The Dangers of Being A Royal Priesthood

The Dangers of Being a Royal Priesthood

OR

Being a Royal Priesthood Can Be a Royal Pain

Psalm 31:1-5,15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10

Last year I was fortunate enough to have found some health problems through routine checkups. That meant I was able to avert having more serious problems later on. It also means that I have become more aware of the benefits of regular check ups. So last month I went to my primary physician for an annual physical. As important as it is to do, I will admit that there is something a little disconcerting about the experience. Maybe you know what I am talking about.

First, you are ushered to a little room by a medical technician, some one who checks a few vitals. Her primary purpose isn’t the vitals, though. She pulls out the hospital gown and the paper sheet and instructs you to take off all of your clothes, put on the gown that opens in the back, and you can use the sheet for a little extra cover. “And doctor will be in shortly.” So, here I am, no clothes but a flimsy gown. I’m sitting down to keep my backside from being exposed until absolutely necessary. And the doctor comes in. She knocks, calls me by my first name. “Good morning Jess. How are you today?” I know her name, but I call her by her title. In my anxiety I’m a bit of a smart Alec. I respond, “I don’t know Doc, you tell me?” Of course, the doctor has all of her regular clothes on, plus she has extra clothes with her white lab coat. She does her exam. We talk. I am reminded of her higher education as she uses some big words that sound like latin. I have to ask, “So, what does that really mean?” When we are all done, the doctor ends by saying, “You can get dressed now.” Maybe, once I get dressed I can think clearly again, except, at that point the doctor has moved on to the next little room with another person in an extremely vulnerable position.

I trust my doctor. I believe she has my well being as her primary focus. But, truth is, this is not a relationship of equals. I am known by my first name, she is addressed by her title. I am nearly naked, she has an extra layer of distinctive clothes. I have questions, she has the answers. Problem is, since I am feeling so vulnerable, and I am not thinking so clearly, she has the questions AND the answers. This could easily be a relationship of dominance.

Every where we turn in our world we have relationships that are unequal, where one can be dominant over the other. Parent - child, teacher - student, employee - manager, restaurant customer and the person serving. In the church we have the Clergy and the People.

Over the years we have been conditioned to see the clergy in the dominant position. Early in my ministry, when I was about 30, there was a woman in a new church where I had become pastor. She was easily in her eighties. Odette Chambers was her name. Her husband and two of her three sons were veterans of the Second World War. That may give you some idea of the world that shaped her. She was unable to address me by my first name. That was not proper with me being her pastor. The problem was that she had trouble pronouncing my last name. She learned that I had my doctorate so she asked my permission for her to call me Dr. Jess. For the rest of her life she was Ms. Odette, and I was Dr. Jess. Ms. Odette developed emphysema. All the men in her family smoked regularly. She never smoked a cigarette, herself, her entire life. She was ashamed to have a “smoker’s disease.” Because of her view of the clergy, she could never talk with me, her pastor, about what was really wrong.

Admittedly, THAT level of reverence seems to be dying out with Ms. Odette’s generation, but we still like to imagine our clergy to be set apart. And we clergy will often reinforce that idea. What does it say when I am standing here, wearing a rob over my regular clothes? I’m standing while you are sitting. Maybe I'll sprinkle my message with references to the Hebrew and Greek or famous theologians just so you will be reminded of my higher education. Once I preached in a church with a pulpit that was raised up with ornate decorations. I needed to climb stairs to get to the platform. It was really tight, so there would be no roaming the chancel during that sermon. People were compelled to look up to me. Quite a feeling of importance. I'm not so sure that my message was as impressive as my podium.

Our clergy can be in a relationship of power over the people, a relationship of dominance. And this unequal power can easily lead to abuses. I would say that our society is defined by unequal relationships, relationships of power, that can become relationships of dominance. What we hope for, what we expect is that those who have power will be responsible in their use of power. This means, in my mind, that when we have power we must exercise it with compassion and a view toward justice.

This leads me to our theme, this morning, being a Royal Priesthood. I would like to highlight three dangers of being a Royal Priesthood. The key verse in our passage from Peter goes like this: “

You are a 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.”

