"What's a Royal Priest?"
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A
1 Peter 2:2-10
April 20, 2008
Rich Futrell, Pastoral Candidate
Note: "Call Day" is Tuesday, two days away. As I was asked to preach for a
pastor who has undergone surgery, I am sending out this sermon to see how this
sermon e-mail list actually works!
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Intro
The truth hurts, because it exposes the dark underbelly of our lives. The
truth hurts because it tells us what we don’t want to hear. Who wants to
hear--that from our own worthiness and efforts--we are worthless before God,
and no better than a thug or rapist? Who wants to hear that even the best we
have to offer only digs us deeper in debt and closer to eternal death? And so
deeper and deeper we go, ever falling and even cursing God for our own
failings. That’s the truth; that’s the truth without Jesus.
Main Body
This scouring truth was no different for God’s people in the Old Testament.
And so back than, when a man was set aside to approach God’s presence on earth,
to become a priest, he somehow had to be made holy enough to approach God
without burning into a cinder. And so when a man was placed into the
priesthood, something special had to be done. And it was. Blood was taken
from a sacrificed ram and smeared on his right ear, his right hand, and his
right foot. Then blood was taken from the altar and sprinkled over him and his
priestly garments.
What was with the bloody ritual? That sacrificed blood on the priest pointed
forward to Christ’s sacrifice for sin. And because of that, that ram’s blood
made that man holy and fit to enter God’s presence. He could only enter God’s
presence because Christ’s holiness reached backward in time and covered and
cleansed the man chosen as a priest.
But today, the Apostle Peter tells us that all Christians are Royal
Priests--not just a few, selected ones. Yet even today, God still clothes His
priests in priestly garments. St. Paul says, “For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Your priestly
garment is Christ Himself.
Even in the Old Testament, God the Holy Spirit had to clothe the priest in an
external righteousness--and that righteousness and purity was Christ’s, not his
own. The Book of Exodus tells us that the Old Testament priests could not even
enter God’s presence without wearing their priestly garments. If they did,
they would die (Exodus 29:39-43).
So it is with us today, God’s Royal Priests. We don’t appear before God
wearing our own broken righteousness--not if we want to live. To come into
God’s presence wearing the stained garments of our own righteousness will only
bring us death. But with Christ, it’s a different story--a story not of death,
but of life.
The Holy Spirit washes and makes us holy with Jesus’ own holiness (1
Corinthians 6: 11). That’s what God the Holy Spirit does to us in baptism,
which Scripture calls “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy
Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
In the Old Testament, Priests made sacrifices for the sins of the people. They
slaughtered male animals that looked perfect and spotless. That’s because
these animals pointed forward to the supreme sacrifice of the perfect and
spotless Messiah to come: Jesus Christ. The priest would then take slaughtered
blood and sprinkle it on the people. That blood not only pointed to the
Messiah to come, but it also took Jesus’ forgiveness from the Cross and forgave
the people through the blood of the sacrificed animal.
Yes, it’s true the truth hurts. But the truth also heals. And here’s how.
Jesus Christ was THE priest before God. He offered what only He could do: He
offered Himself as the sacrifice for sin, for you and for me, in our place.
Only He could that. Christ’s sacrifice was so holy and so absolute that we
can’t add anything to it. Even to suggest that we could, robs from Christ,
mocking Him to be less than the God He is. When Jesus said on the cross, “It
is finished,” He was serious. It was finished.
Today, we are on the other side of the cross from God’s Old Testament people.
Christ’s sacrifice for us is a past event, a done deal. There no longer
remains a sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:26). Jesus makes us royal priests
through His priestly sacrifice. That’s why Christians as New Testament priests
don’t offer sacrifices for sins. That would be stupid. Why would we do that?
Jesus has already done it all!
So the sacrifices we make are different from the Old Testament priests. That’s
why Peter says we are “living sacrifices.” For we offer and pour out our lives
because of Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross. We serve God by serving our
neighbor, proclaiming the praises of God who called us out of darkness. Our
sacrifices of word and deed flow from--and because of--Christ’s sacrifice for
us.
But how do we live this “living sacrifice” of our bodies? The Apostle James
says it this way: our living sacrifice is doing stuff like “looking after
orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the
world” (James 1:27). Yes, being a living sacrifice is that earthy--it’s loving
God by serving others.
So cast away the secret idea that lurks in your heart that your everyday works
are somehow not as pleasing to God as what the pastor does. That’s a lie from
Satan. God has given us all holy things to do where He has placed us in our
lives. Are you a garbage man? Then proclaim the praises of God who called you
out of darkness as a garbage man. Are you a mother or grandmother? Then
proclaim the praises of God who called you out of darkness as a mother or
grandmother. That’s what it means to be a priest in the Royal Priesthood.
