Lenten Devotional – Maundy Thursday

Q. 96. What is the Lord’s Supper?

A. The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, wherein by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ’s appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Cor. 11:26)

"The fellowship of the table teaches Christians that here they still eat the perishable bread of the earthly pilgrimage. But if they share this bread with one another, they shall also one day receive the imperishable bread together in the Father's house." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954), 66.

  The simple act of sitting down around a table is something a lot of people don't find particularly important - but for Christians, the shared supper is a vital aspect of spiritual life. The Scriptures speak of three kinds of table fellowship that Jesus keeps with his own: daily fellowship at table, the table fellowship of the Lord's Supper, and the final table fellowship in the kingdom of God. But in all three, the one thing that counts is that “their eyes were opened, and they knew him.” (Luke 23:31)

  This meal is provided, not because we have earned the right to eat and drink with Jesus, but simply as an act of divine love. For Presbyterians this divinely initiated meal is one of two sacraments of the church, instituted by God and commended by Christ. We are following in the tradition of the early church when we affirm three primal material elements of life - water, bread and wine - as the primary symbols of offering life to God. Being washed with the water of baptism, we receive new life in Christ. In eating the bread and drinking the cup offered by God, our memory of the promises are made present by the Holy Spirit.

  “The Lord's Supper is a sacrament of continuous growth, nourishment and new life. In our Reformed tradition participation in this sacrament should follow the sacrament of baptism. Just as humans need food and drink for nurture and sustenance, Calvin wrote that the Holy Meal is God's way of providing for our maintenance during the whole course of our lives after we have been received into God's family. Both sacraments provide a visible, in fact a graphic, way of presenting God's promises.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The Fellowship of the Table” Life Together, p. 66-69

Lenten Devotional – Day 37

Q. 95. To whom is Baptism to be administered?

A. Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible Church, till they profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him; but the infants of such as are members of the visible Church are to be baptized.

“Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” (Acts 2:38-39)

“In the Waters of baptism we are reminded that we are not born in a vacuum, nor do we journey entirely alone (although loneliness is often part of the burden). Being reborn, being made alive, involves being born into a community. So there are strings attached to this adventure.” - Alan W. Jones, Journey into Christ

  The apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:13, “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son.” It’s an interesting verse to look at because of its language.

  There’s movement here. People who are being saved leave one place and journey to another. Only, according to Paul’s language, it isn’t the travelers who make the arrangements and undertake the journey. Someone else, God, picks the travelers up and drops them down in their new location, the Kingdom of God which God has prepared for them now and into eternity. It’s all about crossing a border, but it isn’t like any other border crossing we’ve ever experienced. The difference is that, in the case of God’s border crossing, the traveler has little to do with it. It’s God’s initiative, from beginning to end.

  We could never make the journey on our own. We depend on the good offices of others to bring us there. When Presbyterians speak of baptism as a covenant, we emphasize the multiple commitments involved. First and most basic, there is God's commitment to us. Then there are the commitments the community of faith makes to us. Finally, are the commitments we make to God, to our children, and to the church. That is why we echo Calvin's own two-sided treatment of baptism's gracious character when it says:

  Baptism enacts and seals what the Word proclaims: God's redeeming grace offered to all people. Baptism is God's gift of grace and also God's summons to respond to that grace. Baptism calls to repentance, to faithfulness, and to discipleship. Baptism gives the church its identity and commissions the church for ministry to the world.

Lenten Devotional – Day 36

Q. 94. What is Baptism?

A. Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, does signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace and our engagement to be the Lord’s.

“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Gal. 3:27)

  Whenever the church baptizes anyone, it is a radical and controversial thing we do. There is an ancient tradition that goes, "When you save the life of a person, when you rescue them from drowning or death, you are bound to them forever." That is what we do in baptism: we have saved this person's life; we have claimed the person for Christ. Now, we have a relationship with that person that can be neglected or abused, but never broken. In moments of despair and doubt and desolation, Martin Luther would say to himself as a reminder, "I was baptized."

  Baptism is neither a ticket to heaven nor a magic charm to keep us out of harm’s way. Rather, we called to work at sustaining our identity as the baptized becoming the sons and daughters of God. The Westminster Larger Catechism speaks of “the needful but much neglected duty of improving our Baptism… all our lifelong” (7.277). As John Calvin put it, “baptism is the sign of the initiation by which we are received into the society of the church, in order that, engrafted in Christ, we may be reckoned among God’s children.” The power of baptism is lifelong.

