Heart Tracks - Living Sacraments

"And as they were eating, He took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them, and said, 'Take; this is My Body.' And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And He said to them, 'This My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.' "

I've a pastor friend who once met a member of a fellowship he'd pastored who reminded him that he'd been the minister who'd baptized him. My friend, surely led of the Spirit, said to him, "Friend, you've been baptized, now live baptized." I think on those words often as I contemplate Jesus' above words to His disciples, and us. Baptism and Holy Communion. Two of the great sacraments of the Church. They are much celebrated in our fellowships; but are they lived out?

To be baptized is a public profession of an inward work of His Holy Spirit. It is a confession and profession before the world and the church that we are no longer held captive by sin, that we have left the kingdom of darkness and death and been transformed by His Kingdom of Life and Light. Communion is sacrament that celebrates our oneness and intimacy with Him. It is a spiritual partaking of Him, of who He is, and of what He has done. It is not for the unbeliever, but for those who have entered into a living relationship with Him. It too is a testimony of who we are in Him. If we have been participants, partakers of these sacraments, then we have to be asked the question as to whether we are living out their reality in our lives?

There's a beautiful song, much sung in the church today titled "No Longer Slaves." Baptism, Communion, both are meant to be testimonies of the reality that sin and it's tentacles no longer hold us in chains. God's grace, through the blood of Christ has, as the old hymn says, reached, and freed, "far as the curse is found." Our lives should reflect that. Yes, there remain things in our lives where we need His freeing grace, but the journey for the believer should be one of ongoing victory. We are overcomers by the blood of Jesus, and that is what marks our lives. We have been baptized, and by His grace we can live baptized. We receive communion, and by His blood and broken body, we receive His Life, and the intimacy He offers us. We become partakers of these sacraments, and not just observers of them. They become real to us. He becomes real to us. And we become real to the world. They may reject the work He's done in us, but they cannot deny it.

If we've been baptized, how do we respond to my pastor friend's exhortation? Are we living baptized lives? Most have received communion, and many times over. Have we truly received, and are living out, the Life we celebrate in the receiving? Living sacraments; living testimonies, that's what we're to be. Are we? That's a question we'll not be able to avoid answering. For sure, an unbelieving and watching world will give an answer for us.

Blessings,
Pastor O