Schoenheider, Robert G.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 10Issue 4 Ethical Decision Making Article 410-1-1984Toward a livelier sacra-mentalityRobert G. SchoenheiderFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Articles is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationSchoenheider, Robert G. (1984) "Toward a livelier sacra-mentality," Consensus: Vol. 10 : Iss. 4 , Article 4.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol10/iss4/4TOWARD A LIVELIER SACRA-MENTALITYRobert G. SchoenheiderINTRODUCTIONThe evangelical catholic faith of the early Church, rooted in Scripture and summar-ized in the three ecumenical creeds of the first few centuries was a faith that believedin a God who relates to people and their world sacramentally. This was in sharp con-trast to the religions of the ancient Mediterranean world, including the variousGnostic sects, and Hellenistic philosophy which tended to see a sharp division be-tween the physical and spiritual realms. In the latter, anyone who hoped to reachcommunion with the divine needed to divorce their religious aspirations from thematerial world. Only through a spiritual seeking could one hope to reach out andgrasp the divine. This tendency made sharp inroads in the ancient Church and Chris-tianity has never completely rid itself of some of the consequences. But, after thesmoke of doctrinal controversy of the first four-five hundred years cleared, thecatholic-apostolic faith of the Church was a faith in a God who works sacramentally inour world. Perhaps it was the influence of the Hebrew thought patterns of the OldTestament which saved the day. Certainly one must not forget the guidance of theHoly Spirit in the development of the Church.What is meant by the statement that God’s kingdom comes in this world sacramen-tally. Already in the Genesis creation account it becomes evident that in the begin-ning God made the world for the benefit of humanity— that it might be the means bywhich God related to men and women and they in turn related to God. The first sininvolved man turning in on himself and in doing so making the created world an endin itself. Man refused to offer all of life back to God from whom it came. In restoringlife to man and indeed to the whole world, God condescends to man’s creaturelylimitations. He acts within the context of the world through earthly means which man28Sacra-Mentality 29can grasp. The ultimate expression of this is seen in the incarnation of Christ—Godbecomes a human being like you and me in the person of the Son. The incarnation is“mystery” in the biblical sense, i.e., beyond our limited human reason’s ability tounderstand, but not supernatural, not “out of this world.” In fact, it’s just the op-posite, God humbling himself and accepting the confines of that which he hadcreated. Thus God works out our salvation in the context of the creation and humanhistory or life.The Lutheran Reformation of the 16th Century professed adherence to this samecatholic-apostolic faith including the fact that God works sacramentally. A major con-tention of the Lutheran party was the claim that they had not departed from thebiblical faith which was attested to by the Church fathers of the early centuries. In theAugsburg Confessioti, Article V, Of the Ministry, they say: “That we may obtain thisfaith (namely, justifying faith in Christ as Savior and Lord), the Ministry of Teachingthe Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Wordand the Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given who worksfaith, where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel ...” And in Arti-cle XIII, Of the Use of the Sacraments, one reads: “. . . they teach that the Sacra-ments were ordained, not only to be marks of profession among men, but rather tobe signs and testimonies of the will of God toward us, instituted to awaken and con-firm faith in those who use them.”THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE SON OF GODIt may puzzle us to find that there were so few writings about the third person of theTrinity. One could find a deluge of books on Jesus Christ. And there were almost asmany books about God, usually in the context of God as Father or Creator. But onehad to look extensively to find much on the Holy Spirit either among ancient ormodern writings.The reason for this becomes clear when one turns to the fourth Evangelist,especially chapters 14, 15 and 16, where Jesus talks about the gift of the Holy Spiritto the Church. There it becomes evident that the primary purpose of the Spirit is tolead people to a knowledge, not of Himself or of God in general, but of the Gospel,the good news that in Christ God has redeemed the world.Turning to the other Gospels, Acts, and a number of the Epistles, this same factoris borne out. The Spirit’s work is to present Christ to the world, for it is the love