The Priesthood of All Believers

I’ve been a father for almost five years in one sense, and I’ve been a father for nine years in another. I’m a papa, and a padre.

Priesthood is a somewhat convoluted notion in the Episcopal Church. Part of the trouble is language. Priest is a tricky word in English - it derives from the Greek word presbyter, but it has two meanings. The first meaning is literally ‘presbyter’ or ‘elder’ of the Church community. The second meaning has to do with the Jewish Temple priesthood – the sacerdotal or sacrificial priesthood – in which the priest is the intermediary between the sacred and the mundane.

I am not that kind of priest. I am the first kind, ‘presbyters,’ ‘elders,’ we are called to be pastors of the flock.

The second kind of priest – the sacerdotal kind – the sacrificial temple priesthood kind – is what belongs to Jesus Christ. Hebrews says he is the Great High Priest, who makes the necessary sacrifice (himself) which makes everything better. He alone has the power to connect the sacred with the divine – to fix what’s broken in the world.

He is both priest and sacrifice: the Lamb of God who offers himself on that hard wooden altar of the cross.

And as the Body of Christ, everybody who is baptized into Christ’s own life shares in the the priesthood of Christ, making the broken world whole. All the baptized are priests as members of the great high priest. Yes, you and me both.

The priesthood of all believers belongs to everybody who calls Jesus the Christ, and your ministry is explained not in Leviticus, but in the Gospel. Your ministry, our ministry, is explained in today’s Gospel – where again and again Jesus says, “Go out and preach the Good News that God’s kingdom has come near,” and HEAL ... CURE ... make the world ... better.

There are more than ten thousand presbyters in The Episcopal Church, but there are over two million baptised members. Those presbyters just can’t do enough – either by numbers, or because of their skill.

[In fact, if you know many clergy you quickly began to see how pathetic a lot of folks we really are. We just will not and cannot change the world – and possibly – not even a lightbulb if you want to know the truth.]

No, the priesthood of all believers means that the Good News message and the Good News work of Jesus – (which is to heal all disease, sin and death) – has to be done by all.

Folks – the Harvest is plenty but the laborers are few. It really ought to read, “The Harvest is plenty, and the laborers are YOU.”

Disciples of Jesus Christ are called and equipped and sent forth by the Holy Spirit to do work – and folks – that is you.

Your salvation was given to you, not for free, but by the high price paid by the high priest himself. Your hope for a better life now, and an eternal life in the presence of God, was paid for by the only priest who could change the world and give us hope. The receipt for this transaction is shaped like a cross. Every time you see one, remember the Great High Priest who has bought you, and put your failings away. Yes, you and I have received all this without our payment. Christ calls you now to go give the same to others – to give them the hopeful message of Christ – and to do healing work.

The question I think is “What am I going to do, for the Father of All, for His household, for the rest of my life?” Amen.