For the Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St.Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt
On reading about the Christian Year, and of all the sacraments celebrated or not celebrated, I was struck by our constant return to community.
According to James F. White, “The Christian community needs to assemble in order to worship and this act of coming together may be the most important single activity of the congregation.”1 Over and over as I have read through this book and specifically the value of Baptism and the Eucharist, I understand it all as a corporate event. Communion with Christ and the purpose of knowing Him cannot take place outside of the church as a whole.
For all the controversy over modes and purposes of baptism, they all take place in the context of the church, at the very least in the presence of family and clergy. As White states, “Initiation is a communal act, and the community must be present. The whole congregation is a sponsor.”2 No matter the procedure of baptism, it is notable that it was considered always a part of initiation into the church body. The Eucharist is also done as a whole body, each one taking a piece of the same bread and often sipping from the same cup. We acknowledge Christ and His death and resurrection together as a family from whom we draw accountability and comfort.
As our culture moves toward an even more individualistic age, how can we retain the importance of community? Will access to information via computer and television lull us into becoming alone? I wonder while we have access to so much more in light of the computer age, how much personal contact and social interaction has been lost? Can we build the same kind of relationships online as we can living face to face?
When looking at the early church, and how important meeting together was to them, I believe we have lost some of the importance of this personal contact. Those believers had daily communion with one another, they were able to encourage and instruct, and learn together. How often in our society do we go through an entire day, even week, without giving an encouraging word (or receiving one)? How long can we be left to our own thoughts before being instructed or enlightened by another person who knows us?
The more I read on the sacraments, the more I am inspired to act these out on a constant basis with the people in my own community, beginning with my husband. I do not want to become so digital in my learning and experience that I forget the feel of being underwater, or the touching of a hand as I break bread with someone. I want to ensure the meaning of the sacraments stays strong in my life, as a representation of who Christ is, what He did and will do, and how we as a body belong to that life.
Baptism and the Eucharist are not only about the celebration of Christ, but of us in Him. They are of the entire church, our families, communities, denominations, and world. We all belong.
“We are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future. There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and there is only one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all.”3
1.James F. White, Introduction to Christian Worship, Abingdon Press, 2000, p.86
2.James F. White, Introduction to Christian Worship, Abingdon Press, 2000, p.226
3. Ephesians 4:4-6, NLT
