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The Lutheran Church celebrates two sacraments — Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. In each sacrament, we receive God’s gifts in a concrete form. We hear God’s promise, we acknowledge Jesus’ words of command, we feel, we taste, we are touched by God’s amazing grace. Holy Baptism is the one-time sacrament that brings us into the Church and connects our lives with the Cross of Christ and the promise of everlasting life. Holy Communion is the sacrament that we receive again and again, assuring us of the new life and forgiveness given by God that nurtures and sustains us. Holy Baptism Baptism is …
Faith in Action: when we baptize infants, we proclaim God’s amazing grace that chooses us before we able to choose God.
Nurture: when we baptize infants and children, we proclaim our intent to join with parents and sponsors, in and through the Church, to bring up the baptized in the Christina faith.
Confession: When we baptize infants, children and adults, we offer instruction so that the baptismal candidate (or the parents and sponsors on behalf of the baptized) may confess, with the gathered church, the faith in which we baptize.
New Life: When we baptize any person, we proclaim our faith that God is at work, making that person a child of God, a new creation, an heir of god’s promise of salvation.
A Sacrament: A Gift of God: Baptism only happens once in the life of a Christian. We may forget or neglect god, but God is always faithful to the promise made to us in Baptism.
Luther’s section on Baptism from the Small Catechism:
The Sacrament of Holy Baptism
What is Baptism?
Baptism is not simple water only, but it is the water comprehended in God's command and connected with God's Word.
Which is that word of God?
Christ, our Lord, says in the last chapter of Matthew: Go ye into all the world and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
What does Baptism give or profit?
It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.
Which are such words and promises of God?
Christ, our Lord, says in the last chapter of Mark: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
How can water do such great things?
It is not the water indeed that does them, but the word of God which is in and with the water, and faith, which trusts such word of God in the water. For without the word of God the water is simple water and no baptism. But with the word of God it is a baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Ghost, as St. Paul says, Titus, chapter three:
By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that, being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying.
What does such baptizing with water signify?
It signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, again, a new man daily come forth and arise; who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.
Where is this written?
St. Paul says Romans, chapter 6: We are buried with Christ by Baptism into death, that, like as He was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Holy Communion
Communion is …
Faith in Action: when we gather at the Lord’s Table and celebrate this sacrament, we proclaim what Jesus has done for us in his life, death and resurrection.
Confession: when we come to receive the bread and wine of Communion and open our hands to receive, we confess, Jesus died for us, for me, a sinner, I need, I hunger for his forgiveness.
Gospel Affirmation: when we receive the bread and wine we are addressed with the Gospel message: The body of Christ given for you. The blood of Christ given for you.
Connection: when we receive Christ in Holy Communion, it is personal but it is not private. We join the communion of saints in a foretaste of the great heavenly banquet yet to come.
A Sacrament: A Gift of God: we receive this Sacrament again and again. Just as we need to eat regularly to ensure our physical existence, we need to feed on the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation to reassure us of our eternal relationship grounded in God’s promise.
Luther’s section on Holy Communion from the Small Catechism:
The Sacrament of the Altar
What is the Sacrament of the Altar?
It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, for us Christians to eat and to drink, instituted by Christ Himself.
Where is this written?
The holy Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St. Paul, write thus:
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and gave it to His disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.
After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Take, drink ye all of it. This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.
What is the benefit of such eating and drinking?
That is shown us in these words: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins; namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?
It is not the eating and drinking, indeed, that does them, but the words which stand here, namely: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins. Which words are, beside the bodily eating and drinking, as the chief thing in the Sacrament; and he that believes these words has what they say and express, namely, the forgiveness of sins.
Who, then, receives such Sacrament worthily?
Fasting and bodily preparation is, indeed, a fine outward training; but he is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins.
But he that does not believe these words, or doubts, is unworthy and unfit; for the words For you require altogether believing hearts. |