Just like any good, orthodox Wesleyan, “partaking” of Communion is one of God’s umbellical tubes to my heart. Just like any good, orthodox evangelical, I suckle God’s nourishment from his Word. Yet many well-meaning believers tend to herd in one ”milking” camp or the other. The “high church” is driven into the Eucharist stock yard. The “low church” attempts to ride the bucking “preacher” with his “The Word” in eight seconds to glory.
However, if you listen closely to the mooing in the background you might find a distinct low mum of satisfaction droning forth from inconspicuous golden calves. While both are meant as vehicles to experientially know God, attention is more often payed to waxing our “vehicles” in private than driving them public. Oh that many good liberals in the high church would place as high a value on the bodies and blood of the unborn, as they do on the bread and wine at the Table. Oh that many good “right wingers” would fly their passion for the Word into war zones of the “least of these” among us, landing on the Matthew 25 runway.
In reality we need all the means and avenues of grace we can get. Yet, if grace gushes into our hearts but does not flow forth into the oceans of both personal and social holiness, then our hearts become the Dead Sea. God’s grace is not meant for us alone, but for flowing in a cleansing way through us into the vile and depraved world God loves so much. In reality we need both Table and Word. Word directs us into the proper Way of God, and Table reminds us that we are to live in Holy Communi-ty with one another and with Father, Son, and Spirit.
We have our sacraments to be sure, but did you realize that Jews have a sacrament, as well. It is known as the mitzvot. The literal translation of this term is commandment, while the practical translation is keeping God’s commandments. Engaging in mitzvot ranges from keeping the fine technicalities of ceremony and ritual to generally doing good works in society. In living out their beliefs through ceremony and good works in obedience to God, they expect God to show up and change them and the world into his image. While they might not call mitzvot a sacrament, this is certainly what it is.
While I certainly will continue to embrace all “official” and unofficial sacraments in the church, especially Table and Word, in practice I will have an ultimate sacrament … the mitzvot. No, I’m not going to blow the shofar or wear little tiny hats or rock back and forth as I pray. No, I’m not converting to Judaism. Rather, Christianity, which was first known as “The Way,” has become so much deeper and so much more real for me.
With the mitzvot as a backdrop, consider this teaching of Jesus, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 15:15; ESV). Now adding the true sacramental nature of the mitzvot to this backdrop, consider the larger context of Jesus’s urging for us to practice mitzvot which are his:
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whome the world cannot receive, because it neither see him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you (John 14:12-17; ESV).
It is my desire to aquire grace through any means without letting the particular means of grace take on a certain golden bovine flavor. They are not worship in and of themselves, nor are they to be worshipped. Rather they are tools God uses to transform us his into his righteousness … so that we can engage in the truest of the sacraments … the Jesus-mitzvot.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Paul, Romans 12:1; ESV).
