SACRAMENTS AND

SOCIAL JUSTICE

SACRAMENTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Joel Q. Bengbeng, OSL
ANO ANG KINALAMAN NG BINYAG SA
HUMAN RIGHTS?
MAY KONEKSIYON BA ANG PAGTANGGAP NG
KOMUNYON SA USAPIN NG KAHIRAPAN?
ANO ANG KAUGNAYAN NG “TINAPAY NGA
BUHAY” SA PAGTAAS NG PRESYO NG BIGAS
AT TINAPAY?
MAGKARUGTONG BA ANG DULANG NG PANGINOON
AT ANG DULANG NG MGA PILIPINO?
 A. THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
• “Brothers and sisters in Christ:
• Through the Sacrament of Baptism we are
initiated into Christ's holy Church.
• We are incorporated into God's mighty acts of
salvation and given new birth through water and
the Spirit. All this is God's gift, offered to us
without price.”
• - The Baptismal Covenant 1
• UM Book of Worship
1. BAPTISM AND HUMAN DIGNITY
• The nobility of the Christian calling and the
fundamental equality of the baptized is
suggested by 1 Peter 2:9-10: But you are a
chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
God’s own people, in order that you may
proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you
out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once
you were not a people, but now you are God’s
people; once you had not received mercy, but
now you have received mercy.
• The Petrine Epistle is a baptismal
homily intended to encourage the new
Christians who are persecuted because
of their faith.
• If it really is the case that baptized
Christians constitute a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, and a holy nation,
then any form of injustice within the
Christian family is unthinkable.
 BAPTISM UNDERGIRDS THE VALUE AND
DIGNITY OF EVERY HUMAN BEING AS A
PERSON LOVED BY GOD.
OUR IDENTITY IS SHAPED NOT BY ANY
ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL
STANDARD, BUT BY BECOMING GOD’S
BELOVED CHILDREN.
 RECEIVING ONE’S OWN BAPTISMAL DIGNITY
IMPLIES RECOGNIZING THE DIGNITY AND
HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL PEOPLE.
As many of you as were baptized into Christ have
clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer
Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free,
there is no longer male and female; for all of you
are one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:27-28)
Galatians 3:27-28 is a charter statement against
all forms of discrimination within the church and
in the larger society.
 We are in “union with the Church which Christ
has opened to people of all ages, nations, and
races.”
2. Baptism and liberation
Christian initiation must be viewed from the
angle of the liberation of Israel from bondage in
Egypt.
The liberation won by Jesus includes liberation
from unjust social structures.
This understanding of baptism is highlighted
by the Prayer of Thanksgiving Over the Water:
• “When you saw your people as slaves in
Egypt, you led them to freedom through
the sea. Their children you brought
through the Jordan to the land which
you promised.”

 Salvation is freedom from the powers of

sin, death, abuse, destruction and
oppression.
 After the harvest, the people of Israel are instructed to bring
their first fruits to the priests who will offer them to God. At
the same time, they recite God’s marvelous deeds in rescuing
them from Egypt. The passage does not end with the ritual
sacrifice, however. It ends with the following: When you have
finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year
(which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the
aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat
their fill within your towns, then you shall say before the Lord
your God: “I have removed the sacred portion from the
house, and I have given it to the Levites, the resident aliens,
the orphans, and the widows, in accordance with your entire
commandment that you commanded me.” (Deut 26:12-13)
 IN OTHER WORDS, HAVING BECOME A PEOPLE
LIBERATED FROM SLAVERY, THE ISRAELITES ARE
NOW TO RECOGNIZE THEIR JUSTICE
OBLIGATIONS TO THE MARGINALIZED.
SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGIAN LOUIS-MARIE
CHAUVET CALLS THIS THE PROCESS OF
SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE, WHEREBY OUR
LITURGICAL ACTIONS ARE VERIFIED BY HOW WE
LIVE OUT WHAT WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN WITH
OUR LIVES.
3. BAPTISM AS REJECTION OF EVIL
THIS REVOLUTIONARY CHARACTER OF BAPTISM IS
REFLECTED IN THE FOLLOWING BAPTISMAL VOWS:
“ON BEHALF OF THE WHOLE CHURCH, I ASK YOU: DO YOU
RENOUNCE THE SPIRITUAL FORCES OF WICKEDNESS, REJECT
THE EVIL POWERS OF THIS WORLD, AND REPENT OF YOUR
SIN?
DO YOU ACCEPT THE FREEDOM AND POWER GOD GIVES
YOU TO RESIST EVIL, INJUSTICE, AND OPPRESSION IN
WHATEVER FORMS THEY PRESENT THEMSELVES?
• I DO.”
 WHAT IS EVIL?

