Alister McGrath Theology Basics (2018) Chapter 9: Sacraments — Transcript

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1. 0:00hello its Alister McGrath again
2. 0:02introducing you to my textbook theology
3. 0:04the basics now in this tenth
4. 0:07presentation we're going to look at the
5. 0:08theology of the sacraments which is a
6. 0:10topic we deal with in the ninth chapter
7. 0:12of this book and Christians use this
8. 0:15word sacrament to refer to certain acts
9. 0:18of worship which are understood to
10. 0:20possess special importance in
11. 0:22maintaining and developing the Christian
12. 0:24life and as heart a sacrament is a
13. 0:27visible sign and a reassurance of God's
14. 0:30grace and the term comes from the Latin
15. 0:33word sacramentum which originally meant
16. 0:36a sacred oath such as the oath of
17. 0:39obedience that a Roman soldier might
18. 0:41swear to the people in Senate of Rome
19. 0:43and a third century theologian
20. 0:45Tertullian used this analogy to bring
21. 0:48out the importance of sacraments in
22. 0:50relation to Christian commitment and
23. 0:53loyalty within the church baptism for
24. 0:55example a very good example of a
25. 0:57sacrament can be seen as a sign both of
26. 0:59allegiance to Jesus of Nazareth and also
27. 1:02of commitment to the Christian community
28. 1:04as a whole now an old English Catechism
29. 1:08tells us a sacrament is an outward and
30. 1:10visible sign of an inward and spiritual
31. 1:13grace given unto us ordained by Christ
32. 1:16Himself as a means whereby we receive
33. 1:19the same and a pledge to assure us
34. 1:22thereof that's a great starting point
35. 1:24however Christians have never really
36. 1:27been able to agree on what sacraments
37. 1:29are what they do and what they should be
38. 1:31called and so you know I can't sort out
39. 1:35these theological debates for you but I
40. 1:37can do is to provide you with a toolkit
41. 1:40to help you develop your own approach to
42. 1:42the sacraments sacraments are widely
43. 1:46regarded the signs of God's promises and
44. 1:48early Christian writers regularly spoke
45. 1:51of sacraments as visible or tangible
46. 1:53signs of spiritual realities and the
47. 1:56Gustin of Hipp who was one of many who
48. 1:58are good that a defining characteristic
49. 1:59of a sacrament was that it was a sign of
50. 2:03certain sacred realities and he wrote
51. 2:06signs when apply to divine things are
52. 2:09called sacraments
53. 2:11yeah the ghusl is clear that these signs
54. 2:13were not arbitrary there was some
55. 2:15connection between the sign itself and
56. 2:18what is being signified he wrote if
57. 2:22sacraments did not bear some resemblance
58. 2:25to the things of which they are the
59. 2:28sacraments they would not be sacraments
60. 2:30at all
61. 2:31for example baptism involves water which
62. 2:34is a sign of cleansing or purification
63. 2:36thus pointing to the cleansing and
64. 2:39purification of the human soul through
65. 2:41the grace of Christ again bread and wine
66. 2:45are both sources of nourishment and
67. 2:47reminder of the need for the believer to
68. 2:50feed on Jesus Christ as the bread of
69. 2:52life yet sacraments are more than signs
70. 2:56of spiritual realities they're also an
71. 2:59important corrective to our natural
72. 3:01tendency to think of the life of faith
73. 3:04in purely spiritual terms and CS Lewis
74. 3:08is one of many writers who emphasize
75. 3:10that we live in a material world and
76. 3:12that God chooses to use material things
77. 3:15as a means of deepening our faith and he
78. 3:19makes his point clearly in his classic
79. 3:21work mere christianity so I just read
80. 3:24what he says you will ask you what you
81. 3:26make of this he writes there is no good
82. 3:29trying to be more spiritual than God God
83. 3:32never meant man to be a purely spiritual
84. 3:35creature that is why he uses material
85. 3:39things like bread and wine to put the
86. 3:42new life into us we may think this
87. 3:45rather crude and unspeakably sacraments
88. 3:56are material visible and tangible things
89. 3:59of this world which are able to help us
90. 4:02grow in our faith and reinforce our
91. 4:04belief in another world now sure some
92. 4:08Christians worry that the material world
93. 4:10can distract us from spiritual concerns
94. 4:12is there not a risk they wonder that
95. 4:15this physical world can draw us away
96. 4:17from God well perhaps but it doesn't
97. 4:20have to after all God created this world
98. 4:25and there are signs of God's presence
99. 4:27within it and more than that God valued
100. 4:30this physical world so much he chose to
101. 4:32enter it and redeem it from within
102. 4:35through becoming incarnate in Christ a
103. 4:39topic we explored earlier in this series
104. 4:43not everyone of course would agree with
105. 4:45Lewis the movement widely known as
106. 4:48Gnosticism regarded matter as evil and
107. 4:51soul salvation in terms of deliverance
108. 4:53from the material world yet Christian
109. 4:56writers such as John of Damascus were
110. 4:58critical of this he pointed out that the
111. 5:01core theme of the Incarnation was that
112. 5:04God entered into the material world God
113. 5:07really became flesh not some kind of
114. 5:11spiritual presence so what a sacraments
115. 5:15meant to do john calvin argue that a