ofGod for us in Christ’s redemptive life, death and resurrection which is the only powerto turn the hearts and minds and wills of an alienated humanity back to God. Con-versely, it is only through the working of the Holy Spirit that the human being canand does confess Christ as his/her Savior and Lord. Other Bible references in thisconnection are: Luke 2:25-32; Acts 5:27-32; I Corinthians 2:2-13; Hebrews 10:12-17; 2 Peter 1:16-21. So the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Christ is to facilitatethe world’s coming to awareness of God’s grace and love in his Son.THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCHThe Church is, in this life, the beginning of God’s re-establishment of communionor community with the human being and between the individual and his fellowman.Thus we speak of the vertical and the horizontal dimension in the Body of Christ. In30 ConsensusChrist I am related with God and through that renewed relationship I am related to allthose countless others who live the life of God in Christ.This reconciliation or re-establishment of the perfect unity of love which existed atthe beginning of God’s creation is what God accomplished in the atoning life, deathand resurrection of Christ. That is the end purpose of God’s grace in Christ. That isthe end purpose of our faith and hope. As Paul notes in I Corinthians 13, eventually,in eternity, faith and hope disappear. For there is no need of faith and hope once wedirectly experience God’s love face-to-face.Through the Gospel, the good news of Christ’s atoning life, death and resurrec-tion, the Holy Spirit calls the Church into existence by calling individuals to therenewed life in faith, the renewed life of God in Christ. This is why we call the Gospelthe “mark of the Church.” The Church, and Christians for that matter, do not existapart from it. We have God’s promise that His Word of life is efficacious (Romans10:9-17; Isaiah 55:6-11). So where the Gospel is set before men in proclamation ofthe Word and administering of the Sacraments the Holy Spirit is at work bringingpeople to faith and thus creating the Church.We also need to note that the Church exists for the purpose of proclaiming theGospel and administering the Sacraments (the Gospel in visible or material form) . Asco-workers with the Holy Spirit our chief objective is to share the love of God inChrist so that the life of God might be strengthened and sustained in ourselves andalso come to others. It’s sort of a “chicken and egg” type situation. The source of theChurch’s life is the Gospel and the Church exists for the purpose of propagating thatGospel. The Holy Spirit then is the giver of life to the Church and the sustainer of thatlife.THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE INDIVIDUAL BELIEVERA question which may be asked is: “Which comes first? The individual’s faith or theChurch, the community of faith?” As already noted, renewal of life through faith inChrist is the work of God’s grace in the individual human being through the power ofthe Spirit. No one can believe or have faith for another. God works in the heart andmind and will of the individual. (We know the futility of those situations in the historyof the Church where whole populations were declared to be Christian because theruler was Christian.)However, one must remember that faith is not an end in itself. The end of faith isthat perfect communion of love with himself and with one another which God willsfor his creature man. In being called to life in Christ by the Spirit, i.e., in being calledto faith, the individual is being called to life in the Body of Christ, the Church. The callis one and the same; it can’t be separated. We are joined in the community of faith bythe Holy Spirit who works faith.In a sense then there is no faith apart from the Church. For genuine faith brings theindividual into this renewed relationship. The question of individual or Church first isunnecessary. It’s not either/or, but both/and.THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE SACRAMENTSThat brings us the Holy Spirit and the Sacraments. The calling of the individual tothe renewed life of God in Christ is accomplished sacramentally. The tool or instru-Sacra-Mentaliti^ 31ment used by the Spirit of God is the Word of the Gospel. Even more specifically,that Word is the embodied or en-fleshed Christ in his life of obedience, death andresurrection. The Church, as co-workers with the Spirit, shares not just some writtenor spoken Word, it shares Christ in all of his active, lively love for the world. Faith isnot the acceptance of a series of intellectual propositions or a system of dogma; faithis acceptance of Christ in his person as Savior and Lord. Christ gave himself for thelife of the world in order that God’s creation might become once again the vehicle ormeans of our communion (or community) with God. That’s what is meant with thestatement: God acts sacramentally when He breaks into the world to re-establish hiskingdom/kingship with man.How then do we appropriate or share the embodied or enfleshed Word who isChrist? He himself gives us direction. