You Are A Priest

The word “Ordain” means to officially “select” or “choose”.

By this logic, business owners and managers ordain employees every day.  Every four years the United States ordains a President.  And many communities, from local churches, to neighborhood associations, to non-profits, and businesses ordain leaders to support and direct their purposes. 

But more importantly, today and every day, Jesus ordains you.  He has officially chosen you.  You were hand picked.  He didn’t just ask for anybody.  He is asking for you.  In fact, He asked me to find you.  And now I have.

It’s amazing to me that He would ask ME to find you.  Who am I?  Why would He choose ME?  Simple.  He chose me because I could reach you and He needs the specific gifts, abilities, and skill sets that you bring to the table.  Your resume matches a job description He is looking to fill in His kingdom.  So if you are available, He chooses you.  Let Him Know Your your interest in the position as soon as possible and He’ll set up a meeting to go over what you can do for His kingdom.  And just so you know, there really isn’t much competition for your position in His kingdom, because you are indispensibly unique and valuable to His mission and purpose.  So please consider accepting this ordination.  Jesus wants you.

Every Believer is a Priest

Setting apart “Holy Men” is not Biblical.  God’s vision for the human race is that every human being will know Him, feel His love, understand His priorities, see His vision for their lives, and study His Word prayerfully for answers to their life’s questions.  The Christian priesthood, in copying the Aaronic priesthood of the Old Testament, set itself up as a class of mediators set apart to keep their view of the Divine before the eyes of people.  But this feature of religion is now outdated.  Today we have the opportunity to embrace God’s vision for the future as it was declared in Jeremiah 31: 

Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their ancestors in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; my covenant that they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more everyone their neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

God calls every individual to walk side by side along the road of life with others, to give counsel and encouragement, to study and teach His Word for those less educated in its message, to worship and praise Him together in communities, to witness important life events such as marriage and death and teach the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper, and to lead others by means of the gifts of vision, perception, and wisdom to discover more of the blessings that God has in store for all people.  These gifts are what set apart the pastors, the preachers, the ministers, and the priests – and these are all roles that any believer can take if that is where they are called by God and gifted to serve.

Man or woman, young or old, every believer is a priest following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ who is the only teacher, the only priest, the only mediator, the only God.

“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” (Joel 2:28-29)

A Spiritual Bill of Rights

In the second book of the Old Covenant, Moses plainly recorded God’s Ten Commandments as saying:

1. There is one God who is the Lord
2. Do not Take His Name in Vain
3. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy
4. Honor Your Father and Mother
5. Do not murder
6. Do not commit adultery
7. Do not steal
8. Do not bear false witness
9. Do not covet specific items
10. Do not covet anything that is your neighbors 

Certainly these commands are literally true, but is there more to being a Christian than avoiding these errors?  The gospel according to John summarized the relationship between the Old Covenant laws and Christian practice by observing that, “the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17) So, what grace and truth did Jesus bring for us to see in these ten articles of His contract with the human race?  What is the eternal message written into this text by the finger of God? 

Far from being a simple condemnation of widely accepted moral errors, the Ten Commandments describe every believer’s spiritual bill of rights.  Take a look at that list of laws again and then consider this list of rights that God is proclaiming through those words given to Moses:

1. You have the right to know the Lord your God
2. You have the right to talk to Him and call upon Him for help anytime you want or need him
3. You have the right to worship Him in community with other believers
4. You have the right to find mentors for your life’s journey, people who love you and support you in your walk of faith and who can teach you God’s Word
5. You have the right to life and the power to give life in the name of Jesus Christ
6. You have the right to pursue true love in a faithful marriage between one man and one woman
7. You have the right to receive a multitude of good things, an overflowing abundance of blessings from God and you have the right to give what you have to others
8. You have the right to acknowledge your faith to others and so spread the good news of salvation.
9. You have the right to live free of sin and free of the desire to sin.
10. You have the right to live without fear.

This is every believer’s spiritual bill of rights, the benefits of the covenant signed by the finger of God.  God has promised great things to the human race.  He wants to give us His love, His presence, His blessings, His power, His vision – in short, He wants to give us everything that He has…and that’s everything!  The only limit on God’s goodness toward us is our own free will.  He created us so that we can choose to live under His law and so enjoy the rights that it conveys, or we can choose to rebel, ignore, or dismiss the way that reality works and so limit God’s ability to bless us. 

The choice is yours.
 
And so, today, pray this prayer.  Choose the blessing over the curse, and accept all of the blessings that God has in store for you, right now, and forever.

1. Thank you Jesus for Being God, for asking to be my friend and savior and leaving me in freedom to respond.
2. Thank you for Your Creation, especially for creating me on purpose to find your purpose in my life and to become an angel in heaven.
3. Thank you for Your Peace and Hope which strengthens me for the journey of life.
4. Thank you for Providing me with Mentors, Supporters, Believers and Guides who can participate in Your leadership of my life.
5. Thank You for Life every day, good and bad, weak and strong, I know you foresee all evil and provide all good.   So thank you for the opportunity to choose every day to live in your presence and bring your vitality, love, and wisdom into my relationships with others as I follow your example.
6. Thank You for true love and for providing me in this life or in the next with a perfect match, lasting love, and eternal bliss.   Strengthen me for the walk toward faithful marriage today and everyday, to live not for myself but for others.
7. Thank You for every blessing, every skill, every insight, every opportunity, everything.   Remind me to give credit to you for all that you do and open my eyes ever more to see your presence and activity in my life and in the world around me.
8. Thank You for bringing me into a community of believers that gives strength when I am down, clarity when I am in doubt, hope when I am desolate.   May I come to see you more and more in each of their faces and may I strive to follow your example so that they might see your face in me.
9. Thank You for the love that you place in my heart — may it always be new so that with every challenge, every temptation, and every hard time I may choose to let my old life die and be replaced by your life in more and more ways every day of my life.
10. Thank You for life eternally new and happy, for faith which dispels fear, replacing it with peace and confidence in You.

All this we pray in Your name, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.