“Because you have rejected knowledge,
    I also reject you as my priests”
Hosea 4:6 (NIV)

As I have continued to read and study the Great Story over my lifetime, I’ve come to the realization that I can’t truly understand or appreciate what God is doing unless I understand the concept of being a priest.

The concept of being a priest is one who spiritually stands in the gap between God and others. A priest is a go-between, a representative, and a spiritual conduit. If I look at how the priesthood works in the institutional church, the priest is the one who presides over the rites and sacraments. In the Roman tradition, it is through the priest that absolution for sin is granted; The priest being the conduit between the penitent and God, through which forgiveness flows.

But I find the concept of the “priesthood” far more expansive in God’s point-of-view than the narrow definition the institutional church has made it out to be. When God initiated His covenant with Abraham, He told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations through which “all the nations of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 18:18). When God led the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt, gave them the Law, and established them as a nation He called them “a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). In the early Jesus Movement, Peter wrote to his fellow believers and said:  “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:8) In John’s Revelation, he sees people of every tribe, nation, and language and is told that Jesus has “made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God.” (Revelation 5:10)

In each of these instances the priesthood is not a special ecclesiastical position held by a few educated and appointed men. Throughout the Great Story, God refers to the priesthood in terms of an entire group of people beginning with the Hebrew nation and then, through Jesus, expanding it to the spiritual nation of believers of every tribe, nation, and tongue.

This is not a small matter of definition. It gets to the heart of what God has always been doing, is currently doing, and will continue to do: Establishing an entire collective of people who will be a conduit through which those who are strangers to God can find their way to God.

In today’s chapter, God through Hosea tells the people of Israel that He is rejecting them, collectively, “as my priests.” Once again, God views the entire nation of Hebrews as His priests, not just the sons of Aaron and Levites who performed the rituals in the Temple.

When the Jesus Movement became the Holy Roman Empire in the fourth century, a change slowly took place in which the organism of the church became the organization known as the Church. The spiritual Jesus movement became a human empire, the most powerful political and religious institution in the western world. With it, the priesthood was transformed into an exclusive position for educated (or connected) men controlled by the institution. This paradigm was perpetuated through the centuries, even by the plethora of protestant denominations after the Reformation. It is still the pervasive paradigm, though I sense the winds of change shifting as the institutions have imploded during my lifetime.

In the quiet this morning, I am reminded that as a believer and follower of Jesus, I am a priest in the royal priesthood made up of all believers. Just as God called Hosea to be a living lesson as I described in yesterday’s post, God calls every follower of Jesus to live as priests – those who daily live in such a way that God’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control are evident to all through my life, words, relationships, and actions.

Throughout history, I’ve observed that the institutional church has separated every day believers from those in the institution’s clergy. We’ve made different spiritual “classes.” The clergy have all the spiritual power, authority, and responsibility, while the every day members and believers are, by-and-large, stripped of any spiritual power, authority, or responsibility. This was never God’s paradigm. As a disciple of Jesus, I am gifted, empowered, called, and responsible to be a priest, a living lesson. As Jesus put it, I am to live in such a way that others might “see my good works, and glorify my Father in heaven.”

And so, I enter another day, endeavoring to fulfill my role as a member of the royal priesthood of all believers.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.