I thought of a statement made by Martin Luther, posted a few days ago on Facebook by the Institute of Lutheran Theology, as I read today's installment of Our Daily Bread and the incident from Jesus' ministry on which it's based.
Luther said: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all.”
Certain of their eternal futures, Christ sets each of His followers free to live a lives of servanthood unencumbered by the worldly desire to come in first.
Just one more reason that the radical Gospel of Jesus Christ is so scandalous in a dog-eat-dog world of self-promotion and self-seeking. But it's only at those moments when we realize that life isn't about us that we're set free to become the Christ-like people we were made to be.
Showing posts with label Mark 10:35-45. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark 10:35-45. Show all posts
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Sunday, October 21, 2012
The Emptiness of Power, the Power of Surrender
[This is sort of the sermon shared today at the 10:15 worship service of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio.]
Mark 10:35-45
From the moment we’re born, there’s an issue that takes front and center in our lives: Who will be in charge?
Born in sin, we’re born craving power. Like Adam and Eve, we want to “be like God.”
I once heard the story of a father who took his six year old daughter to a high school basketball game. As they took their seats, the dad told her, “Now, honey, you can go anywhere you want here in the seating area. You can also go to the concession stands. You can go all the way down to the very first row of seats to talk with your friends. But you can’t cross that line down there. That’s the line between where we’re allowed to be on this side and the place where the players, coaches, and referees can be on the other side. If you cross that line, we’ll go home.”
The little girl said she understood, then promptly went down to the edge of the line her father had told her not to cross, looked back to make certain that he was watching, and stuck her toe over the line. Dad collected daughter and they went home. Her attempt to assert power without accountability failed.
Please turn to the lesson, Mark 10:35-45. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. Jesus knows that there, He’ll be rejected and crucified before rising from the dead.
But the disciples, thick as ever, are excited. They’ve come to believe, rightly, that Jesus is God’s promised Messiah (the Christ). But their idea of what that means is different from God’s idea.
They’re sure that Jesus will enter Jerusalem, get the crowds riled up, toss the Romans out of power, and establish Himself as the King of renewed Israel. And they’re sure that as Jesus loyalists they’ll get a piece of Jesus’ power, ruling alongside Him.
They think these things even though Jesus had already told them that the Messiah would be a suffering servant and that only those who submit to the deaths of their old selves, trusting Christ to lead them through the ultimate cross we all must endure, physical death, onto a resurrection life with Him, can experience the kingdom of God.
In Mark 10:32-34, Jesus tells them all of these things again. After Jesus’ two previous predictions of His death and resurrection, one or all of the disciples put their feet in their mouths. They just didn’t seem to understand what Jesus was telling them so clearly.
Why?
Scholars have suggested many explanations for the disciples’ thickness. But for me, one explanation stands above them all: They felt the strong magnetic pull of power.
The disciples had experienced Jesus as a powerful person, one who could make the lame walk, the blind see, the dead rise. They wanted a share in His power to set things right.
And for them, setting things right meant throwing out their Roman oppressors, toppling the religious elites, making the country happy with all the material wealth they could ever imagine.
They didn’t understand that Jesus was playing for much higher stakes than ruling over a world dying in sin. Jesus, God in the flesh, had come to turn this world upside down, to call sinners to repent for their sin, and give their whole lives to Him so that He could give a new and everlasting life in a new and everlasting creation to all who believe in Him.
Jesus came into the world to put us and the whole creation, weighed down by the decay and death unleashed by human sin, right with God, in sync with God, at peace with God and His original intentions for His creation.
That goal is a lot more important to Jesus than a piddly thing like leading a country which, like all countries, will burn at the final judgment.
Jesus is going to Jerusalem not to take control of the first century Judean equivalent of the White House. He’s going to take a cross and, as New Testament scholar N.T. Wright points out, the cross isn’t just the way God forgives our sins
In the opening verse of our lesson, two brothers, James and John, approach Jesus: “Teacher, we want you to give us whatever we ask.” These two sons of a wealthy fisherman named Zebedee want Jesus to give them a blank check. “Give us whatever we want,” they say.
But Jesus doesn’t fall for that. “What do you want me to do for you?” He asks them, knowing exactly what’s coming. Verse 37 has their request: They want seats of power in Jesus’ kingdom.
