William Booth's decision to stop practising the sacraments has become a mark of Salvationist identity. What does it mean for us today?

Salvationists continue to debate their relationship to sacraments, but not the sacramental. It is widely agreed that when Salvationists help to rebuild villages after a tsunami or offer clean water after a hurricane, we are doing something sacramental. But the relationship of these sacramental acts to Christian sacraments is not always addressed. Let me offer some reflections on the Army's historic position and engage it with contemporary questions, limiting my focus to what is often named the Lord's Supper.
In 1883 a decision was made by the Army's leadership to discontinue practising the Lord's Supper. The Booths were rooted in Methodism, and its founder, John Wesley, was grounded in the Church of England's practice of Holy Communion. For a number of reasons, the Army's founders decided to cease serving Holy Communion. William Booth did not consider this policy to be set in concrete, but one necessary for the times. That decision has become a mark of Salvationist identity. It has also evoked lively conversations in our corps, publications and doctrine councils. Let's explore it a bit further.

First, it is sometimes argued that the decision of 1883 was less than faithful to Scripture, since its writings, such as Luke 22:14-23, seem to require the practice of the Lord's Supper. Space does not permit a more complete discussion of biblical texts, but let me draw on New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson's comments on this text for perspective: "The account of Jesus' last meal with his disciples has had such an obvious and overwhelming importance for the Christian community…. [However,] Christian liturgical practice is not based directly on this text but rather on a complex development of ritual traditions that look back to the Gospels only for legitimation after the fact."

The point that Johnson and other scholars make is that no single biblical text requires the practice of sacraments. But through its constant reflection on those texts the church has developed their implications for sacraments. This is sometimes called "traditioning a text." There is more that could be said, and I do not want to oversimplify a complex biblical issue. My point here is simply that the decision taken by Salvationist leaders in 1883 was one of biblical integrity. Salvationists are not defective in our reading of Scripture when it comes to the sacraments.

Second, the decision in 1883 was appropriate for its time because the appropriation of grace was at stake. Let me explain. Grace is central to the Bible's story. From the Garden of Eden to Bethlehem's manger, God seeks out people to offer them a relationship that is not deserved. This is called grace. We confess that "we are justified by grace through faith." We sing the words of Charles Wesley: "Thy sovereign grace to all extends, immense and unconfined" (SASB 55). This "sovereign grace," however, came to be understood differently in the history of the church.

On one hand, grace was viewed as directly accessible between a person and God. The active love of God pursues individuals beyond all human boundaries and limitations, communicating directly to the person. From the great mystics of the church to the testimony of ordinary believers, there is something about the direct experience of God's love that is authentic. It is sometimes viewed as an unmediated grace. There is something extremely important about this conviction, and our identity as Salvationists is strongly linked to it.

A contrasting view insisted on grace that is mediated. The emphasis here is placed on the conviction that when God seeks us out, he most often does so through someone or something. God conveyed grace to Moses through Jethro, to Naomi through Ruth, to David through Nathan, to Israel through the Sabbath. Ultimately God conveyed grace most fully through the person of Jesus Christ. As the Gospel of John puts it: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory … full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

Biblical faith emphasizes mediated grace. God expresses his pursuing love in ways that can be seen, heard, tasted and felt. This notion of mediated grace lies behind the word "sacrament." One contemporary theologian, Daniel Migliore, describes sacraments as "embodiments of grace." And the degree to which Christ has mediated grace to us has led the church to speak of him as the ultimate Sacrament, or embodiment of grace. The Army's handbook of doctrine, Salvation Story, emphasizes that the church is "rooted in the risen life of Christ, the one and only true and original Sacrament."

Perhaps now we can sense the experiential reason for ceasing to practise the sacraments in 1883. If grace is mediated, then it is possible for the mediators to inhibit grace rather than convey it. I find the perspective of Lars Lydholm, a Salvationist from Denmark, helpful. In his view, "at a time where the discussion of the two sacramental signs [baptism and the Eucharist] threatened to 'block the way' to the one true sacrament—Jesus Christ―the Army ceased practising the two sacramental signs…. But it never stopped proclaiming and giving witness in word and deed to God's one true sacrament—Jesus Christ." Thus, a formative decision was made in 1883 to discontinue the practice of sacraments.

That decision, however, did not detract from the Army's emphasis on sacramental service. General Albert Orsborn's words have become a poetic charter for us: "My life must be Christ's broken bread, my love his outpoured wine …" (SASB 512). We have viewed our service―whether providing meals to a family in grief, expressing music in worship or responding to tsunamis―as small gestures in the face of overwhelming needs. However, like the "five loaves and two fish," we have placed our inadequate resources in the hands of Christ, who has in turn taken them and, in the language of the sacraments, "blessed, broken and given" to those in need (see Luke 9:16). Thus we speak of Salvationist service as sacramental―it mediates grace to others.

While respecting our theological heritage, we are still called to live as Salvationists in the 21st century. What relationship is there between the church's sacraments and sacramental service in our times? Surely there is a hunger for grace today. Surely there is a deep thirst to know that human lives are not simply another commodity. Surely there is a need to know that our service as Salvationists conveys something beyond ourselves. As I hear Salvationists express the matter, it is to ask whether we would deepen our sense of sacramental service if we once again appropriated the church's sacrament of holy communion. My own perception of this conversation is that it reflects a desire of Salvationists to be grounded in the greater story of the church, and to experience grace more concretely in our worship.

I am also convinced that our conversations about sacraments will themselves be sacramental to the degree that they are carried out in the spirit of the Sacrament—Jesus Christ. If we lose sight of this, we will deny the very thing sacraments and the sacramental are about. God is gracious, and conveys grace concretely to our world. In discussing the sacraments, let's seek to make our conversations themselves sacramental, and so find grace in our time.

by Major Ray Harris, Training Principal, St. John's CFOT