What am I doing?
I’m a pastor. In many churches there’s not really anything a pastor couldn’t do that someone out in the congregation couldn’t do. A pastor preaches, teaches, counsels, leads, etc. If he wasn’t there, someone else could fill in.
But I’m also a priest. And there are certain things that could not be done if I weren’t there. If I wasn’t there, you couldn’t have the Lord’s Table, baptism, forgiveness of sins, a blessing at the end of the service, or even a marriage. You need a priest for that stuff. Without me, you’d barely be able to have a normal church service.
So, do I have special priest powers that you don’t have?
Zap! . . . Blessed!
Zap! . . . Eucharist!
Zap! . . . Baptized!
What’s going on here? Who am I? Who are you?
You are called the laity or lay-people. And that has tended to put a big separation between you and I. Between clerics and laity. I’m way up here and you’re way over there. But one writer reminds us that laity comes from the Greek word, “laos.” It means people.
Laity really means, “The people of God,” priest and people alike. Yet, if we use the word lay-person, we often mean a difference between pros and amateurs. For example, if you’re a lay person at physics, then your an amateur. But that’s not its original intention. It was meant to speak of all of us. You and I together.
So, again, what am I doing? Do I have special rights and privileges given to me by God and if you want them you have to come through me to get them? Is that what it is? Am I just like a holy version of a drug dealer? You want the good stuff, you’ve got to go through me to get it.
When Christ came what did he show us? That true priesthood is to give yourself over to others in love.
Are we different, you and I? No. So . . . why are you paying me to do this job? Maybe you could do it yourselves!!!
Ah!!!! But that’s precisely it! Someday you will!
What am I? I am for you an example of what is to come and where all is moving. That is my calling. I am not called to be above or beyond you. I am called to be you.
And I tremble at that calling. Who am I to be an example of true and godly living to you? It requires all my attention and effort. But in that also is an example for us all: you too are called to work out out salvation with fear and trembling. What I present to you and what I am: it is the movement of each of us, someday.
Each of us has a job. None of them will last forever. Not even mine. But for now, my job is to show you what the job of each of us is and will be. I have been called to show not what is different about us. I have been called to show what is emerging among us.
The Laity. Priest and People. The People of God.
Tom+