Janice Chin Yen Ni

ST503 Ecclesiology and Eschatology

Final Paper
CHURCH AS SACRAMENT OF THE KINGDOM: A CONTRIBUTIVE ECCLESIOLOGICAL
CONCEPT FOR MUSLIM-BACKGROUND BELIEVERS

Dr Linda Peacore

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 INTRODUCTION

Saint Augustine states that God “has welded together the community of his new people

through the bond of the sacraments”.1 Throughout church history, the reality of sacrament has held

great significance in our understanding of God’s work in the world and of the nature of church as

part of that work. More than performing the sacraments (such as the Lord’s Supper and baptism) as

essential to its credo and liturgy, however, the church itself can be described as the sacrament of the

Kingdom of God. This concept of church as sacrament provides for us a powerful and rich imagery

in our study of church. As Howard Snyder suggests, at the deepest level of our consciousness “the

reality of the Kingdom community draws us to the reality of sacrament”,2 so that any biblical

ecclesiology must start with the question: how does the church relate to God’s Kingdom, express its

identity as His community, and live out its nature thereof? It is in this way that the church serves as

a witness to the mystery of God’s redemption plan through Jesus Christ and His eschatological

reign over all creation.

In Muslim-majority contexts today, there is a growing number of followers of Christ in what

has come to be known as the Insider Movement (IM). Much debate has occurred (and is still

occurring) concerning the ecclesial identity of these communities of Muslim-background believers

(MBBs). As someone whose program emphasis is Islamic Studies and who has ministered for the

most part in a Muslim-majority nation, it is of interest to me to explore whether the concept of

church as sacrament could be contributive to the IM conversation. Hence, even though the

traditional sacramental thinking and language that we have today is rooted in predominantly

European, post-Enlightenment theological frameworks, I hope that this discussion will at least

stimulate thoughts towards a truly contextual ecclesiology for MBBs and by MBBs.

1
Frederick Van der Meer, Augustine the Bishop, trans. Brian Battershaw and G. R. Lamb (London: Sheed and Ward,
1961), 278.
2
Snyder, Liberating the Church: The Ecology of Church & Kingdom (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1983), 96.

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 Within the scope that this paper allows, I will briefly discuss ‘sacrament’ and ‘kingdom’,

and then introduce the concept of church as sacrament of the Kingdom of God. After that, I will

explore how this concept might be contributive to the IM taking place in Muslim-majority contexts.

Clearly, not every aspect of ‘sacrament’ and ‘kingdom of God’ can be covered in sufficient detail

but only that which pertains to church as sacrament of Kingdom and contributive aspects thereof.

OUR UNDERSTANDING OF SACRAMENT

Our understanding of sacrament pertaining to the study of church must be derived from

analyses of the church’s sacramental thinking throughout history. Certainly, much of this thinking is

derived from the medieval church, but the idea of sacrament can be traced back to the days of the

early church.3 While the Bible does not explicitly mention the word ‘sacrament,’ looking at how the

concept might have been expressed in the New Testament could shed light on ‘sacrament,’ and

perhaps how the church’s sacramental thinking developed.4

The notion of sign and/or covenant can be construed from passages on the Lord’s Supper

and baptism: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death

until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26), “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so

that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in

newness of life” (Rom 6:4). The actions of the Lord’s Supper comprise of taking, giving thanks,

breaking, and giving, and those who eat of the meal receive these actions as His gifts of covenantal

grace with thanksgiving (1 Cor 11:23-24), hence the synonymous use of the word “Eucharist” and

“Lord’s Supper” in some traditions.5 Strikingly, the word ‘sacrament’ originated when the Bible

was translated into Latin; the Greek word mustērion (mystery) was rendered into Christian Latin

3
Snyder, Liberating, 97.
4
Snyder, Liberating, 98.
5
For example, in 1 Corinthians 1:4 where Paul expresses thankfulness for the grace of God, the Greek word translated into
“thanks” is eucharistio, from which “Eucharist” is derived.

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sacramentum. The understanding of ‘sacrament’ came to be linked with Greco-Roman ideas of

mystery and mystical rites, more so since the Constantinian empire.6 The sacramental system was

adhered to in accordance to “the mysterious power of the priest.”7 As such, mystery was made

equivalent to sacrament in the medieval synthesis.