Jesus responds, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
Jesus’ words here are filled with deep meaning. In the Old Testament, the image of drinking from a cup symbolized taking punishment for evil. “Drinking the cup” was a way of saying, “Receiving God’s judgment for sin.” Psalm 11:6 says: “Upon the wicked [God] will rain coals, fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.”
Jesus was telling James and John that He was going to drink from the cup of condemnation for human sin that He didn’t deserve in order to save us from sin and death.
Jesus knew how bitter the cup would be. That’s why later, in the garden of Gethsemane, before His arrest, He would pray, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me...” But then, Jesus would pray, “Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”
Jesus would drink from the cup. And He requires all who follow Him to drink it too: We drink it when we admit our sins and our need of Christ to save us, when we confess our faith in Jesus as the only way for us to be saved, the only way for us to enter God’s kingdom today and in eternity.
Jesus’ baptism was His cross. Our baptism is the death of the old self that rises from the water as children of God and is crucified each day in the self-disciplined way of life known as daily repentance and renewal.
It isn’t easy following Jesus. It entails the death of our selfish old Adams and Eves, the renunciation of power, and the commitment to serve and love God and others. All of this is foreign to our natures and can only be accomplished through the grace and empowerment of God!
In verse 39, James and John say that, of course, they can drink the cup from which Jesus will drink and endure the baptism with which He will be baptized. Jesus tells them that, in fact, if they are intent on following Him, they will drink the cup. They will be judged by the world and suffer for their faith in Him. And, in fact, James would become the first of the twelve apostles to be executed for believing in Jesus. His brother John would die an old man, living in exile on the island of Patmos for that same faith.
We live in a country in which you can’t be killed just for being a Christian. (Though you can be ridiculed and excluded for it, all in the name of tolerance.)
But, because we belong to a King Who has conquered sin and death, no matter what happens to us for following Jesus--shady business deals we have to turn down, friendships we may lose, power we may give up, we can say with the apostle Paul who, as he pondered his own death, wrote, “...to me, living is Christ and dying is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
Jesus tells James and John that He can’t promise them higher places in His kingdom and Jesus doesn’t promise that to us either. Just being in God’s kingdom, not because we deserve it but because Jesus died and rose to make a way for us should be enough for anyone.
Whether Jesus calls a person to be a pope, president, king, stay-at-home mom, factory worker, or shoeshine boy, if she or he can live each moment on earth as a follower of Christ and live each day in the certainty that they will spend eternity in His presence, it is enough. It’s all any of us need!
Now, the other apostles hear James and John’s cheeky request for power and, seeming not to hear Jesus’ words to them, become incensed with the Zebedee brothers. On the brink of a presidential election, the results of which will not put our world right or put those who don’t know Christ right with God, no matter who wins, Jesus’ words are important to remember. They put things in perspective. Read what Jesus says in verses 42-45 with me aloud, please:
The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s intentions for us. But all who believe in Jesus Christ don’t get what we deserve. We deserve death. Instead, we get what our servant King Jesus fought to give us by resisting the easy path, the offer of earthly power. Jesus died a criminal’s death for us so that He could rise and give us life with God that begins now and is perfected in eternity.
I’m almost 59 and I’ve been a pastor for 28 years. But I’ve only begun to learn the lesson Jesus teaches in today’s gospel lesson. We are not in control. (Since I have children, I should have known that already. But I’m a slow learner.) For me, after a lifetime of secretly wanting to be the BMOE (Big Man on Earth), the realization that I don’t need to be in charge to have good life with God has come as a relief!
From a cross and an empty tomb, Jesus Christ has paid the price for us to receive the gift of new and everlasting life. We don’t need to carry the world on our shoulders. We need not bear the burden for seeing that everything is just right. Our job is to simply do our best and then let God bless our mess!
If you’re burdened by a need to keep everything together, I hope that this comes as a freeing word for you today.
Follow our servant king Jesus by letting yourself be a servant yourself--a servant of God and a servant of others.
Trust your life to Christ alone.
Let His power fill you, inspire you, give you peace and hope.
Even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus will always lead you the right way.
He will give you so much more than the things that power in this dying world possibly can.
He will give you life with God.
There is no greater blessing that we can aspire to than that. Amen
Mark 10:35-45
From the moment we’re born, there’s an issue that takes front and center in our lives: Who will be in charge?
Born in sin, we’re born craving power. Like Adam and Eve, we want to “be like God.”
