Sacramental Missiology
Sacramental theology has more often been the site of a dualistic separation of nature and supernature than a locus of their integration.1 Sacraments have been viewed as supernatural, quasi-magical, intrusions into a world that normally runs by other rules. To recognize the importance of sacraments for missiology, we must first rethink sacraments from the ground up, starting with creation.
When God created male and female, his first gift was the gift of food: “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you” (Genesis 1:29). Adam and Eve began their life in the garden-sanctuary, the most prominent feature of which was trees with their fruit.2 They were invited to eat from the tree of life, enjoying a feast in the presence of God. The world was a table spread for them, and so was the garden. Their most “spiritual” experience was also their most normal experience—eating. Before sin, Adam and Eve had no need of baptismal entry, since the gate of the garden was wide open. But they did participate in a created sacrament, a meal in the presence of God, the original Lord’s Supper.
They were not to remain in the garden forever, but, like the river that arose in Eden and flowed through the Garden, they were to spread out, multiplying and filling the four corners of earth, as they subdued and ruled it. It was a mandate, also a definition, because human beings made in the image of the world’s Creator cannot but be world-creators. God created Adam and Eve as son and daughter, servants of God’s garden-sanctuary, a prince and a princess who were to mature to be King and Queen of the creation, the source of a race of kings and queens, all advancing creation from glory to glory.
Human life was to be a frictionless cycle of work and worship, a rhythm of labor and liturgy: Each Sabbath, Adam and Eve would have eaten with God in the garden and then ventured into the world to glorify it. On the next Sabbath, they would have returned to the garden to enjoy the products of their labor in the presence of God. Worship would fuel them for a new week of work in the world, work that would again culminate in worship. Over time, humanity would form the world into a civilization, pursuing technological and artistic enhancements of creation. The garden too would have changed. Adam and Eve’s descendants would have learned to bake bread and to ferment wine, and so too the fresh fruit of the garden would have given way to the solid food of bread and the mature drink of wine. Human beings would have brought the gold of Havilah to adorn the garden. From the beginning, the trajectory of history was from garden to temple to cosmic temple city. That was the original human mission.
Nothing in the Bible indicates that this original mandate or definition was cancelled after sin and death entered the world. After they ate from the tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve were cast from the garden (Gen. 3:25). That was a gracious exclusion, a necessary discipline. But it had the effect of separating zones of life that had originally been united. Human beings no longer had access to the presence of God and their efforts to rule the earth were rendered more difficult, but they and their descendants continued to fill, subdue, and rule the earth. Separated from communion with God, human beings filled the world with idols and innocent blood, men (especially men!) taking dominion without submitting to the Lord of the sanctuary, the High King. They continued to rule, but they no longer ruled as table companions of their Creator.
The problem that needed fixing after the fall was this division between garden and world, the split between communion with God and dominion. That is the setting in which God set out on his mission to restore humanity, and his goal was to restore humanity to fellowship that would produce godly dominion. One day, he promised, he would crush the serpent’s head, and allow sons of Adam and daughters of Eve to return to the garden. Delivered from Satan, they would again create as table companions of the Creator. God’s mission was to reestablish table communion with humanity and to qualify human beings to share meals with him, to harmonize labor and liturgy once again. God’s mission was to baptize humanity back into his presence so they could resume the Lord’s Supper.
Though this restoration is completed in the cross and resurrection of Jesus, it began earlier.