Quaestio I. Christian Service: Sentence, Stint or Sacrament?

At least three vocations involving the idea of service occur in the New Testament.

'Sentence': Bond Service (s.v., Greek doulos, e.g., Onesimus in Philemon)

• Initiation is conviction. Whether a debtor, prisoner or slave, this sort of service is servitude.
  
• Termination is manumission.
  
• Dignity is deferred. Bond service is inherently depersonalising. The servant has few if any civil rights.
  

'Stint': Military Service (s.v., Greek stratos, Latin solidararius, 'someone who served in the Roman Army for pay.')

• Initiation is SACRAMENTVM.
  
• Termination is expiration. Expiration of Term of Service (ETS) was 25 years for the Roman Army, and is currently 22 years in the British Army.
  
• Dignity is derived. Military service is personal and collegial, but the soldier's civil rights are contingent on some form of Military Law (not to be confused with Martial Law, a 'system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice').

'Sacrament': Apostolic Service (s.v., Greek diakonos)

• Initiation is ordination.
  
• Termination is dormition (death).
• Dignity is conferred. Like Military Service, Apostolic Service is personal and collegial, but also charismatic. The charisms are 'handed-on' (Greek, paradosis, Latin: traduction) by Apostles and their Successors, conveying efficacious power and authority by God the Holy Spirit, the divine Person who deifies human persons.
  

A. Bond Service as a salutary motif in modern times. This vocation has fallen out of popular favour. Politically, modern democracies promote liberty, fraternity and equality as 'inalienable' human cum civil rights. Philosophically, humanism (all types) and personalism resist valorising slavery and indentured servanthood.

B. Military Service as a salutary motif in modern times. This vocation is perennial and popular, both politically and philosophically. It is also quite necessary, human nature (not persons) being the way it is.

Exegetically, it is difficult to find contexts with individual soldiers, at least in the NT. Usage is usually 'army' or 'host'. That in itself seems instructive, especially if you think the idea of communio is epistemically basic to being Christian (and being-as-such, come to that).

However, the soldier motif is especially salient in baptismal liturgies. Here's the one from Common Worship:

		Signing with the Cross
		The president or another minister makes the sign of the cross on the forehead of each candidate, saying
		Christ claims you for his own.
		Receive the sign of his cross.
		The president may invite parents, godparents and sponsors to sign the candidates with the cross. When all the candidates have been signed, the president says
		Do not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified.
All		Fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ
		against sin, the world and the devil,
		and remain faithful to Christ to the end of your life.
		May almighty God deliver you from the powers of darkness,
		restore in you the image of his glory,
		and lead you in the light and obedience of Christ.
All		Amen.

The BCP (1662) also uses the martial metaphor:

Then the Priest shall take the Child into his hands, and shall say to the Godfathers and Godmothers, Name this Child. And then naming it after them (if they shall certify him that the Child may well endure it) he shall dip it in the Water discreetly and warily, saying,

I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

But if they certify that the Child is weak, it shall suffice to pour Water upon it, saying the foresaid words,
I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Then the Priest shall say, E receive this Child into the congregation of Christ's flock, *and do sign him with the sign of the Cross, in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under his banner, against sin, the world, and the devil; and to continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end. Amen. * here the Priest shall make a Cross upon the Child's forehead.

It is difficult not to imagine Constantine's vision: In hoc signo vinces!

Incidentally, I think the BCP gets it right by placing the Signing after the Baptism. How in God's name, and I mean that exactly and literally, can you Sign children - especially by name! - before they are even baptised Christians? What was the rationale for CW changing the order and completely removing the rite for naming the child? Whatever. Until I'm able to affirm CW's logic, I shall continue to use the BCP sequence:

1. Naming
2. Baptising
3. Signing

C. Apostolic Service as a salutary motif in modern times. This motif is favoured by Catholics. As a sacrament, it carries quite a lot of the ethos, not just the etymos, of soldiering. Apostolic service as a political and philosophical notion is fully integrated with Catholic theology. Catholic Social Teaching certainly affirms the dignity of human persons.

Does affirming diaconal dignity necessarily detract from diaconal humility? Per diocesan instructions, invitations to both my diaconal and persbyteral ordinations read:

God Willing,
The Right Reverend {he}
Bishop of {see}
Will Ordain
{me}
To the Sacred Order of {Deacons | Priests}
In Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

But problems certainly arise from a sacramentology that is too low ('snake-belly low' per the Bishop who graciously ordained me). Functional cum vocational notions of Ordination alone seem akin to an uncritical 'Christology from below'. It further suggests a myopic focus on doing at the expense of being - utility minus ontology.

In the end all of us humans must measure our character mostly by Christ - I will not say Christ alone since I affirm the Catholic idea of communio sanctorum. That's why I defer to Catholic creeds, councils and catechisms in answering theological quandaries. I'm just not clever enough to resolve all those pesky paradoxes by Scripture and my reason alone!

Addendum I: Suffering Service. Some of you will have noticed I didn't mention the most famous servant motif in Scripture: the 'Suffering Servant' of Deutero-Isaiah (e.g., chapter 53). It is often applied to Christ, e.g., the ever-popular chorus 'Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs' in Handel's Messiah.

Yet leaving aside ecumenical considerations for the moment and granting that Isaiah 53 is proleptic of the Passion, surely He (i.e., Jesus) was wounded for our transgressions. Therefore, playing at being another Messiah is surely a sacrilege. And even trying to be the next 'blest' thing, a martyr, is frowned upon by the Church.

I look at it this way.

Martyrdom is to Christendom as Martial Law is to Military Law.

Sure, it's sometimes necessary; but it's meant niether to be sought nor desired. As a consolation, there's always Confessor status.

Further, valorising the 'suffering servant' motif seems a bit akin to masochism, at least to me. But maybe I'm just not very 'spiritual', or enough so to recognise the value of gratuitous suffering, i.e., as an end in itself.

Addendum II: Steedly Service. I've saved my favourite modernised motif for last. Meet Patsy, faithful Servant cum Steed: