Priesthood of All Believers

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Hebrews 7:23-28

    When I served on the bishop’s staff in Nebraska, I heard Bishop Brian Maas’s sermon to congregations on more than one occasion, and I have to admit that even sometimes I forgot the right answer!  He would begin by asking a deceivingly simple question, “What is the highest office in our church?”  People would answer, “Bishop.” “Presiding Bishop.” Maybe “pastor.”  This is not correct.  On this Reformation Sunday, we remember and give thanks to God for Martin Luther and his insistence that the highest office or calling of a Christian is our baptism.  All of us, as baptized Christians, are called by God to serve and use our gifts, living out our faith in the world.  We all have gifts to contribute.  Pastors or Bishops are not more important than other Christians.  The term that Lutherans have coined to describe this is the “priesthood of all believers.”  
    I enjoy hearing when I share that I am a Lutheran Christian pastor what people know about Lutheranism, especially people who are totally outside of the church.  A lot of people confuse Martin Luther King Jr, the civil rights activist of the 1960s with his namesake, the German priest, professor, and instigator of the Protestant Reformation in 1517.  Probably the most common thing people tell me they know is that Martin Luther translated the Bible into German and conducted the Sunday mass in German, not Latin, bringing the language of the Bible and the Church to ordinary people.  He was not the first person to translate the Bible into the language of the people; there were others like John Wycliffe and William Tyndale who went before him were declared heretical and burned at the stake.  However, Luther firmly believed in the calling of every baptized Christian to be able to hear, understand, and learn the Word of God as revealed to us in the Bible.  He created the Small Catechism which we still learn and use today for parents to teach their children the basics of the Christian faith.  He said that the calling of a father or mother to change diapers was as important as the calling of bishops, pastors, and even the pope.  In many ways, in his writing, preaching, and teaching, Luther sought to level the playing field so to speak between God and ordinary people.  He did not think there should be a barrier of a priest, bishop, or pope between God and people.
    We’ve been reading through the book of Hebrews this month, and the author’s favorite image for Jesus is as High Priest.  Christ comes as our eternal high priest, chapter 7 of Hebrews tells us.  He holds his priesthood permanently.  We don’t need a pastor or priest to intercede for us, but we can approach God directly through Jesus.  It’s not that we don’t need pastors at all, of course.  Pastors have a specific calling to preach, teach, and preside over the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion.  However, many of us, 500+ years later, still think of pastors as “holier than thou,” people to look up to whom we can never think of being like – higher than us.  Our scripture readings, and Luther, asked us to look around at our ordinary neighbors and look up to THEM, seeing that they, too, are called and gifted by God.  The role of a pastor is a role, not a higher calling!  The church and the world needs the diverse gifts of many people!
    As we turn to our gospel, Jesus is consistently hearing and seeing the people we would tend to overlook as gifted and faithful:  the poor, children, widows.  Today, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, shouts out to Jesus, and Jesus listens to him.  Jesus sees the gifts and the calling Bartimaeus has when the others want him to be quiet and for Jesus to keep moving – aren’t there more important people for Jesus to serve?  Doesn’t Jesus have more important things to do?  Of all people, Bartimaeus is the first person to call Jesus the correct title, “Son of David.” And Jesus says, “Go; your faith has made you well.”  To be sure; Jesus sees, hears, and addresses Bartimaeus’ need – he regains his sight again.  But Jesus is also able to see, hear, and lift up the gifts that this blind beggar has to offer.  Bartimaeus becomes a follower on the Jesus way, Mark tells us.  He has faith and understanding of who Jesus is that he can contribute.  He is included in the “priesthood of all believers.”   
    Last week I had the opportunity to attend our Synod’s annual Bishop’s Retreat, and one of the facilitators was Nick Tangen, Director of Faith Practices and Neighboring Practices in the Minneapolis Area Synod.  Nick is not a pastor!  Yet he works with congregations in his synod on how ordinary church people can effectively connect to their neighborhoods – not just to serve, but to be in mutual relationship with people as Christ calls us to love God and our neighbors.  He shared a powerful example – at one church’s food pantry, church members were trained to be present and build relationships with people who were coming to receive food. They asked about what people were good at.  One woman offered that she was a good cook.  The person, who was on church council, said, “Prove it!” and invited her to cook lunch for the church staff the next week.  It was fantastic.  They paid her for the meal.  Then the church hosted a neighborhood block party and paid her to cater.  A member of the chamber of commerce present paid for her to print business cards.  Neighbors and church members started calling her to cater various events.  Several months later, she was able to open up her own small restaurant.  Wow!  All of this started from someone bothering to recognize that this woman who needed food also had gifts.  When our faith helps us to see people as people – maybe even as ordinary priests- with gifts to offer and not simply “poor,” “homeless” “blind” or “food insecure,” isn’t it incredible how God can work through us to change things for the better?  
    Martin Luther saw that people were struggling to pay their bills and pay the church what they thought they needed to the “professionals” for their services.  Listening to the gospels, Luther changed our world forever by seeing people not as product consumers but as people with agency to approach God on their own terms.  He radically altered our view of ourselves as ordinary yet extraordinarily gifted saints and priests of God.  Whatever you have been called to do and to be by God, you have gifts to serve God and your neighbor.  And we are called, like the disciples, to see not only the needs of others, but the gifts and potential they bring, and to discover with them how restoration and healing is possible in Jesus’ name.  At your baptism, you have been ordained in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to serve and love God and your neighbor.  Welcome to the priesthood.  Amen.