RomansFiveEight
A Recovering Fundamentalist
Yes, Communion is a means of grace. Meaning it's a place where we connect to God, grow in our own faith; and even a place in which we can experience our own salvation. Communion is not necessary for salvation (some denominations do believe that; or have historically. Historically, the RCC has believed that a person CANNOT enter heaven without having been baptized, received communion within the last year, and having attended reconciliation within the past year. United Methodist don't believe that)
The notion of the sacrament actually doesn't have it's roots in early Greek Christianity or the first few centuries of the church. It was actually a Jew; a Hebrew scholar. Back in those days Hebrew rabbi's had students with them that were sort of like a professor and their grad students today. This particular hebrew leader was known for taking ordinary expressions of faith and giving them further and deeper meaning. This upset some of the religious authorities at the time and the anti-semetic Roman government was more than happy to oblige. This Rabbi saw the writing on the wall and invited his closest students with him for the Passover meal; an annual Jewish Holiday. As was his tradition; he took an ordinary expression of faith and gave it so much more meeting. He took the bread and wine and told his students that beyond this just being an expression of their faith; they were actually a physical way to share in God's ultimate sacrifice; the messiah. And that when they would receive those elements, they would actually be sharing in the Messiah's outpouring of Grace. He would later be executed for his heresies. And frankly, he was a bit of a nutcase. He had very little respect for the religious authorities; often calling them out. Very inappropriately, in fact. Rather than being a professional and writing a paper or addressing these individuals privately, as the Torah commanded; he would frequently humiliate other religious leaders publically. And then would gather crowds of people to shame them. He once told a gathering of faithful Jews that all of their religious leaders were basically snakes, and were never going to see the Kingdom of God. And then he would hang out with all of the non-religious people, and people who didn't love God. Sometimes would rebuke them; but sometimes not! A Jewish leader who sometimes didn't condemn people for believing differently, simply encouraged them to evaluate their own faith with God and left it at that? Sheesh. His execution was more a foregone conclusion; and not really a surprise. (But it was to his students for some reason).
Fast forward a few years later and we have writings from one of his "second-generation" students. A few of his original students were still alive and living in religious-epicenter communities like Jerusalem and Ephesus, and this particular individual, after an epiphany, began to study under those original students and sort of became the second-generation of this particular Rabbi's teachings. He observed that those traditions the Rabbi had started were still being held by the faithful. But there were some inconsistencies so after studying with those "first generation" students, he wrote those places of worship and offered them some crticism and reflection over the way they observed those practices of that Rabbi. Namely about how they had become nothing more than mundane 'remembrances' and 'ordinances' and weren't being treated as the reverent representations of God. These people were part of a hybrid-Jewish offshoot called "The Way" that had some frankly cooky ideas, compared to the early religious leaders. Frankly they didn't even know what they believed. They even differed on how God intended them to follow this historic Rabbi.
After establishing, once and for all; these traditions of the laying on of hands; a modified new version of Baptism (as a one time thing rather than an all-the-time thing); eating bread and drinking wine as a sharing of God's grace, etc., as having varying levels of authority and being means of God's grace, this student then went on evangelizing these new pseudo-Jewish teachings to the world. Eventually upsetting Rome.
Eventually, if you know your History, the epicenter of Christianity moved from the Middle-East to a bit more west to areas where Latin was more prominent, rather than greek. This is also where early Christians began to try to put names to their traditions, and someone figured out how to 'name' this cooky rag-tag bunches method of getting wet and eating bread and drinking wine; all as means of sharing in God's grace. They decided on "Sacramentum". Which was a word that already had a meaning. You see these early Christians loved taking other peoples traditions and making them their own (later they'd take evergreen trees and wreaths intended to please the Sun God and turned them into representations of Christ's birth in anticipating of his triumphant return). A "Sacramentum" is what a Roman Soldier gave to his superior officer. It was a total oath. Everything he owned, everything he did, where he ate, where he slept, and even whether he lived was now under the authority of this Roman Officer. His "Sacrmantum" was an oath, that in many ways literally meant "I give my life, my all, my everything to you". So early Christians said; well, if there's anything in our modern context that helps us understand what happens at Baptism and Communion, it's this. Baptism and Communion are our "Sacramentum" to God. Our total and complete, irrevocable oath. It was real and tangible, the Holy Spirit was at work, and God's presence was a part of it. It was the biggest thing they did; so they gave it the biggest word (in terms of the words 'authority') they could think of.
Fast forward a few hundred years, and "Sacramentum" becomes "Sacrament" in English, and the Christian church maintains it. Then hit about the 1700's and 1800's, and we have the "Puritans" who say "Sacraments are too catholic-y, let's get rid of them". And the Puritan movement eventually grew into the Baptist movement; and later adopted ideas like Biblical literalism, and other theologies.
