ALONE: A Lutheran Legacy All Of Us Priests A Sermon on 1 Peter 2:9-12 Year A - Reformation 8 12 - November - 2017 JJ 1 Persecution was a way of life for Christians for nearly 300 years after Jesus ascended into heaven. And I m not just talking about Christians being laughed at, getting dirty looks or harassed with meanness. I m not even talking about the seething hatred of the likes of the Pharisees, though all that is included. I m talking about real full-out persecution where rights and citizenship are taken away, where property is seized, where people are imprisoned and people even put to death all because they were Christian. For nearly 300 years this was a way of life for Christians after Jesus ascended into heaven and it was often state sponsored. It was the Roman Empire that produced some of the most severe persecution of Christians during that time. There were lulls when things weren t so bad and other times when Christians were treated as the worst enemy of the state. All that began to change in the year 313 when Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan which gave legal tolerance to Christianity. Before this, Christianity was outlawed. What further changed things into nearly their opposite happened in the 380 s. It was then Emperor Theodosius the Great outlawed pagan worship and made Christianity the state religion. Suddenly, it was no longer socially, economically or politically advantageous to be a pagan. Suddenly, many pagans wanted to be Christian. Christian churches were flooded with people and there weren t enough ministers to instruct them in the truths of Scripture. Unbelievers joined churches without instruction and very often without a change of heart to faith or lifestyle. What was meant to benefit the Christian church on earth ended up doing a lot of damage. This huge influx of people brought their pagan customs and beliefs and smeared them with a thin veneer of Christianity. Idols found their counterparts in statues of martyrs; the worship of idols in the veneration of the stains; pastors became priests and the Lord s Supper a sacrifice. Salvation came now as a reward for good works, and the priest was now the agent who negotiated the contact not just with God, but also through other agents in the martyrs and saints. Public ministry in the New Testament church quickly became something that God had never intended. Suddenly it was a perversion of the Old Testament priesthood, a perversion prevalent at Jesus time. The priest was now the only way to access God and his mercy. How strange that it could change so far when in the New Testament, the title priest is never used to describe public ministers. Spiritual leaders are called pastors, elders, overseers and ministers, but never priests.
This was the situation Luther inherited when he was born into this world. It was an institution he joined when he entered the monastery in Erfurt. He became a priest hoping that he could just save himself! But all it did was plunge him into deeper despair. Until he found the truth waiting for him in Scripture. Part of that Scripture is before us today. A truth that declares ALL OF US PRIESTS! But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Pt. 2:9-10). Being set free through the Gospel, Luther realized this wasn t something that had to be channeled through a priest. It came directly through the saving Gospel found in God s Word. Jesus love and forgiveness loved him before time began. He was chosen by God, and so are you! He used to belong to the people, the nation of Satan, and so did you. But now he saw the truth as you see. You are the people of God. And you are God s people only because of God s choice and through God s mercy. He called you out of darkness, and through his Gospel found in Word and Sacraments, he brought you into his glorious light of spiritual life that has the certain hope of eternal life in heaven. Friends, this is your reality right now as children of God. And the Lord tells you today through Peter that being a child of God makes you a member of his royal priesthood. Every child of God is a priest! At Luther s time, this universal priesthood had been robbed from God s people. Because this robbery was all caught up in the disastrous confusion of sin and grace, law and gospel, ALL OF US PRIESTS was one of the things the Lutheran Reformation championed and still champions today. What does it mean for you to be a priest? It means exactly what the Lord tells us it means: You are a royal priesthood that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. As believers, we are all little missionaries. As children of God, we re all called by God to get the word out about Jesus in our homes, congregations and communities. This was God s plan in the Old Testament, as we heard in first lesson (Ex. 19:6). This is what Jesus tells us was his plan right before he ascended into heaven, as we heard in our Gospel today (Mt. 28:18-20). Luther brought balance to what the public ministry is (pastors, teachers,
Sunday School teachers, etc.), and the universal priesthood. He saw the beautiful balance and symbiosis of these two things in Scripture. But I m afraid that in some regards we ve come full circle. Where long before Luther s time, the priesthood of all believers was robbed from God s people, now in many ways I fear people want to throw it away again, and leave the priesthood of all believers only in the hands of public ministers. Let me give you a couple funny examples that reveals what I think is happening. I don t think one year of Catechism Class has gone by where I haven t heard something along these lines. Student asks, Pastor, can I borrow one of your kleenexes? I tell the student, I won t just let you borrow one, I ll let you keep it! By the way, why did you ask for one of my kleenexes? The student doesn t know how to respond. Another example, and I ll change the name to protect the innocent: Pastor, what is wrong with your clock? It seems like the batteries are always dead! Susie was talking about the clock she had just taken off the wall in our fellowship hall. With a smile and a chuckle, I responded, Susie, it s funny you called that