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent andbe baptized for the forgiveness of sins. The Word we share is the call to repentanceand forgiveness in Christ. This is actualized by baptism into Christ’s death and resur-rection. In that Baptism, the Holy Spirit is active initiating the individual into renewedcommunion with God and with fellowman. For us in the evangelical-catholic tradi-tion, the primary doer in baptism is God. The one baptized is acted upon. Theassembled congregation, the sponsors, the parents are the believing witnesses ofGod’s sacramental action.What about the Lord’s Supper? Christ also gave us direction in this regard. “This ismy body.” “This is my blood.” “It is for you, that your sins may be forgiven.”“Do this for the remembrance of me.” “Remembrance,” in the New Testament andthe early Church had the force of making actually present the results of some pastevent. Thus the Spirit, who is Christ’s gift to his Church, is active in the Lord’s Suppersustaining and nourishing the renewed communion of the life-in-faith which thatsacramental action of God makes real or actualizes. The unity of faith is a gift of Godthrough his Spirit. In the Sacrament unity is concretely nourished, and sustained, andmade visible by the Spirit in its most intimate form.An interesting note to the activity of the Spirit in the Lord’s Supper is the differentemphasis which the Eastern Church gave to the question of the efficacy of the sacra-ment. In the West, the focus has always been placed on the consecration of theelements by a duly ordained minister of the Sacrament. In the East the focus is ratheron the Epiclesis, the prayer for the Holy Spirit’s power and presence and blessingupon the elements.Our contention that the faith of the Church is faith in a God who works sacramen-tally is not a claim or presumption that we have taken God captive in the spoken orwritten words of a book or in water, bread and wine. It is simply and yet profoundlythe recognition that God in his grace and love has chosen to condescend to a losthumanity’s humanness or createdness. God in his wisdom circumscribes his breakinginto our world to bring us his kingdom, his life renewed, within the confines of thatworld. As the ultimate act of love he humbles himself to become one with us, a manamong all humanity, that we might, through his humanity, share in the life which isdivine.No one can bind the Spirit of God. Jesus reminded Nicodemus: “The wind blowswhere it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes orwhither it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” But the Lord of theChurch has given to his Church the gift of the Spirit and also the gift of his Word and32 ConsensusSacraments for the life of the Church and the life of the individual believer. Why thendo we look elsewhere for the working of God?You have been born again of water and the Spirit by baptism into Christ, includingChrist’s humanity! For it is through his humanity that he identifies with you andbecomes your Savior.“.. . The Church is the sacrament of the Kingdom—not because it possessesdivinely instituted acts called ‘sacraments,’ but because first of all, it is the possibilitygiven to man to see in and through this world the ‘world to come,’ to see and to ‘live’it in Christ. It is only when, in the darkness of this world, we discern that Christ hasalready; ‘filled all things with Himself,’ that these things, whatever they may be, arerevealed and given to us as full of meaning and beauty. A Christian is the one who,wherever he looks, finds everywhere Christ, and rejoices in Him. And this joytransforms all his human plans and programs, decisions and moves, makes all hismission the sacraments of the world’s return to Him, who is the life of the world.1. Schmemann, Alexander, THE WORLD AS SACRAMENT. Darton, Longman & Todd, London,1966, p. 142.Tl>c Good Sarparitap Society(A LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANIZATION)BOX 8190, STATION “F” T6H 5A2TEL. 436-08064th floor, 4225 - 107 STREETEDMONTON, ALBERTACommunity Social Service Projects Owned and Operated by the Society:GOOD SAMARITAN AUXILIARYHOSPITAL9649 -71 st AvenueGOOD SAMARITAN NURSING HOME(Mt. Pleasant)10530 - 56th AvenueGOOD SAMARITAN PINEVIEWRESIDENCE8770 - 165th StreetGOOD SAMARITAN NURSING HOME(Southgate)4225 - 107th StreetGOOD SAMARITAN MANOR10355 - 83rd AvenueGOOD SAMARITAN NURSING HOMEStony Plain, AlbertaGood SetMonJim tmtd — io do wt’

Toward a livelier sacra-mentality

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Toward a livelier sacra-mentality

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