Bearing in mind that ‘sacrament’ is not mentioned in the Bible, is the concept still valid for

our study of church? Not unlike ‘trinity’ or ‘divinity’, sacramental thinking and language can enrich

our imagination of the nature of church, albeit distorted views exist. How so? In the New

Testament, mystery refers to God’s plan of salvation through Christ for both Jews and Gentiles

(Rom 11:25; Eph 3:5-6). Paul’s references to the mystery in 1 Cor 4:1 and Eph 3:9 imply, by the

use of the phrase oikonomos mustērion, that he and his colleagues are stewards of the economy of

God’s plan (see also Col 1:25-26). Inferable from these references, then, is a strong connection

between oikonomia and mustērion, both of which “point to the Kingdom of God and the church as

the Kingdom community”.8 This connection proves theologically significant in the context of the

church as the Kingdom community. It is when we equate mystery with sacrament, as Snyder argues,

that the New Testament economy becomes “transmuted into the sacramental economy”.9 Thus, this

distinction must remain clear when we speak of the church sacramentally or apply sacramental

thinking to the relation between church and Kingdom.

OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

No other first-century prophet or teacher has taught with such diversity on the Kingdom of

God as did Jesus of Nazareth.10 The proclamation of the Kingdom of God is central to Jesus’ life

6
Snyder, Liberating, 99.
7
Snyder, Liberating, 100.
8
Snyder, Liberating, 100.
9
Snyder, Liberating, 100. For a more thorough treatise on the connection between oikonomia and mustērion, see chapter
on “God’s Master Plan” in Howard A. Snyder, Community of the King (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1977), 45-51.
10
Graham Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus, 2nd ed., Oxford Bible Series (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press 2002), 213.

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and ministry (Mark 1:14-15; cf Matt 4:17), and in Grant’s words “the main, determinative subject of

all his discourse”.11 Even when the exact phrase “Kingdom of God/heaven” is not used, the idea of

God’s rule is present in many of his implicit sayings, teachings, and parables.12

In the New Testament, the word translated ‘Kingdom’ is basileia, which refers primarily to

the right of a king to reign.13 According to the way Jesus uses the phrase basileia tou Theou, it refers

to God’s redemptive reign over the whole of creation more than a territory or a worldly government

(John 18:36).14 Our understanding of the eschatological reign of God is not limited to chronological

time or geographical sphere (Matt 6:10; Mark 9:1; Luke 22:29; 23:42),15 but as having two

dimensions – it is already present but also future in some aspects.16 Thus, while Jesus’ vision of the

Kingdom cannot be understood in conclusive terms, as scholars disagree as to what he meant,17 it is

important to note that his proclamation of the kingdom evidently moved between present and future

manifestations of God’s reign.18 Yamamori and Padilla describe it this way: [the Kingdom is] the

royal power of God which, anticipating the end, manifests itself in the present through Jesus Christ

and will manifest itself in the future in all its fullness.19

What does the manifestation of the Kingdom look like? To say that the Kingdom of God is

both present and future is to say it is “both earthly and heavenly, both hidden and becoming

11
Frederick C. Grant, The Gospel of the Kingdom (S.I.:s.n,1917), 129.
12
For a more detailed work on “kingdom” in the four Gospels, see Kurt Aland, Synopsis of the Four Gospels: Greek-
English Edition of the Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum, on the Basis of the Greek Text of Nestle- Aland 27th edition and Greek New
Testament 4th Revised Edition, the English Text is the Second Edition of the Revised Standard Version, 13th ed. (Stuttgart: German
Bible Society, 2007).
13
Craig Van Gelder, The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books,
2000), 75. For a concise discussion on the biblical conception of the Kingdom in the Old and New Testaments, see Stanley J. Grenz,
Theology for the Community of God (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 2000), 472-3.
14
Van Gelder, Essence, 75.
15
Ladd, The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1974),
132-133.
16
Van Gelder, Essence, 75.
17
Grenz, Community, 474.
18
Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green, and Marienne Meye Thompson, Introducing the New Testament: Its Literature and
Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 2001), 217-218.
19
C. René Padilla, Tetsunao Yamamori, and Steven M. Voth, The Local Church Agent of Transformation: An
Ecclesiology for Integral Mission (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Ediciones Kairós, 2004), 24.

