SACRAMENTS - THE MEANS OF GRACE- Part II

POSTCHRISTIAN CHRISTIANITY

Postchristianity is a term unfamiliar to many Christians but is one that I feel needs to be understood in the context of Christianity itself.  In general, the use of the term refers to the loss of primacy and influence of Christianity's worldview as exhibited in the rise nationalism and secularism.

Here I will briefly examine the influence the Postchristian era  is having on Christian thought, and in shaping the emerging Church in its wake.   In particular, I will examine how it is causing Christian  theologians to rethink long held doctrinal and dogmatic views that are not just losing influence in the world, but in the Church itself.  A discussion of the sacraments and the means of grace lend themselves to such a discussion.

The Postchristian era has been emerging in global North for a long time.  I would place its origins when cracks started appearing in long held church beliefs; such as, the earth being the center of the universe in which everything revolves around, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment when reason started to undermine and challenge long-held beliefs that could not withstand the scrutiny from the various emerging fields of science.  It was further hastened in the 19th and 20th centuries with the theory of evolution,  astrophysics, and theories about the origin of the universe in which humankind was no longer seen as the central object of creation, but rather a small narrow sliver of it; the life we know on a speck of dust in a small solar system at the edge of galaxy in universe filled with billions of galaxies.

In the wake of these discoveries, human events began to come into stark focus as something very limited and possibly, if not likely, short-lived.  There were major shifts in philosophies that attempted to rethink human events in a purely secular sense that, thus far, have proven to come up short in guiding the nations of the world in engaging in peaceful and reasoned ways to stem human violence against one another and our world.

Christianity and other world religions have been dragging their feet on such matters and currently the world is moving in a less than stellar direction.  Some, in this emerging worldview, see religion; particularly, theistic religions as the problem and there is validity to some of these claims, but we also have experienced that as much as religion is deemed a problem, attempting to go non-religious, in a theistic sense, has merely given rise to secular and nationalistic religions that rely on unimaginative reason and soul killing endeavors to eradicate problems largely through exclusivity and fear-based deterrent.

The problems that have arisen in theistic religions is that they have tended toward concretism with regard to their  doctrines and practices when faced with new discoveries and thoughts that appear to contradict their long-held theological views.  They have resisted being informed by science and an imaginative reasoning that should have long ago caused them to pause and examine their teachings and their sacred scriptures in the light of a non-geocentric and non-anthropocentric light.

Given what I have said above, there is a paradoxical effect on Christian theology emerging in this Postchristian era.  While science has lessened the centrality of the earth and humankind as the sole purpose for the universe coming into being, it has caused open minded theologians to consider or reconsider the meaning of biblical scripture and other sacred scriptures in the light of what science has to offer.

As demonstrated in my previous post, science and it's emerging theories about the origins and workings of the universe inform and expand the meanings and importance of scripture, rather than diminish them.  After all, theory is rooted in the Greek word for God, theo. Theories are nothing more than an examination of God's activities from a philosophical and a scientific perspective.  It is only in recent decades that Christian theology has been rushing to catch up as to their implications with regard to scripture.

The question in this post is what effect does this Postchristian era has on our understanding of grace and the sacraments. How are they being shaped and re-imagined?

SPIRITUALITY

One of the outcomes of or responses to Postchristianity is an emerging or, perhaps better said, a re-emerging sense of spirituality.  It is interesting that many who do not wish to identify as being religious identify as being spiritual.  In fact, this is a term finding wider use among mainline Christian denominations.  Spirituality is not a concrete term.  It is a term that implies fluidity.  What does this mean with regard to long-held doctrines and traditions considered solidly sacrosanct in the Christian canon?

The meaning of the sacraments are slowly modifying and expanding, even though the liturgical language of their rites remain the same.   As noted in my last post, most Christian denominations had a history of being exclusive when it came to the administration of Holy Communion. In most churches, a recipient had to be baptized, confirmed, and a recognized member of a congregation within the domain of that particular denomination and of a certain age before receiving Holy Communion.  In some mainline liturgical churches, this is no longer the case and hasn't been for some time.   In such environments, Holy Communion is being offered to all who show up.  In this sense, Holy Communion has become more fluid, more spiritual.  It has become more about seeking and finding God in Christ, rather than receiving forgiveness of one's sins.

The shift is subtle in that it does not remove the doctrinal or orthodox understanding of Holy Communion as a rite that conveys the grace of God as the forgiveness of sins, but rather that the forgiveness of sins is subsumed in finding God in Christ.

ENSUBSTANTIATION

Transubstantiation and consubstantiation are familiar terms when it comes to trying to define the action taking place in the sacrament of Holy Communion.

Transubstantiation is largely understood as the bread and wine used in Holy Communion actually becoming the true body and blood of Jesus while remaining in the form of bread and wine for obvious palatable reasons.  Consubstantiation is a Lutheran teaching that claims the actual true body and blood of Jesus is conveyed in, with, through, and under the bread and wine.  Both of these substantianal approaches to the elements are, to say the least, fantastical.

Bread and wine are nothing more than visible signs and symbols of taking on and taking in a transformation of one's self, a transfiguration of self, seeing oneself as one with God in Christ, and the people sharing these elements and through this act being symbolically one with the whole of creation.  It is a ritual dying to oneself to make room for the other.  Partaking in the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion are kenotic acts rather than the selfish notion of getting one's sin's forgiven in order to get into heaven. Sacraments are about living in the here and now and getting it right and endeavoring to find, with God's help, a way out of the messes we've created.

While I would never to pretend to speak for God, from what I can glean from my understanding of scripture and what I feel in my heart is that God doesn't give a hoot about our sins.  Sin has no affect or effect on God. It does not make God cry.  It does not madden or sadden God.  God simply deals with it by forgiving it; disempowering it. What seems apparent to me is that God gives more than a hoot about us;  all of us and all the life on this planet.  The question is whether we humans do.

The fact about sin (doing harm) is that it is a purely human issue that has brought life on this planet teetering on the brink of its becoming a planetary hell.  We sin against ourselves, our neighbors, and against our planet both personally and collectively and both actively and passively.

It seems to me that God's nature is to be creative; to work with the muck and mire that presents itself, including the muck and mire of our humanity.  The sacramental rituals we engage in as humans strike me as tangible reminders of such things and prompt us to engage in God's creative activity; to become one with God and one with each other; having faith that God is faithful in loving and is in the process of making all things new as suggested in scripture.

So is forgiveness a factor in these sacraments?

Yes  - HUMAN FORGIVENESS.  Humans forgiving each other is the only way forward.  It is the only true way to recall and remember the purpose found in Jesus's death and resurrection.   Jesus forgave the totality of us, the whole of us, as one of us;  as a human showing us our capacity to do the same, and God has been raising him and us up ever since as the Body of Christ.

In keeping with the tradition of calling the action of the Holy Communion as a substantiational act, I would call what I am describing here Ensubstantiation - of becoming substantiated.  It's not about changing bread and wine, but rather seeing through the use of these signs and symbols an intimate way forward, a way of engaging change in one's self,  in forgiving one another, in seeing the beingness and interconnected wholeness of creation that is present in our own being, of being transfigured with God in Christ and with Humanity in Christ.   Ensubstantiation is engaging with the grace that has been present ever since the Desire To Be - the Spirit of God brought about the universe we live in as heard in the continuing cosmic echo, "Let there be light!"

Until next time, stay faithful.

Norm