The Sacramental God

I have been taking a class on John Henry Newman, focusing on when he was still an Anglican, reading primarily from his Oxford sermons and his Parochial & Plain Sermons. For my most recent paper, I read his sermon on the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus in holy communion. And it got me thinking about how I have been framing my theological ideas for some time now, at least the past 5 years. I truly believe that God interacts pre-eminently with creation sacramentally. But I would qualify that what I mean by sacrament is not limited to the 2 Gospel sacraments or the Roman 7.

I believe every manner by which God interacts with creation is a sacrament. Wherever grace is found touching the physical world, that is where God is, and that is a sacramental act on God's part. Sacraments also, by their nature, demand a response to fully apprehend the benefit they are intended to give. Perhaps this would be a good topic to address in the next few posts, concerning how our sacramental God engages us to win us and creation back into a restored relationship with Him.