I think that there is a bigger picture to the question of sacraments. We understand sacraments to be outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace. Now signs have to point to something (New York 427 Miles --->) or declare Something (Welcome to New York).
Now each of us is called to live our life pointing to the truth of God and declaring something of the grace of God as we have experienced it.
The seven or two or how many you want to talk about, are good, and the show us something of what we should be. I think we should live life sacramentally, we should be the things that these seven or two point us to, and I think that the historical tradition of the Church highlight the few in order that we may be the many sacraments.
I agree entirely that we should seek to live our lives sacramentally. However, I think the traditional low church Anglican understanding of sacraments, as found in the Catechism of the 1662 BCP, that they are, to quote the Catechism, “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof,” is entirely inadequate to explain the sacred mysteries.
I believe that the sacraments are the normative means by which the Holy Spirit infuses us with grace, and that we directly receive grace through the sacred mysteries of Baptism, Chrismation (Confirmation), the Eucharist, Reconciliation, Holy Unction (the anointing of the sick with oil), Holy Matrimony and, that are commonly called sacraments, as well as “sacramentals” which seem to me to be no less of a sacred mystery than the Seven Sacraments, for example, the Great Blessing of Water, the various blessings of other things such as homes and businesses, the Funeral and Burial services, the Churching of Women, the Consecration of Church Buildings, the blessing of the congregation with consecrated incense, and other services typically found in a Sacramentary, Euchologion, or Trebnik. Interestingly, the 1964 Methodist Episcopal Book of Worship consists to a very large extent of blessings, consecrations and dedications.
The sacraments, or sacred mysteries, of Baptism and Holy Communion are particularly special, because not only do the consist of a highly specialized form of prayer, but also a rational, bloodless sacrifice, and an anamnesis in which we are mystically united with our Lord. In the rational and bloodless sacrifices, we offer up to God His own creatures, such as water to be consecrated for baptism, in which through anamnesis we become mystically present with Christ in the Jordan, or bread and wine, which are consecrated as the body and blood of Christ, which we then offer again to our Lord (the beautiful exclamation from the Byzantine Divine Liturgy “Thine Own of Thine Own, we offer unto Thee on behalf of all and for all.” And then, we partake of the sacrament, in Baptism by being purified by mystically dying and rising again with Christ in the Jordan, and in Holy Communion, we are mystically present at the Last Supper when we eat the life-giving flesh of the immortal and imperishable God-man Jesus Christ, and drink His blood, which is the blood of the new covenant; the Greek word for “remembrance” is anamnesis which means “put yourself in this moment,” which in fact is what happens, and the body and blood of our Lord is the medicine of immortality, remitting sins and granting life everlasting.
So, I believe the Holy Sacraments and the other sacred mysteries directly infuse sacramental grace through the boundless love of the omnipotent Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, who spoke by the prophet, who together with the Father from whom He proceeds and the Son whom He conceived to enter creation as a man, who then ascended to Heaven and sent the selfsame Spirit into the world as our Paraclete, is one God.
Interestingly I came to this view from output of three separate research projects, which all agreed in the essential details: firstly, one on one conversations with a friend of mine who is a retired Episcopalian priest, who is moderately Anglo-Catholic and also as far as I am aware, the last genuine conservative Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles who did not leave for ACNA or other greener pastures; secondly, an exhaustive study of Eastern Orthodox, and to the extent possible, Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian sacramental theology, and finally, a comparative study of Lutheran, Calvinist, and Roman Catholic sacramental theology which segued into an analysis of the impact the Scholastic movement had on Western Christianity vs. Eastern Christianity.
I believe my interpretation, while at odds with the catechism in the BCP, is held by many Anglo Catholic and some other high church Protestants, as well as by the Eastern, Oriental and Assyrian churches (both Orthodox and Uniate Catholic), and to a large extent by Roman Catholics, although Scholastic theologians would define several aspects of it differently, shy away from the idea that the sacraments are sacred mysteries, and also say that I am overemphasizing the similarity between the many Sacramentals and the seven Sacraments.