that came out just at Christmas.  The main drink (for the men only of course, was beer)   So receiving wine for communion was even more exotic and strange than it would seem even today.  But this wasn’t meant to be the case.

But Jesus is using the ordinary every day things, and making them extra-ordinary, firstly through the Passover meal, where unleavened bread and cups of wine are used symbolically (if you come to our Seder Eucharist on Maundy Thursday you’ll find out more about this), but then adding another layer:  this is my body, this is my blood.

In the Church of England, we don’t these days tend to get too hung up about how literally or otherwise we are meant to take these words.  There is, as with many things Anglican, a range of views – from the literal to the purely symbolic.  The best answer, and I quote from Archdeacon Paul, to the big question of what happens to the bread and wine in the Eucharist, and how Christ is truly present, is ‘God alone knows’. This is not a theological cop-out, but what we are celebrating is the presence of Christ in his church in the way that accords with God’s will.  Christ is real and active in our lives, and by partaking of the bread and wine, which becomes part of us.  Jesus says: May they be one, father, as you are in me and I am in you.  We are united in the one bread and one cup, with one another and with Christ.

Next time, we shall look in more detail at the prayer of thanksgiving that we use as we prepare to receive Holy Communion.