The Sacrament of Love

The Holy Eucharist is the central act of worship in the majority of Christian churches around the world. There are many reasons for this. One of them is that the Lord’s Supper has traditionally been understood as a means of grace. That is to say, that through the celebration of the Eucharist and through the reception of the Eucharist (Holy Communion) you and I receive forgiveness, strength, and spiritual power from God.

We cannot love God, others, or ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39) without regularly receiving God’s love. The Eucharist is an opportunity to receive God’s love. The Eucharist brings us to the cross of Christ and there we proclaim to God, “In your infinite love you made us for yourself; and, when we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, you, in your mercy, sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal son…to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all” (Book of Common Prayer, 362).

The Eucharist is one way in which God pours His Holy Spirit into our “selves, our souls, and bodies” (BCP, 336). In the Eucharist we encounter in thought, word, and action, in symbol, in prayer, and in Spirit the life of Jesus. Just as Jesus’ life was “taken, broken, and given” for the sins of the world (John 3:16) so the priest takes the bread, breaks it, and gives it to the people. In the same way the life of the Christian is to be taken by God, broken by God (opening our will to God’s will), and given in loving service to our neighbors.  

The Eucharist is the sacrament of love. Love from a Christian perspective is primarily a choice and not a feeling. There will be times when receiving the Eucharist will be a powerful experience, an experience marked by stirring feelings, but there will be other times when it seems all we are doing is going through the motions, feeling nothing at all. This should not trouble us too much. Instead, we should choose with God’s help to receive the bread and wine “in remembrance that Christ died” for us and to “feed on him” in our hearts “by faith and with thanksgiving.” When we say yes to God’s love in the Eucharist Christ pours His love into our lives, regardless of how we feel.

Weekly reception has long been understood not only as the faithful duty of the Christian, but as a necessity as well. Human loves dries up without a regular refill of divine love. Every week we approach the altar of love, and indeed, the person of love Jesus Christ. As we lift our hands to receive the bread and open our mouths to take in the wine, divine love is poured into our hearts. It is not difficult to understand then, the desire in some Christian circles for daily reception of the Eucharist. Regardless of how often we receive the Eucharist we must remind ourselves that it is the sacrament of love, through which we encounter the God of love, and through which we our strengthened to obey Jesus' commandment “to love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).  

Experiencing Heaven on Earth

The Christian life might properly be described as a progressive entry into heaven. In other words, we don’t only experience heaven after we die. Heaven can be experienced now. The fullness of heaven, where we will be fully connected to God and to those who have loved God awaits us after we die. However, we can begin to experience this connection to God and connection to others who loved God right now.

Love is the pathway to experiencing heaven on earth. Love is the pathway for life, both here on earth, and in the life to come. We know this because God’s Son, Jesus Christ, made love central to His life and teachings. When asked about the greatest of God’s many commandments Jesus famously replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).   

Jesus didn’t only teach about love, he lived a life of love. There are many definitions of love in our culture, but when Christians speak of love they are speaking of the love that Jesus taught and lived. Jesus is the Christian definition of love. In Christ God’s love was made manifest, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). Love is a choice we make with God’s grace. Christian love does not stop when feelings of love dry up. Christian love, in other words, God’s love working through us, endures regardless of the circumstances (1 Corinthians 13:1-13).

For centuries Christians have believed that to worship is to enter into the presence of heaven. There is a sense that when we gather to encounter the Word of God in the Scripture and to take the Word of God into our lives through the Eucharist that we are stepping away from earth and into heaven itself. The Eucharist is heavenly food for our earthly pilgrimage. During worship we join “our voices with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven” (Book of Common Prayer, 362) and with “those in every generation” (BCP, 370), both past, present, and future who have loved and worship the Triune God.  

Our earthly worship is a participation and anticipation of the worship of heaven. Having experienced and received love in worship we are then strengthened and commissioned to walk in love for the rest of our week and in the process experience heaven on earth. In some ways, the full experience of heaven after death should not be surprising for the Christian.

This is because the Christian will have spent his or her entire life seeking the country of heaven, taking short visits there, and exploring its outlying territories. Death will simply change the Christian from being a tourist of heaven, visiting occasionally, to being a resident of heaven, living there until the day of Resurrection when God will create a new heaven and a new earth. 

