Sárospataki Füzetek 14. (2010)

2010 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Sell, Alan P. F.: Milyen megoldásra váró feladatok elé állítja Kálvin a 21. századi egyházat?

den within them by the secret working of the Spirit.’63 To those who argue that when Jesus called little children to him the context was not baptism, Calvin replies that those whom Christ receives are not to be shut out.64 But the apparent openness of this statement is qualified by another: ‘those infants who derive their origin from Christians, as they have been born directiy into the inheritance of the covenant, and are expected by God, are thus to be received into baptism.’65 Here is the covenant idea once more, and it is consistent with Calvin’s view that the baptized, buried with Christ and dead to the world, live for God.66 In other words, there is a separatist flavour both to Calvin’s teaching on baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In the latter case this flavour becomes especially discernible in relation to communion discipline. The sacrament is not to be violated, and soul-searching preparation is required on the part of those who approach the Lord’s table.

Calvin’s summary, in which he adverts to the eschatological note, is as follows:

[BJaptism should be ... an entry into the church, and an initiation into faith; but the Supper should be a sort of continual food on which Christ spiritually feeds the household of his believers. ... [S]acraments have been appointed by God to instruct us concerning some promise of his, and attest to us his good will toward us. ... It is for us to hunger for, seek, look to, learn, and study Christ alone, until that great day dawns when the Lord will fully manifest the glory of his Kingdom.67

In all of this I find the following challenges to today’s Church. First, we should do well to strive for a fresh grasp of the meaning of the Church as God’s covenant people. The sacraments are sacraments of the Church; infant baptism is for children of the covenant, and if parents are not themselves members of the Church then the Church’s evangelical and educative mission should be purposefully undertaken. Equally, the Lord’s Supper requires a disciplined approach, for it is a covenant meal requiring preparation on the part of those who attend it. Calvin would welcome the emphasis on the liturgical movement of the past century on the desirability of keeping Word and sacrament in close relation in the Church’s liturgy, since both proclaim the Gospel, the one audibly, the other visibly, though only when in connection to the Word. But those whose tradition it is to invite to the table all those confess Christ as Lord and Saviour and are in good standing with his Church, should remember that those who in the past, and still in some places today, regard the Lord’s Supper as a ‘second service’ for members following the Service of the Word were endeavouring to uphold the truth that the sacrament is a sacrament of the Church, understanding by ‘Church’ the ‘twice-born’, visible saints. Some would say that the idea of the sacraments as sacraments of the Church is further eroded when the Lord’s Supper is opened to catechumens — that is to say, to baptized persons (whether children or not) who have yet to make their

Calvin’s challenges to the twenty-first-century church

63 Ibid., IV.xvi.20.

64 Ibid, IV.xvi.7.

65 Ibid, IV.xvi.24.

66 Commentary on I Peter, 3: 21, trans. John Owen, 1855, 117; CNTC trans. William B. Johnston, 1963, 295.

67 Institutes, IV.xviii. 19,20.

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