Earthly Elements
The Sacraments
as Celebrating Creation and Forming Vocation
by Craig M. Mueller
What do the sacraments have to do with our care for creation? There was a time not too long ago when not much was made of the connections between the sacraments and daily life. There was no reason to bring vocational or ethical issues into sacramental theology. Baptism and Holy Communion were seen primarily as rites that granted forgiveness and eternal life as rites that granted forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus' salvific death and resurrection. Elements from daily life were employed, but in a rather minimalist way: tasteless wafers were used to signify bread and a few drops of water were sprinkled from a small bowl. It was difficult to see how these religious rituals were related to God's wondrous creation, and nearly impossible to detect how they called Christians to live out their baptismal vocation, or more specifically, to care for the earth.
Yet the very significance of the sacraments is that they are meant to connect with everyday life. "Bath" and "Meal" are being used to refer to Baptism and Holy Communion, for these terms help us to see the correlation between sacraments and human experience. In the past several decades there has been a liturgical renewal which has awakened in many a new appreciation for the richness of the sacraments and their centrality in lives of faith Baptism and Eucharist are now seen not as ethereal, remote ceremonies separate from everyday life, but as defining moments for Christian identity and vocation. They form the basis for all that we say and do, and the way we look at life itself.
This renewed sacramental theology has affected sacramental practice. We have been urged to let the symbols be used in their fullness. Many parishes now use "real bread" at Holy Communion, and even if it is not possible for Baptism to be by immersion, many presiding ministers are at least pouring water so that it can be seen and heard. Such renewal in worship helps to connect our liturgies to the earth, for the very nature of sacraments is that they use elements from God's creation. In Baptism we use water, a necessity for human life and a symbol of growth, nourishment and refreshment. In Eucharist we use bread and wine which human hands have made from the produce of the earth. These ordinary earthly elements become signs of God's gracious presence in our ordinary, earthly lives. Concern for the earthiness of symbols used in worship is one way to reintegrate our spirituality with the honor we give to God's creation.
Furthermore, the sacraments remind us of our dependence on God's creation. As a global community we depend on water and the gifts of the land for our sustenance. Monika Hellwig states that "the simple, central action of the eucharist is the sharing of food - not only eating but sharing. The simple, central human experience for the understanding of this action is hunger."1 To be hungry is to be dependent. As creatures we confess that our very existence is a gift of God. We are dependent on the land, water and air for the necessities of life. A humble stance of dependence helps us to realize our responsibility to share the limited resources of the earth with all the human family, particularly the hungry and poor.
In the sacraments we celebrate, among other things, God's presence through the created order. The baptismal prayer of thanksgiving, Luther's so-called "flood prayer" rehearses the important place of water in the history of salvation:
We give you thanks, for in the beginning your Spirit moved over the waters and you created heaven and earth. By the gift of water you nourish and sustain us and all living things.2
In the offertory prayer we acknowledge God as the "maker of all things" whose goodness has "blessed us with these gifts" of bread, wine and "ourselves, our time and our possessions."3 At the high point of praise in our eucharistic liturgy we sing: "Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory."4 We acclaim God as the Creator of our world, indeed of the entire universe. In an age of secular humanism and great technological advance, this is a profound statement to make. We acknowledge that we are not at the center of life; rather, we are among the created. Such a stance leads to doxology, for to recognize God as Creator invites people to offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
The sacraments have many layers of meaning and profound implications for daily living. Baptism calls us to a life of service. The Eucharist is about change and transformation. In the Middle Ages a primary theological concern was whether and how the bread and wine were changed into the body and blood of Christ. Hence, the doctrine of transubstantiation arose. Today we speak of the transformation in a different light.
