Friday Five; Sacraments... all is holy?

Sieger Köder

Over at RGBP, Sally posted: This Friday Five stems from some questions that have been running around my head and heart recently and are squeezing their way out through my blog here and again here--So I'd like to ask you some simple questions about the sacraments:

1. What does the Lord's supper/ Eucharist mean to you?

Holy Communion—communion with Spirit, with community, with self. It is a re-membering of Christ’s broken body—no longer broken when we gather and work for God’s Shalom…

2. How important is preparation for this, and what form does it take?

Our congregation allows “any and all” to come to the Table—“no matter who you are or where you are life’s journey.” The significant part for me is the sharing with others and honoring what Jesus was striving to create (even as a kid I loved “playing” communion with my juice and bread).

3. What does baptism mean to you?

For me it is a welcoming into a wider family of faith, one where we all make covenant with the one being baptized, and s/he is making covenant (or parents are making covenant) with the community of faith—promising to seek, teach, live the Gospel as best we’re able—failing and returning, failing and returning…

4. How important is preparation for baptism and what form does it take?

It’s important for me to hear how the one being baptized (or parents) understands this sacrament, and for them to hear that our congregation does not consider it a cleansing of original sin to keep the person from going to hell. Rather, it is a covenant with God and community and self that is real, not just a one-time, “yeah, I did that.” I’m preparing a couple confirmands for their baptism, and they are taking the questions more seriously than most parents—I love this!

5. A quote/ poem/ song that brings you before God in a sacramental way, and helps you to engage at a deeper level...

Tears of connection and mystery came when I found this poem by The Reverend Dr. Alla Renee Bozarth several years ago:

Maria Sacerdota—

Mary, Protopriest of the New Covenant

Before Jesus

was his mother.

Before supper

in the upper room,

breakfast in the barn.

Before the Passover Feast,

a feeding trough.

And here, the altar

of earth, fair linens

of hay and seed.

Before his cry,

her cry.

Before his sweat

of blood, her bleeding

and tears.

Before his offering, hers.

Before the breaking

of bread and death,

the breaking of her

body in birth.

Before the offering

of the cup,

the offering of her

breast.

Before his blood,

her blood.

And by her body and blood

alone, his body and blood

and whole human being.

The wise ones knelt

to hear the woman's word

in wonder.

Holding up her sacred child,

her God in the form of a babe,

she said: "Receive and let

your hearts be healed

and your lives be filled

with Love, for

this is my body,

this is my blood."