I once heard the story of a father who took his six year old daughter to a high school basketball game. As they took their seats, the dad told her, “Now, honey, you can go anywhere you want here in the seating area. You can also go to the concession stands. You can go all the way down to the very first row of seats to talk with your friends. But you can’t cross that line down there. That’s the line between where we’re allowed to be on this side and the place where the players, coaches, and referees can be on the other side. If you cross that line, we’ll go home.”
The little girl said she understood, then promptly went down to the edge of the line her father had told her not to cross, looked back to make certain that he was watching, and stuck her toe over the line. Dad collected daughter and they went home. Her attempt to assert power without accountability failed.
Please turn to the lesson, Mark 10:35-45. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. Jesus knows that there, He’ll be rejected and crucified before rising from the dead.
But the disciples, thick as ever, are excited. They’ve come to believe, rightly, that Jesus is God’s promised Messiah (the Christ). But their idea of what that means is different from God’s idea.
They’re sure that Jesus will enter Jerusalem, get the crowds riled up, toss the Romans out of power, and establish Himself as the King of renewed Israel. And they’re sure that as Jesus loyalists they’ll get a piece of Jesus’ power, ruling alongside Him.
They think these things even though Jesus had already told them that the Messiah would be a suffering servant and that only those who submit to the deaths of their old selves, trusting Christ to lead them through the ultimate cross we all must endure, physical death, onto a resurrection life with Him, can experience the kingdom of God.
In Mark 10:32-34, Jesus tells them all of these things again. After Jesus’ two previous predictions of His death and resurrection, one or all of the disciples put their feet in their mouths. They just didn’t seem to understand what Jesus was telling them so clearly.
Why?
Scholars have suggested many explanations for the disciples’ thickness. But for me, one explanation stands above them all: They felt the strong magnetic pull of power.
The disciples had experienced Jesus as a powerful person, one who could make the lame walk, the blind see, the dead rise. They wanted a share in His power to set things right.
And for them, setting things right meant throwing out their Roman oppressors, toppling the religious elites, making the country happy with all the material wealth they could ever imagine.
They didn’t understand that Jesus was playing for much higher stakes than ruling over a world dying in sin. Jesus, God in the flesh, had come to turn this world upside down, to call sinners to repent for their sin, and give their whole lives to Him so that He could give a new and everlasting life in a new and everlasting creation to all who believe in Him.
Jesus came into the world to put us and the whole creation, weighed down by the decay and death unleashed by human sin, right with God, in sync with God, at peace with God and His original intentions for His creation.
That goal is a lot more important to Jesus than a piddly thing like leading a country which, like all countries, will burn at the final judgment.
Jesus is going to Jerusalem not to take control of the first century Judean equivalent of the White House. He’s going to take a cross and, as New Testament scholar N.T. Wright points out, the cross isn’t just the way God forgives our sins
...it is God’s way of putting the world, and ourselves, to rights. It challenges all the human systems which claim to put the world to rights but in fact only succeed in bringing a different set of humans on top.So, after this third prediction of His death and resurrection, Jesus knew what to expect. At least one of the disciples would surely open mouth and insert foot. They would misunderstand and they would let the human desire for power prevail in their thinking.
In the opening verse of our lesson, two brothers, James and John, approach Jesus: “Teacher, we want you to give us whatever we ask.” These two sons of a wealthy fisherman named Zebedee want Jesus to give them a blank check. “Give us whatever we want,” they say.
But Jesus doesn’t fall for that. “What do you want me to do for you?” He asks them, knowing exactly what’s coming. Verse 37 has their request: They want seats of power in Jesus’ kingdom.
Jesus responds, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
Jesus’ words here are filled with deep meaning. In the Old Testament, the image of drinking from a cup symbolized taking punishment for evil. “Drinking the cup” was a way of saying, “Receiving God’s judgment for sin.” Psalm 11:6 says: “Upon the wicked [God] will rain coals, fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.”
Jesus was telling James and John that He was going to drink from the cup of condemnation for human sin that He didn’t deserve in order to save us from sin and death.
Jesus knew how bitter the cup would be. That’s why later, in the garden of Gethsemane, before His arrest, He would pray, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me...” But then, Jesus would pray, “Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”
Jesus would drink from the cup. And He requires all who follow Him to drink it too: We drink it when we admit our sins and our need of Christ to save us, when we confess our faith in Jesus as the only way for us to be saved, the only way for us to enter God’s kingdom today and in eternity.
