Table Matters

The Sacraments, Evangelism, and Social Justice

LaBoy

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781532642753
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In many churches, the work of evangelism and social justice is relegated to clergy, staff, or special committees. Rarely do most members of the laity believe they should or even want to engage in the tasks of evangelism and social justice. In this volume, LaBoy contends that participation in baptism and Eucharist mandates for all Christians--and those who are Wesleyan in their orientation, in particular--that evangelism and social justice are not optional but in fact integral to their worship and witness. She argues that this understanding and practice of the integration of sacraments, evangelism, and social justice are what can help churches deal with contemporary issues of decline and church disenfranchisement by both congregants and those beyond church walls. LaBoy further argues that making the sacraments central to the worship life of congregations is what made early Methodists great evangelists and advocates for social justice.

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What Are the Sacraments and Why Are They Important?

What Are Sacraments?

The standard Protestant definition of sacrament is “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, given unto us, ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof.”2 But what exactly does this mean? To begin with, our definition and explanation of the overall term “sacrament,” let us first begin by understanding how the term “sacrament” came to be used in early Christian communities. As Juan Luis Segundo maintains, although instituted by Christ, the sign-acts that we know refer to as “sacraments” were not “experienced or lived as sacred rites.”3 Rather, Jewish liturgy, ritual, and common practices were interpreted by early followers of Christ in light of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. For example, the Gospels tell of the baptism of repentance that was practiced by John the Baptist in the wilderness (Mark 1:1–5). There was also the traditional Jewish practice of taking bread, blessing it, giving thanks to God, and sharing it. This simple sharing of the Passover meal by Jesus and the disciples in the upper room became known to Christ-followers as the Eucharist/Last Supper (Matt 26:17–30; Mark 14:1–2; Luke 22:7–23).

As time progressed, post-paschal communities used the Greek word for mystery, mysterion, to convey the idea that in their practices of baptism and Eucharist, there was a way that Christ was made known in ways beyond human understanding. More than symbols, the sacraments serve as a means of grace by which God disclosed things to human beings that could not be understood by reason alone. The Latin Church began using the word sacramentum to describe the word “sacrament” and to connote vow or promise in order to describe the covenant between God and humans. Thus, we understand the sacraments to function not only as signs by which persons may be identified as Christians, but also as indicators of the grace of God towards humankind as manifested in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ requiring and received in faith with the express purpose of “awakening and strengthening our faith.”4 This understanding of the sacraments as both indicators of the grace of God and practices that serve as distinguishing marks for Christ-followers, also suggests that there is something active that occurs whenever the church gathers to partake of the sacraments, within individuals and within the corporate body of believers and between the believers and God. Thus, Stamm rightly asserts, “the sacraments are the work of Christ in and with the church.”5

Liturgical scholar James F. White maintains that “God’s self-giving is the basis of the Christian sacraments.”6 Rather than considering sacraments as signs that merely point to something abstract (i.e., water pointing to grace), we need to consider the sacraments on a more personal and experiential level. According to White, sacraments are both theological and anthropological.7 In them, God offers Godself to us in the same manner that humans utilize when giving gifts to one another. Our gifts become a representation of not only who we are, but of the nature of the relationship that we have with the recipient of the gift. Given that God is love, then we can say that in the sacraments the love of God is made known to us in tangible ways (Rom 5:5). The experience of God’s love then lays claim to us in that we are now called to extend this same type of love to all that God loves (see Matt 22:38–40 and 1 John 4:19–21).

Critical to understanding the sacraments as God’s self-giving is that sacraments are unique sign-acts in which both God and humans act in concert. Of sacraments as sign-acts, White contends,

People perform them, but through them experience God’s self-giving. A human being in not the only actor in these actions. As Luther said: “For (hu)man baptizes, and yet does not baptize. (S)He baptizes in that (s)he performs the work of immersing the person to be baptized; (s)he does not baptize, but in doing so (s)he acts not on (her)his own authority but in God’s stead. Hence, we ought to receive baptism at human hands just as if Christ himself, indeed, God him (God)self, were baptizing us with (God’s)his own hands.” It is God who really baptizes, though we use the water. Human beings perform the outward action, the visible sacrament, but it is God who acts in self-giving to give the inward fruit that makes it a sacrament and not just another sign act.8

In sign-acts, words and actions are equally important. An overemphasis of either word or action can cause less than a full understanding, can cause less than a full appreciation of the gift being conveyed. Likewise, as sign-acts, when words, signs, or acts are incomprehensible to the recipient, then something is also lost in translation, and what may be a significant gift given may be treated as incidental by the recipient. Thus, sometimes it is necessary that some sort of explanation precedes the gift. This is why White agrees with Calvin and Luther about the unity of the administration of the sacrament and proclamation of the word, in that

Word and sacrament are not distinct realities but part of the same event. It is one and the same Christ who is given to us in both preaching and action. The same Spirit makes Christ manifest in both but by different means. Thus, word and sacrament are characterized more by similarity than by diversity. They are never in competition, but each is mutually dependent on the other, reflecting our full humanity.9

So, if both words and actions are equally important in conveying God’s self-giving in the sacraments, how then should we think about and practice the sacraments theologically and biblically.

First, White contends that rather than focusing on abstract theological constructs when considering the sacraments, we must understand that our theology is derived from sacramental practice rather than trying to impose theological constructs on the sacraments. This means that when we must look at how the Bible displays God’s self-giving to humans through the natural order. The Christian God of the Bible is both transcendent and immanent. This is the God that makes Godself known personally in water, wind, and voice. Thus, God does not only make Godself known through the penultimate sacrament Jesus Christ, but God continues to make Godself known to humans in very human ways through sign-acts performed in the natural order.10

Second, sacraments are liturgical grammar and theological cliff notes. Sacraments define us theologically by providing us with language that tells us something about who the Triune God is in relation to us and the created order; and who we are as humans in relationship to God, one another, and the created order. As liturgical grammar, sacraments, like all language, form us into being and becoming. Like all liturgy, the sacraments define who and whose we are and provide “both a rehearsal of the narratives and a continual re-embedding of persons in the language of the faith.”11

As theological cliff notes, sacraments remind us of our theological birthright while re-embedding us into a way of life characterized by Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Summed up in them, the sacraments provide “shorthand” for us to remember who and whose we are and who we are called to be in Christ. In the same way that practicing a particular language helps us be more adept at it and influences our desires, attitudes, beliefs, and actions, practicing and participating in the sacraments should shape and form us individually and communally in deep and profound ways. To this end, our sacramental practice and our ethical practice are inextricably linked. Renowned liturgical scholar Don Saliers explains this link between liturgical practice and ethics:

Norms and practices in ethics are never simply ethical. The concretization of the moral life requires a vision of a world, and the continuing exercise of recalling, sustaining, and reentering that picture of the cosmos in which norms and practices have meaning and point. In short, the possibility of religious ethics (or for that matter, of any si...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Note on Discussion Questions
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: What Are the Sacraments and Why Are They Important?
• Chapter 2: Baptism
• Chapter 3: Eucharist
• Chapter 4: Understanding Holiness, Evangelism, and Social Justice in the Midst of Contemporary Challenges
• Chapter 5: Table Matters: Living as Sacramental People
• Bibliography