What's a Lutheran (5) A Sacramental View of the World

Although there is a human tendency to conceive God as one being in the universe (the highest and most powerful being, but a being like others nonetheless), Lutherans recognize that God is the source and ground of all that exists and cannot be identified with any one “thing” in the world.  God therefore is everywhere and in principle can be found anywhere in creation.  God has, however, promised to be present to us in specific places where God wants to be found – for our good.  These particular places where God has promised to be present include baptism, communion, and absolution.

In baptism we are joined with Christi in his death and therefore in the promise of resurrection.  This is why Lutherans practice the baptism even of infants.  Unlike some other Christians who focus on our making a “decision for Christ,” Lutherans stress that God has made a decision for us, once and for all.  We keep going back, again and again, to the claim that God has made on us and God’s promises to unite us to Christ forever.

In communion we recognize that Christ has promised to be really and truly present to us as we take, bless, break, and share the bread and wine in faith.  Unlike many Protestants, Lutherans stress the reality of Christ’s promise to be present, but unlike Roman Catholics, we do not try to explain how Christ is present or objectify that presence apart from the communal act of eating and drinking together in faith.

In absolution, the human word that announces God’s forgiveness of you – yes, you, even of the sins that you confess silently or aloud in confidence to a sister or brother – really delivers on God’s promise to forgive and grant us a fresh start.

These “sacramental” signs help us understand that Christian faith is inherently communal – God’s word comes to us in and through the human words that come to us from outside us and turn us outward from ourselves towards God and neighbor and through the material things of this world and our lives.