An Episcopal priest writing about priesthood is no big deal. And even when the distinction is made between the priest/elder (prebyteros) which is what I am, and the priest/hieros which describes both the Levitical priesthood and the priesthood of Christ, it seems an esoteric topic with little relevance to most Christians, much less most human beings. However, as asserted in my earlier posts on the priesthood of Adam, the priestliness of our humanity is something we cannot renounce for it is at the very core of our identity and purpose. The topic is relevant to all human beings regardless of faith or lack of faith.
If human beings are intended to be priestly creatures then the history of humanity in the world is evidence that there is a problem with our priesthood. We exercise our priesthood the way our encounters with the world give meaning in building and blessing. We also exercise our priesthood the way our encounters with the world rob meaning by destroying and cursing. What we build we find easy to destroy. But what we destroy is hard to heal or rebuild and sometimes beyond our best efforts. It appears our priesthood is powerless against the reality of Sin. Can there be an alternative?
This is obviously a rhetorical question. The short answer is that Jesus has inaugurated a new priesthood. It is a priesthood in which the priest takes on the consequences of our damaged Adamic priesthood, offers himself, and then surviving that offering transfigures our damaged priesthood as part of a new creation. That sounds quite lovely and very hopeful but tells us little about how we are to live in this broken and benighted world. If there is substance to be found in this new priesthood that can be accessed and deployed by ordinary apprentices of Jesus then we need to understand what that new priesthood is and what it is not.
It is much easier to address the negative than the positive. The priesthood of Jesus is neither a magic bullet nor a magic wand. Even the in world of Harry Potter, magic is unable to address the fundamental illness in the heart of our Adamic priesthood. One of my favorite themes from N.T. Wright asserts that when God wants to bring justice to our human mess He doesn’t send in the tanks – He sends in the poor in spirit, the meek, the ones whose hunger for righteousness is a burning ache and a desperate thirst for the healing of the world. But that’s not it either.
The priesthood of Christ is not a status conferred or a gift given. Rather it is what St. Paul struggles to articulate in much of his writing – it is being “in Christ.” The priesthood of Christ is Christ’s alone. If we are to wield that priesthood in our world it is only because we are in Christ and Christ, therefore, is in us.
How that works is the topic I’ll be taking up next.
The Apprentice Priest 