"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9
I am a Protestant, so I am told.
In reality, I much prefer the term "disciple" or "follower of Jesus" rather than Protestant. I'm not really protesting anything, so I think it just sounds weird. I realize where it came from historically, but right now I am not protesting anything....sort of.
Martin Luther, this cool German who was tapped as the leader of the Protestant Reformation, was definitely protesting some stuff. I won't enumerate all that he was protesting (and probably could not, though I could read his 95 Theses that got plastered to the Wittenburg Castle Gate in October, 1517), but just know it was more than one thing under protest. Big theological issues related to the Catholic Church were at the center of this heated exchange (stuff like the selling of indulgences, purgatory, and probably most notably, justification by faith alone).
One subset of that great controversy was the idea of the priesthood of all believers. This was simply a Biblical rethinking of the idea that the "priest" was the only one who could broker deals between people and God (this is way too general, and does not do justice to the actual doctrine of the Catholic position of that time, but for time I weaned it down, and dumbed it down). This was worth arguing about because the NT saw a different role than that of just a few priests - it seemed to indicate that all the people of God are a royal priesthood (as noted above).
So, Protestants have valued this doctrine dearly, and rightly so. But, unfortunately, I think that the doctrine itself is in need of some fundamental rethinking again. It seems that many of us Westerners (term used globally) have culturized this doctrine to mean something less than it does. Here is how it goes: Westerners believe so strongly in the idea of the priesthood of the believer, and have married it to the rugged individualism inherent in our culture, that we now have somewhat of a Lone Ranger for Jesus mentality. "All I need is just me and Jesus", "Jesus plus me makes a majority" and all of those other ridiculously shallow excuses for auto art are what we end up with. I somehow don't think that is what Mr. Luther had in mind.
As a good Protestant, then, I feel the need to protest about this (actually, I'm not protesting....I'm just typing stuff into my computer; and, I am not a good Protestant........I don't even like that word.......I think it sounds stupid, kinda like Worstershire sauce). What I think we miss is WHY we are a royal priesthood. Not that I have it completely figured out, but here are two offerings:
1. We are a royal priesthood so that we can have access to grow in Christlikeness unhindered. If you and I "practiced our priesthood" we would be growing in our knowledge and application of the Scripture, and would thus be more conformed to the image of Christ. A very good thing, eh?
2. We are a royal priesthood so that we can be priests for one another. This idea is simply the backlash to the idea that we are lone ranger priests. If we are growing in Christlikeness (see #1 if you have already forgotten), then we will be ministering to, encouraging, challenging, and praying for one another. In other words, I can act as a priest for you, and you for me. It is WE who are a royal priesthood, not simply I.
So there you go. Protest complete. I will put my sign away now that says (in sweet, nectar filled Napolean Dynamite intonation), "Your mom sells indulgences."
