Certain Signs of Grace

What a blessing it is to share the Sacraments! Ordained clergy know the extraordinary gift of serving as brokers of an exquisite mystery: God's love embracing and empowering folks who choose to trust God -- even when they do not fully understand the depth of God's grace or the "workings" of God's means of grace. Even God's sacramental agents, the clergy, confess that God's "amazing grace" is beyond human comprehension.

"Sacraments ordained of Christ are not only badges or tokens of Christian men’s profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God’s good will toward us, by which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm, our faith in him.

"There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. . . .

"The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about; but that we should duly use them. . . ."

Methodism’s historic Articles of Religion (1784) were sent from England by John Wesley for use in the new Methodist Episcopal Church in America. Even today, these excerpts from Article XVI, "Of the Sacraments", inform, instruct, and invite.

Baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime event – and yet our life in Christ is invigorated every time we share in the baptism of another. It is “a sign of regeneration or the new birth” (from Article XVII, "Of Baptism"). In awe, we witness God's loving embrace and spiritual empowerment being entrusted to each new child of God.

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, the Eucharist, however, is to be a recurring festival (“as oft as ye shall drink it”) in the life of the church and in the lives of each member. It is not merely our ceremony of remembrance: It is a “certain sign of grace, and God’s good will toward us, by which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm, our faith in him.”

Sacraments are most abundantly shared in the context of a gathered community -- some are well established in the mystery, others are only becoming aware of it; none are worthy of the Sacrament except that God has provided the means of grace, God has called us to come, and God has urged us to partake.

"The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about; but that we should duly use them. . . ."