Without denying the sacramental quality of many aspects of life, the church has set forth certain sacraments that are based on Scripture and tradition and are offered as windows on to God. These, for the church, become canons by which we measure other sacramental experiences. While people have sacramental experiences in everyday life that can lift them out of themselves and reveal to them a greater truth, they can also have ersatz experiences that delude them. To prevent people from being misled by their experience, the church provides specific sacraments by which people test the validity of their personal experiences.
These sacraments of the church also become the signs offered by God to reassure us of God’s love and continuing care for us. To use the two universally accepted sacraments, Baptism provides us entry into the covenant community cleansed of all sins that alienate us from God, and Communion testifies to how God has redeemed us through Christ and continues to nurture us in the faith.
Both sacraments are rooted in historical realities which give them an objective quality. They are also communal in nature which guards against a destructive individualism. This is not to suggest that they cannot be distorted by the church, as history gives ample evidence. Calvin warns that “the sacraments profit not a whit without the power of the Holy Spirit, and nothing prevents them from strengthening and enlarging faith in hearts already taught by that schoolmaster.”(Ibid., p.155)
The task of the church is to make use of these gifts of God to ground the hungry believer in the solid promises of the faith. These sacraments need to be approached by people who have been prepared to ask, “What is Christ saying to me (us) in this moment?” In including this person by baptism in the covenant community, what is being asked of me? How am I now responding to God’s call in my life? In Communion we are confronted again by that which Christ was willing to do to bind us together in love. As we re-participate in this supper, what is Christ saying to me (us) about our love for each other?
