2 minute read
In the church tradition in which I was raised, everything was overtly spiritual. We believed in the everyday occurrence of spiritually hearing God’s voice. We practiced spiritual Bible study and spiritual preaching. There was spiritual prayer languages, spiritual healing, spiritual deliverance, spiritual prophecy, spiritual anointing, spiritual offering, spiritual dancing, spiritual revivals, and spiritual encounters with God’s presence. We had spiritual handkerchiefs and rugs. We even did “Jericho marches” to claim God’s spiritual territory to close down bars.1 Nothing was symbolic.
Nothing except baptism and communion. Suddenly they’re Zwinglian.2 The idea of anything overtly spiritual happening with those two was borderline offensive. That nonsense is dead ritualism still lingering from superstitious Catholicism, of course. Nobody actually gets spiritually signed, sealed, and grafted into the community through baptism. It’s a public declaration. Christ isn’t actually spiritually present in communion. It’s an act of public remembrance. Geez. Stop being so woo-woo. They’re obviously not spiritual. Um, yyyyyyeah… cognitive dissonance much?
In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul warns that some have died because they’ve partaken of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. That’s weird, and I don’t pretend to fully understand what’s going on there, but that doesn’t sound like memorialism. Somethin’ spiritual is afoot. Ditto for baptism. It starts with Jesus’ own baptism in Matthew 3. I think it’s fair to say the biblical writers saw it as spiritual, too. Everything is spiritual, but something more tangible is happening there. These two sacred rituals appear to have special significance as a spiritual means of grace for Christians.3
I don’t always agree with Rob Bell, but when I do it’s usually when he’s waxing theologically about Everything Is Spiritual. Here’s a solid quote: “I saw that there’s no word for spiritual in the Hebrew scriptures (also called the Old Testament). So basic, and yet so revolutionary. There’s no word for spiritual, because to call something spiritual would be to imply that other things aren’t. In the Bible, everything is spiritual. All of life.” I see all of life as a lower-case “s” as sacramental4 but I recognize… something… more overtly spiritual about the upper-case “S” Sacraments.
The original beatniks didn’t give two shits about our in-house theological debates over issues like ordinances vs. sacraments. That’s quite helpful to remember. It helps prevent getting lost in the weeds. Having said that, beatnik Christianity doesn’t require a full-fledged sacramental theology. That’s my perspective, but there’s room for disagreement.5 But, for the love, let’s not get all hootie hoo about tongues, healing, prophecy, and Aladdin’s magical prayer carpet. It’s painful when Christians do that, then flip over to Literalism Mode about the two or seven Sacraments.
Only the most powerful prayer warriors had the strength to take on the adult stores.↩
Nothin’ special there. Those are ordinances.↩
By the way, I maintain the view that foot washing got hosed by church history. It’s every bit as instituted by Jesus as baptism and communion.↩
i.e. means of grace.↩
This is a secondary issue of adiaphora.↩