The Eucharist testifies that God is not hostile to the creation, for elements of that creation, the "stuff of the earth," bread and wine, are used to bear the presence of Christ into the assembly. Mere bread and wine are transformed. Similarly, the curse of human labor is transformed into a blessing, for the bread and wine bear with them signs of human labor. One can kaleidoscopically envision all that preceded that loaf - cultivating, sowing, reaping, threshing, grinding, mixing, kneading, baking - as it is borne to the altar in offering to God. Our gifts are similarly affirmed and transformed... In turn, God presents them, transformed back to us to free, sustain and nurture our lives of faith: the gifts of God for the people of God. We, too, are affirmed and transformed. We common, ordinary people, creatures of God, are affirmed as the people of God and transformed as extraordinary: a royal priesthood, a holy nation, sent into the world in ministry.5
In the Eucharist, therefore, we are the ones who are transformed. We might ask: is that any less of a miracle than the way Christ is present in the bread and wine?
Lutherans have long treasured the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Through baptism Christians are empowered to bear God's "creative and redeeming Word to all the world."6 Among the promises one makes in the Affirmation of Baptism liturgy is to "strive for justice and peace in all the earth."7 Surely this includes justice for all living creatures and the air, soil and water of our earth system. Baptism means that we bear responsibility to bring an end to all forms of abuse in our world, whether in political, economic, social or environmental relationships.
The entrance into the death of Jesus and his Resurrection in a common celebration with others not only leads to a deepening of experience, but also involves a declaration or public commitment to an oppositional stance in the world. It involves acceptance and assimilation of values radically in opposition to the respectable and established patterns of the world.8
To seek justice for the earth may very well go against the grain of our consumeristic society.
It is Baptism into the Paschal Mystery which calls us to die to the attitude which sees the earth exclusively as our possession. Can we baptize with water and not protect the lakes, oceans and rivers of the earth? Can we eat the bread of life and not be concerned with the soil that will bring forth wheat and grapes? Can we speak of our hunger for the Eucharist without opening our eyes and ears to the problem of world hunger? To stand in solidarity with the powerless and the voiceless in our society also means speaking on behalf of earth, the gift of God's creation in which we are to be good stewards.
In the Eucharist our baptismal vocation is renewed and we are strengthened for service in the world, which includes caring for the earth. The phrase "you are what you eat" takes on a truth greater than we can grasp. We become the very bread broken and the wine poured out. The United Methodist Book of Worship makes the point so clearly in its eucharistic prayers:
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,
that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.9
Thus, through Word and Meal we are formed to be the body of Christ in the world.
|
Lord, may we love
all your creation, May we love the
animals; For we acknowledge
unto you that all is like an -- Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) |
We will need homilists, teachers, liturgists and writers to help connect sacramental theology with care for the earth. When we talk to children about baptismal vocation we should include ways to respect God's creation. When in the Eucharist we pray for the needs of the world we should include intercessions for the stewardship of land, air and water. When we preach about ministry in daily life we should remind each other of our common responsibility to respect the environment. When we speak of water, bread and wine we need to call to mind our dependence on the earth and its many gifts to us.
The sacraments are about daily life. Those baptized in Christ are a new creation, called to be agents of reconciliation in the world. We are a sacramental people, which means we reverence God's presence in each other and in the gift of the earth.
Craig Mueller, M.Div., is an author, pastor and graduate of LSTC. His publications include Fling Wide the Doors: Advent/Christmastime Readings and Prayers (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1992). He lives in Minneapolis.
End Notes
1.
Monika K. Hellwig, The Eucharist and the Hunger of the World, 2nd ed.
(Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1992) 2.
2. Lutheran Book of Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing
House and Philadelphia: Board of Publications, Lutheran Church in America, 1978)
122.
3. Ibid., 68.
4. Ibid., 69.
5. J. Frank Henderson, Kathleen Quinn and Stephen Larson, Liturgy,
Justice and the Reign of God: Integrating Vision and Practice (New York:
Paulist Press, 1989) 99-100.
6. LBW, ibid., 124.
7. LBW, ibid., 201.
8. Hellwig, op. cit., 54.
9. The United Methodist Book of Worship (Nashville, TN:
The United Methodist Publishing House, 1992) 38.