Sacramentality

In the seemingly unending procession of online quizzes, I recently tried "What is your model of the church?" and discovered (to no surprise) that I am sacramental and then come closest to servant model and scored the lowest on the institutional model. Here are the results:

You scored as Sacrament model. Your model of the church is Sacrament. The church is the effective sign of the revelation that is the person of Jesus Christ. Christians are transformed by Christ and then become a beacon of Christ wherever they go. This model has a remarkable capacity for integrating other models of the church. Sacrament model 84% Servant Model 78% Mystical Communion Model 72% Herald Model 44% Institutional Model 22% What is your model of the church? [Dulles] created with QuizFarm.com

You can take the quiz yourself at the link above.

So what exactly is sacramental? One way to answer the question is to point to the sacraments of the church. The primary sacraments of the church are the two instituted by Jesus during his ministry, which are baptism and communion. The other sacraments of the church are confirmation, ordination, marriage, reconciliation of a penitent (confession), and prayers for healing and for the dying.

A sacrament is something that conveys God's presence in the here and now. Our Prayer Book defines a sacrament as "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace." This means that the bread and wine of communion are the outward and visible signs of the inward grace (meaning gift from God) of Jesus' presence. The water of baptism is the outward sign of the inward grace of cleansing from sin. The outward signs in the other sacraments are oil and rings and the laying on of hands. But we know that these are not the only things that can convey God's presence.

We can experience God in a powerful in a hike through a canyon, or by watching a sunset or through the birth of a baby. World War II era Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple declared that we live in a "sacramental universe" meaning that everything can and does show us God's presence in our lives. The poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning spoke of the sacramental universe through some oft-quoted lines,

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.

The quiz pegged me correctly, I do agree with Temple and Browning that everything and every place is potentially the moment of The Burning Bush as all creation is marinated in God's abiding presence.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Episcopal Church