Sacred Mud Puddles

Vulgar Sacrament: Just an attempt at an edgy title for a lame blog? Or does it really mean something? I’m wondering about that myself. When I use the word “vulgar” I don’t mean jokes or gestures, usually, although I am familiar with several of each. I mean more like how before the Reformation people had to go to church and listen to the Bible in Latin instead of their own common language. If you were not a priest or a rich or educated person you spoke in a “vulgar” language. Poor, uneducated and even working class people were assumed to have no high aspirations and to be interested mostly in common, unrefined, or even ugly pursuits. You were vulgar. Like when the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and said: “Brothers think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth." (1 Cor. 1:26) When I use the word “Sacrament” I may be handling it a little roughly, or stretching it across a bit more broad an area than its fabric normally covers. What I mean by sacrament is any action we employ or behavior we exhibit that illustrates or demonstrates the Spirit of God in our hearts. So now I hope you understand a little more completely what I hope to talk about. When I walk to an office building every day across the same potholes and mud puddles, startling squirrels and angering dogs on the end of their chains, that’s vulgar. If I lift up my eyes to the leafless treetops and bless God for his immutable covenants, that is a sacrament. If I can deliver an honest day of work and treat my officemates and others with respect and humility, that too is a sacrament. DonaldD