We had a sacramental blitz in my church one weekend late in summer this year.  Within 24 hours, we had celebrated 4 of the 7 traditional sacraments of the church – Holy Baptism, Holy Eucharist, Holy Matrimony and Unction, the anointing of one who is ill.  In this last instance, we went straight to Burial.  There is no doubt that the wonderful man whose life we celebrated had repented of his sins and was assured of pardon and absolution.  So, let’s throw that one in as well and count 5.

Might we have squeezed in the other two, had a bishop been handy?  An Ordination or a Confirmation?   We actually have a bishop who lives down the street from the church; we might have gone and grabbed him.  We would have had to “double-up,” of course – confirmations go nicely with baptisms, for instance.  It’s harder to imagine someone seeking ordination coming along with a bride.

The very idea of hijacking a bishop from his morning coffee made me laugh.  But, in the waking moments between services, I found myself thinking about the holiness of all else – my shower, walking the garbage to the street, picking up the groceries.  Might these day-to-day acts of our lives also count as sacraments?  Might I regard them as “outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ?”  Yes, I think so, particularly as they enable my life. The stuff of my life feels like the means of God’s grace.  Taking out the garbage does not, however, fulfill the rest of the definition of sacrament:  “sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.”

I am an Episcopalian priest, so there are a lot of the words of the Book of Common Prayer here.  And, of course, that is why I need a bishop handy for ordination or confirmation.  In the back of our Prayer Book, the church’s traditional understanding of the sacrament is included in “An Outline of the Faith.” This, for us, is a modern revision of the “Catechism,” the teaching of the church.  We embrace 2 great sacraments – Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist.  Baptism, we believe, is “indissoluble” – a person is baptized once for all time.  Eucharist, or Holy Communion, we celebrate all the time.  In my congregation, we do this 4 times a Sunday every Sunday come rain or shine.  Baptism and Eucharist are sacraments for everyone. We call the other 5 “sacramental rites” – Confirmation, Marriage, the Absolution of Sins, Unction and Ordination.  They are all the means of grace, but not necessary for all persons in the same way that baptism and communion are.

There were also 3 parties in our 24 hour sacramental blitz?  There was a family luncheon after the burial, a wedding reception, and a gathering of women professors and friends from the local college.

I will only argue so far about the sacramental nature of my shower, my daily routines.  I am totally convinced, however, that these parties were sacramental, bearing sure and certain means of God’s grace by way of the risen Christ.  There was communion everywhere – the breaking and sharing of bread, bread of salvation.  God’s forgiveness of humanity’s tendency to be frightfully human sat at the heart of the bodies gathered in all three instances.  There was reconciliation.  And, oh my, there was love, such love.  “God is love,” said one of the biblical passages in the marriage. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us…” [1John 4:8-10]

God’s love of us is the sure and certain means of grace.  As Christians, we surely and certainly receive that grace through baptism and communion.  We make this communion when we love God and God’s world in return.  I want to live sacramentally, making this communion everywhere by way of God’s love, everywhere in my life – in services and in my daily life, even when taking my garbage to the street.

By way of a rather unique set of circumstances, I was prepared  for our 24 hour sacramental blitz when I was on vacation with my family.  Much to my surprise, I found myself on the back pew of an Episcopal church in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with my son and my grandson.  We spanned years – my son has turned 40 and my grandson is nearly 6.  We spanned the United States – my son had come from Oregon, I had come from Mississippi and my son’s pre-school was attached to the back of the church. Sacramentally, it felt to me like Macy’s fireworks on the Fourth of July: such grace, such holy communion., such love.  For God so loved the world.