For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.
In our reading for the week, this was a quote that stood out to me from James White’s book “A Brief History of Christian Worship”:
“Baptism is initiation into God’s new Kingdom of which the Church is a colony on earth. The Eucharist is a lifelong renewal of baptism’s initial foretaste of God’s kingdom.”
Although both are clear Sacraments we participate in (or have participated in), I had never thought about their connection with one another. I love the imagery provided in Baptism of this renouncing one lifestyle (facing the West, symbolic of evil, sin, and satan’s kingdom), and then turning towards the East (symbolic of the dawn, new beginnings, new creation), acknowledging Jesus as Lord, being immersed into our death and now emerging as ones who live for him.
On the same note, as we come to the “table” for Eucharist (be it a couple people holding the elements out for us as we wait in line, an actual table, or a tray we pass around), we acknowledge that this is the only table our souls are fed by. In that sense, we renounce other sources of satisfaction, claiming only the bread and the wine as our sustenance.
I love the idea that the Eucharist is a “renewal of vows” to God. It is a regular turning toward Him. Perhaps we compare Baptism to a wedding, while Eucharist represents the both people now in that marriage regularly “choosing” each other, over and over and over. Pursuit is never a passive thing, always active. Obviously in Baptism and Eucharist, we are reminded that we were first pursued and loved before we could pursue and love! Still, that pursuit of us and that love we feel demands a response. Eucharist is one of the main ways we re-acknowledge our status as “beloved” but also it reminds us to extend that uncontainable love to the loveless.
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