THE SPIRITUAL FORCES OF WICKEDNESS

(Cosmic)
THE EVIL POWERS OF THIS WORLD
(Social Sin, Structural Evil)
YOUR SIN (Personal)
The baptized is called to renounce ALL FORMS of evil.
 “DO YOU ACCEPT THE FREEDOM AND POWER
GOD GIVES YOU TO RESIST EVIL, INJUSTICE, AND
OPPRESSION IN WHATEVER FORMS THEY PRESENT
THEMSELVES?”
THE BAPTIZED ARE CALLED TO CHALLENGE,
THROUGH GOD’S POWER, ALL POLITICAL AND
ECONOMIC POWERS THAT PROMOTES AND
PERPETUATES EVIL, INJUSTICE, AND OPPRESSION.
OUR VOCATION IS TO UPHOLD AND DEFEND THE
DIGNITY AND SANCTITY OF EVERY HUMAN LIFE.
 HOLISTIC SPIRITUALITY (Social Principles)
• "Taking an active stance in society is nothing new
for followers of John Wesley. He set the example for
us to combine personal and social piety. Ever since
predecessor churches to United Methodism
flourished in the United States, we have been
known as a denomination involved with people's
lives, with political and social struggles, having local
to international mission implications. Such
involvement is an expression of the personal change
we experience in our baptism and conversion.”
• The United Methodist Church believes God's love
for the world is an active and engaged love, a
love seeking justice and liberty. We cannot just
be observers. So we care enough about people's
lives to risk interpreting God's love, to take a
stand, to call each of us into a response, no
matter how controversial or complex. The church
helps us think and act out a faith perspective,
not just responding to all the other 'mind-
makers-up' that exist in our society.” (2016 Book
of Resolutions)
4. BAPTISM AS CONFESSION OF
LOYALTY
TO CHRIST ALONE
• “Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior,
put your whole trust in his grace, and
promise to serve him as your Lord, in union
with the Church which Christ has opened to
people of all ages, nations, and races?
• I do.”
•
BEFORE THE CONVERSION OF THE EMPEROR
CONSTANTINE TO CHRISTIANITY IN THE FOURTH CENTURY,
CHRISTIANS HAD LITTLE DIFFICULTY APPRECIATING THE
SERIOUSNESS OF THEIR FAITH. THEY RAN THE RISK OF AT
LEAST PERIODIC PERSECUTIONS FOR THEIR BAPTISMAL
COMMITMENT!
THE EARLIEST CHRISTIAN CONFESSION OF FAITH, “JESUS IS
LORD!”, WAS A VERY DANGEROUS ACT CONSIDERED BY THE
ROMAN EMPIRE AS AN ACT OF TREASON.
BAPTISM THEN WAS A COMMITMENT TO A WAY OF LIFE
SIGNIFICANTLY TRANSFORMED BY THE TRIUMPH OF
CHRIST.
 OUR ULTIMATE LOYALTY IS TO CHRIST, NOT
TO ANY POLITICAL RULER
“The strength of a political system depends upon
the full and willing participation of Social
Principles of The United Methodist Church 2009-
2012 16 its citizens. The church should
continually exert a strong ethical influence upon
the state, supporting policies and programs
deemed to be just and opposing policies and
programs that are unjust. (Social Principles 2016)
“WE OBEY GOD RATHER THAN HUMAN
AUTHORITY” (Acts 5:29).
“But governments, no less than individuals, are
subject to the judgment of God. Therefore, we
recognize the right of individuals to dissent
when acting under the constraint of conscience
and, after having exhausted all legal recourse,
to resist or disobey laws that they deem to be
unjust or that are discriminately enforced.
Even then, respect for law should be
shown by refraining from violence and
by being willing to accept the costs of
disobedience. We do not encourage or
condone any form of violent protest as
a legitimate exercise of free speech or
civil disobedience.”
(Social Principles 2016)
 b. THE SACRAMENT OF
THE LORD’S SUPPER
In baptism we receive our identity and
mission as Christians. Holy Communion is the
sacrament that sustains and nourishes us in
our journey of salvation.
Baptism is the initiating sacrament, while
Eucharist is the sustaining sacrament.
1. HOLY COMMUNION AND
COMMUNAL
LIFE
• Holy Communion is the communion of the
church—the gathered community of the faithful,
both local and universal. While deeply
meaningful to the individuals participating, the
sacrament is much more than a personal event.
1 Corinthians 10:17 explains that “because there
is one bread, we who are many are one body, for
we all partake of the one bread.”
•No one will be turned away from the
Table because of age or “mental,
physical, developmental, and/or
psychological” capacity (BOD, ¶
162.G) or because of any other
condition that might limit his or her
understanding or hinder his or her
reception of the sacrament.
•Likewise, the grace given through
Holy Communion is offered to the
entire church, including those who
are unable to respond for
themselves. Children are members
of the covenant community and
participants in the Lord’s Supper.
•The Lord’s Supper is to be made
available to people who are in
hospitals and hospices; nursing,
convalescent, and rehabilitation
facilities; correctional and custodial
institutions; or other situations that
make it impossible for them to
gather with the community of faith.
• One of the themes of the Gospels, most
prominent in Luke, is Jesus’ ongoing
efforts to teach the disciples that God’s
love and favor are extended to all
people, not just those of a certain
ethnicity, status, economic or political
standing, or gender.
2. HOLY COMMUNION AND OUR
MINISTRY OF COMPASSION AND
JUSTICE
• As we commune, we become aware of the
worth and the needs of other people and are
reminded of our responsibility. We express the
compassion of Christ through acts of caring and
kindness toward those we encounter in our
daily lives.
•But, in the words of the prayer
of confession, we acknowledge
our failures: “We have rebelled
against your love, we have not
loved our neighbors, and we
have not heard the cry of the
needy” (UMH; page 8).
•Remembering the revolutionary
Jesus, we are impelled to
challenge unjust practices and
systems that perpetuate political,
economic, and social inequity
and discrimination (Matthew 23;
Luke 4:16-21; 14:7-11).
3. HOLY COMMUNION AND
HEALING
• Through Eucharist, we receive healing and
