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Issues of the Reformation: Priesthood of All Believers
Some background is essential….
There are two inseparable issues here: Priesthood (or ministry) and Vocation (or one’s work). The western church in Luther’s day had STRONG teachings on both, and Luther challenged both in one of the least understood aspects of the Reformation. Let’s review both, as they existed before Luther.
MINISTRY. In the Old Testament, there were two clear classes of believers – the priests and the people. The Old Testament stresses this vast difference, even with long, detailed descriptions of what priests are to wear and what “tribe” they must be from. Priests offered the sacrifices in the Temple and were key to the sacrificial system in place at that time (For Jews, all this ended in 70 AD when the Temple was destroyed; Judaism no longer has priests).
Even though Christ was the last and the “High Priest” who offered the last and final Sacrifice (on the Cross), some of this attitude carried over into the New Testament Church and developed highly. By the early Middle Ages, there were two (well, actually 3) classes of Christians, and the division was sharp. There were the lowly believers, whose “job” was mostly to listen and obey. Even the worship service increasingly omitted them. Then (WAY over on the other end of things) were the priests (they came in two classes – the Pope/Archbishops/Bishops and then the local parish priests). By virtue of the Sacrament of Ordination that the Roman Church owned and administered, they were “super” Christians with supernatural (even magical) powers and unique spiritual abilities. A bit like the priests of the Old Testament, they offered sacrifices for the people and serve as “go-betweens” between God and the regular Christians. By Luther’s day, the gulf between these was enormous.
Luther (an ordained priest) would really rock the boat on this one…. as we’ll see.
WORK. In the beginning, the Jews taught that work was essentially divine punishment (some are apt to agree on Monday morning). They pointed to after the Fall when God told Adam that he’d need to till the soil and deal with the weeds. Work certainly had a practical function (hey, we all gotta eat) but theologically, it was part of our fallen, broken world… and paradise was portrayed as the place where there is no work (“work” being a four-letter word).
The Greeks and Romans had a much more pragmatic (and less religious) view of work. They saw the world as one very big, complex machine with zillions of parts. Each one of us is a cog in that machine. And it’s critical that we do our job and do it well. This not only helps the whole thing work but ultimately helps us, too. A part of this is to know your role, your ‘part’ or job or status – and not “buck” the system (there was a class aspect to this). The Roman church pretty much combined the two, but placed more importance on class and a bit less emphasis on pain/punishment/suffering. It often cranked out as a religious embrace of the Greco-Roman philosophy.
There was a sharp distinction between two entirely different types of work/service: Secular and Sacred. Secular stuff was for the lowly and was a part of the fallen world and directed to and for people here on earth. It was necessary (that eating thing) and could be quite elevated (the king for example) but it’s still secular, worldly and temporal (not too important in the great scheme of things). On a whole other plain was the Sacred work done by monks, nuns, priests, bishops and the Pope; this was work done for God and has eternal consequence. The most lowly, simple thing done by the clergy in Sacred work far out ranked the most impressive thing done by a king.
Luther would radically disagree in a teaching often called “Vocatio.” More on that later.
+ WE are Priests +
1 Peter 2:9 proclaims, “YOU (all) are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that all of you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called YOU out of darkness and into his marvelous light.” Luther said, “Whoever comes out of the water of Baptism is a consecrated priest.” In a sense, in Baptism, ALL are called to faith, community AND ministry, Called and equipped for lives of prayer, service and proclamation. ALL baptized believers are priests, ministers and missionaries…. ALL baptized believers are a royal priesthood, God’s own people…. ALL baptized believers are called to proclaim the mighty works of Jesus!
Now…. don’t throw the baby out with the bath water! The New Testament stresses the role and importance of the clergy, even stating the requirements for pastors, bishops and other clergy. Lutherans do NOT join with Mormons, Quakers and some others who deleted all this stuff from the New Testament in a passion to get rid of the clergy. No. Indeed, Luther spent most of his ministry training pastors (he was mostly a seminary professor). But the “issue” is FUNCTION, not identity. It’s not that pastors have magical or supernatural abilities, or that they are in a spiritual class all unto themselves…. It’s that they have a distinctive ministry of service. Especially in the public setting of worship, especially in the congregation, they have an important function. Luther certainly retained Ordination but this doesn’t elevate the person to some superior class and infuse him with special spiritual (even magical) powers, it means he is now in a God-established office in the church – with all the rights, responsibilities and privileges involved in the performance of that ministry. Pastors (and other clergy) – by virtue of their Office - are worthy of great respect but they are not a special class of believers (and can’t do magic).
