Category Archives: Sacramental Theology

Re-Imagining ‘Fat Tuesday’ in the Waters of Baptism

Posted on March 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

Today is Shrove Tuesday, the day before the Ashes of Wednesday that inaugurate the 40 day season of longing, Lent. Dating back to as before 1000, Shrove Tuesday (‘Fat Tuseday’) is a time to prepare for the season of Lent. Shrove’s origin is from the English verb to shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by the means of confession and penance. The origin of the celebratory aspect of “Shrove Tuesday” predates “Fat Tuesday”, “Carnival”, “Mardi Gras” and the Protestant Revolution. The idea was for people to release the “high spirits” before the “somber” season of Lent.

We have somehow translated “Shrovetide” or “Shrove Tuesday” into a variety of traditions that lack the bite of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What does eating pancakes have to do with preparing for lent? The rationale is that all the fatty ingredients that go into pancakes are often fasted during lent. Consider Mardi Gras or Carnival. What do the activities associated with these celebrations have to do with preparing for lent or even Christianity? Why does the church feel compelled to “celebrate sin” for a day before a season of fasting?

I want to suggest that we need to re-align our understanding of the Tuesday before Lent. We need to re-ground it in the narrative of Scripture. Specifically, we need to saturate it in the waters of our baptism into Christ. In yesterday’s post, I noted that it is immediately after Jesus’ baptism that the Holy Spirit sends him into the wilderness to fast and pray for 40 days and to be tempted by Satan. What better way to prepare for the fasting and temptation of Lent than to follow our Lord and remember our baptism into his promise.

It is often noted of the Reformer Martin Luther that when tempted by Satan he would reply, “I AM Baptized.” Notice this is not a past action according to Luther, but a present promise of the benefits of being in Christ. How much more fitting would it be for us to remember our Baptism into Christ the Tuesday before Lent than to celebrate in spite of it.

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Posted in Baptism, Christianity, Church Calendar, Lent, Martin Luther, Sacramental Theology

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A Living Mosaic of Sacrifice

Posted on March 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

My friend Joshua (www.trinitarianmission.com) first showed me this image on my front porch from his iPad. Joshua revealed to me the multiple layers of meaning in this mosaic.

Layer 1 – Acceptable Old Testament Sacrifices (from left to right): Abel offering his perfect lamb sacrifice to Yahweh (Lord God represented by the hand)(see Genesis 4:1-5), next the High Priest Melchizedek  offering his acceptable sacrifice of Bread and Wine to the Most High God (Genesis 14:17-20), next Abraham offering his son Isaac as an acceptable sacrifice to God (Genesis 21:1-19). All of these three scenes are positioned towards what is occurring in the designated space below the altar, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross… where we now have a place at the table.

Layer 2: The Self-Sacrificial Offering of Christ (from left to right): Christ offering himself as the Lamb of God to God the Father, next Christ the High Priest offering himself to the Church as bread and wine at the altar, next God the Father offering his Son.

Layer 3: The Worship Space: Hearing my friend explain these different layers of meaning to me was really cool and then I looked up where this mosaic is from. It is on a side wall of the 6th-century basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, Italy. The mosaic is from the 7th century and is positioned above where the Eucharist is celebrated.

So imagine coming up to take Holy Communion and there before you is this huge mosaic depicting these multiple meanings of sacrifice. The mosaic transports the OT narrative and the passion of Christ to our present consciousness … defining the reality of the sacred space before us at the table of the Eucharist. The square space below the altar (in the mosaic) is our place at the table, where Christ has made room for us.

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Posted in Atonement, Genesis, Icon, Sacramental Theology, The Old Testament, Worship

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Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail

Posted on December 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals Are Attracted to the Liturgical Church

By: Robert E. Webber

Article written by: rm Kocak

“Why would I, the son of a Baptist minister, become an Episcopalian? Why would I , a graduate of Bob Jones University, walk the Canterbury Trail? Why would I, an ordained minister of the Reformed Presbyterian denomination, forsake my orders? Why would I, a professor at a main-line evangelical college, risk misunderstanding and put my career in a possible jeopardy to follow my heart?”

- Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail - page 11.

In Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail, Robert Webber (and friends) seek to answer the question of “Why.” He tells his personal testimony of the journey into liturgical worship in a way that doesn’t suggest a superiority of the Anglican tradition over any others. The entire book is highly personal in its tone and invites the reader to join with the author on his liturgical journey.

The Book is broken up into three distinct parts:

  1. Why the Anglican Tradition?
  2. Six Pilgrims Share Their Stories
  3. The Church of the Future.

During the first part of the book, Webber takes you on his own sacramental journey and what attracted him to liturgical worship. To that end Webber gives six themes or motifs in his journey: a return to mystery, a longing for the experience of Worship, a desire of sacramental reality, the search for spiritual identity, embracing the whole church, and growing into a holistic spirituality. In the second portion Webber invites six other evangelicals who have made similar pilgrimages to share their story. Finally, Webber concludes in a brief chapter in Part 3 with the renewal movement within liturgical worship. Webber stresses that evangelicals can bring a lot of beneficial elements into the liturgical tradition and not forsake an “evangelical identity” for a “liturgical identity.”

The BIG Idea

Experiencing Worship

“It amazes me that I went through seminary without a course in worship, without any professor asking me to address the question: What is worship all about … My longing for more satisfying worship grew as each route I took in worship led me to a dead-end street.”
- pg. 36.

The desire for an experiential, mysterious, and sacramental reality in worship drips from the beginning chapters, as Webber reflects on mystery, experience, and sacramental reality in liturgical worship. This journey is rooted for Weber in a visit to a Roman Catholic worship service before Easter, the worship of the early church fathers, and hosting “Agape meals” with students and friends.

Idea #1

Discovering A Spiritual Identity

“I was introduced to the “Trail of Blood” theory. True Christians, it was argued, always stood outside the established church.”
-pg 59

Webber comments on how he felt divorced from the greater Christian body of believers. Webber was indoctrinated to believe that a true Christian was to stand outside the organized religions of Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, and mainline Protestant denominations. Webber boldly discusses how he was rooted in the pride of the Puritans against Anglicans and Lutherans for what they perceive to be “rags of popery” and against Anabaptists for their pacifism. He said all these biases were good and fine until he would actually meet an Arminian, Lutheran, Anabaptist, or Roman Catholic who was devout in the Christian faith.

Idea #2

Eucharistic Spirituality

“Eucharistic Spirituality is the experience of being spiritually nourished and strengthened by eating the bread and drinking the wine… The mystery of what Christ did for me on the  cross reaches into my inner person in a way that I cannot describe.”
- Pg. 83.

Webber has a chapter on “Growing into a Holistic Spirituality” that really captures the essence of having a spirituality of experience; namely, to be in Christ. Both justification and sanctification are communicated at the Lord’s Supper in a tangible, physical way. Webber also shows the spirituality of experience in following the church year as a personal devotion.

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Posted in Anglicanism, Christianity, Church History, Sacramental Theology, The Big Idea Book Preview, Worship