are enabled to aid in the healing of others.
In the New Testament, healing is
synonymous with salvation and wholeness.
Much of this healing is spiritual, but it also
includes the healing of our thoughts and
emotions, of our minds and bodies, of our
attitudes and relationships.
•The grace received at the Table of the
Lord can make us whole. As those who
are being saved, we seek to bring
healing to a broken world.
4. HOLY COMMUNION AND
POVERTY
• Bread is used in both the Old and New
Testaments to signify God’s sustenance of
human beings and the importance of our
eating together. When God liberated the
Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, they
carried their bread with them. The Jews
have celebrated this exodus throughout the
centuries as Passover.
• In the New Testament, Jesus shared meals
frequently with his disciples and with others
(Matthew 9:9-11 and similar passages). He fed
the multitudes (Matthew 14:13-21 and parallels)
and used bread to signify his identity and
mission (John 6). On the eve of his crucifixion,
Jesus ate the Last Supper with his disciples
(Matthew 26:26-29 and parallels). After his
resurrection, he broke bread with the travelers
to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) and with his disciples
on the seashore (John 21:9-14).
• As followers of Jesus, who ate with
sinners and reached out to the
marginalized, the church must
intentionally concern itself about those
who are absent from Christ’s Table—
those who feel unworthy, the poor, the
unconverted, victims of prejudice, and
others who are oppressed or neglected.
As we return to the Table again and
again, we are strengthened repeatedly.
We go out empowered to live as
disciples, reconcilers, and witnesses. In
the words of the prayer after
Communion, “Grant that we may go into
the world in the strength of your Spirit,
to give ourselves for others . . .” (UMH;
page 11).
Sacramental grace enables
us to share the Bread of Life
to the hungry, and to extend
the Table in the midst of
extreme poverty end
economic distress.
5. HOLY COMMUNION AND ETHICAL
DISCIPLESHIP
• Through Holy Communion, the Holy
Spirit works to shape our moral and
ethical lives. In the ongoing process of
conversion, we grow in personal and
social holiness and are empowered to
work for healing, compassion,
reconciliation, justice, and peace.
•The Old Testament prophets
denounced the injustice and
oppression that they saw around
them. They proclaimed a God who
acts in favor of the poor and
powerless and calls God’s people so
to act (Isaiah 1:16-17; 58:6-9; Amos
2:6-8; 5:11-15, 21-24; Micah 6:6-8).
• When Jesus began his public ministry,
he announced his mission: “The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to bring good news to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim
release to the captives and recovery of
sight to the blind, to let the oppressed
go free, to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:1621).
•He associated with those who were
stigmatized and despised. Much of
his teaching addressed economic
and social inequality. Following his
example, the early Christian
community tried to care for the
needs of all people (Acts 4:32-35;
James 1:27; 2:14-17).
• The United Methodist Church has a heritage
from John Wesley in which ethical discipleship
was inextricably related to sacramental worship.
From concern by the Holy Club for the
imprisoned, through care of the sick by the
societies, to Wesley’s own lifelong giving away of
most of his money, the early Wesleyan
movement sought to ease the suffering of the
needy. Collection at the Lord’s Supper of alms to
be given to the poor is a historic practice that
many congregations in our tradition continue.
• By the early twentieth century,
Methodists had begun to realize that holy
living meant even more than acts of
charity. Beginning with the Social Creed,
American Methodists started to point out
injustices caused by economic, social, and
political structures and to call for the
reform of such structures.
• In carrying out our mission to make
disciples of Jesus Christ, the Book of
Discipline stipulates that the church is to
“send persons into the world to live
lovingly and justly as servants of Christ by
healing the sick, feeding the hungry, caring
for the stranger, freeing the oppressed, and
working to develop social structures that
are consistent with the gospel” (¶ 122).
•Those who partake of Holy
Communion are sent from the
Table to be in ministry as Christ’s
presence in the world. God’s
people are sent to work
compassionately for healing,
reconciliation, justice, and peace.
• Such work requires prophetic, subversive
actions: “renounc[ing] the spiritual forces of
wickedness, reject[ing] the evil powers of
this world, . . . accept[ing] the freedom and
power God gives . . . to resist evil, injustice,
and oppression in whatever forms they
present themselves” claiming and making
real the victory of the risen Christ over all
evil, sin, and death.
6. HOLY COMMUNION AND
INTEGRITY
OF CREATION
• Receiving the bread and wine as products of
divine creation (as well as the waters of
baptism) reminds us of our duties of
stewardship of the natural environment in a
time when destruction and pollution imperil
the earth, and unjust distribution of the
planet’s resources destroys the hopes and lives
of millions.
7. HOLY COMMUNION AND
ESCHATOLOGY
• Holy Communion has has something to do with the
end of history, the outcome of God’s purpose for
the world—“Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ
will come again” (UMH; page 10).
• To participate is to receive a foretaste of the future,
a pledge of heaven “until Christ comes in final
victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet”
(UMH; page 10).
• When we eat and drink at the Table, we become
partakers of the divine nature in this life and for
life eternal (John 6:47-58; Revelation 3:20).

