“It is taught among us that the sacraments were instituted not only to be signs by which people might be identified outwardly as Christians, but that they are signs and testimonies of God’s will toward us for the purpose of awakening and strengthening our faith.”
Augsburg Confession article 8
The older I get the more I hunger for the sacraments God has given to us. Holy communion and holy baptism both use physical items to bring a spiritual gift and were instituted by Jesus Christ himself. Indeed, they were commanded by Christ. “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” he said in Matthew 28:19. “Do this in remembrance of me,” he said at the Last Supper in Luke 22:19. If there were no other reason to be baptized and to go to communion than the command of Jesus in the Bible, that should be sufficient for anyone who loves Jesus. It is his clearly stated will that all those who would be his disciples should be baptized and that they all would regularly receive his Body and Blood at the table of the Lord.
But the sacraments are far more than commands to be followed. As article 8 of the Augsburg Confession says, they are “signs by which people might outwardly be identified as Christians.” On this point, the reformers were in agreement with the established church of the day, which is why this statement about the purpose of the sacraments is part of a conditional clause leading up to another aspect of the sacraments over which there was some difference of opinion. But the truth of what the first part of the article says should not be neglected. As an outward sign of Christianity, participation in the sacraments always has been and always will be the preeminent sign. This is affirmed again in article 7 of the Augsburg Confession which states that the church, properly speaking, is simply the assembly of believers where the word is preached and the sacraments are administered. Members of the church, properly speaking, are those who hear the word and receive the sacraments.
Thus in ordinary congregations such as ours, the constitution says that membership begins by being baptized or attesting that a person has been baptized somewhere else some time in the past. To retain voting rights within the congregation a member must have communed within the last year. These are the outward signs of Christians which reveal something of what a person believes, but they in no way reveal the secrets of the heart or the sincerity of faith. We must remember that, too.
But there is more. Article 8 goes on to make the most important point, which is that the sacraments are given to us “for the purpose of awakening and strengthening faith.” And that is what I hunger for the older I get: the strengthening of my faith. I have to confess that I once thought that by the time I was plowing into my seventh decade on this earth, faith would be easy. When I was young I thought the great old preachers of the church, with their thick brogues and deep resonant voices from decades of preaching without the aid of microphones, surely never doubted and surely never were seriously tempted anymore. How naïve! Each and every age has its own temptations, trials, and fears. At any step along the way we may feel like crying out “increase our faith.” (Luke 17:5) The chief purpose of the sacraments is to increase our faith.
In the video “At the Lord’s Table,” which I use when preparing fifth graders for holy communion, there is a scene where an elderly man stands in the sacristy of his church and gives his testimony. “I know that I am a sinner all the time,” he says. And then after a long pause he says, “but when I come to communion, I know that I am forgiven.” Most likely the real depth of what this elder of the faith is saying sails right over the heads of the ten year olds who watch him, but every time I see his face and hear his words I am deeply touched because when the communion server on Sunday says to me “the body of Christ given for you” and “the blood of Christ shed for you” I, too, know that I am forgiven.
In the Beatitudes Jesus said, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6) Satisfaction for the sins of the whole world was made by the blood of Christ on the cross. My faith is strengthened when I encounter that blood in the holy sacrament.
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