Font/Table

For safekeeping and possibly future reference and use, I'm posting the essence of a couple of my comments on a theology thread from a while ago.

I believe the Font/Table connection is important and worthy of continued discussion, *even* around this modest table. But as the comments suggest, some kind of starting point needs to clarify if baptism and holy communion are sacraments or simple ordinances and if we perceive them as means of grace, effective signs of grace, or signs of grace. In the end, God may smile at our deliberations, but is God's smile not at least as much pleasure that we're interested and concerned as it is amusement that we think we can figure this out after millennia of theologizing?

...and I do agree it would be the height of fallen humanity to refuse to commune anyone who approached the Table with pleading hands. And I so agree about "seed planted!" One of the years I taught confirmation I expressed surprise to the senior pastor that a certain teenager was getting confirmed. He replied, "she thinks she's given her life to the Lord," and then added,"ultimately, I'm okay with it because she's also being baptized – receiving a sacrament – on that day." In other words, God's Word, God's Work, God's Thing, not primarily ours, but done for us and in us.