Priests at Every Elbow. I Thessalonians 2: 1-8; Matthew 22: Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, (Oct. 26) 2014

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1 1 Priests at Every Elbow I Thessalonians 2: 1-8; Matthew 22: Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, (Oct. 26) 2014 Reformation Sunday/All Saints Sunday Kyle Childress Indeed, the appeal we make never springs from error or base motive; there is no attempt to deceive; but God has approved us as fit to be entrusted with the Gospel, and on those terms we speak With such yearning love we chose to impart to you not only the gospel of God but our very selves, so dear had you become to us (I Thessalonians 2: 3-4, 8). Fifteen years ago Stanley Hauerwas, who was the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School, preached here. We were celebrating our tenth anniversary with you and had already had quite a month. Two weeks before Bill and Judith Moyers were here in church and now we were hosting the leading Christian ethicist in the country, many would argue in the world. I bring this up because Stanley preached on the very same text we have just heard from Paul s letter to the Thessalonians. It was one of the lectionary readings for that Sunday, just as it is today. Dr. Hauerwas is both brilliant and provocative and he didn t fail to live up to both on that Sunday. Here is some of what he said: Unbelievable! Paul it seems identifies himself, his very person, with the Gospel. God has approved us as fit to be entrusted with the Gospel, so that we have imparted to you not only the gospel of God but our very selves. These are

2 2 not exactly expressions of humility. What would you think if Kyle said that of himself? God has entrusted me with the Gospel so that my very self makes present God to you. Indeed, if I fail in the ministry then all our salvation is in doubt. I suspect you would think if Kyle expressed such views, he would have gone around the bend. But I am telling you not only is that exactly what Kyle should think about his ministry but also it s what you should hold him to. For if the Kyles do not exist and churches like Austin Heights Baptist do not exist to make Kyle s ministry possible, then we are indeed lost. You may well say But Paul is Paul and Kyle is Kyle. Paul was an Apostle. Kyle is just another self-generated Southern Baptist pastor who having nothing better to do with his life went into the ministry. I am sorry but such a view just will not cut it. If Kyle does not stand before us in the lineage of Paul, then his ministry is unintelligible. When Kyle was ordained he was made more than he otherwise could be because he was made part of the apostolic office. That office matters. Otherwise why would Paul have argued so strongly that he also was an apostle? Paul and Kyle make Christ present to us, thereby making it possible for Austin Heights to make Christ present to Nacogdoches, Texas. So said Stanley Hauerwas. It is understatement to say that the sermon made me highly uncomfortable. I remember that I called him on the phone the following Wednesday and told him how uncomfortable his sermon made me. He said, Well, it should have made you uncomfortable! It would have made me uncomfortable. Stanley s sermon made me uncomfortable because it seemed to put me on a pedestal and you know what happens when someone is put on a pedestal. Somehow or another they either get knocked off or they fall off. So it seems that the safer way to go would be to not be on the pedestal in the first place. Besides,

3 3 I m not sure that I have that high of a view of ministry, anyway. I mean, I know ministers! I also know churches like Austin Heights cut ministers down to size a long time ago. We say, We do not need anyone standing over us representing God. We can go to God for ourselves, thank you. We believe in the priesthood of the believers, after all. We do not need priests, we say. I am my own priest and I don t need Kyle getting in the way. We ve seen too many ministers who try to act like God and it does not matter if it is the pope or fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastors, and everyone says, Yeah, that s right! On this Reformation Sunday let s talk about this a little and let me begin with a bit of history for a few minutes. In the interest of time, I am going to paint with broad strokes, although I think they are accurate strokes. For the first two or three centuries of the life of the church there was not a lot of distinction between clergy and laity. Instead the New Testament talks about the church as a new priesthood. I Peter 2:9-10 says, But you are chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Jesus Christ is the High Priest, the One above all who is the intercessor between God and humanity. But we, the body of Christ, are a priesthood, who intercede for each other and for the hurting world. Also in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul talks about the church being the body of Christ and we are different members of it. Paul says that we are like different parts of the body and for the body to function properly everyone does his

4 4 or her part. In other words, each of us has different gifts. Gifts are given by the Holy Spirit for the up-building of the body, the church. Some are apostles, Paul says, and some are teachers, while some have the gifts of administration or healing and so on. The model Paul is talking about is one where every member is a minister (see I Corinthians 12). Over time, all of that and more began to change. Slowly but surely, a line began to be drawn between clergy and laity. Before, in the New Testament, laity meant everyone. Now it began to mean something different. At the same time, the church was changing in other ways in regard to the clergy and laity. A lot of it was tied to the church beginning to gain power and influence in the Roman Empire. Expectations of what it meant to be Christian changed as the church became affluent and influential. It changed in what was expected of Christian behavior and it changed in how the church began to make distinctions between lay and clergy. Just as lay people were no longer held to the norm of Jesus they also were no longer considered to be priests (After all, if you re going to run an empire, you must be realistic. ). If lay people no longer were expected to be like Jesus then at least the church could expect the clergy to be like Jesus... and represent Jesus, as well. In the sixteenth century, the Reformation addressed some of these concerns. Luther helped the church recover the doctrine of the priesthood of the believers, but it was left to the fringe movement of the left wing of the Reformation to truly recover what priesthood of the believers meant. The left wing, the radical reformers like the Anabaptists, realized that the New Testament model is that the church is a priesthood and a people of priests. And our people, the Baptists of the seventeenth century continued this understanding and practice of the church.

