Recently I witnessed a online discussion where someone argued quite heatedly for a purely symbolic view of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper — on a Lutheran pastor’s Facebook page, of all places. For this person, “IN REMEMBRANCE. TAKE THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME” was the source and norm for all his reasoning. Unfortunately for his argument but fortunately for the rest of us, there are another 31,000 verses in the Bible, give or take.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper aren’t mere ordinances, and this is a good thing. When we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that there is nothing inside us that assures us we are headed for any salvation. We can have faith, but even that is given to us.
Font at Trinity-Traverse City
In the typical online Christian discussion each side brings its own proof-texts, but I want to go beyond what is merely “right” to the hope and the comfort that we are given when we let God do the talking. Listen to the promises. Listen to how awesome Baptism and the Lord’s Supper truly are:
1 Peter 3:18-22: Baptism now saves you…as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…
Titus 3:5-8: He saved us…by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit…[that] we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Mark 16:14-16: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved…
John 6:41-59: Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day…As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
Matthew 26:26-29: This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 22:14-20 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26: This is my body which is given for you.
If one is to call baptism and the Lord’s Supper merely symbols, I don’t know of any hermeneutic gymnastics that can be done to maintain that assertion without doing damage to the gifts he has given us.
We do participate in the sacraments in remembrance of Christ. We proclaim his death until he comes. If you struggle with Jesus saying that the bread is his body even as he is breaking it and the wine is his blood even while he is pouring it…let God be God and his gifts, his. The promises are just too great. They also happen to be true. 