The Resurrection of the Dead

The belief in a general resurrection of the dead at the end of time is one of the oldest beliefs of the Christian faith. It is found throughout the pages of the New Testament and in both of the oldest and most widely used statements of Christian belief, the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds. However, while this doctrine is ancient and attested to by both Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition it is not well known.

Most Christians believe that after they die they will be separated from their bodies, judged, and then go to be with God in heaven forever. This sort of view, according to traditional Christian faith, is missing part of the story. The story we find in the pages of Scripture and the story that men and women have preached, taught, believed in, and died for during the course of 2000 years. One of the distinctive aspects of Christian faith is its affirmation of the body, both for this life and the life to come.

Bishop N.T. Wright, Anglican bishop, New Testament scholar, and perhaps the leading authority today on this subject of life after heaven, has done much to remind us of the importance of the Resurrection of the dead on the last day. Bishop Wright compares our future selves, after the resurrection of the dead, to our current selves in a helpful way.

He comments that sometimes when we visit a friend or relative in hospital we say that “they were a shadow of their old selves.” Wright tells us that we are currently “a shadow of our future selves,” meaning we will become fully as God intended on that future day (to hear directly from N.T. Wright on this subject click here, to check out his book on this subject, click here).

Our hope for life after death as Christians is life after heaven, the resurrected life.  Christian belief about the final things: death, judgment, heaven and hell, have vast implications for our lives right now. Since Christ will return we must always be prepared for his arrival.

Since Christ will create a new heavens and a new earth at the end of time we must get busy working with God to re-deem our world, because God will create the new world out of the old. All that we do in this life, whether we are saving the environment or saving souls will be included in the new creation. This should be a great encouragement, because this means that all of life has a double-meaning, both for the present, and for the future life to come.  

The Hope of Heaven

The prospect of heaven has long been a source of hope and encouragement for Christians. Some Christian traditions place great emphasis on heaven. They stress the need to be assured that you’re going there and that this present life is merely a prelude to the eternal symphony of the afterlife spent with Christ and all the saints. Other traditions of Christianity, while acknowledging heaven, place more emphasis on this life. They stress the need to be engaged in God’s reconciling work of love in this present world. Many people, Christian and not, while valuing heaven, are also more focused on this life. For these people, heaven is something that’s nice to know about. That is, it’s nice to know that when you die, it’s not the end. Most people, regardless of their belief about heaven, aren’t in any rush to get there.

There is an old saying in some Christian circles, “don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.” This is a jab at the person whose thoughts are always in the clouds, always elsewhere, and never concerned with the practical realities of life. However, if one did a quick survey of those who are involved with the world’s most neglected and despised people: the poor, the hungry, and the sick, one will typically find a high percentage of people who might be described as “heavenly minded.”

The whole point of being “heavenly minded” is not so that we might disregard the challenges of the present life. Quite the opposite, the Lord’s Prayer tells us that we should live our lives so that things in our world will mirror the realm of God, in other words, “on earth as it is in heaven.” Heaven gives us a picture of how things should be and motivates us to not be satisfied with the broken and hurting world as it is.  One of the reasons that Christians are supposed to live lives that differ so radically from others is because we stand with one foot in heaven and one foot on earth. Heaven is something we experience on earth when we do God’s will.  Going to heaven then, is simply placing both feet into that mystery which we have already experienced in small glimpses and small tastes while on earth. 

Getting Ready to Die

Death is not a popular or comfortable topic in most of North America. Our popular culture is obsessed with unnatural youthfulness and everything is done to keep death hidden away from our minds, our eyes, and our ears. Death must be acknowledged if our lives are to be lived meaningfully.

The greatest preparation for death is to live a full life here on earth. For the Christian, fullness of life is found in loving God and loving our neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40). Some people die without warning, for them the only preparation for their death is the content and character of their lives.

However, many people are aware that they are coming closer to death. This could be because of illness, advanced age, or violent circumstances. When we know that death is coming we should prepare ourselves as best we can.

This involves four basic steps:

#1 Trust in Christ. Be assured that you have professed belief in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Recognize it's His death and His resurrection that gives you the guarantee of your resurrection to eternal life. It’s not unusual for people to have attended church their whole life yet never made a personal commitment to Christ.

#2 Wrap Your Earthly Affairs. When you know that death is coming soon it’s important to take care of your earthly affairs. Hopefully, you’ll have already written a will and made your wishes known to your family. But at this point you need to finalize these matters so you can focus on the final transition from this life to the next.