  Baptism, as a sacrament, is an outward visible “sign” that attests to God’s gracious goodwill toward us. Calvin indicates that sacraments are “testimonies of grace and salvation from the Lord.” The principalities and powers have suffered ultimate defeat through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but they are still at work in the world. Baptism plunges believers into a situation where the old has passed away “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5:17), although the old can still afflict, perplex, persecute, or strike down (2 Cor. 4:7-18). The present reality of alienation, brokenness, and injustice demonstrates the gap and tension between our world and the fullness of the reign of God.

  Baptism links believers with the death as well as the resurrection of Jesus Christ, disciples of Jesus Christ and the faith communities where they participate share in his suffering and self-giving ministry (cf. Phil. 3:10). They are called to live into their baptism, to learn daily how to die and thus how to live. As such, baptism goes far beyond the private salvation of the individual soul or the isolated moment of baptism. It forms a new humanity by incorporating believers into the body of Jesus Christ and beginning their formation as a missionary people. We are not simply a single, lone individual claimed by God in baptism we are the body of Christ who are the baptized together as a covenant people working together as a missional people.

Lenten Devotional – Day 35

Q. 93. Which are the sacraments of the New Testament?

A. The sacraments of the New Testament are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread,” (1 Cor. 11:23)

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matt. 28:19)

Tradition becomes the initial and fundamental source of Christian theology – not in competition with Scripture, but as Scripture’s spiritual context. . . . The church, as Eucharistic community, existed before the New Testament books were written, and these books were themselves composed in and for concrete local churches. Their written text is meant to be read and understood by baptized, committed people gathered in the name of the lord. Theology, therefore, is not simply a science, using Scripture as initial data; it also presupposes living in communion with God and people, in Christ and in the Spirit, within the community of the church. — John Meyendorff, “Theology in an Eastern Orthodox Perspective”

  To better understand the Westminster Short Catechism it is often helpful to look to the other confessions to view their perspective on the question being asked. The Scots Confession speaks to the is question, “As the fathers under the Law, besides the reality of the sacrifices, had two chief sacraments, that is, circumcision and the passover, and those who rejected these were not reckoned among God’s people; so do we acknowledge and confess that now in the time of the gospel we have two chief sacraments, which alone were instituted by the Lord Jesus and commanded to be used by all who will be counted members of his body, that is, Baptism and the Supper or Table of the Lord Jesus, also called the Communion of His Body and Blood. These sacraments, both of the Old Testament and of the New, were instituted by God not only to make a visible distinction between his people and those who were without the Covenant, but also to exercise the faith of his children and, by participation of these sacraments, to seal in their hearts the assurance of his promise, and of that most blessed conjunction, union, and society, which the chosen have with their Head, Christ Jesus.” (The Scots Confession, 3.21)

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks to the importance of the sacraments within the life of the church-community, “the body of Christ takes on visible form not only in the preaching of the word but also in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, both of which emanate from the true humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. In both, Christ encounters us bodily and makes us participants in the community of his body. Both sacraments must be accompanied by the proclamation of the Word. In baptism as well as in the Lord’s Supper the content of that proclamation is the death of Christ for us (Rom. 6:3ff.; 1 Cor. 11:26). The gift we receive in both sacraments is the body of Christ. In baptism we are made members of Christ’s body. In the Lord’s Supper we receive the gift of bodily community with the body of the Lord, and through it bodily community with the members of this body. In receiving the gifts of Christ’s body, we become, thereby, one body with him. Neither the gift of baptism nor the gift of the Lord’s Supper is fully understood if we interpret them only in terms of the forgiveness of sin. The gift of the body conferred in the sacraments presents us with the Lord in bodily form dwelling in his church-community. Forgiveness of sin is indeed a part of this gift of the body of Christ as church-community… Baptism and the Lord’s Supper belong solely to the community of the body of Christ. Whereas the word of proclamation is addressed to believers and unbelievers alike, the sacraments have been given solely to the church-community. The Christian community is thus essentially the community gathered to celebrate baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and only then is it the community gathered in hear the word proclaimed.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, First Fortress Press paperback edition, 2003, pp. 228-29.