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manifest”.20 Jesus’ proclamation of this dynamic redemptive reign of God is inaugurated in his very

person and work, bringing about a present reality, at the same time foretelling “the future dimension

of the Kingdom”.21 Through him, the mystery of the Father is revealed to us.22 The Kingdom has

come, and the work of the Kingdom has begun, along with “the preaching of the gospel, healing,

and raising the dead”.23 A new race is formed – a people comprising of both Jews and Gentiles, with

Christ as head, who by the Holy Spirit enter into the new covenant and come under the rule of God.

The Kingdom of God is, quite simply and literally, the reign of God.

THE CHURCH AS SACRAMENT OF THE KINGDOM

Harper and Metzger remind us that the Kingdom is the central topic of Jesus’ teaching, and

he promises to build his church upon his apostles and their message of the Kingdom.24 It is crucial

that our study of church takes place within the context of the Kingdom of God. To borrow Van

Gelder’s words, the redemptive reign of God “[serves] as the foundation for defining the nature,

ministry, and organization of the church,” and it is in the person and work of Christ that it finds its

core identity.25 For this reason, increased interest in missional or emerging ecclesiology has resulted

in heavier emphases on ‘kingdom’ and ‘incarnational ministry’, as discussions on church as witness

to God’s work in the world inevitably give rise to the centrality of missio Dei and economy of

God’s plan. Many scholars speak of the dialectical nature of the church “either as a community

waiting for the kingdom, or the kingdom of God on earth”.26 In any case, the link of the church to

the reign of God compels an eschatological orientation resulting in a more dynamic ecclesiology.27
20
Howard A. Snyder, Community of the King (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1977), 16.
21
Padilla, Local Church, 24.
22
James A. Scherer, Gospel, Church, & Kingdom: Comparative Studies in World Mission Theology (Minneapolis:
Augsburg Pub. House, 1987), 197.
23
Brad Harper and Paul Louis Metzger, Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction (Grand
Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009), 49.
24
Harper and Metzger, Exploring Ecclesiology, 48.
25
Van Gelder, Essence, 74.
26
Harper and Metzger, Exploring Ecclesiology, 52-3.
27
Grenz, Community, 478.

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Fuellenbach calls this the interrelated realities of Kingdom and church.28

Rather than focusing on the sacramental system or the relation between church and

Kingdom, however, pertinent to our discussion is this: the church as sacrament of the Kingdom.29

This is quite different from saying that the church performs sacraments. In his treatise on

sacramental theology, Karl Rahner articulates it this way: As the primordial sacrament, the Church

is the constant presence in the world of the saving mystery of Christ and his grace.30 Following this,

the Second Vatican Council’s constitution Lumen Gentium states,31 “By virtue of her relationship to

Christ the Church herself is in the nature of a sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of

communion with God and of unity among all people.32 From these two statements, albeit

provisional, we see richness in conceptualizing church in connection with Kingdom, particularly by

the joint application of ‘mystery’ and ‘sacrament’ to the church.33 It seems necessary to highlight

here that the church is not the Kingdom in itself. While the church’s nature and mission emerge

from the presence of the Kingdom, so that it is “an expression of God’s redemptive work in the

world”,34 in itself it is not the fullness of this Kingdom.

What does it mean to view the church as sacrament of the Kingdom? A sacrament is, in the

classical Anglican definition, “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given

unto us; ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to

28
John Fuellenbach, Church: Community for the Kingdom (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001), 24.
29
Attempts by a number of contemporary Roman Catholic theologians using this approach are discussed in Avery Dulles,
Models of the Church (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), 58-59; also Eric G. Jay, The Church: Its Changing Image through
Twenty Centuries (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1980), 325-27.
30
Karl Rahner, “Sacramental Theology,” in Encyclopedia of Theology: The Concise Sacramentum Mundi, ed. Karl Rahner
(New York: Seabury Press, 1975), 1486.
31
The Roman Catholic church tradition, from which Lumen Gentium derives its ecclesial thinking, follows the practice of
seven liturgical sacraments, but considers the church the fundamental or root sacrament rather than the eighth sacrament. See David
Bonagura Jr., The Church: The Sacrament of Salvation, 05 April 2010, [online], available from
http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/the-church-the-sacrament-of-salvation.html, 15 September 2010.
32
Richard Lennan, “Roman Catholic Ecclesiology,” in The Routledge Companion to the Christian Church, eds. Gerard
Mannion and Lewis Seymour Mudge (New York: Routledge, 2008), 238.
33
For difficulties or insufficiencies of understanding church as sacrament, see Avery Dulles, Models of the Church
(Dublin: Gill & MacMillan, 1976), 69-70; A Church to Believe In (New York: Crossroad, 1985), 5.
34
Van Gelder, Essence, 88.