116. 5:18sacrament is an external sign by which
117. 5:22the lord seals not conscience 'as his
118. 5:24promises of good will towards us in
119. 5:26order to sustain the weakness of our
120. 5:28faith and calvin clearly sees the
121. 5:31sacraments as physical reminders and
122. 5:34reassurances of god's promises given to
123. 5:37us because god knows our weaknesses
124. 5:40sacraments he writes our kind of seal of
125. 5:44the promises of God and the sacraments
126. 5:47are given a material form because we
127. 5:48need physical reminders of God's
128. 5:51spiritual promises so let's look at
129. 5:54baptism to explore this point further
130. 5:57one of the great themes of the history
131. 6:00of Israel this is people were marked by
132. 6:02covenantal sign in this case
133. 6:04circumcision this was a physical
134. 6:06reminder of the relation of God in
135. 6:08Israel it was also of course limited to
136. 6:10males and women did not bear a sign the
137. 6:13Covenant that's why it's so important
138. 6:15that the New Testament presents baptism
139. 6:17as a sign of the new covenant in golden
140. 6:20believers bringing to fulfillment the
141. 6:22old covenant between God and Israel male
142. 6:25and female alike are baptized as a sign
143. 6:30of the fundamental equality of men and
144. 6:31women before God now the Christian use
145. 6:35of baptism can be traced back to
146. 6:36Christ's baptism in the River Jordan by
147. 6:39the baptist described in the Gospels and
148. 6:41here depicted by Francesca Fantine 1490
149. 6:45but some find Christ's baptism puzzling
150. 6:49after all the Nicene Creed speaks of
151. 6:52acknowledging one baptism full of
152. 6:54forgiveness of sins and surely Jesus
153. 6:56didn't have any sins that needs to be
154. 6:58forgiven yet in being baptized Jesus of
155. 7:04Nazareth of both affirming the need of
156. 7:07humanity for redemption and showing that
157. 7:09he himself will provide the basis for
158. 7:11the real forgiveness of real sins as
159. 7:15you'll discover in this chapter of
160. 7:17theology the basics Christians do
161. 7:18disagree about whether baptism causes
162. 7:21forgiveness or as a public declaration
163. 7:24that forgiveness has been received and
164. 7:26accepted yet all agree that in some way
165. 7:30baptism is a means of reaffirming the
166. 7:33reality of God's forgiveness of sins in
167. 7:36Jesus of Nazareth and of the human needs
168. 7:39for that forgiveness in the first place
169. 7:41baptism affirms our sins need to be
170. 7:45washed away and can be washed away on
171. 7:48account of the death and resurrection of
172. 7:50Jesus of Nazareth yet the symbolism of
173. 7:54Baptism goes further than this early
174. 7:57church writers pointed out our baptism
175. 8:00was a reminder of the exodus from Egypt
176. 8:04so baptism was thus a type to use
177. 8:08technical language a reminder of this
178. 8:10great act of redemption which is also
179. 8:13seen as anticipating the greater act of
180. 8:16redemption achieved through the death
181. 8:18and resurrection of Christ so many
182. 8:21theologians would see baptism as more
183. 8:23than a reminder of God's past
184. 8:25faithfulness it's in effect saying that
185. 8:28in some way baptism affects what it
186. 8:31signifies so let's look at the structure
187. 8:34of the chapter on the sacraments and
188. 8:35theology the basics allowing you to
189. 8:37develop this in more detail on your own
190. 8:40we begin by asking what is a sacrament
191. 8:44trying to look at some of these
192. 8:46questions of definition which have been
193. 8:48so difficult for theologians and we
194. 8:51follow that by looking at the
195. 8:52actions of segments what do sacraments
196. 8:55actually do then we ask what factors
197. 8:59affect the effectiveness of sacraments
198. 9:02in other words for example does the
199. 9:04person who is baptizing you does his or
200. 9:08her merits or good character effectively
201. 9:12through baptism we then look at whether
202. 9:16infant baptism is justified a very
203. 9:18significant debate amongst Christians I
204. 9:20move on to another debate amongst
205. 9:22Christians concerning in what way if any
206. 9:25is Christ present at the Eucharist and
207. 9:28as always we end the text in this case a
208. 9:31very influential theological statement
209. 9:33of 1962 entitled baptism Eucharist and
210. 9:36ministry now the statement was the
211. 9:40outcome of several years of ecumenical
212. 9:41study in dialogue mainly between
213. 9:43Protestant denominations to try and
214. 9:45identify what basic principles could be
215. 9:48affirmed together by churches for
216. 9:50example of the reformed Lutheran
217. 9:52Methodist and Anglican traditions and
218. 9:55the document proved highly influential
219. 9:57in catalyzing ecumenical discussions on
220. 10:00issues relating to sacraments and
221. 10:02ministry I think you'll enjoy engaging
222. 10:05it so I hope you enjoying engaging with
223. 10:08the questions raised in this chapter and
224. 10:10I look forward to speaking you again
225. 10:12soon as I bring this set of introductory
226. 10:15presentations to a close the final
227. 10:18presentation will deal with the
228. 10:20Christian hope focusing especially on
229. 10:22the idea of heaven thank you so much for
230. 10:25listening
231. 10:34you