THE PRIEST FOR ALL BELIEVERS

Hebrews 5: 1-10

Sometimes I think Presbyterians, along with other Protestant Christians, (and from what I hear even Roman Catholic Christians) have taken much of the holy out of worship for the sake of informality and for the sake of church growth. For example, some of my friends who have attended Roman Catholic masses have complained about the poor attire for worship, not from people who are poor, but from those who don’t come in nice clothing. Many of their choirs no longer wear robes, and some priest’s sermons seem more like fireside chats, so I am told. But on the Protestant front, especially non-denominational churches, some have done away with the cross of Christ, and stained glass windows are omitted, and sometimes there are no windows at all, some to keep prying eyes away, and some to allow darkness for their digital quality videos and projections. Worship centers have movie theatre screens, movie theatre sound, and movie theatre seats. For some worship services, even in Presbyterian Churches, food is served during worship. Money for a grand pipe organ gets channeled instead into state of the art sound boards and keyboards. “Come as you are” attracts more to services than the ones when many of us grew up, where we had “church clothes,” “play clothes,” and “school clothes.” For years, more people have attended the Drive in Christian Church just north of us, some in pajamas or bathing suits, or with pets, or certainly with legitimate mobility challenges for some. I wonder if, for the sake of growth at all costs, churches have failed to teach that worship is a holy event, an encounter with God, historically unlike the encounters one can have in the car, or the beach or at home. I know these words may bother some especially whose most powerful spiritual experiences have been somewhere besides a church, or a church camp, or a mission trip. But those are where mine have been. I am so impressed that our church custodian for 21 years, Donald Coleman who, having done his weekday work in a uniform or “work clothes,” comes to do his work on Sundays, along with his lovely wife, Elsie, AFTER their own all day church service where he is a deacon. He dresses like he’s going to the wedding of Jesus every Sunday: dignified black suits, dashing violet ones, and stunning white suits with tails and she in beautiful church dresses. He tells me he has to “put on his best for his Master.” And I well up with tears. That is not to say that services should be the white glove affairs of some historical churches of means. Holy space need not be costly; but those who prepare to meet God, from the time of the Temple until now, come having washed their face, their hands, and with stained souls, willing to repent and have them washed clean through Christ. The Great High Priest of the Table and of the Earth and of the Heavens is the one who both is our host and also sheds his blood for us to make us clean. Like our last hymn today will state: Christ is “both Priest AND victim in the Eucharistic feast.”

Today it is the title of Priest, the traditional role of a priest, the identity of our Great High Priest, and what Presbyterians do with the idea of a priest with which we shall concern ourselves. The idea of a priest is as old as the Old Testament, where we learn the name of the mysterious High Priest Melchizedek, priest of Salem (Jerusalem), who offered bread and wine to Abram in Genesis 14. In Jerusalem in the days of Jesus, the center of the Temple where the Ark of the Covenant was housed could only be approached on select holy days by a High Priest after he used water for purification and incense for pleasing God. He was the only one who could enter. A sense of holiness and a little fear permeated the Holy of holy area. Out from that area was the holy place and surrounding it was the priest’s court, where no one but priests could enter. Priests were the ones charged with offering the sins and thanksgivings of the people before God. In that court was an altar, and back from it was the court of the Jewish men who, in those days, could get closer than the Jewish women; their courtyard was next closest, and finally was the court of the Gentiles. When Isaiah had the vision of an angel saying “Holy, Holy, Holy,” he may have envisioned this holiest of sites, he imagined Heaven, but the holiest place on earth was the Center of the Temple. When a High Priest entered the chamber, then lit incense, and torches, exposing the carved wood Ark containing the tablets of the 10 Commandments, I can imagine thoughts like “How awesome is this place; it is none other than the house of God!” Is that how you feel when come to worship, even just a little bit? Try it Christmas Eve night, or Maundy Thursday. Although I didn’t feel it in St. Peter’s in Rome when I visited there or even in Westminster Abbey in London, I did feel something (Was it God’s Spirit?) in York Minster Cathedral in England and in Salisbury Cathedral; but I also felt it in a little wooden church on the top of a hill in Kuna, Hawaii, called the Painted Church, with the ceiling and walls hand painted by missionaries with scenes from the Bible so people every Sunday would remember the salvation stories. I have felt him at All Saints Lutheran Church in Port Orange attending one of the “Music for Healing” services. I have felt him when “I’ve come to the (Memorial) garden alone while the dew (was) still on the roses.” And when I sit here in our sanctuary or in our Rose Chapel on a silent night or at the break of dawn, I feel him there too. Holiness; somehow our lives are missing it.

As the church began to be established in Rome, a succession of priests was established and the altar area of a cathedral was declared off limits to all but the priests or altar boys. The sense of the holiness of the altar, holding the body and blood of Christ, made it mysterious and powerful. And so by the power of Christ, it is taught that the Great High priest himself is mysteriously represented by human priests who perform the Catholic sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, Penance, Holy Matrimony, Extreme Unction (known as Last Rights), Holy Orders (Ordination), and Confirmation. Protestants fully believe that there are just two sacraments: Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, but we can err on the side of stripping too much from our worship space and making it feel like a theatre or a social hall. Can anyone miss the fact that this is a place of worship? In some worship places, perhaps out of the necessity being a multi-purpose space, I believe people can lose the sense of the holy. Perhaps as we notice refracted light coming through a stained glass window; or feel the goose bumps from a 16 foot pedal stop on the king instruments; or see a tear in the eye of a neighbor moved by a sermon or hymn or a moving thought; or as silence brings us to a more profound “Alleluia;” we can recover the holy.

A child once asked if I were a priest. When I said I was a minister, she asked “What’s the difference?” In Biblical times Jews had Priests, and in our day by and large, Roman Catholics and Episcopalians can be ordained to the priesthood. But Christian ministers usually describe their work with three roles: Prophet, that means to preach and teach; Priest: that means to make people aware of God’s presence and God’s comfort in services like weddings, funerals, baptisms, and communions; and Pastor; which means one who guides, tends, and bandages the flock. For more than a hundred years many Protestants have truncated the priestly role, granting it largely to our higher church brothers and sisters. But people hunger for the holy: for silence, for communion, and some for oil, for candles, and a few for incense. The book of Hebrews brings us, the readers, into an experience of awe in the presence of Christ; Hebrews lifts up the priestly role, not just of ordained ministers, but of all ministers, each of you who do Christ-like things, when you offer bread, or a beverage, or a blanket, or a blessing to others who are seeking Him. Be Him for others; show Christ to others; take “What Would Jesus Do?” and treat it as a Commission. Live out being “the priesthood of all believers.” May the recovery of holy work bring you closer to the Holy One, the One who even now lets those who are aware, feel the brush of angel’s wings.

Jeffrey A. Sumner October 22, 2006