Jesus’ baptism was His cross. Our baptism is the death of the old self that rises from the water as children of God and is crucified each day in the self-disciplined way of life known as daily repentance and renewal.
It isn’t easy following Jesus. It entails the death of our selfish old Adams and Eves, the renunciation of power, and the commitment to serve and love God and others. All of this is foreign to our natures and can only be accomplished through the grace and empowerment of God!
In verse 39, James and John say that, of course, they can drink the cup from which Jesus will drink and endure the baptism with which He will be baptized. Jesus tells them that, in fact, if they are intent on following Him, they will drink the cup. They will be judged by the world and suffer for their faith in Him. And, in fact, James would become the first of the twelve apostles to be executed for believing in Jesus. His brother John would die an old man, living in exile on the island of Patmos for that same faith.
We live in a country in which you can’t be killed just for being a Christian. (Though you can be ridiculed and excluded for it, all in the name of tolerance.)
But, because we belong to a King Who has conquered sin and death, no matter what happens to us for following Jesus--shady business deals we have to turn down, friendships we may lose, power we may give up, we can say with the apostle Paul who, as he pondered his own death, wrote, “...to me, living is Christ and dying is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
Jesus tells James and John that He can’t promise them higher places in His kingdom and Jesus doesn’t promise that to us either. Just being in God’s kingdom, not because we deserve it but because Jesus died and rose to make a way for us should be enough for anyone.
Whether Jesus calls a person to be a pope, president, king, stay-at-home mom, factory worker, or shoeshine boy, if she or he can live each moment on earth as a follower of Christ and live each day in the certainty that they will spend eternity in His presence, it is enough. It’s all any of us need!
Now, the other apostles hear James and John’s cheeky request for power and, seeming not to hear Jesus’ words to them, become incensed with the Zebedee brothers. On the brink of a presidential election, the results of which will not put our world right or put those who don’t know Christ right with God, no matter who wins, Jesus’ words are important to remember. They put things in perspective. Read what Jesus says in verses 42-45 with me aloud, please:
But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them: "You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to be great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.”True power that changes the world--that changes us--comes from only one place. It comes from Jesus Christ and it only comes to those who empty themselves of all pretense to deserving special privileges or even a fair shot in life.
The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s intentions for us. But all who believe in Jesus Christ don’t get what we deserve. We deserve death. Instead, we get what our servant King Jesus fought to give us by resisting the easy path, the offer of earthly power. Jesus died a criminal’s death for us so that He could rise and give us life with God that begins now and is perfected in eternity.
I’m almost 59 and I’ve been a pastor for 28 years. But I’ve only begun to learn the lesson Jesus teaches in today’s gospel lesson. We are not in control. (Since I have children, I should have known that already. But I’m a slow learner.) For me, after a lifetime of secretly wanting to be the BMOE (Big Man on Earth), the realization that I don’t need to be in charge to have good life with God has come as a relief!
From a cross and an empty tomb, Jesus Christ has paid the price for us to receive the gift of new and everlasting life. We don’t need to carry the world on our shoulders. We need not bear the burden for seeing that everything is just right. Our job is to simply do our best and then let God bless our mess!
If you’re burdened by a need to keep everything together, I hope that this comes as a freeing word for you today.
Follow our servant king Jesus by letting yourself be a servant yourself--a servant of God and a servant of others.
Trust your life to Christ alone.
Let His power fill you, inspire you, give you peace and hope.
Even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus will always lead you the right way.
He will give you so much more than the things that power in this dying world possibly can.
He will give you life with God.
There is no greater blessing that we can aspire to than that. Amen
Monday, October 19, 2009
Called to Be a Priest...Yeah, You!
[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, yesterday.]
Hebrews 5:1-10
One of my favorite passages in Scripture, on which Martin Luther used prominently in the development of our Lutheran tradition's "priesthood of all believers," is First Peter 2:9-10. It says of we believers in Christ: “...you are...a royal priesthood...in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Beautiful language, but what exactly does it mean for you and me to be part of “a royal priesthood”?
Before his retirement, William Harkey worked in marketing by day. But his real job, as is true of all believers in Jesus Christ, was to be a priest. In a wonderful book called How to Share Good News Without Being Obnoxious About It, Harkey tells about a time when he was living in the Chicago suburbs.
