A pastoral newsletter article for First United Lutheran Church of Dallas.
Last weekend was our latest healing service, something we’ll do every time there’s a fifth Sunday in a month. Afterward, someone asked me about the anointing oil. What makes it special? Where does it come from?
The truth is, it is not holy oil, grown and blessed by monks on a mountain in France from the same trees from which the cross of Jesus was fashioned, or something like that. I simply purchased some store-brand olive oil at Kroger, added a little fragrance I got at CVS, and poured it over some cotton to make it easier to handle.
How can we claim healing, then, if the oil isn’t holy? Well, that’s an important surprise about Lutheran faith. The oil IS holy. It is made from olives, grown by God’s good pleasure, made by God’s own hand. That this oil isn’t MORE holy in some way. Instead, ALL olive oil is holy, because ALL olives are holy, because they are God’s.
That oil becomes healing, anointing oil because of how we use it. We combine it with the Word, the promises God makes to us. And then we combine it with faith, our trust that God is always faithful to those promises. Word + Faith + Physical Element = Sign of God’s action in the world.
That is more true for sacraments. The Baptism is not special, holy water. It is just from the sink, not because there is no such thing as holy water, but because all water is holy. Communion bread is made in (in our case) Donna’s kitchen; the wine and juice are from the grocery store. These things are holy because the grain and grapes are God’s. They become sacraments when used with the Word and the faith of our gathered church community. (It’s not unlike how your pastor is no holier than you are. We are all “just” people, the holy people of God. I am a pastor only when I proclaim God’s Word for the community of faith.)
One side thought: Why, then, do we take special care when disposing of Communion? The truth is, we don’t have to. Many Lutheran churches return the elements to the earth from which they came, tossing them onto the ground rather than into the trash or sewer, but others do not. I personally like to take this special care, to honor what this food and drink WAS. When we used it with the Word and with faith, we knew Jesus had promised to be physically present for us. After worship, the bread is just bread. But for just a moment, it was more, and that is worth celebrating with reverence.
Holiness is everywhere around us. We set aside things like oil, water, bread, and wine, not so they can be especially holy, but so that God can use them to remind us of everything else that is holy. And really, these are holy not in-and-of themselves, but because they are connected to the God who IS holy, and who chooses to share that holiness with us and all creation.