You see, we don’t create our own holiness--not if we’re going to be part of
God’s Royal Priesthood. If we’re going to be part of God’s Royal Priesthood,
then Jesus has to give us His holiness. Hebrews 13:12 puts it this way: Jesus
“suffered . . . to sanctify the people through His own blood.”
If Jesus has sanctified you and made you holy, that means you are a living
saint. But you are only a saint because Jesus shares His own holiness with
you. And because you have Jesus’ holiness given to you, you can focus your
life outwardly, toward others. That’s how we “offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
These spiritual sacrifices embrace all we do in love toward others flowing from
faith in Christ. It’s not just what you do in church, as if we could
compartmentalize our Christian lives. As Peter also wrote, “Live such good
lives among the pagans that, that when they accuse you of doing wrong, they may
see your good deeds and glorify God” (1 Peter 2:12).
That’s why all that we do from true faith in God is holy and acceptable to Him.
You don’t need some special “ministry” to get in good with God--that’s what
Jesus did for you. If you are a husband or father, be faithful to what God has
given you to do. If you are an employee, work honestly for your wages. If
you a homemaker, then care for your husband and love your children. For you
are God’s priest brought into His Royal Priesthood. And that is what God has
given you to do and be.
As priests brought into the Royal Priesthood, God calls us “saints,” that is
holy ones (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2). God has called us in holiness (1
Thessalonians 4:7) and has chosen us to be holy in Christ (Ephesians 1:4). His
will for us is our entire sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3; 5:23). Peter
says this, in the verse that follows the Epistle reading for today: “Dear
friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from fleshly desires
that war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). Yes, you and I have a call from
our God to be holy as even He is holy (1 Peter 1:15).
And that’s the rub. Although Christ’s sacrifice is finished and a done deal
for us, we don’t live that way--we don’t live pure and holy lives because of
it! We fail because our faith is weak. We live our lives like we matter most,
giving God our leftovers. Such shame! We give to God when it’s convenient,
not perfectly and fully like Christ gave to us.
But here’s where the pastor lives out his God-given priestly vocation. For
when we see how we fail, our failings drive us back to Christ. And so we come
here to meet Him in His Word, in His body and blood, through the hand of those
whom God has placed to deliver His forgiving gifts for us. Then the
forgiveness of sins God pours out on us in His Divine Service restores us anew
to the callings that God has given us to do. But then our failures in living
out our callings bring us back here again and again, here to drink in Jesus’
forgiveness of sins for us.
That’s the enduring rhythm between life and worship, between liturgy and
vocation, between the Divine Service and our callings, between pastor and
people. Served with Christ’s gifts from the hands of His under-shepherd, God
sends us back into the world to live sacrificially as his Royal Priesthood.
For we can’t live as God’s priests by our own energies or holiness. If so,
we’d be goners from the start. No, this is a life lived out because of what
Jesus has done--and does--for us. It’s a life that is lived out, daily
returning to our baptisms, when we turn from our sins and return to Christ in
faith. It’s a life that Jesus upholds in us through His Holy Spirit,
nourishing us with His words and with His body and blood.
Know this: The Royal Priesthood is from God as much as the Pastoral Office is.
Being a priest is as important as being a pastor. For one is not above the
other. God has simply given us different tasks to do. That’s all. Pastors
are here to preach God’s Word and give out His Sacraments. That’s why a
congregation calls a pastor. If a pastor doesn’t do that, he fails in His
God-given calling.
You as a Royal Priest flourish when your pastor is doing what Christ has given
him to do. The pastor doesn’t decide what he wants to do. Jesus has already
decided for him. The pastor is to disciple by baptizing and teaching (Matthew
28:19-20), oversee the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11), forgive and retain
sins (John 20:23), and preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Luke
24:46). That’s what Jesus has given each pastor to do.
As the Apostle Paul wrote: The pastor is not Lord over the congregation (2
Corinthians 1:24). But neither is the congregation Lord over the pastor
(Galatians 1). That’s because pastor and priest, and shepherd and sheep, all
live under the one Lord who has made them one in Him.
You are here for God to give you His gifts--and then live out what God has
given you to do. Whatever your callings, and they may be many--garbage man,
doctor, lawyer, farmer, husband, wife, son, daughter--it matters not. No
calling makes you superior or inferior to another Christian, or to the pastor.
God has called all the baptized of His Church to serve each other. And you
live out this reality in the vocations where God has placed you, proclaiming
the praises of God who called you out of darkness.
Conclusion
What glorious and splendid callings God has given you to live out in His Royal
Priesthood. Fret no more over your sins, wondering if God has forgiven them.
He has! That’s why your sacrifices are not for your sins, but to serve others
in word and deed, in thanksgiving and praise to God. Yes, Jesus has killed
your sins on the cross. And so dear Royal Priest and saint of God, go in His
forgiveness and peace to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of
darkness. Amen.
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