Homecoming: Sacraments and Intimacy with God

The following article was previously published in EDUSC's Crosswalk magazine.

“Be known to us in breaking of the bread.”


When I was twenty-two years old and a senior in college, I had pretty much given up attending church. I had begun my faith journey in a congregation that emphasized the preaching of God’s word and missionary work, but I never felt a sense of God’s mystery—and I found myself yearning for something more as I was beginning to mature in my faith. It always seemed to me that the preacher and church elders had God all figured out, but I was not making the connection to God through the particulars of that faith expression. And then, one Sunday morning, I awoke with a strong desire to go to church. I asked my roommate if she wanted to go with me, and she asked me where I intended to go. I responded with,

“How about that Episcopal Church where you interviewed for the daycare job? It’s just up the road, isn’t it?”

“Have you ever been to an Episcopal Church?”

“Well, no, but how different could it be?”

Of course, I was in for a [very pleasant] surprise because, yes, the service was very different from anything I had ever experienced previously in my life, but I was also overwhelmed with a special sense of having come home. The liturgy of the table spoke to me in a way I had never experienced God before. When the priest put the small wafer in my hand and said, “The Body of Christ,” I experienced a sense of God’s affirmation; I experienced God’s touch in the mystery of bread and wine given to me by another human being.

The Eucharist and all of the sacraments are, in fact, a way for God’s Holy Spirit to touch believers so that we know the reality of God in body and soul. The common thread interwoven into the fabric of sacramental action is proper and caring human touch. That felicitous touch, evident in all seven sacraments, is what captures my imagination when I consider how the sacraments provide an inward transformation of one's whole life—and the life of the community.

At the heart of our sacramental theology there is a core belief—that we are a community. God came to us in the human form of Jesus, who as a First Century rabbi in Palestine, prayed that his followers might be “one as we are one” (John 17:22). When we come together in community the sacraments focus our hearts and minds so that we are clear as to our purpose as followers of the Christ in this world. We continue in the teaching and fellowship of the Apostles (creed) when we share the body and blood of Christ and when we gather to baptize a new believer. While baptism is about cleansing away sin, primarily Episcopalians see the sacrament as incorporation into the body of Christ. We tell the newly baptized who has just been lovingly held over a font and touched with water and the oil of chrism, “We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood” (BCP, 308). Baptism makes us part of the family.

The so-called “lesser” sacraments—confirmation, reconciliation, healing, marriage, and ordination—also incorporate the human touch that symbolizes God’s touch. When the Bishop confirms, he or she lays hands on the head of the candidate. Reconciliation of a Penitent provides for the priest to lay [her] hands on the head of the one making confession. Healing provides for the laying on of hands and anointing with oil. Marriage is effected when two people join hands and make promises to each other, while Ordination is accomplished when the Bishop and all the presbyters lay hands on the ordinand and say, “Make him/her a priest in your church.”

In today’s culture, it is simply too easy to respond to the idea of human touch in a jaded fashion. It seems we far too often hear of some child who was abused by a person of authority, or we learn of a church staff member who has overstepped the boundaries described in “safe church” training. Too many of us have a distorted sense of intimacy fueled by a negative personal experience or by the media. And yet, how many of us long to be held in the hands of a loving God? How many of us desire an intimate relationship with God, but cannot make that connection?

The Gospels point to a Jesus who was not squeamish about touching others. In a culture where touching the dead made one unclean, Jesus touched the Widow of Nain’s son and brought him back to life. He touched the blind man and gave him sight. He blessed the woman with a flow of blood through touch, and he took Jairus’ daughter up by the hand and said to her “Little Girl, get up” (Mark 5:36-43).

There are several saints who serve as models for us when we consider the idea of human touch at the core of the sacraments. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Catherine of Genoa, and of course, Francis of Assisi, all expressed their love for others through human touch. For each of these saints, human touch, both as a simple invitation to come into the family and as an expression of sacramental presence, reached across the boundaries of racism, sexism, classism, fear, and inordinate pride affirming the human dignity of those who most needed to be reminded of their humanity.

The sacraments—and regular practice of a sacramental lifestyle—can help foster that healing of intimacy that so many of us seek. The little Episcopal Church that I attended that November morning thirty years ago introduced me to the joy of coming to the table to share bread and wine with others who also wanted to know and be known in the breaking of the bread. Later in the year, I was confirmed in that church, and I have continued to experience the sacramental expression of the spiritual life that God brought me to through that community of believers.

On Sunday we baptized two babies at St. James. I say we because while I didn’t actually pour water on an infant’s head, I stood there with the congregation and wholeheartedly welcomed that child into our family—our community—and I promised to support that child in his faith journey. After the liturgy, I took that baby from his daddy’s arms and held him in my hands making my commitment real. Human touch. God’s touch. The sacraments remind us that God’s love is real and meant for our healing and blessing.