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 assure us thereof”.35 As with the Lord’s Supper and baptism, the church is a gift of God to the

world, a visible sign of the Kingdom’s invisible reality. Distinct from the world, it is a

representation of what the world was created to be according to God’s original design, or in Eric

Jay’s profound expression, “a society instituted by God which is itself in microcosm what the world

must be, and which exists to enable it to be that which itself is, the body of Christ”.36

What the church is (identity) and does (function) finds its source in Jesus’ mission: the

proclamation of the Kingdom of God. As the Kingdom is inaugurated in the person and work of

Christ, so the church continues the work of God in the world. It witnesses to His presence, activity,

and coming reign as regards the eschatological reign of God, while administering in the present His

gracious redemptive power in community, with anticipation for that which is promised and is not

yet fully realized. In so doing, the church both is and becomes a visible, actual reality of God’s

Kingdom as a people gathered in worship and witness in the world.

(1) Church as sign of grace

The church as sacrament points to Christ and the Kingdom, and is defined by that which it

points to. By virtue of relationship to Christ, as per Lumen Gentium, the church has “intimate union

with God” and embodies the essence of Kingdom identity. This is evinced in how it relates to God

and the world; they bear a marked distinctiveness that distinguishes them as God’s people. This is

the present reality of such a union – a redeemed community that is called out, holy, and subject to

an alternative order. Thus, the church is itself a sign of God’s sovereign rule.

(2) Church as instrument of grace

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 As sacrament, the church is a sign of the Kingdom; it also acts as a means of the invisible

grace of God.37 In Gospel, Church, and Kingdom, Scherer puts forth that the church is “the bearer

and recipient of the activities of [the Kingdom],”38 as the instrument of communion among

humankind. Participation in the church, while not analogous to participation in the Kingdom in all

respects, enables mediation of the divine grace from God to those who seek to enter or have entered

into communion with Him. The administration of grace for communion with God and unity among

all people is received by virtue of participating in community with His people.

A CONTRIBUTIVE ECCLESIOLOGICAL CONCEPT

FOR MUSLIM-BACKGROUND BELIEVERS?

The church is akin to ecclesiocentrism unless it recognizes that it is not the Kingdom of God

itself, but a sign that points people to God’s reign. While the Kingdom is indeed a present reality,

and the church bears witness to it, the ultimate manifestation of the Kingdom has yet to be realized.

As such, the nature of the church is transitory, rather than the permanent or final expression. This

should not hinder the church from living out its identity. As a matter of course, disparity between

the Kingdom and church exists, but church life and mission is to be always renewing and always

aspiring towards becoming fully the eschatological community of the King.

Expression of Kingdom values is in essence incarnating and advocating the values of Jesus’

mission. It has to “confront the values, structures, ideologies and practices of the society of which it

is a part”.39 Rather than proclaiming its own merits or engaging in acts of self-preservation, by

seeing itself as the sacrament to the world the church is “[freed] to its proper service of proclaiming

Christ and heralding the kingdom by word and deed”.40 This is precisely the thesis of Snyder’s
37
Snyder, Liberating, 101-4.
38
Scherer, Gospel, Church & Kingdom, 219.
39
T.V. Philip, Edinburgh to Salvador: Twentieth Century Ecumenical Missiology (Delhi: ISPCK & CSS, 1999). Also
accessible online at www.religion-online.org http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=1573&C=1523
40
Scherer, Gospel, Church & Kingdom, 144.

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work, that the church be liberated to be the Kingdom community by staying true to its identity.41 In

the eschatological perspective, then, the church attains its rightful identity as a witness to God’s

reign. In Muslim-majority contexts, the tension between religion and politics is real, i.e. clash

between secular and syariah laws. This becomes the battleground for those seeking to see churches

thrive within such societies, or simply to see Muslim-background believers continue as faithful

disciples and servants of God. When much of ‘Christian values’ are perceived as ‘Western values,’

resistance to how the church can proclaim Christ in word and deed is great, compounded by the fact

that the history of the Crusades continues to haunt Muslim-Christian relations.

