Manifesting the Spirit

Believers as Sacraments

Mbanyane Mhango

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781666706284
  9781666706291
• eBook ISBN:
  9781666706307
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Rituals & Practice

Fewer subjects have generated intense debate in Christian thought and practice than sacraments. A reductionist view of the term "sacrament" often causes this debate and engenders tension between the so-called "sacramental" and "non-sacramental" churches largely based on whether one views the Water Baptism and the Lord's Supper as ordinances or as sacraments (means of encountering God). Drawing from the theological view that Christ is the primordial sacrament of the encounter with God, this book posits that all believers are sacraments of an encounter with God. This claim has ecumenical import. Conversion, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Empowerment, Gifts, and Fruit of the Spirit, Worship, Testimonies of Triumphs or Sufferings, Eschatological Hope, etc., enable believers to manifest the Spirit. Pentecost inaugurated all believers as both macrocosmic and microcosmic sacrament(s). The notion of sacramentality of believers intersects with the theological triad of Orthodoxy, Orthopraxy, and Orthopathy.

Chapter 1

Manifesting the Lord’s Spirit

Christ-Like Believers

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit.

(1 Cor:12:7)

Paul insightfully notes that believers manifest God’s presence (1 Cor 12:7). Elsewhere, he accents that God indwells believers (Rom 8:9, 11; 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19; cf. John 14:17). This is unique to New Testament believers. Nonetheless, Old Testament believers also manifest God’s presence. This implies that believers are sites, locations, signs, symbols, and means of grace. The Spirit-manifesting believers point others to God’s reality and draw or inspire them to encounter Christ. “Sacrament” is a fitting theological term that aptly captures the believers’ ontology or the character of rendering God’s presence tangible in words and deeds. To clarify this theological conviction, let us first reflect albeit briefly upon the early and the salient history of sacraments.

Early History of Sacraments

From apostolic times until the twelfth century, there was a relatively broad view of the sacraments. While Water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were accepted as the most important rites, gestures, festivals, fasting, preaching, almsgiving, foot-washing, vows, or promises were understood as sacraments. By the twelfth century, the broad view of sacraments narrowed down to seven to include the Water Baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, ordination or orders, and matrimony or marriage, especially within the Roman Catholic Church.

The English term “sacrament” historically links to mystērion. The term “sacrament” derives from the Latin word for “sign,” sacramentum, and the Greek word for “mystery,” mystērion. In secular contexts, mystērion referred to a religious rite or an oath and was used in military contexts when an individual was inducted into the army. The word “mystery” has three meanings in Pauline thought. Firstly, mystērion refers to the divine plan of salvation (1 Cor 2:7), which is now fully disclosed in and through Jesus Christ (Rom 16:25–26) by the Spirit (Eph 3:3–5). Secondly, it refers to Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God’s mystery (Col 1:27). Thirdly, mystērion refers to liturgical celebration (leitourgia).

Paul uses “mystery” in reference to those baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus (Rom 6:1–11) and to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:26). Although there was no transparent sacramental system in the initial stages of Christianity, central to a community’s life was the rite of initiation (Water Baptism) and the rite of sharing a meal (the Lord’s Supper). The anamnēsis of the Lord’s actions was a constitutive element of Christian gatherings, as was the proclamation of the Word or sermons.

The Latin writer Tertullian was the first to use the term sacramentum in De spectaculis, where he calls the Eucharist a sacrament.1 He also employs sacramentum in his Five Books against Marcion, where he calls Water Baptism a sacrament as in his other work, entitled On Water Baptism. To be sure, he held a broad view of sacrament beyond initiation acts of Water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. For example, Tertullian refers to charity as “the highest sacrament of the faith”2 and relates sacrament to martyrdom.3

This broad view of sacrament continued until the twelfth century. More precisely, Peter Lombard systematized sacraments and set them as seven external signs of invisible grace.4 This became the official view of the Roman Catholic Church. At the council of Trent, the number of sacraments was officially set at seven. From the sixteenth century to the time of Vatican II, Protestant reformers decided to return to the sources, especially Scripture (sola Scriptura) and the patristic fathers.

Protestant reformers insisted that Scripture identifies the Water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as sacraments. They also emphasized the significance of proclaiming the Word and the centrality of faith for Christian life. Moreover, they did not accept the idea that the sacraments confer grace in and of themselves. This was in contrast to the Roman Catholic Church’s position, but reformers were in agreement that sacraments are promises of grace to come in eternal life.

At the Second Vatican Council, the view that the church is a basic sacrament gained steam. In fact, the Vatican II documents suggest that the Roman Catholic Church holds this theological view. A problem with this theological conviction is that it leaves out non-Roman Catholic churches. The Roman Catholic Church’s official position is that all churches subsist within it. This implies that the church as a sacrament refers to the Roman Catholic primarily and others secondarily.

The thesis that believers are sacraments does not depend upon the sacramentality of the church. Instead, it draws from the sacramentality of Jesus. Roman Catholic scholars postulate the view that Christ is the primordial, foundational, root, basic, or fundamental sacrament. The views that the church and Christ are sacraments are against the council of Trent and Lombard’s seven sacraments. Osborne, a Roman Catholic scholar, rightly claims that if Jesus is the primordial sacrament, then it is in and through him that the definition of a sacrament is determined and not through the rituals.5 The manifestation of the Spirit is critical for conceiving Christ and his followers as sacraments. Spirit manifestations in and through Christ offer a hermeneutical lens for interpreting Spirit manifestations in and through believers.

Sacramentality of Christ and of believers intersects partly on pneumatological ground. This is so because the Spirit who manifested in and through Christ manifests in and through the believers. Moreover, the efficacy of the rites of Water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper depends on the Spirit. Precisely, the Spirit mediates Christ’s presence as believers undertake ecclesial rites. A definition of a sacrament should take seriously the Spirit’s manifestations. The sacramentality of believers holds tha...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Introduction: The Believers as Sacraments of the Spirit
• Chapter 1: Manifesting the Lord’s Spirit
• Chapter 2: Manifesting the Regenerating Spirit
• Chapter 3: Manifesting the Empowering Spirit
• Chapter 4: Manifesting the Relational Spirit
• Chapter 5: Manifesting the Communing Spirit
• Chapter 6: Manifesting the Comforting Spirit
• Chapter 7: Manifesting the Eschatological Spirit
• Conclusion: The Spirit and Sacramentality of All Believers
• Bibliography