Breathed Into The World
The Church as Sacrament
If there is a light
You can’t always see
And there is a world
We can’t always be
If there is a dark
Within and without
And there is a light
Don’t let it go outAnd this is a song
A song for someone
This is a song
A song for someoneAnd I’m a long way
From your hill of Calvary
And I’m a long way
From where I was, where I need to beSong for Someone - U2
Recently there have been discussions amongst clergy around the angst of where the Church in North America finds itself. Many clergy members are proposing solutions and ideas. But I keep going back to what are we measuring? Why do we keep using the language and measure of the world when we seek to understand the effectiveness of a church? Things like attendance, giving, volunteers, people entering the clergy are all looked at with anxious eyes. Maybe that is taking eyes away from the goal of being disciples. I can hear you, “but we need money, people, and places to sustain the church.” My response is to ask why we treat an organism like an organization? Should the marks of a successful church be the faithfulness and love expressed that spill out into the world?
I asked what makes a church successful and what should the church be. I answered my question with:
The Church should be a sacrament in the world. We should be the incarnate body of Christ reflecting the love, mercy, and grace of God into a world needing those so badly. As a sacrament, we are breathed into the world as God exhales us. As we are breathed in, we enable the relational transformation of encountering Christ in the world breathing us in. As a sacrament, we are a martyrial body sacrificing our comfort for the transforming grace of God to be experienced.
In his book, Created to Worship, Brent Peterson talks about worship as the time when the Church is breathed in by God and then breathed out to work in the world. In the benediction chapter, Peterson uses the words of sacrament in the actions of Spirirt and Church. “As the Spirit gathers believers to the divine-human transforming encounter, the Spirit exhales (blows) them out into the world whereby the church continues its vocation as the body of Christ. The church is sent with and by the Spirit to be broken and poured out into the world.” (Worship p 199) We are Godbreathed to continue our vocation as the church. This is an important idea and truth. Zack Hunt reminds us what it means to be Godbreathed in his book by that title.
You. The one reading these words right now. God breathed you into existence and wants you to find your story within the story of faith that has already been told and is being told all around you. This is the calling of all godbreathed things, whether that be the written word or flesh and bone—to be godbreathed, to be filled with the Spirit of God, to be filled with love and wonder and share that love and wonder with the rest of the world just as God first shared it with us. (Godbreathed p 178)
(Access for All Friday 5/31/2024 by 8AM CDT)
Why is this important? Because we live in an interconnected world. When the church moves, acts, and lives as sacrament, we have the possibility of affecting all of our world. To lapse a bit into philosophy, John Cobb mentions this in the introduction to the anthology of sermons and essays on Open and Relational Theology Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God.
Many now know that they live in a world of deeply interconnected events without knowing that this recognition locates one in a new metaphysical vision. What is humanly and theologically important is that we live and think that way, not how we label it. Many of us have derived this understanding from the Bible without getting involved in philosophy. - John Cobb (Preaching p 13)
We live in a connected creation. Humanity is connected to all of creation and all of humanity through our shared existence in creation. I know that language may be scary, but Christianity is a religion of Eastern original bathed in the language of connection. That connects us within creation to the land, the inhabitants of the land, and to our shares responsibility to care for creation.
If we are breathed out as sacrament into a world needing the hope of love, mercy, and grace what does that mean? It means that our actions, language, and attitudes should reflect the One breathing us out. Are we a sweet and nourishing meal to the hungry, or are we a bitter pill to swallow? Is our taste that of hope or that of despair? The world is often at the feet of Calvary while the Church is a long way from that place.
Our movement should be of aid and respite. But when we engage in practices that help the hurting, it is not simply about doing. Brent Peterson expands the idea of being breathed out in his book The Church. It is in these words that the fullness of our sacramental movement is seen.
Yet if mission does not invite persons who are lost and marginalized into the discipleship of communion, then mission can be reduced to charity. For example, feeding the poor and clothing the naked is not enough. Those things are important, but the full hope is to enter into relationships of kindred mutuality with those we encounter in mission, bringing them into the communion of the local church. We are breathed in for communion to be breathed out for mission to then be breathed back in for communion, and on and on. (Church p 154)
It is not simply about helping, feeding, or any other good work. If we are not also forming relationship and trust in a mutuality, we are not acting sacramentally. Guess what? The human beings we help may never walk into one of our churches, yet our relational action continues. The Spirit works in prevenient grace, wooing those we encounter. Even if they do not walk into our church, they may walk into another and find God has been walking with them the whole time. We may never see the light go on in a life, but I pray we show that light regardless.
The Church should be a sacrament in the world. We should be the incarnate body of Christ reflecting the love, mercy, and grace of God into a world needing those so badly. As a sacrament, we are breathed into the world as God exhales us. As we are breathed in, we enable the relational transformation of encountering Christ in the world breathing us in. As a sacrament, we are a martyrial body sacrificing our comfort for the transforming grace of God to be experienced.
Hunt, Zack. Godbreathed. Herald Press, 2023.
Peterson, Brent. Created to Worship: God’s Invitation to Become Fully Human. Beacon Hill Press, 2012.
Peterson, Brent D. The Church. The Wesleyan Theology Series. Kansas City, MO: The Foundry Publishing, 2023.
Wells, Jeff, Vikki Randall, Nichole Torbitzky, and Thomas Jay Oord. Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God: Sermons, Essays, and Worship Elements from the Perspective of Open and Relational, and Process Theology. SacraSage Press, 2024.