Nevertheless, to look again at Lumen Gentium, “unity of all mankind” in light of church as

sacrament means that the church incarnates and advocates values of the Kingdom, e.g. justice,

peace, lovingkindness, and human solidarity. In this way, the church functions as a foretaste of the

coming Kingdom that welcomes all to fellowship at table, regardless of class, social status, gender,

or ethnicity. For predominantly Muslim societies, this potentially makes pretty bold statements

concerning the church, and consequently the eschatological community of God. But this is clearly

seen in Jesus’ life and ministry! By relating in kind to its society, then, the church as the instrument

extends grace without discrimination, and this grace enables affirmation of and makes evident the

work of God’s Spirit in those who constitute the church and those who do not. This is of crucial

importance if the church among MBBs is not to fall into the danger of reductionism, where church

growth and conversion numbers become the focal points of church-planting endeavors. Major

gripes of the IM is concerned with this very danger.

If we understand sacrament as an outward, visible sign that imparts grace to those who

participate in it, the church as sacrament of the Kingdom imparts grace to those who participate in

the life, even activities, of the church, because the activities of the church reflect the activities of the

41
Snyder, Liberating, 111.

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Kingdom. This extending of grace is not to be understood as only a passive action, but also an

active participation in the struggles of mankind toward reconciliation and redemption.42 In other

words, as sacrament of the Kingdom, the church is called to actively engage in activities that

confront injustice, apathy, destructive systems, etc., because God’s sovereignty underlies all that it

is and does. When so much fear has been plaguing our neighborhoods in lieu of terrorist attacks and

suicide bombings, mistrust, hatred and confusion towards ‘the other’ are at unprecedented levels.

Many MBBs face immense pressure and persecution from their families and friends, particularly

when assuming the identity and function of church seems to create a chasm between believers and

non-believers. Applying the concept of church as sacrament means that communities of MBBs

must, first and foremost, be positioned to extend grace which reconciles and redeems relationships.

Such an experience of church life demonstrates the final eschatological reality, and the church

approves itself as the channel and means for people to encounter God’s Kingdom in the present

with anticipation for that which is yet to come.

CONCLUSION

To use Grenz’s articulation, “at [the heart of the church] is the goal of modeling in the

present the glorious human fellowship that will come at the consummation of history.”43 Its identity

and function as sacrament of the Kingdom does not allow it to focus only on getting converts or

preserving its own election. As a foretaste of God’s reign over creation, the church must not only

point to the Kingdom, be it as a present reality and/or a future hope, but also act as a means of grace

made available to mankind through relationship to Christ and his community. The presence of Jesus

himself constitutes the Kingdom presence; the ‘Kingdom of God’ is not a mere theological phrase

42
For a helpful discussion on kingdom and the mission of the church, see World Conference on Mission and Evangelism,
Your Kingdom Come: Mission Perspectives: Report on the World Conference on Mission and Evangelism, Melbourne, Australia, 12-
25 May, 1980 (Geneva: Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, World Council of Churches, 1980).
43
Grenz, Community, 479.

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because the reign of God has come with “a name and a human face”.44 Fuellenbach reminds us that

Jesus always communicated his vision of the Kingdom using concrete means,45 and the church is

this very means, albeit a provisional entity. When the church is actively engaged in incarnating and

demonstrating the values of the Kingdom, it is freed to be distinct as the people submitted to God’s

reign as well as extend grace the way that Jesus did.

The church as sacrament of the Kingdom is a contributive concept for our study of church,

simply because Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom and sought to gather a new people together based on

his vision of the Kingdom. Certainly the church points to this Kingdom, in relationship to Christ, as

the people of God. Just as the relationship of God to the world can be understood sacramentally, so

the concept of sacrament helps us understand the relation between the church and the Kingdom.46

Dilemmas for MBBs in the IM are many and contentious. Yet, a truly Kingdom-oriented

ecclesiology must stem from praxis of faith according to them and within their contexts as the locus

theologicus. While this discussion allows only an introductory look at this concept of sacrament, I

hope that thoughtful work towards critically-contextualized ecclesiology for Muslim-majority

communities continues to grow in the coming years.

44
Lesslie Newbigin, Sign of the Kingdom (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1981), 32-3.
45
Fuellenbach, Community for the Kingdom, 108-9.
46
Snyder, Liberating, 110.

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