A Joke for You?

Did you hear the joke about Fr. Tom having a meeting with twenty people from our Church consisting of five women, five men, five kids, and five parish council members? The joke is: how many priests were in that meeting? The answer is twenty-one!

I bet that you are not laughing, and you might be thinking, "Do you even know what a joke is, Josh? That isn't a joke!" I agree with you. It is not a joke, so my question is, why do we live like it is a joke? We live like Fr. Tom is the only priest in the room, and maybe we have not realized that we all have a priestly role in our families, our communities, and in our Church. Did you know that when you were chrismated, you were anointed and ordained into ministry?

I keep hearing that there is a priest shortage in Orthodox Churches. On the one hand this is true because there are not enough ordained clergy for our parishes, but on the other hand, we should acknowledge that there is no priestly shortage because our churches are full of men, women, and children that are priests and just haven't realized it yet. I think the clergy crisis we are facing is not because seminaries aren't producing priests; it's because churches aren't producing priests.

So what does it mean that all Christians are priests? It would take a whole book to explore the Old Testament priesthood and Christ's fulfillment of it. To be brief, Jesus is the fulfillment of three roles. He is the fulfillment of the Prophet, Priest, and King roles foreshadowed in the Old Testament. We can vastly oversimplify and say that a priest connects people to God. A prophet brings God's word to the people, and a king seeks God's reign in everything on earth as it is in heaven. Each of these roles has important meanings in our lives today, but for now, let's zoom in on what St. Peter says about being priests.

In 1 Peter chapter 2, St. Peter calls all Christians priests twice. He writes, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy" (v. 9-10). Here St. Peter tells us that one of our jobs as priests is to proclaim our praise of God! Have you received His mercy? Is He calling you out of the darkness of sin and the fear of death and into His light? Then proclaim your praises of Him. Proclaim it in worship at church, in your prayers at home, and to the people all around you. They need His light and mercy too.

St. Peter also says that Christians are "a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (v. 5). St. Peter says right here that you and I, not just Fr. Tom, are called to offer spiritual sacrifices to God. In the book of Hebrews 13:15, it says that through Jesus we can offer a sacrifice of praise to God continually, so once again we are called to praise God and see that as a spiritual sacrifice. In the book of Romans, St. Paul says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship" (12:1). How amazing that our bodies, our very lives, are sacrifices to God!

As priests at Holy Apostles Orthodox Church, we are all called to help each other live out these words from St. Peter. This is not a joke! Jesus does not call us to believe in Him and then wait around to go to heaven someday. He does not call us to form a little club and then feel superior to other people. He calls us to begin living in heaven today as we praise Him and live out this royal and holy priesthood.

We are all called to a role in His purifying ministry and to helping one another be living sacrifices to Him. How is He calling you today? How can you live out your priestly role in our beautiful parish?

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 Originally published in the Holy Apostles E-bulletin. Subscribe here.