#3. Make your Confession. It’s important as death approaches to come clean with God, with friends and family. Seek to make amends where possible. Make sure to tell the people in your life that you love them. Also, many Christians have benefited from making a final private confession with their parish priest. This is a way of spiritually cleaning house before you enter into the fuller presence of God.

#4. Receive Holy Communion and Prayer on a regular basis. Plus seek encouragement from your pastor, church, and family. Seek to accept that your time here on earth is done, and that you are now moving on to the nearer presence of God. Relish the time you have remaining. Make a point to bless others each day.

Christians believe that Jesus overcame death through His life, death and resurrection. This is a great consolation for the believer. It does not, however, remove the necessity to prepare ourselves for death.

The Doctrine of Creation

The doctrine of creation refers to the Christian belief that God created the universe out of nothing. All aspects of creation from the smallest particles to the mightiest of mountains are believed to have their origin in the will of God. All inanimate objects, as well as all animate beings, were created by God. The exact mechanics of how God created the world have been hotly contested over the last one hundred years. Christians of serious faith and capable mind fall on both sides of the evolutionary debate, some embracing theistic evolution, others embracing a literal six-day view of creation.

The doctrine of creation’s major claim is that God is the creator of all things. Churches around the world affirm belief in this doctrine every week when they recite the following words from the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God,

    The Father, the Almighty,
    maker of heaven and earth,
    of all that is seen and unseen. 

The doctrine of creation affirms the goodness of creation, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). The goodness of creation carries serious implications for understanding our selves, and especially our bodies. The Christian Church has had a checkered past when it comes to dealing with the human body, especially as it relates to sexuality. Our bodies are good. Sexuality was a gift given to us by God. Sex as God intended it was meant to be a beautiful, vigorous expression of life, union, and procreation.

The Church has often given people the impression that sex is dirty and thus our bodies are dirty, particularly the female body. This is wrong. This is in direct opposition to the doctrine of creation. We are told that “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Therefore, the physical aspects of being male and female are also good and intended by God.

In addition, the doctrine of creation reminds us of the importance of all life, and the necessity of being good stewards of the earth. Adam, who is representative of all humanity, was given a job, a job which we inherit as children of the human race, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). The doctrine of creation reminds us of our divinely ordained role as stewards of creation.

The doctrine of creation also unites philosophy, science, and theology into friendly disciplines seeking truth from the same ultimate source: God. The doctrine of creation also reminds us that nature itself points people to the existence of God and often leads them to an experience of God, “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made” (Romans 1:20). More could be said about this doctrine but it is one that deserves greater and more comprehensive attention than it normally receives in our churches today.   

Living life with Jesus

Disciples of Jesus strive to integrate their faith into every aspect of their lives. This does not mean that every moment of the day is dedicated to overtly spiritual or Christian activity, but it does mean that every moment of the day is colored, saturated, informed, and contained within the framework of a commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Often people will speak of priorities and will say that God comes first, followed by family, followed by church, followed by work, etc. This can be a helpful way to evaluate and order one’s life, but discipleship-based Christianity approaches things differently. Every priority in life is understood through the lenses of one’s faith. Alan and Debra Hirsch,  in their book “Untamed: Reactivating  A MissionalForm Discipleship,” put it this way, “Discipleship means loving God first and foremost, and loving everything else in light of that love.”

In other words, the question for the disciple is how does my faith in God shape how I treat my family and friends, how I approach romantic relationships, how I do my job, how I spend money, how I use my free-time?, etc. This sorting out of how faith relates to practical life is the heart of discipleship. Following Jesus is more than accepting a certain intellectual truth or having a warm feeling it requires living differently, day in, and day out.

Local churches should be schools for discipleship, helping people to wrestle with how they can live their faith outside of the walls of the church building. Often churches are only communities of religious activity, but not communities where people of all ages (children, teenagers, adults) and people in all circumstances (single, married, divorced, healthy, sick, addicted, stressed, lonely, etc) can find practical training in being disciples of Jesus in their daily lives.

This is the challenge of the Church in every age, but it is particularly the challenge of the North American Church today. Increasingly the Church will become a minority institution and increasingly society will hold to values that are in conflict with the values of the Gospel. This means that individual Christians will have to learn (or re-learn) what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, that is how faith integrates with every aspect of life. This means that local congregations will have to learn (or re-learn) what it means to be a disciple making community in 21^st century society that is post-Christian and post-modern.