What Is The Sacramental Life?

The Sacramental Life is at the heart of how The Salvation Army understands practical holiness.

Sacramental Life, not Anti-Sacramental

There is sometimes a confused idea that The Salvation Army is anti-sacramental. But this has never been the case. Instead, the Army has understood the Bible to point not to rituals and rites, but to a radical commitment to be the image of God in the world through sanctification. The life of a disciple is itself a sacrament. As we become a neighbour through love and grace we simultaneously become the place where Christ happens in the world. We are the only sacrament that matters.

When Jesus broke bread and shared wine he was not instituting a new ritual. When Jesus said to baptise people, he was not saying this is the only way to be saved. It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit which confirms salvation. It is in serving our neighbour, in feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely, and setting prisoners free, that we meet Jesus. We are called to holiness, not to rituals.

The Sacramental Life is the Harder Path

But this only works if we are willing to take the harder path. It is easy to take some bread and wine each week, or to have a dunk in some water, and say that things have changed. It is much harder to become a living sacrament, to be holy. Because holiness is not about being purer or more righteous than other people. Being holy means being willing to love the unloved and to befriend the friendless, to feed the hungry and house the homeless, to serve the poor and to work to transform the world into the Kingdom of God. This is a much harder path to walk.

There is a cost to being a living sacrament. We cannot just sing “my life must be Christ’s broken bread” if we are not also willing to live out what that means. But if we are brave enough, if we are faithful enough, if we loving enough, then we can transform the world. An Army of sanctified people who are committed to being the place where God happens in the world. This is the force that will transform the world into the Kingdom of God and prepare the way for the return of Christ.

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