A Sacramental Imagination
Do you find ever find yourself feeling unsatisfied? Wanting more from life?
We modern folks pack our schedules, surround ourselves with noise, push ourselves to achieve and accomplish. All of this shows me just how unsatisfied we are… unable to sit quietly without reaching for our phone, unable to contentedly rest from our frantic activity.
Anglicans, like Christians throughout the centuries, live with a sacramental imagination that helps us step into the “more” that we’re all longing for.
Gerald Manley Hopkins beautifully writes, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” Cultivating a sacramental imagination means growing an awareness of God’s presence that’s all around us. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” writes the Psalmist. As I write this, it’s a beautiful, sunny day. What a clear and evident sign of God’s goodness, creativity, power, and presence!
Sacraments are an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. They’re gifts that we can see and touch that point to a deeper reality beyond what we can see and touch. Jesus himself specifically gave the Church two sacraments: Baptism and Communion.
The Holy Eucharist (or Holy Communion) is the principal Anglican worship service. Eucharist comes from a Greek word that means “thanksgiving.” During this service, the church participates in the sacrament of Communion: as we feast on bread and wine (the outward and visible sign) we feast on the body and blood of our Savior himself (the inward and spiritual grace).
Through this meal, we participate together in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. He dwells in us, and we dwell in him. Christ is truly present with his people in an intimate yet mysterious way.
“The sacramental body and blood of the Savior are present as an offering to the believer awaiting his welcome. When this offering is met by faith, a lifegiving encounter results." (from the Anglican - Roman Catholic Joint Preparatory Commission)
At the end of the service, the church is sent out to do the work that God has for us. As Henri Nouwen puts it,
“When we eat bread and drink wine together in memory of Christ, we become intimately related to his own compassionate life. In fact, we become his life and are thus enabled to represent his life in our time and place.”
My dream for Church of the Incarnation is to be a church in Memphis through whom people encounter Jesus and are transformed by him. One of the primary ways this happens is through the sacrament of Communion. Through this sacrament, “we become his [Jesus’s] life and are thus enabled to represent his life in our time and place.” People encounter Jesus in a very real way through his people, the Church.
What an invitation to the “more” that we’re all longing for! Come feast on Jesus and tangibly join in God’s mission in the world. Jesus truly meets the restless, longing heart, and the sacraments help us experience that here and now.
Want to dig deeper into this concept of a sacramental imagination? Here’s an introductory book. Ready to go even deeper? Here’s something a bit more challenging.
Collect for the Fourth Sunday in Lent
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
