Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 8
The speaker insists much of Christianity has reduced realities to “just a symbol” (baptism, communion) and urges removing “symbol” from our language—what reactions does that trigger in you, and what would need to change in your theology and church practice if communion truly is “bread and wine, and yet the body and blood of Christ…way more than a symbol”?
Another way to ask: How do you feel when someone says baptism and communion are not “just symbols”? If communion is truly bread and wine and also the body and blood of Christ, what would need to change in your beliefs and in how your church practices it?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The speaker expects his claim to “stretch your minds,” because it challenges the comfort of explaining sacred acts as mere symbols; he insists communion involves a real, supernatural reality alongside physical bread and wine. If that’s true, the church would need to treat communion with deeper reverence, expectation, and centrality rather than casual minimalism.
- He diagnoses the problem: “so many parts of our Christian life have been just made into symbolic things…Baptism’s a symbol. Communion’s a symbol.”
- He states his intention: “I’ve been trying really hard to just get the word symbol out of my language.”
- He asserts a dual reality in communion: “communion, bread and wine, and yet the body and blood of Christ. Way more than a symbol.”
- He explains why people reduce it: “we often don’t know how to deal with [the supernatural], so we either explain it away or ignore it.”
- He frames sacraments as means God uses: God works “by supernatural ways…through natural and ordinary objects and our obedience.”