Let me pull out two phrases: Chosen Race, and Holy Nation. As the followers of Jesus first emerged from within the race of the Jews, the followers began to include Greeks and Romans, and darker skinned people from Egypt and Ethiopia. So the Chosen Race refers to a people that are united across divisions of skin color and culture and language. We are all together one race, united. After the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and the scattering of Jews and Christians out of the land called Palestine, the followers of Jesus had no homeland, no national identity. They became part of what was called the Diaspora. (See, I had to sneak in a word to show my education). And in the Diaspora, the followers of Jesus share a unity that goes beyond political divisions, we are, all across the world, in every nation and country on the earth, we are one, holy nation, if we follow the teachings and life of Jesus.

So, we are a chosen race, a holy nation, and we are a Royal Priesthood. Just as other divisions have melted away, there is no longer a division between Priests and People. And this presents a number of dangers.

Danger # 1: If we take the Royal Priesthood seriously, then we, clergy, lose our special status within the community of the church. We, clergy, have a particular Role in the community of the church, but that does not confer on us any particular status. If some in the church are seen as more important, then others have to be made less important. Most of us like to think of ourselves as somewhere in the middle. Not the most important, but not the least important, either. So we imagine levels of importance, a kind of spiritual pecking order: The clergy at the top; officers, teachers, leaders next; regular members, then the Christmas and Easter members; followed by the visitors, guests, occasional people, and finally the stranger or the person who seems strange and different to us. But, if we are all together a royal priesthood, then no one has greater status than any other. No one is MORE important that you! At the same time, there is no one who is LESS important than you. The only difference is that we are given different work to do.

Danger # 2: If we are, together, a royal priesthood, then we are, together, responsible for our spiritual well being. To draw on the analogy with the medical doctor: I value the role of my physician. She has expertise and training that is critical. She can read my EKG and make sense of it. But she cannot read my mind. She does not know my fears, my anxieties, my hopes. She does not know about the strange discomfort that I have been feeling lately, if I don't tell her. At some point, I must take responsibility for my own health and well being. I am responsible for the habits and disciplines, both good and bad, that affect my health and well being. Coming to worship may be a good way to recharge my battery for the coming week, but what am I doing during the week that may add to or detract from my spiritual well being? And how do my choices and my actions impact the well being of others? How do my choices impact the well being of the community we call the church?

Danger # 3: If we take seriously the leveling out of the relationship between pastor and people, if we in fact believe that we are all priests to each other, then we must transform our own relationships of dominance. Every single one of us has power, whether we acknowledge it or not. How do we use that power? Are you are parent, a teacher? Do you eat in restaurants on occasion? Do you drive a car? Do you sometimes have information that someone else does not have, maybe a juicy bit of gossip? Do you vote? Are your parents getting elderly and need your help? When you have some little bit of power, to what degree do you allow compassion and justice to shape your relationships. (Now, justice does NOT mean that it's your turn to get even. Justice means to treat others in a just and ethical manner.)

Sometimes we would prefer to keep things as they have been. So, if we let some have power over us, then we can keep our power over others. If we look to the experts to tell us what to do and what to think, then we don't have to take responsibility for doing or for thinking. And, heck, if everyone is of the same importance than not only am I as important as every other, but I am no more important than any other. Being a royal priesthood can be filled with dangers that upset the order of things to which we are accustomed, and frankly, if we take it seriously, it can be a royal pain.

But let me close by summarizing two basic thoughts: to be a royal priesthood calls every single one of us to accept responsibility for the world in which we live, and to be a royal priesthood calls us to approach all of our relationships, big and small, with compassion and justice.

Those are my thoughts. But don't simply take my word for it. How do you understand the call to be a Royal Priesthood?



Let us pray:
Gracious God, help us to live more fully into our calling and to not shy away from it’s responsibility. Help us to be United with all people who seek to follow Jesus, from all time and every place. Help us to be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, Your own people, and in turn, may we more fully demonstrate to the world what it means to be called out of darkness into your marvelous light. Amen.



Jess McCrosky
Orange Park Presbyterian Church
Orange Park, FL
May 22, 2011