Lutherans strongly reject the “anti-clericalism” and “democratic egalitarianism” found say among Mormons, Quakers and some forms of Protestantism. Only bad comes from deleting so much of the New Testament that teaches and establishes the Office of Pastor, and only bad from driving a wedge between pastors and people. Lutherans not only fully retain the Office of Pastor but hold such in great esteem. WE are ALL ministers of Jesus…. simply in different roles (and thus we are not all pastors; all pastors are ministers/priests but not all ministers/priests are pastors). We are ALL equal brothers and sisters in Christ, equally His own people, here to serve God and each other in our various roles.
Similarly, Lutherans see this as a corporate, community, “team” thing. While most Protestants call this “the priesthood of the believer,” Lutherans reject that, it’s “the priesthood of ALL believers!” We reject the individualism so rapid in much of modern Protestantism, the “God and ME” emphasis (Lutheran proverb: “It’s not Jesus and me but Jesus and we”). Lutherans reject the ‘private judgement, private interpretation, private faith’ abuse sadly found in some Christian circles. It’s not a matter of some isolated individual person (or denomination) helping self but rather the whole community of believers united in faith and love serving and working and growing together especially through the local congregation. The Priesthood of All Believers is a team thing, a corporate thing.
The Priesthood of All Believers is not about me being special or me being my OWN priest….. it’s about all of us together being in service to others. We are ministers NOT for our own sake or so we can bless ourselves or by-pass the church and the pastor, it’s so we can SERVE one another with the gifts of the Spirit and the promises of the Gospel along with all God’s people. We can pray for our neighbor….. We can serve our neighbor…. We can strengthen our neighbor with the Gospel of God’s love and salvation…. We can forgive our neighbor who comes with a heavy-heart. It is the antithesis of self pointing to self, self serving self, self circumventing the church. Like Christ, the High Priest, we are to empty ourselves and take the form of a servant for others. Luther quoted Philippians 2:5-11.
There were many immediate practical implications. For example, Luther encouraged the laity to be involved in worship (not just quietly sitting there listening to the priest, cantor and choir do their thing…. in Latin), and changed the language of the worship service from Latin to whatever language the laity actually use (and understood). Luther encouraged all to sing (and wrote a lot of hymns himself). Even Luther’s claim that pastors may marry flows from this concept. He encouraged ALL to pray for each other, ALL to minister to their neighbors, ALL to proclaim the Gospel to unbelievers and to encourage the weak believers, ALL to forgive those who come to them with repentance and faith.
... continues in next post....
Some background is essential….
There are two inseparable issues here: Priesthood (or ministry) and Vocation (or one’s work). The western church in Luther’s day had STRONG teachings on both, and Luther challenged both in one of the least understood aspects of the Reformation. Let’s review both, as they existed before Luther.
MINISTRY. In the Old Testament, there were two clear classes of believers – the priests and the people. The Old Testament stresses this vast difference, even with long, detailed descriptions of what priests are to wear and what “tribe” they must be from. Priests offered the sacrifices in the Temple and were key to the sacrificial system in place at that time (For Jews, all this ended in 70 AD when the Temple was destroyed; Judaism no longer has priests).
Even though Christ was the last and the “High Priest” who offered the last and final Sacrifice (on the Cross), some of this attitude carried over into the New Testament Church and developed highly. By the early Middle Ages, there were two (well, actually 3) classes of Christians, and the division was sharp. There were the lowly believers, whose “job” was mostly to listen and obey. Even the worship service increasingly omitted them. Then (WAY over on the other end of things) were the priests (they came in two classes – the Pope/Archbishops/Bishops and then the local parish priests). By virtue of the Sacrament of Ordination that the Roman Church owned and administered, they were “super” Christians with supernatural (even magical) powers and unique spiritual abilities. A bit like the priests of the Old Testament, they offered sacrifices for the people and serve as “go-betweens” between God and the regular Christians. By Luther’s day, the gulf between these was enormous.
Luther (an ordained priest) would really rock the boat on this one…. as we’ll see.
WORK. In the beginning, the Jews taught that work was essentially divine punishment (some are apt to agree on Monday morning). They pointed to after the Fall when God told Adam that he’d need to till the soil and deal with the weeds. Work certainly had a practical function (hey, we all gotta eat) but theologically, it was part of our fallen, broken world… and paradise was portrayed as the place where there is no work (“work” being a four-letter word).
The Greeks and Romans had a much more pragmatic (and less religious) view of work. They saw the world as one very big, complex machine with zillions of parts. Each one of us is a cog in that machine. And it’s critical that we do our job and do it well. This not only helps the whole thing work but ultimately helps us, too. A part of this is to know your role, your ‘part’ or job or status – and not “buck” the system (there was a class aspect to this). The Roman church pretty much combined the two, but placed more importance on class and a bit less emphasis on pain/punishment/suffering. It often cranked out as a religious embrace of the Greco-Roman philosophy.
