SAC502 Intro to Convergence Darrin L Ford

Dr Travis

Reflection Paper on:

Spirit & Sacrament:

An Invitation to Eucharismatic Worship

By Andrew Wilson
 As the author starts out he says to imagine a service that has both the

charismatic and eucharistic in operation, from prophecy to liturgy I can’t help but to

continue to go back to the image of a tapestry. The sum of all the parts are beautifully

woven together in a celebration of our God and King. Being eucharistic is so much more

than celebrating at the table, it’s about being historically rooted and not ashamed to be

sacramental. I believe the same thing ought to be said about being charismatic, we are

historically rooted. The church was birthed at Pentecost and to be charismatic is to

expect spiritual experience. To be Eucharismatic then is to be firmly rooted in the whole

of the church and have it all! Not only is it possible to be spiritual and sacramental at the

same time, it is in fact Biblical. If we see scripture as Jesus did, as God’s authoritative

Word then we should eagerly desire spiritual gifts and we should see that God is

experienced in the church through the physical symbols of bread, wine, and water,

through the Word proclaimed and through the presence of the Holy Spirit. These are all

interconnected.

So much of the scripture tells us that God is a gift giver. Our joy comes in

receiving and making use of His gifts, our greatest gift we can receive from Him is our

salvation. But don’t stop there, He has so much more to give us and so many of us

never accept what He has to give. Yes there are times of lament in our lives, but if we

are stuck in the “frozen chosen” mode it’s because we haven’t taken and used the gifts

of God as He purposed. Being eucharistic brings richness, depth, and happiness to our

worship. The gifts and manifestations of the Spirit, the catholic tradition, the liturgy of the

church, the Word, the sacraments, all of these are gifts from God and the best way to

respond to His gifts is to enjoy them! From Genesis to Revelation God gives. The devil,
in contrast, has nothing to give so he focuses his attacks on undermining God’s gifts.

One of the lines in this book that I can not forget is “the fall is what happens when we

think God’s gifts aren’t good enough.” Regardless, our Father keeps on giving. His

greatest gift being to provide redemption from the fall.

The incarnation is the most extravagant gift of all. Jesus didn’t come only to give,

He is the greatest of gifts that God could offer. Throughout scripture God gives over and

again, sometimes giving far more than we are worthy of. The Spirit is another gift given

to us by the Father, the Spirit in turn giving gifts that we might use for the Father’s glory.

Many of the gifts God has given us are so large that oftentimes we have to think through

how best to respond to them. Our first response should be that God’s gifts are always

good, then that He is giving them freely, and then that we need to receive them. From

there, our response should be that of thankfulness, worship, stewardship, and pursuit.

Thankfulness honors the giver, thanking God for His gifts forces us to look at

what we have rather than what we lack. It wakes us up to the reality of God’s gift and

allows us to be filled with joy. As this happens we begin to worship, we allow every gift

to show us something about the giver. Gifts should be enjoyed, but our love should not

be for the gifts but for the giver. He should be the center of our affection and that which

we express as our very joy.

Jesus paid a lot of attention to stewardship and we are called to be stewards. I

Peter 4:10 says that as each of us has received a gift, we ought to use it to serve one

another as good stewards of God’s grace. Finally, scripture tells us to pursue the gifts. I

think the best way we can pursue the gift is by pursuing the giver. If we earnestly seek

Him, we will have free access to the gift. God continually gives gifts and our response
should be to thank Him for them, worship Him through them, make good use of them

and seek HIM more. What does all this have to do with Eucharismatic worship? It is in

the context of our worship, and worship goes beyond a “church service”, that we use the

gifts God has given most often. Paul said that God’s gifts are given for “the building up

of the church.”

Corporate worship has historically been centered on three things: songs,

sermons, and sacraments. Through time there has been leadership that has focused

more on one than the other, some churches have thrown one or another out. There are

churches that don’t sing and there are churches that don’t observe the sacraments. The

local church needs to worship in ways that help everyone find their joy in God, that

means we can’t cater to one or the other. Sacramental worship takes us on a journey

through God’s redemptive timeline. From birth to resurrection we celebrate what God

has done for us. We journey to Bethlehem in Advent, we baptize, we gather at the

Lord’s table. The sacraments help us loudly proclaim “repent from your sins, believe the

Gospel, and come to Christ.” All of these things keep us centered on the work of Christ.

With this we dance and celebrate our king, we receive words from the Father, we

prophesy, and we lay hands on the sick. All of these things are grounded on scripture

and firmly rooted in the historic church. Why is liturgy important? “It can train us, shape

our habits, and reorient our desires.”

I don’t think it can be overstated, I believe a church is only whole when it is

practicing all of the gifts that God has given us. I love the way that this book was written,

I believe anyone who is questioning what this Eucharistic thing is all about will be

greatly helped. Those who have questioned the charismatic will equally be helped. It’s
hard to walk away from a book like this and not understand that God has gifted us so

that first our joy may be found in Him, and secondly that through those gifts we would

point others to Him.