Two doors away was a neighbor who, he said, “was icy. I was friendly. A curt ‘Hi’ was all I could ever get out of him. One day, I noticed him in his backyard, practicing his golf swing. It was almost professional. It was beautiful.”
Harkey says that he himself had always been a terrible golfer. Here was a chance to connect with his neighbor! He strolled toward his fence and asked if the neighbor could give him a few tips on his swing.
“In a matter of minutes,” Harkey says, “he was coaching me like a club pro. Within weeks, we were teeing off together. Around Christmas time [they had become such good friends]…” Harkey says, they were talking about faith issues and his belief in Christ.
Bill Harkey was acting as a priest. He genuinely, authentically befriended someone and that friendship led he and his friend to genuinely, authentically share their ideas of and experiences with God together. Harkey was even able to talk with his friend about Christ.
Are you living out your call to be a priest in your everyday life?
Our second lesson for today, from Hebrews, which points us to Jesus as our great high priest, reminds us of what makes a priest a priest.
A priest, first of all has a purpose. Our Bible lesson says that, “Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”
Back in Old Testament times, priests at the temple in Jerusalem offered sacrifices for the people’s sins. They recognized, as Paul would put it in the New Testament, that "the wages of sin is death." Knowing that sin deserves death, the priests would offer stand-ins--sheep for those who could afford them, doves or even cereal offerings for those who were poorer. These stand-ins took the punishment for the sins of people who wanted to renounce their sins and turn back to God.
These days, as I mentioned last Sunday, we don’t need such sacrifices. Jesus was our stand-in when He died on the cross. All who turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ have forgiveness of sin, God’s presence and power in their lives today, and life forever with God.
Our priesthood involves representing God to others and representing others to God. That’s why we’re involved in so many of the ministries of service and love here at Saint Matthew.
Being priests may also entail taking the time to befriend and value crabby neighbors, allowing them, through us, to experience the friendship and love of God. We do all this because we’re priests with a purpose. Our purpose is to connect God and people in the Name of Jesus.
A second thing that makes a priest a priest is sympathy. A priest, our lesson tells us, “is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness.”
That phrase, deal gently, translates a single word from the New Testament Greek, metriopatheo. It has the idea of laying aside our own emotions in order to feel what other people feel, to put ourselves in the other person's shoes. This is what Jesus does for us. It's what He calls us to do for others. And Hebrews mentions two groups of people with whom we are especially to make the effort to deal gently: the ignorant, those are folks who wander haplessly into sin, and the wayward, those who sin despite knowing better.
Of course, as Christians we can’t mince words about what God calls righteousness and what God calls sin. Jesus tells us that we have a sacred obligation to exercise what’s called “the office of the keys,” conferring God’s forgiveness on the repentant, withholding if from those who don’t repent. “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus says, “and God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth. But he will not allow anything that you don't allow.”*
Priests know though, as Paul writes in the New Testament, that it’s the kindness of God that leads to repentance. We follow a Savior of Whom this same book of Hebrews says, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus went to a cross for us because of His sympathy for us. We’re to display that same sympathy for others.
Pastor Gerald Mann says that sometimes the mission of the Church is to clean up the rotten reputation given to God by Christians. I don't know why it is that Christians so readily fall into self-righteousness, looking down their noses on others. But it's wrong. One of the few bumper stickers I would ever consider putting on my car is the one that says, "Christians Aren't Perfect; Just Forgiven."
Christ endured the cross so that He could sit at the right hand of the Father and when our prayer requests come to heaven, He can turn to Him and say, "It's okay, Father. She's with Me. He's one of My own." Christ, our high priest, shows us sympathy.
I had totally bungled things. A member of another pastor’s congregation, a person I’d experienced as credible and levelheaded, had spoken to me with complaints about the pastor. He said that his opinions were also those of others. I was just out of seminary and didn’t have any sense. (As opposed to my status today: twenty-five years out of seminary and still no sense.) I went to the pastor to tell him what this person had said, not divulging the person’s name.
Without intending it, I conveyed the idea that there was widespread disaffection among the people of that church. Yes, I was trying to be helpful. But I think that I was also feeding my ego, playing the role of Superman.
Within hours, the pastor had composed a letter asking the congregation to tell him, since there was widespread unhappiness with his ministry, if it were time for him to go. I was shocked! When he read this letter to me over the phone, I put down the receiver and ran to his office.