• As we gratefully receive God’s abundant grace,

we are challenged to accept fully our
responsibility and accountability for renewal of
the social order, liberation for the oppressed,
and the coming of the realm of God.
• We are anticipating the heavenly banquet
celebrating God’s victory over sin, evil, and
death (Matthew 22:1-14; Revelation 19:9; 21:1-
7). In the midst of the personal and systemic
brokenness in which we live, we yearn for
everlasting fellowship with Christ and ultimate
fulfillment of the divine plan. Nourished by
sacramental grace, we strive to be formed into
the image of Christ and to be made instruments
for transformation in the world.
Liturgy and Justice must be connected

• Isaiah 58:1-10
• The LORD says, "Shout as loud as you can! Tell my people
Israel about their sins! They worship me every day,
claiming that they are eager to know my ways and obey
my laws. They say they want me to give them just laws
and that they take pleasure in worshiping me."
• The people ask, "Why should we fast if the LORD never
notices? Why should we go without food if he pays no
attention?"
• The LORD says to them, "The truth is that at the
same time you fast, you pursue your own
interests and oppress your workers. v4Your
fasting makes you violent, and you quarrel and
fight. Do you think this kind of fasting will make
me listen to your prayers? v5When you fast, you
make yourselves suffer; you bow your heads low
like a blade of grass and spread out sackcloth
and ashes to lie on. Is that what you call fasting?
Do you think I will be pleased with that?
• The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the
chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice,
and let the oppressed go free. Share your food
with the hungry and open your homes to the
homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have
nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your
own relatives. Then my favor will shine on you
like the morning sun, and your wounds will be
quickly healed. I will always be with you to save
you; my presence will protect you on every side.
When you pray, I will answer you. When you call
to me, I will respond.”
•If you put an end to oppression,
to every gesture of contempt, and
to every evil word; if you give
food to the hungry and satisfy
those who are in need, then the
darkness around you will turn to
the brightness of noon.”
RECEIVING THE
SACRAMENTS, BECOMING
LIVING SACRAMENTS
• IN BAPTISM, WE ARE INCORPORATED INTO
THE BODY OF CHRIST (THE CHURCH). IN
HOLY COMMUNION, WE AS THE BODY OF
CHRIST RECEIVE THE BODY OF CHRIST SO
THAT WE MAY BECOME FOR THE WORLD
THE BODY OF CHRIST REDEEMED BY HIS
BLOOD.
LITURGY AND CHRISTIAN LIFE

•“The liturgy is Christian life in a

nutshell.” – Robert Taft

•We do not simply celebrate the

liturgy. We live out the liturgy.