A forthcoming book on the sacraments, edited by Justin Holcomb and David A. Johnson, has got me thinking about the “means of grace” — or rather, how do we know and recognize God’s grace in our actual personal lives. The history of the Christian Church could almost be reduced to a long timeline of disagreement over the sacraments as means of grace, and in particular, the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist.

In order to think about this today, I’ve had to travel back to basics: which is Jackie DeShannon, and a song she wrote, and performed and released in 1964, entitled “When You Walk in the Room”.

Almost everything you would want or hope a sacrament to be and to represent is covered in that song. Only thing is, the form of ‘sacrament’ portrayed in the song is instantiated in a relationship — an overwhelming emotional and corporeal encounter. The parallels, to me, are obvious.

I invite you to listen to the song (and to The Searchers’ version, too) “every time that you — Boom Boom Boom” — go into church.