My Dear Shepherds,
Early on, someone taught us pastoral protocols, like how to serve Communion, which side is the bride’s side at a wedding, or how to lead the pallbearers out at funerals. We learned homiletics, how to make hospital calls, and how to give a benediction.
We do something like that for our congregation because they are born again into a unique ministry role that requires our pastoral assistance.
. . . you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood . . .. (1 Pet. 2:5, 9)
Peter’s text was Exodus 19:5–6, where at Mt. Sinai the LORD charged Israel, “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Royal and priesthood are two words you wouldn’t expect to see together. Royalty suggests being born to privilege and rule, but priests are service providers attending to God and acting as his intermediaries with people. Both words suggest a unique status but in the Old Testament (which orients us to these things), no one could be both royalty and a Levitical priest. King Saul was doomed when he presumed to offer a priestly sacrifice. But now, here we are, doubly highborn, a royal priesthood.
Just as we had to learn those pastoral protocols, so we mentor our brothers and sisters in their priestly calling. We remind them that they’re dressed in blood-bleached white. We teach them to worship in Spirit and truth. We embolden them to stride through the torn curtain into the Holy of Holies. We challenge them to become living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. We gather them to sing from their hearts to the Lord. And we enlist them in interceding for one another and the advance of God’s kingdom.
Our royalty is unlike any this world has ever seen. The extraordinary privileges of our position—our bold access to the throne of God, our inestimable and incorruptible wealth, the crowns awaiting us—do not entitle us to lord it over others. Instead of a scepter, we’re given a basin and towel. Rather than reigning over others, we serve them. Our king “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.” Christ is not only His Royal Highness but also His Royal Lowness.
Which brings us again to our unique priesthood, the epitome of sacred service, both high and humble. Pastors help believers learn that everything they do, no matter how slavish it might seem, can be “working for the Lord, not for human masters . . .. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Eventually, our priestly service in heaven will carry us through all the far corners of the new creation, even to ruling angels and cities, but for now we craft altars from sinks, desks, and plows. We worship from nurseries, kitchen tables, and bedsides.
One more thing. Paul wrote,
[Christ Jesus] gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 15:16)
This priestly duty of evangelism is entrusted to each and all of us. It is our pastoral duty as well as the curriculum for our congregation. Priestly service takes many forms. Our prayers rise as incense before God. Our love for one another reflects the Trinity itself. Our songs echo the praises of heaven. But one sinner who repents stirs the Father’s deepest delight and sets all the angels of heaven singing.
Be ye glad!