I asked him, “Would it help you to know who was saying all of these things about you?” He said that it would and when he learned the person’s identity, he laughed and said, “He was born with a lemon in his mouth and a list of grievances as long as your arm.” He tore up the letter.
Then, he and I went to talk with his wife. You see, he had called her immediately after speaking with me and she was furious with me, sure that I was part of some cabal to run her husband out of the ministry. I apologized profusely (and genuinely) for the heartbreak I’d caused them both.
You might rightly have expected them to keep me at arm’s length forevermore. But they completely forgave me. They remain good friends. They have sympathetic spirits. They know all about what it’s like to be human and so they don’t hold grudges. Their demenor reflects Jesus, our great high priest, who knows exactly what it’s like to be human and is willing to be the advocate and Savior for all who turn from sin and turn to Him.
A third thing that makes a priest a priest is call. Our lesson tells us that a priest “does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God” and points out, “Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’”
In gratitude to our Lord, you and I are called to use our lives to glorify God. People who dedicate themselves to this call lead useful lives, lives that point others to God for help and hope, lives through which God gives help and hope to people. That’s why the leadership provided by our servanthood team this year has been so important. They’ve held up the central importance of our call to be priests of Jesus Christ!
At our last Church Council meeting, we set a new date for our congregational Friend Day. It’s a time when you and I will bring the non-churchgoing neighbors and friends we’ve invited to be with us to worship God and hear the Good News that we all can be made new when we turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ.
Friend Day will be on May 2. It’s not too early to begin praying about who you will invite to be with us on that day.
And it’s never too early to claim your role in Christ’s priesthood of all believers. We can claim that role because, in Christ, we have a purpose, because we have sympathy for other sinners who need the forgiveness and grace of Christ as much as we do, and because we have a call from God. Amen
*This rendering of the passage is from the Contemporary English Version (CEV).
Hebrews 5:1-10
One of my favorite passages in Scripture, on which Martin Luther used prominently in the development of our Lutheran tradition's "priesthood of all believers," is First Peter 2:9-10. It says of we believers in Christ: “...you are...a royal priesthood...in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Beautiful language, but what exactly does it mean for you and me to be part of “a royal priesthood”?
Before his retirement, William Harkey worked in marketing by day. But his real job, as is true of all believers in Jesus Christ, was to be a priest. In a wonderful book called How to Share Good News Without Being Obnoxious About It, Harkey tells about a time when he was living in the Chicago suburbs.
Two doors away was a neighbor who, he said, “was icy. I was friendly. A curt ‘Hi’ was all I could ever get out of him. One day, I noticed him in his backyard, practicing his golf swing. It was almost professional. It was beautiful.”
Harkey says that he himself had always been a terrible golfer. Here was a chance to connect with his neighbor! He strolled toward his fence and asked if the neighbor could give him a few tips on his swing.
“In a matter of minutes,” Harkey says, “he was coaching me like a club pro. Within weeks, we were teeing off together. Around Christmas time [they had become such good friends]…” Harkey says, they were talking about faith issues and his belief in Christ.
Bill Harkey was acting as a priest. He genuinely, authentically befriended someone and that friendship led he and his friend to genuinely, authentically share their ideas of and experiences with God together. Harkey was even able to talk with his friend about Christ.
Are you living out your call to be a priest in your everyday life?
Our second lesson for today, from Hebrews, which points us to Jesus as our great high priest, reminds us of what makes a priest a priest.
A priest, first of all has a purpose. Our Bible lesson says that, “Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”
Back in Old Testament times, priests at the temple in Jerusalem offered sacrifices for the people’s sins. They recognized, as Paul would put it in the New Testament, that "the wages of sin is death." Knowing that sin deserves death, the priests would offer stand-ins--sheep for those who could afford them, doves or even cereal offerings for those who were poorer. These stand-ins took the punishment for the sins of people who wanted to renounce their sins and turn back to God.
These days, as I mentioned last Sunday, we don’t need such sacrifices. Jesus was our stand-in when He died on the cross. All who turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ have forgiveness of sin, God’s presence and power in their lives today, and life forever with God.
Our priesthood involves representing God to others and representing others to God. That’s why we’re involved in so many of the ministries of service and love here at Saint Matthew.
