God’s Holy Priesthood
1 Peter 2:2-10
You
have already noticed that today I’m wearing my clerical collar, affectionately
referred to by my daughter as my “pilgrim outfit.” Others have called it my “dog collar” and no
it does not kill ticks and fleas. I
don’t wear my clerical collar all the time like some pastors do, but I do wear
it when I’m doing the sacraments, or a funeral, or a wedding, or a special
service, because of my officiating role as Minister of the Word and
Sacrament. But I also wear it at others
times as well, especially when I’m going to the hospital, for a very simple
reason – because it clearly identifies me as part of the clergy and therefore
as part of the Church.
There
is no doubt that wearing my clerical collar has turned a lot of heads, some
toward me and some away from me, but no matter what reaction I get, people know
who I am, and who and what I represent.
There have been many times that I have gone to the hospital or out in
public and been stopped by a stranger and been asked to pray
for them, or answer some question about theology or help them with a personal
issue they are facing. Maybe I should
wear it more often.
But I’ll never forget the first time I wore my clerical
collar here at Finley. Considering your
previous pastor, I’m sure it was a little different for you to see me in my
collar. One day before church one of our
beloved walked up to me and said, “You look like a priest.” Well, that’s better than being called a
pilgrim, or a dog for that matter. My
answer to him was that I am not a priest, but I need to change that
answer. I am a priest, just as you are a
priest, just as every member of the congregation is a priest and a minister. I’m just the pastor, but all of us are
priests.
One
of the central issues of the Protestant Reformation was the nature of the
priesthood, and the reformers’ belief that the priesthood was not a privileged
cast reserved to those who were ordained to church leadership, but rather, the
responsibility of all believers. Martin
Luther was the first reformer to push forward one of the central tenets of the
reformed faith called the priesthood of all believers. For Luther, it is the priesthood of Christ
that serves as the foundation for the priesthood of all believers since all
Christians are one with Christ through Baptism, just as Paul writes to the
Galatians, “There 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,”
and again in his letter to the Ephesians, “There is one body and one Spirit,
just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in
all.” For Luther, the differences
between Christians was not a question of status, but as occasions for
service to others. We have been given
different gifts for ministry, but it is the same ministry, the same calling,
the same identity as members of Christ’s body called the Church.
I
bet you have never considered yourself to be part of the priesthood, especially
in a Presbyterian church. Unfortunately,
our first reaction to hearing the word priesthood is to associate it with the
Roman Catholic Church. Many people will
say that we, Protestants, do not need someone in the religious structure to
represent us before Christ, because each of us has access to God in and through
Jesus Christ. While this is Scripturally sound theology, it is far too narrow an
understanding and missus the larger dimensions of what it means to be Christ’s
priest.
Very
simply, priests are people who mediate Christ’s presence to others. Through the waters of baptism, you and I bear
him within us. It is Jesus, himself, who
says in John’s Gospel, that he is in the Father, and we are in him, and he is
in us. Because of our relationship with
our Lord Jesus Christ, we bear him in and to the world,
we mediate him to those who do not know him, or to those who have lost sight of
him. Through God’s holy priesthood,
through you and I and all those who confess Jesus is Lord, Jesus becomes
present to others through our prayers for one another, our serving one another,
our caring for one another, and our ministry to one another. In all these ways, we bear Christ to one
another. In all these ways, we serve as
priests to one another.
Our
scripture reading from 1 Peter points us to two other dimensions of our
priesthood beyond that of mediation.
First, the Bible is full of sacrifices, sometimes called offerings, and
just as priests in those days offered sacrifices to God, the Church is to be a
holy priesthood that offers spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ. As God’s holy priesthood,
we are to offer not just our first fruits back to God, but our very selves, our
very lives as a way to express our praise and gratitude and devotion to what
God has first done for us in Jesus Christ.
As God’s chosen people, God’s own people, our calling and our task and
our responsibility, is to offer all of life to God, because by its very nature
Christianity is sacrificial through and through, founded on the one
self-offering of Jesus Christ for the world.
The
second dimension of our priesthood from our text points to an even larger
purpose of being God’s holy priesthood and that is proclamation. Not only are priests mediators of Christ’s
presence, and ones who offer spiritual sacrifices, but priests are also those
who teach, preach, and proclaim the good news.
God has chosen for God’s self a people to be God’s royal priesthood,
God’s holy nation, God’s own people not because we
have earned that right, but because God has done for us in Jesus Christ what we
could have never done for ourselves. God
made us to be God’s people by his glorious grace and mercy and has called us
into being as his people, and set us upon the cornerstone of the One who
himself is the chosen and beloved of God, and given us our task as God’s
people- to proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light.
To
be God’s holy priesthood is to embody the very nature of the priesthood of
Jesus Christ, who came to mediate God’s presence to the world, who came to
serve others and not be served, who came to give himself as a sacrifice for the
world, and who came to proclaim the mighty acts of God and God’s kingdom. To be God’s holy priesthood is the great
reminder that the ministry and mission of the church is not a one-person
affair, but the purpose and task of all of those in this world who confess
Jesus is Lord. In Christ’s global
church, everyone is given grace, everyone is a priest, and everyone is called
to serve the God we know in Jesus Christ together with all others, as living
stones in God’s household, and when you and I live out our priesthood, we can
be assured that we will be given all that we need to not only grow into our
vocation as God’s holy priesthood, but so that we may also grow into
salvation.
Let
us long for the pure spiritual milk of God’s word in Jesus Christ so that we
may truly grow into the people God has called us to be. Let us taste and see that the Lord is good,
and build ourselves into God’s spiritual house, as we stand firm on the One who
is the cornerstone of the Church. Let us
be God’s holy priesthood ready to proclaim to the whole world the mighty acts
of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Amen.