1053.Plural Sacraments

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The idea that plural sacraments in the ordinary sense are really but "sacrainental signs" relative to "a single sacrament" is explicitly set forth by Luther in 'The Babylonian Captivity of the Church" (LW 36:93; d. Tll7-ee Treatises: 126 f.).
Significantly, Luther's warrant for the idea is the "scriptural sense" of "sacrament" in 1 Tim 3:16. It seems clear from this passage, however, that "the great mystery of our religion" is not Christ alone but also the church; for while its first Inoment is undoubtedly what Jolm Knox distinguishes as the "person" component of "the Christ-event," it includes the "community" component as well, this second moment bein~ presumably, the agency whereby the first is proclaimed among gentiles and believed in throughout the world.
But, considering that in the very nature of the casel explicit primal source of authority and primary authority are and must be interdependentl this is only as it should be. The "single sacrament" of which all so-called sacraments are but so many "sacramental signs" is the Christ-event as including both "person" and "community," because it is the event of the community's coming into bein~ or its constitution, as the community called or authorized by the person.
Fall 1992-1993; rev. 12 January 2009