[The] modern rejection of visual forms of communication resulted in the loss of the sacraments as “visual words.” The notion of a sacred presence through divine action is largely denied . . . . We have denied the power of symbol to create and form the Christian community. For [many,] truth resides in words, not in images, symbols, and actions. Consequently, [many] have shifted baptism and Eucharist from God’s action to human action. Baptism has become the means by which the converting person declares his or her faith; the Lord’s Supper has been reduced to an intellectual recall of Jesus hanging on the tree. We have reduced the ritual of water and of bread and wine to understandable actions. The mystery is gone.
-Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 100-101.