A Kingdom of Priests

Today we come to a passage which invites us to see our role in the world as those who proclaim the good news of what God is doing in the world. In the mission statement of our church, Grace Chicago, we put it this way: we are here to the seek the good of individuals and the welfare of the city by embracing the good news of God's redemptive promise.

In Peter's call to us to live this way he hearkens back to the promise of God in the OT, to make his people a priestly kingdom, a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6). Previously in this letter Peter has been echoing and citing lots of Old Testament imagery. In the opening of the letter, Peter takes the imagery of Israel in exile and offers it to his audience as the canvas upon which God has portrayed their identity in Christ. In 1:16, he challenges his audience to live out God's challenge to his people in Leviticus 19, to be holy because God is holy, by loving one another deeply from the heart; so the OT exhortation comes home as the command finds its fulfillment in the lives of those who are learning to love as as Christ loves. And, in the text before us now (1 Peter 2: 9-10, which echoes Exodus 19:6), he invites us to think about our relationship to God as those who are his priests for one another, and, as the church, for the whole world. In all of these OT citations and echos, it is as if Peter is taking imagery from the OT and using it to design a set for a play. The visuals are now in place but the images can only be seen for what they are; and the play can only come to life when Christ performs in the midst, and when we participate in his performance.

We considered on Sunday what we ought to learn from this teaching - what are we to make of our calling to be a kingdom of priests. The first thing we noted: the vector of God's heart is pointed towards others so that he wants all of those who have tasted of his love to desire also to bring this good news to others. We are to be priests to others. We are to help others know the same love that we have experienced from God. How we are to do this, though, makes a big difference. Here are two points that we made regarding how we are to approach our priestly mode with those outside of the Christian faith.

* Every relationship should be dialogical. We should embrace Christ's rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, as our guide to inter-faith dialog. At God's heart is the desire to be in dialog and relationship with his divine image bearers, regardless of how much or how little his conversation partners desire. God's love is always ready to talk and to listen. This approach is in the heart of God.
* We are called to be witnesses of the truth - not to imagine ourselves to be those who own the truth or prosecute the truth. Here is the theologian Richard Bauckham: " It is the very nature of Christian truth that it cannot be enforced. Coerce belief and you destroy belief and turn the truth believed into a lie. Truth must be claimed in a way appropriate to the content of the truth.... The image the Bible itself often suggests is that of witness..... Witness is non-coercive. It has no power but the convincingness of the truth to which it witnesses. Witnesses are not expected, like lawyers, to persuade by the rhetorical power of their speeches, but simply to testify to the truth for which they are qualified to give evidence. But to be adequate witness to the truth of God and the world, witness must be a lived witness involving the whole of life and even death. And as such it can show itself to be not self-serving (Richard Bauckham, Bible and Mission)."



In summary: when thinking of how we are to proclaim God's love to those outside the Christian community we quickly think about questions of method. Perhaps this is the wrong place to start. Just maybe we should think first of our identity with Christ and then let our way with others flow out of that identity. Miroslav Volf talks in this way about Christian identity in relationship to those who do not share our faith: "To be a Christian means to live one’s own identity in the face of others in such a way that one joins inseparably the belief in the truth of one’s own convictions with a respect for the convictions of others. The softness which should characterize the very being of Christians — I am tempted to call it “ontic gentleness” — must not be given up even when we are (from our own perspective) persuaded that others are either wrong or evil. To give up the softness of our difference would be to sacrifice our identity as followers of Jesus Christ. (Earlier in the same essay, "Soft Difference", Volf says "gentleness is not a mere survival strategy..... .... a missionary method. Rather, the soft difference is the missionary side of following in the footsteps of the crucified Messiah".)

1. As you think about being a witness to the truth instead of a prosecutor of the truth what is your first visceral response to this notion? Relief, fear, anxiety, guilt, fill in the blank. What might you learn from identifying this initial visceral response?

2. Are you good at being in dialog with others who do not share your views about Christ? What can give rise to a good dialog about God, Christ and the gospel? What can keep it from happening or kill it as soon as it begins?

3. When you think of being a witness to the truth of the gospel do you think of this in terms of moral achievement, of humble service towards others? What are some things that come to mind when you think of what it might mean to be a faithful witness? Does Bauckham's discussion help you think of a good measure for what a faithful witness is?