There was a sharp distinction between two entirely different types of work/service: Secular and Sacred. Secular stuff was for the lowly and was a part of the fallen world and directed to and for people here on earth. It was necessary (that eating thing) and could be quite elevated (the king for example) but it’s still secular, worldly and temporal (not too important in the great scheme of things). On a whole other plain was the Sacred work done by monks, nuns, priests, bishops and the Pope; this was work done for God and has eternal consequence. The most lowly, simple thing done by the clergy in Sacred work far out ranked the most impressive thing done by a king.
Luther would radically disagree in a teaching often called “Vocatio.” More on that later.
+ WE are Priests +
1 Peter 2:9 proclaims, “YOU (all) are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that all of you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called YOU out of darkness and into his marvelous light.” Luther said, “Whoever comes out of the water of Baptism is a consecrated priest.” In a sense, in Baptism, ALL are called to faith, community AND ministry, Called and equipped for lives of prayer, service and proclamation. ALL baptized believers are priests, ministers and missionaries…. ALL baptized believers are a royal priesthood, God’s own people…. ALL baptized believers are called to proclaim the mighty works of Jesus!
Now…. don’t throw the baby out with the bath water! The New Testament stresses the role and importance of the clergy, even stating the requirements for pastors, bishops and other clergy. Lutherans do NOT join with Mormons, Quakers and some others who deleted all this stuff from the New Testament in a passion to get rid of the clergy. No. Indeed, Luther spent most of his ministry training pastors (he was mostly a seminary professor). But the “issue” is FUNCTION, not identity. It’s not that pastors have magical or supernatural abilities, or that they are in a spiritual class all unto themselves…. It’s that they have a distinctive ministry of service. Especially in the public setting of worship, especially in the congregation, they have an important function. Luther certainly retained Ordination but this doesn’t elevate the person to some superior class and infuse him with special spiritual (even magical) powers, it means he is now in a God-established office in the church – with all the rights, responsibilities and privileges involved in the performance of that ministry. Pastors (and other clergy) – by virtue of their Office - are worthy of great respect but they are not a special class of believers (and can’t do magic).
Lutherans strongly reject the “anti-clericalism” and “democratic egalitarianism” found say among Mormons, Quakers and some forms of Protestantism. Only bad comes from deleting so much of the New Testament that teaches and establishes the Office of Pastor, and only bad from driving a wedge between pastors and people. Lutherans not only fully retain the Office of Pastor but hold such in great esteem. WE are ALL ministers of Jesus…. simply in different roles (and thus we are not all pastors; all pastors are ministers/priests but not all ministers/priests are pastors). We are ALL equal brothers and sisters in Christ, equally His own people, here to serve God and each other in our various roles.
Similarly, Lutherans see this as a corporate, community, “team” thing. While most Protestants call this “the priesthood of the believer,” Lutherans reject that, it’s “the priesthood of ALL believers!” We reject the individualism so rapid in much of modern Protestantism, the “God and ME” emphasis (Lutheran proverb: “It’s not Jesus and me but Jesus and we”). Lutherans reject the ‘private judgement, private interpretation, private faith’ abuse sadly found in some Christian circles. It’s not a matter of some isolated individual person (or denomination) helping self but rather the whole community of believers united in faith and love serving and working and growing together especially through the local congregation. The Priesthood of All Believers is a team thing, a corporate thing.
The Priesthood of All Believers is not about me being special or me being my OWN priest….. it’s about all of us together being in service to others. We are ministers NOT for our own sake or so we can bless ourselves or by-pass the church and the pastor, it’s so we can SERVE one another with the gifts of the Spirit and the promises of the Gospel along with all God’s people. We can pray for our neighbor….. We can serve our neighbor…. We can strengthen our neighbor with the Gospel of God’s love and salvation…. We can forgive our neighbor who comes with a heavy-heart. It is the antithesis of self pointing to self, self serving self, self circumventing the church. Like Christ, the High Priest, we are to empty ourselves and take the form of a servant for others. Luther quoted Philippians 2:5-11.
There were many immediate practical implications. For example, Luther encouraged the laity to be involved in worship (not just quietly sitting there listening to the priest, cantor and choir do their thing…. in Latin), and changed the language of the worship service from Latin to whatever language the laity actually use (and understood). Luther encouraged all to sing (and wrote a lot of hymns himself). Even Luther’s claim that pastors may marry flows from this concept. He encouraged ALL to pray for each other, ALL to minister to their neighbors, ALL to proclaim the Gospel to unbelievers and to encourage the weak believers, ALL to forgive those who come to them with repentance and faith.
... continues in next post....