Being priests may also entail taking the time to befriend and value crabby neighbors, allowing them, through us, to experience the friendship and love of God. We do all this because we’re priests with a purpose. Our purpose is to connect God and people in the Name of Jesus.
A second thing that makes a priest a priest is sympathy. A priest, our lesson tells us, “is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness.”
That phrase, deal gently, translates a single word from the New Testament Greek, metriopatheo. It has the idea of laying aside our own emotions in order to feel what other people feel, to put ourselves in the other person's shoes. This is what Jesus does for us. It's what He calls us to do for others. And Hebrews mentions two groups of people with whom we are especially to make the effort to deal gently: the ignorant, those are folks who wander haplessly into sin, and the wayward, those who sin despite knowing better.
Of course, as Christians we can’t mince words about what God calls righteousness and what God calls sin. Jesus tells us that we have a sacred obligation to exercise what’s called “the office of the keys,” conferring God’s forgiveness on the repentant, withholding if from those who don’t repent. “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus says, “and God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth. But he will not allow anything that you don't allow.”*
Priests know though, as Paul writes in the New Testament, that it’s the kindness of God that leads to repentance. We follow a Savior of Whom this same book of Hebrews says, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus went to a cross for us because of His sympathy for us. We’re to display that same sympathy for others.
Pastor Gerald Mann says that sometimes the mission of the Church is to clean up the rotten reputation given to God by Christians. I don't know why it is that Christians so readily fall into self-righteousness, looking down their noses on others. But it's wrong. One of the few bumper stickers I would ever consider putting on my car is the one that says, "Christians Aren't Perfect; Just Forgiven."
Christ endured the cross so that He could sit at the right hand of the Father and when our prayer requests come to heaven, He can turn to Him and say, "It's okay, Father. She's with Me. He's one of My own." Christ, our high priest, shows us sympathy.
I had totally bungled things. A member of another pastor’s congregation, a person I’d experienced as credible and levelheaded, had spoken to me with complaints about the pastor. He said that his opinions were also those of others. I was just out of seminary and didn’t have any sense. (As opposed to my status today: twenty-five years out of seminary and still no sense.) I went to the pastor to tell him what this person had said, not divulging the person’s name.
Without intending it, I conveyed the idea that there was widespread disaffection among the people of that church. Yes, I was trying to be helpful. But I think that I was also feeding my ego, playing the role of Superman.
Within hours, the pastor had composed a letter asking the congregation to tell him, since there was widespread unhappiness with his ministry, if it were time for him to go. I was shocked! When he read this letter to me over the phone, I put down the receiver and ran to his office.
I asked him, “Would it help you to know who was saying all of these things about you?” He said that it would and when he learned the person’s identity, he laughed and said, “He was born with a lemon in his mouth and a list of grievances as long as your arm.” He tore up the letter.
Then, he and I went to talk with his wife. You see, he had called her immediately after speaking with me and she was furious with me, sure that I was part of some cabal to run her husband out of the ministry. I apologized profusely (and genuinely) for the heartbreak I’d caused them both.
You might rightly have expected them to keep me at arm’s length forevermore. But they completely forgave me. They remain good friends. They have sympathetic spirits. They know all about what it’s like to be human and so they don’t hold grudges. Their demenor reflects Jesus, our great high priest, who knows exactly what it’s like to be human and is willing to be the advocate and Savior for all who turn from sin and turn to Him.
A third thing that makes a priest a priest is call. Our lesson tells us that a priest “does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God” and points out, “Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’”
In gratitude to our Lord, you and I are called to use our lives to glorify God. People who dedicate themselves to this call lead useful lives, lives that point others to God for help and hope, lives through which God gives help and hope to people. That’s why the leadership provided by our servanthood team this year has been so important. They’ve held up the central importance of our call to be priests of Jesus Christ!
At our last Church Council meeting, we set a new date for our congregational Friend Day. It’s a time when you and I will bring the non-churchgoing neighbors and friends we’ve invited to be with us to worship God and hear the Good News that we all can be made new when we turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ.
Friend Day will be on May 2. It’s not too early to begin praying about who you will invite to be with us on that day.
And it’s never too early to claim your role in Christ’s priesthood of all believers. We can claim that role because, in Christ, we have a purpose, because we have sympathy for other sinners who need the forgiveness and grace of Christ as much as we do, and because we have a call from God. Amen
*This rendering of the passage is from the Contemporary English Version (CEV).
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