Sacramental/Independent
Pastor Noel Anderson, First Presbyterian Church of Upland 5/11/21
Text: Matthew 16: 13-20 New Revised Standard Version
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. †
Our new series, Spirituality Around the Clock, looks at twelve different flavors of spirituality—all of which can serve Christ. It is incomplete to think of spirituality as a single item or of being about only one thing. In fact, spirituality is as florid and diversified as an orchestra. You can rightly fault me for oversimplifying this series to merely twelve types, but we must start somewhere.
I’ve organized these different kinds of spirituality in pairs of what can be called opposites—like opposite poles on the same line—like the series of unresolved tensions we explored earlier this year.
We’re going to do our best to reflect something of each spirituality within our worship service as well.
Today, we’re looking at 12 and 6 on the clock: Sacramental spirituality and Independent spirituality.
Sacramental Spirituality
Some people love so-called high worship. By high, they mean steeped deeply in tradition, using forms that are centuries old. The positive experience is feeling like a part of something bigger and more ancient than flashy trends of the present day.
To lose oneself within the greater body of Christianity is part of it. Personal preferences are abandoned because the self is much less important than the whole. To lose the self in the greater Body of Christ is a fit corrective to so much of what plagues the western world. It is movement away from the “it’s all about me” attitude toward the communion of the saints.
But this is not just about a worship style; Sacramental spirituality derives its nourishment from the sacraments themselves. In protestantism, The Lord’s Supper and Baptism. Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches have seven. The extra five were added in church history, but Protestants only hold to those instituted by Christ Himself in the gospels.
We should think of the sacraments not as something we do for God, but as God’s gifts to us, His Church. The Lord’s Supper and Baptism were not our idea—we didn’t invent them—but they are given to us by Christ. Whenever we celebrate a sacrament, we exercise obedience. Why do have baptism and the Lord’s Supper at all? Simple: because Jesus tells us to do them. “Take, eat,” He says of the Lord’s Supper. “Go forth and baptize,” He says of baptism. We practice these things in simple obedience.
As a Presbyterian student at Jesuit Gonzaga University, I attended “mass” a couple times a week. The liturgy is set: a rigid, inflexible script. While the ancient words didn’t impress me, I was very impressed by the sense of oneness of the catholic church all over the world. In every time zone and every language, these words are being said in a constant, unending sacrament. This worldwide oneness is not something that can be captured by low, independent churches who think they’re the only ones doing it right.
As for the extra sacraments that churches have added, these become “sacraments” only through the authority of the church itself.
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Not long after the conversion of Constantine and the name-change from The Roman Empire to the Holy Roman Empire, church authorities seized those keys and have wielded them with an iron fist, transforming the earthly body of Christ into fiercely authoritarian bureaucracy.
The more authoritarian a church becomes, the less the individual matters. Conform or die is the unwritten code. Your obedience to God is constituted by your obedience to the institutional church. They call it Magisterium—the institutional church that God’s presence in the world today. The magisterium speaks for God, and those who defy the magisterium defy God and lose their salvation.
The grace of God, the forgiveness of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit—these are possessions of the Church, and its leaders can bestow or deny them to anyone they choose.
This is how they interpret today’s text. But it’s not the only way to read the text and not the only way to serve Christ, so we now look at Independents.
Independent Spirituality
All independents are Protestants of one stripe or another. There are some great names associated with independent spirituality. People like Sore Kierkegaard, Simone Weil, and Blaise Pascal—all of these were deep Christians who have influenced millions, but none of these ever joined the Church. They were outsiders, standing in the doorway, but people of extraordinary faith and deep wisdom.
Independents don’t like the idea of losing themselves in some great collective. It’s not that they’re in love with themselves, but rather that they celebrate their status in Christ as sons and daughters of God.
Yes, the Church is the Body of Christ, but not the institutional church. The Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox churches, and all the Protestant denominations—they’re all simply provisional. The grand magisterium of the Catholic faith is just another denomination among denominations. The real Church—the real Body of Christ—lives in the eyes of God alone. It doesn’t matter which denomination you choose; what matters is that every person as an individual comes to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Salvation is not in the Church, but in Christ Himself. To know Christ is to be in the true Church, despite whatever name is on the sign in front of the building.
The Independent spirituality experiences God not in the inherited structures or liturgies of the Church, but rather in meeting God in every place and in any moment.
Independents are those who are fond of saying things like, “You don’t need to go to church to be saved,” and “The Church shouldn’t pretend that they own God,” etc.
Independents tend to be anti-authoritarian on the scale, and tend to distrust institutions and anything that looks club-ish or clique-ish.
If you attended a college with fraternities and sororities, you can see a picture of this distinction. Those in the greek houses love the brotherhood or sisterhood of the group, and they draw nourishment from their fraternal identity. They spend their college years as part of a club to which they feel deep and abiding loyalty.
The “independents” are those with no interest in fraternities or sororities. They may even view them with mild contempt, regarding their members as a bit weak for not being able to make a go of it on their own.
The positive side of independent spirituality is their emphasis on personal responsibility. On the downside, they have turned church-going into a consumer experience. Pick and choose, go your own way, and answer to no one.
Comparison / Contrasts
Sacramentals and Independents differ on several poles. The Sacramentals lean heavily on the Church and their place within the Church. Independents celebrate their freedom in Christ first and see the Church as a collection of fungible denominations.
Sacramentals relish the experience of losing themselves before the majesty of the Church; Independents seek to experience the power of the Spirit whenever and wherever they may.
Theologically, Independents find their authority from Scripture alone. They say a think is right or true “Because the Word of God says so.” A Sacramental would say a thing is right or true “Because the Church says the Word of God says so.”
Independents feel that it’s about “God and me,” while Sacramentals feel it’s “God and US, the Church.”
Sacramentals find their nurture and direction in the catechisms—or even the Confessions—of the larger Church; Independents seek nurture in independent study—wherever it can be found.
To the Table: a Sacrament of God
As we prepare to come to the table of Christ, let’s understand that both the Sacramental and Independent spiritualities have a place here. The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, instituted by Christ Himself. As such, it is not a product of the Church; it is a gift from God to the Church. And while it is not the church’s possession, its practice is the Church’s responsibility. There are things which God has given to the Church—the collective faithful—that are not given to individuals.
Jesus says clearly in Matthew 18: 20:
For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
There are independent roles and missions to be fulfilled, but God’s intention is clearly that we should know the blessings of fellowship, which includes church discipline—the shaping of our faith after the image and nature of Christ.
I almost get the feeling that Independent types prefer the spirituality of Covid lockdown.
It is crucial that we capture the sense of unity that Christ intends for us. Yes, the Church is terribly fragmented, and no one denomination can claim to be the one and only “true” church. But salvation isn’t designed for the vacuum of independent life. We should remember that we are answerable to one another in Jesus’ name, and we should pursue the oneness of Christ’s Church whenever we come to the table.
The Lord’s Supper is one of God’s gifts to you and me. It is a visible means of God’s grace. When we partake of the bread and the cup, we enter into the spiritual Twilight Zone where all spiritualities merge.
We are all Sacramentals—humbling ourselves as we obediently receive, taking and eating as Christ commands. We are indeed linked with the Body of Christ around the world, through time and history—one communion of all the faithful.
We are all Catholics, connected as if in one, worldwide organization. We are all Orthodoxes, lost in the ancient mysteries of the sacrament. And we are all Independents, because coming to this table requires the best of you, and you must respond to God who loves you and cares about you individually.
As we come to the table today, prepare your independent spirit to join with that of all Christians as Christ unites us to Himself. †