Anxiety and the Sacraments

By Emilyann Pool

“Can’t you just...stop being anxious?” “Just smile and you’ll feel better!” “Have you tried this homeopathic remedy?” “It’s not like you’re a starving kid in Africa. Count your blessings.” “You probably don’t pray enough.” “Just read the Bible more.” “Do you think the reason you have anxiety is because you don’t trust God enough?” “Is it a gluten allergy?”

I have heard all these remarks and more since I started experiencing panic attacks brought on anxiety. Advice from friends, family, teachers, pastors, and counselors (most well-meaning) all ended with Law: just do this and your life will be better. But as Lutherans, we know that life—and anxiety—doesn’t work like that.

The Scriptures tell us that we sin in what we do and don’t do. However, we must not forget that sin is primarily a condition. All illness is a part of this world—not necessarily as God’s judgment on our personal sins, but because the whole world fell under the curse of the Fall (John 9:1-5). One of the ways we experience our sinful condition, or the world’s fallenness, is through feelings of anxiety and depression that affect both body and mind. God has made man so that the body and the mind are intertwined. And yet, we’ve adopted the Platonic (and pagan) idea that our mind and bodies have little to do with each other. We are not disembodied beings. On the contrary, the Scriptures tell us of the relationship between our mind and our matter (Genesis 1:27; 2:7; I Corinthians 6:19-20; 15:40-49; I Thessalonians 5:23).

Just as everyone experiences some sort of physical sickness in this his life, every human has experienced some form of mental and emotional ailment like anxiety or depression—whether for a lifetime or just a season. For many of us, anxiety or depression is triggered by an event or an experience: the loss of a loved one, financial worries, a breakup, divorce, a sin we commit, or a sin committed against us. But some of us experience anxiety due to hormonal imbalances and defective nervous systems, and so it is a battle we fight our whole lives.

The physical symptoms of anxiety and depression should be diagnosed and treated by doctors and therapists. Just like you wouldn’t go months without seeing a doctor for a persistent fever, you should not ignore your anxiety or decide to self-medicate through unhealthy and destructive habits. Reach out for the daily bread that God has given you in experts who can help. If you are uncertain about any advice you are given, take it to a parent or pastor.

However, not every symptom of anxiety can be remedied by medication or counseling. As Christians we are given particular insight into the spiritual side of anxiety. As Lutherans, specifically, we are well-equipped with an entire arsenal for handling the spiritual symptoms of anxiety. We call these weapons the Sacraments.

Baptism

When anxiety blurs our identity, Holy Baptism roots us in our identity as children of God. In my experience, panic sets in when I feel like I am not going to live up to an expectation that I have for myself or that I perceive others have for me. While our roles and vocations may shift, we remind ourselves that our identity as God’s children will never change. By remembering our Baptism in moments of anxiety, we focus our eyes on Christ. Instead of worrying about our status with God or with the people around us, we can rest in the promises and assurances in Baptism—God has marked us as His own through water and the Word and that can never be washed away or taken from us. Through Baptism, we are clothed in Christ and made new creations. We are no longer identified by our merit or by our sin; we drown the Old Adam and our sin is wiped away (Galatians 3:27; 2 Corinthians 5:17). Just as Christ delivers us from the grip of our identity as sinners, He releases us from the snares of anxiety. If we belong to Christ, it is not only our actual sin that is buried unto His death, but also our sinful nature and all the lies that anxiety causes us to believe (Galatians 5:24).

The Lord’s Supper

When anxiety produces paranoia, discord, and restlessness, the Lord’s Supper gives us the blessing of rest in Christ and a fellowship in Him that goes beyond the loneliness we feel.

While anxiety may cause us to think of ourselves as alone and misunderstood, the truth is usually the exact opposite. When we ask for help and fight against the throes of anxiety, we as the called ones care for each other in weakness and affliction. The Lord’s Supper delivers forgiveness of sins won by Christ to each believer, but it is also fellowship around the Table: uniting all saints, on earth and in heaven, with each other in Christ. Anxiety divides us, causing tension and strife, but the Lord’s Table unites us in Christ’s Body and gives our minds rest from the plague of anxiety. In the Large Catechism, Luther says we should see the Lord’s Supper as “soothing medicine which aids and quickens us in both body and soul. For where the soul is healed, the body has benefitted also” (v. 68). Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper for the weak in faith (all His children) so that all who were tired and unsure could rest at His table (John 6:37; Matthew 11:28).

Confession and Absolution

When anxiety produces guilt and lies, the Confession and Absolution of sin is the source of repentance and forgiveness for sin. Hearing the promise of forgiveness of our sins reconciles us even when we feel condemned by our sin, and healing for our hearts and minds comes from confessing our sins (James 5:16). While anxiety and depression generally are not active rebellion against God, no one is without sin and therefore without guilt (1 John 1:8-9), and nothing feeds anxiety more than secret sin and hidden faults. When we repent and receive God’s forgiveness we are cleansed from anxiety and the sins that we commit in our worry and fear. Through His Absolution, Christ delivers you from the emotion of guilt and the lies that anxiety allows to fester. The words, “You are forgiven,” are entirely for your benefit and impart a peace which surpasses all understanding.

The active ingredient in the Sacraments is the Word of God. Without the promises and truths of the Scriptures, water, bread, and wine would just be human elements with no power to save, forgive, and heal us from our anxiety. God is our bulwark never failing, and His Word pierces, heals, and equips us to fight temptation and wage war on sin. Through the Scriptures, we can know Christ who is the ultimate balm for all suffering, including anxiety. Christ is well acquainted with earthly suffering—Luther says that Christ is hidden in suffering, especially suffering on the cross (Heidelberg Disputation 21). Any symptom of anxiety you feel, Christ knows through His own death, and He delivers Himself to you through Word and Sacrament in the midst of the anxiety. One day, He will deliver us from all sin and death, soul AND body, in the resurrection. Take hope and do not believe the lies but find solace in the powerful Word of God. Jesus Christ is the Great Physician, who did not come for the healthy, but for all of us, His children—the weak who He makes strong (Luke 5:31-32).

Emilyann Pool is a first year Deaconess student at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana and a Trivium teacher at Wittenberg Academy. Her home congregation is St. John Lutheran Church in Clinton, Iowa.