my clock since you and the rest of your church group were the ones that purchased it about a year ago! We can laugh at these things, and don t worry, so can I. Yet both of those examples have one thing in common. They both reveal a notion that I ve heard again and again in similar ways that this is my house and not yours. More than anything else I think this stems from a misunderstanding of what the priesthood of all believers is and what the public ministry of the Word is a misunderstanding of what your role as children of God in the ministry of the church is and what the role of me being your pastor is. Friends, God called you to himself through the work of fellow priests who were declaring the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. But many people think this is just the job of pastors. That s what the devil wants you to think. In every way the devil wants to stop Christ s Church in its tracks. One way he attempts to do this is by convincing people that they surrender their role in the priesthood of all believers when they call a pastor to serve them. You have not surrendered your role in the mission of the church to me. You have called me into your church. You have called me to do publicly what each one of you has as a baptized child of God. You have called me to be your overseer in setting you an example of Christian
living to lead you in the instruction of God s Word to be the head guardian against false teaching. You have called me to publicly administer the keys holding sin against the unrepentant, and announcing God s grace and forgiveness to those who do repent. You have called me to publicly lead you in worship. You have called me to be your head evangelist. But friends, you have not called me to do everything for you. That s not what the Christian Church is. That s just the empty facade of the church at Luther s time. Why would we ever want to go back to that darkness? Yes, God has given different gifts and different roles, but what he has not said is that when you call a pastor to serve you, or Sunday School teachers to teach your children, that you no longer have any need being a priest and working to further Christ s Kingdom. Just think of how you came to be a Christian and how you have been preserved in that faith until today. Was your only contact to Christ and his Word through your pastors over the years? Of course not! For most of you, it started with your parents. Your parents brought you into God s house to be baptized. Your parents taught you God s Word in family devotions. Your parents brought you to worship, Sunday School, VBS and Youth Group. Other friends and family also encourage you and shared God s Word with you. Was your pastor your overseer and most public connection to the one ministry of the Church? Sure, but he wasn t the only one. You are priests, friends, every one of you! Priests who have been called and washed clean by our Great High Priest, Jesus, who poured out his own blood as the sacrifice to wash away all your sins. He did this that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. And you do this both in word and deed, as Peter writes, Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (1 Pt. 2:11-12). Each one of you has your own talents and your own roles, and yet each one of you is a priest in the priesthood of all believers. Even the five year old has this role through faith in Christ. In fact, I think this is one of the most excellent ways that the priesthood of all believers is put on display! They too have the privilege to pray, praise and give thanks. They too, have the right and power to forgive their brother or sister, or mom or dad or even pastor if they have sinned against them. That s not because they have some power in themselves. It s because the power is in the Word of God that lives in their hearts by faith! Even the little five year old has the privilege of telling others about Jesus their Savior. In many ways I think little children can carry out their role as priests better than we do as adults, especially when it comes to witnessing! The five year old isn t
afraid to tell the lady in the grocery store check-out what she learned in Sunday School that morning because she hasn t been conditioned by the devil s lies and pressures to be ashamed of her Savior. Of course they won t always get it right. They still have much to learn. But we certainly see that the priesthood is alive and well and active even in our little children. Reformation. You all know that by God s grace you are all priests of God, called that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Just imagine what God has in store for us as we work together, ALL OF US PRIESTS! Amen. SDG 2 There s an old adage which says, Preach the gospel always. Use words if necessary. The point being, be the priest that you are also in what you do. Let Christ s love for you and for all shine through, not just in what you say as you bring God s Word to people, but also in what you do. Living as the priests you are results not only in you not needing to be ashamed of your life, but also gives opportunity to show love to others which then serves as a stepping stone to sharing the gospel. Living as the priests you are means living not for some reward or pat on the back, but to God s glory and to win your unbelieving neighbors to God so they would glorify him too. Friends, 500 years ago, God s people started to see that they all were priests and started living accordingly. And look at what God accomplished through that! You are all beneficiaries of the 1 JJ is the acronym for Jesus Juve, which is Latin for Jesus Help. It is a short prayer used by many ministers and sacred musicians at the beginning of their work. 2 SDG is an acronym for Soli Deo Gloria, which is Latin for To God Alone Be The Glory. This is a statement of humility used by many ministers and sacred musicians at the end of their work to let themselves and others know that it isn t about getting glory for themselves, but about giving all glory to God. Artwork by Ian M. Welch Copyright 2013 Ian M. Welch. All Rights Reserved. paramentics.com Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.