The Right Kind of Rarity

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In the Lord’s Supper, God meets with us in very ordinary things. It is the same with the sacrament of baptism—what is more plentiful than water? Bread is common, a staple. And wine is abundant—virtually every human society has rejoiced in that particular gift of God.

So what does this mean? In Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people that the Lord is not up in Heaven out of reach, nor is He across the sea. He is in our hearts, and in our mouths. The gospel is not distant; it is not esoteric. It is not rare.

It is striking that God did not give us sacraments to represent our salvation by means of rare elements like gold or diamonds. As tempting as it might be to hide our salvation away in a safe box, God has made a move in the opposite direction. Although we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, which is more precious than costly jewels, at the same time we have to realize that we are dealing with a different kind of rarity.

What is more rare than gold? Well, to start, seeing water the right way—that’s rare. Whenever we see water, we should be reminded of our baptism. And when we think of our baptism, we should see Christ. But we see water all the time—what should follow from this? We live in the midst of glorious wheat fields. What should we see every time we look at them? We should see bread, and in that bread we see Christ.

So water is not rare, and neither is bread or wine. But seeing them rightly, seeing them with true faith, meeting with Christ rightly—that is still rare. And so come, with the prayer that what is now rare may become exceedingly common.

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