(P.S., the Rabbi was Jesus, and the student was Paul. The sacraments were established by Jesus Christ himself, as a part of establishing the church.)
The love feasts were pot-luck dinners. Methodists do those too. LOTS of those
The notion of the sacrament actually doesn't have it's roots in early Greek Christianity or the first few centuries of the church. It was actually a Jew; a Hebrew scholar. Back in those days Hebrew rabbi's had students with them that were sort of like a professor and their grad students today. This particular hebrew leader was known for taking ordinary expressions of faith and giving them further and deeper meaning. This upset some of the religious authorities at the time and the anti-semetic Roman government was more than happy to oblige. This Rabbi saw the writing on the wall and invited his closest students with him for the Passover meal; an annual Jewish Holiday. As was his tradition; he took an ordinary expression of faith and gave it so much more meeting. He took the bread and wine and told his students that beyond this just being an expression of their faith; they were actually a physical way to share in God's ultimate sacrifice; the messiah. And that when they would receive those elements, they would actually be sharing in the Messiah's outpouring of Grace. He would later be executed for his heresies. And frankly, he was a bit of a nutcase. He had very little respect for the religious authorities; often calling them out. Very inappropriately, in fact. Rather than being a professional and writing a paper or addressing these individuals privately, as the Torah commanded; he would frequently humiliate other religious leaders publically. And then would gather crowds of people to shame them. He once told a gathering of faithful Jews that all of their religious leaders were basically snakes, and were never going to see the Kingdom of God. And then he would hang out with all of the non-religious people, and people who didn't love God. Sometimes would rebuke them; but sometimes not! A Jewish leader who sometimes didn't condemn people for believing differently, simply encouraged them to evaluate their own faith with God and left it at that? Sheesh. His execution was more a foregone conclusion; and not really a surprise. (But it was to his students for some reason).
Fast forward a few years later and we have writings from one of his "second-generation" students. A few of his original students were still alive and living in religious-epicenter communities like Jerusalem and Ephesus, and this particular individual, after an epiphany, began to study under those original students and sort of became the second-generation of this particular Rabbi's teachings. He observed that those traditions the Rabbi had started were still being held by the faithful. But there were some inconsistencies so after studying with those "first generation" students, he wrote those places of worship and offered them some crticism and reflection over the way they observed those practices of that Rabbi. Namely about how they had become nothing more than mundane 'remembrances' and 'ordinances' and weren't being treated as the reverent representations of God. These people were part of a hybrid-Jewish offshoot called "The Way" that had some frankly cooky ideas, compared to the early religious leaders. Frankly they didn't even know what they believed. They even differed on how God intended them to follow this historic Rabbi.
After establishing, once and for all; these traditions of the laying on of hands; a modified new version of Baptism (as a one time thing rather than an all-the-time thing); eating bread and drinking wine as a sharing of God's grace, etc., as having varying levels of authority and being means of God's grace, this student then went on evangelizing these new pseudo-Jewish teachings to the world. Eventually upsetting Rome.
Eventually, if you know your History, the epicenter of Christianity moved from the Middle-East to a bit more west to areas where Latin was more prominent, rather than greek. This is also where early Christians began to try to put names to their traditions, and someone figured out how to 'name' this cooky rag-tag bunches method of getting wet and eating bread and drinking wine; all as means of sharing in God's grace. They decided on "Sacramentum". Which was a word that already had a meaning. You see these early Christians loved taking other peoples traditions and making them their own (later they'd take evergreen trees and wreaths intended to please the Sun God and turned them into representations of Christ's birth in anticipating of his triumphant return). A "Sacramentum" is what a Roman Soldier gave to his superior officer. It was a total oath. Everything he owned, everything he did, where he ate, where he slept, and even whether he lived was now under the authority of this Roman Officer. His "Sacrmantum" was an oath, that in many ways literally meant "I give my life, my all, my everything to you". So early Christians said; well, if there's anything in our modern context that helps us understand what happens at Baptism and Communion, it's this. Baptism and Communion are our "Sacramentum" to God. Our total and complete, irrevocable oath. It was real and tangible, the Holy Spirit was at work, and God's presence was a part of it. It was the biggest thing they did; so they gave it the biggest word (in terms of the words 'authority') they could think of.
Fast forward a few hundred years, and "Sacramentum" becomes "Sacrament" in English, and the Christian church maintains it. Then hit about the 1700's and 1800's, and we have the "Puritans" who say "Sacraments are too catholic-y, let's get rid of them". And the Puritan movement eventually grew into the Baptist movement; and later adopted ideas like Biblical literalism, and other theologies.
(P.S., the Rabbi was Jesus, and the student was Paul. The sacraments were established by Jesus Christ himself, as a part of establishing the church.)
The love feasts were pot-luck dinners. Methodists do those too. LOTS of those
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