5 5 We are priests to each other. Not, I am my own priest. Not, as old John Bunyan said that some believed every tub should set upon on its own bottom. Not, as some Baptists say these days, No one is going to tell me what to do but Jesus. (Which is a kind of tea-party spirituality.) No, we are each other s priest. We are priests at every elbow, as the great baptist preacher Carlyle Marney said. The person sitting next to you or in front of you, behind you or across the aisle from you is your priest. Our high priest is Jesus Christ, but we know Christ in and through this body called the church through each other. I m not suggesting that we do not have direct experience with God in our own personal devotional life and in worship. I am saying that we re missing out on so much more of God and from God if we re not receiving God through each other. It is not simply that I present Christ to you. I do not deny that. But it is that you present Christ to one another. And you present Christ to me. More, we together present Christ to the world. Hear baptist theologian James McClendon on this: Here, then, is the challenge of radical reformation in ministry: a people set apart, earning their daily bread in honest toil, to be sure, but living to become for others the bread of life... Every member is called to discipleship; baptism... is commissioning for this ministry... on this view every Christian is a cleric. True Christian leadership is not affected by exalting (or by denigrating) the gifts of the few, but by discovering that the Spirit has a gift for each. Every member is a minister (Doctrine, p ). You see what usually happens in churches like ours is that we have enough sense to know that we should not exalt the pastor above the laity so we devalue (Stanley s word) or denigrate (McClendon s word) the role and office of the

6 6 pastor. We are trying to be baptists but we get it turned around backwards. You are right to recognize the pastor is not to be set above you, but the mistake is that you pull the pastor down to your level. Instead you are to see yourselves exalted as ministers of Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ we all are lifted up to become priests, priests of the living Christ to each other. In Jesus Christ we are all lifted up to embody the Way, the life of the kingdom. When I stand up here to preach Sunday after Sunday, whether I feel like it or not, somehow or another in the midst of my words, the Word of God is proclaimed. Now that scares me. It is serious and it is of ultimate importance. When I preside in baptism and Holy Communion, I am helping Christ be present in the water and at the table. What I say to you is that you present Jesus Christ to one another. I hope you begin to get a little uncomfortable, now. You are priests to each other. When you are talking in the parking lot and she says, They just layed me off from my job. I never saw it coming and I don t know what I m going to do. You re her priest. Or sitting on a porch together, after a long silence, he says, They ve found a mass. You re his priest. When you kneel down so you can get down on their level, and one of our children says to you, I love God and gives you a hug and you hug them back. That s a proper priesthood. When you sit down and listen to someone say, I m at my limit and don t know what else to do. You re a priest. Or over a cup of coffee he says, I just came out to my parents and they said they can t handle a son being gay, you know you re calling to be a priest. You see, when we encounter one another we encounter Christ. Part of why it is important for the church to include diverse peoples is that this is the way we

7 7 get to experience and know the richness of Jesus Christ. It is not simply that it is a good thing that black and white Christians get together; it is through each other we come to know more of Jesus Christ than we would otherwise. It is why it is essential to be with and alongside Christians who are gay and lesbian. It is why we need to be where we can learn from Christians from other countries. And from other times. And it is why we work so hard trying to find ways for us, and others, to be together, work together, eat together, serve together, and worship together. What we re attempting to do is build the connections between you, so you will show up and get to know one another, confide in one another, listen to one another and learn to pray for one another to be each other s priest. It s why we need and expect you to put yourself out there and show up and learn to trust one another. It s called priesthood of the believers. It s called church. Will Willimon, former dean of the chapel at Duke University, and United Methodist bishop, tells of a time he stretched his arms out during a prayer. A child on the first row was heard to say, Look, Mommy, he s trying to look like Jesus. For me to do that during my prayer at the end of the sermon or during the benediction has always seemed presumptuous to me; it seemed to be more than I could do. Now I know that is the point. It is more than me. It is Christ. And the little girl is right. My calling is to look like Christ to you. But you have a high calling, too. It is a calling so high, so difficult that it is only possible by the extraordinary grace of God. By the grace of God, you are Christ. You are Christ to each other. And we together are Christ, the Body of Christ, in this old hurting world.

8 8 In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One True God, Mother of us all. Amen.