Priesthood of all believers and confession of sins
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:date: 1970-01-01T00:00:00
:status: draft
:category: faith
:tags: theology, priesthood, luther
One of the unifying characteristics of the Protestant church (or
at least most of the Protestant church) is the doctrine of “the
priesthood of all believers”. Originally the idea comes
indirectly from Martin Luther, although he never used this exact
phrase.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the
excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light.
— 1. Peter 2:9 ESV
This doctrine has two substantial parts: one oriented towards
ourselves and the other one oriented towards others. [#]_
Firstly, it means that every Christian is allowed through the
Blood of Christ (and only then) to stand on his own in front of
God and “to boldly access the Throne of Grace” (He 4:16).
Contrary to some other denominations (and especially contrary to
non-Christian religions), Protestants don’t see the need of a
special consecrated person to mediate the access to God. This
part is generally known, understood and lived in the most of
Protestant Churches I know about.
.. [#] There is also a third, perhaps the most important part of
the doctrine: meaning that there is no need of the further
priestly sacrifice, because the one of the Jesus Christ
himself is sufficient; however, this is mostly irrelevant to
the topic of this article.
There is however also the other part. We believe that there is no
separate group of Christians who are responsible for serving
others, but we believe that potentially all Christians are
allowed to serve others as priests. Yes, “[…] all things should
be done decently and in order” (1 Co 14:40), and yes, I do not
undervalue the value of education and training for the particular
kind of ministry, so there is obviously value in congregations
being led by the trained professional ministers who are appointed
to their office according to the rules of the particular
denomination. But all Christians have at least the potential to
minister to others, and it is absolutely appropriate to do so in
positions where we have the authority to do so. For example, all
parents should be priests to their families, or leaders to the
small groups they lead. And yes, obviously, we all are
responsible to educate ourselves and seek the training which
would help us to fulfill this authority well.
I think that we in PCF do better in this priesthood than others in
some areas. I really like how all members of PCF are called to
serve others through the Lord’s Supper. We are also often
encouraged to serve others in a very priestly ministry of
intercession (which very word is derived from the position of
a priest standing in between the prayee and the God). It is
a very special ministry and we should use its blessings more both
as ministers as well as those who are prayed for.
However, still there are more ministries where we are called to
serve and where we can use the benefits of such ministry. One
particular I would like to mention now is the ministry of
confession (or as The Catholics call it “The Sacrament of
Reconciliation”). In James 5:13-20 we read:
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone
cheerful? Let him sing praise. // Is anyone among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. //
And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and
the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he
will be forgiven. // Therefore, confess your sins to one
another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The
prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is
working. // Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he
prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years
and six months it did not rain on the earth. // Then he
prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its
fruit. // My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the
truth and someone brings him back, // let him know that
whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his
soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
I quoted this a bit lengthy passage not only because the two
separate ministries (confession and prayers for sick) are somehow
meshed together and hard to separate. However, although I
strictly reject the idea that the sickness is the punishment of
the sin, still I see sickness as a good reminder for us to get
our spiritual house in order when we are putting together back in
shape our physical body. I am always reminded about this idea
that sickness is an opportunity of healing when reading a bit
obscure story from the Old Testament:
In the thirty-ninth year of his reign [king] Asa was diseased
in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his
disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from
physicians. // And **so** Asa slept with his fathers, dying
in the forty-first year of his reign.
— 2Par 16:12-13 (ESV, modified according to the Czech
translation)
And having this text about confession of sins in the middle of
the passage about healing seems to somehow support this idea as
well. Certainly, I do not believe that a sickness is meant by the
LORD God as a punishment for our sins, but I still I cannot
resist the idea that some link exists.
When we got through this introduction, let us turn now to the
confession of sins itself. Whereas healing for the sick (in this
passage, there are other passages about general prayer for sick)
is specifically limited to the elders of the church, the Bible
here is completely silent on any limits on the confessor.
Apparently, any Christian can act as a confessor. However, I
would still put a little of limits on choice of such person.
First of all, there is I believe a general rule that the measure
of the legitimate authority in other’s life is relative to the
depth of relationship there is. Particularly in this case, it is
good if the confessor is somebody who knows us well. Perhaps not
directly husband or wife (they are usually to entangled in the
issue of their spouse) but perhaps somebody who can have some
level of knowledge of our inner life, who can be living reminder
of our struggle in the following weeks, and even better is
somebody who knows about our struggle already. So, it is better
in my idea to have one long term person as the confessor of
choice. [*]_
.. [*] It reminds me of the institute of Anam Cara (soul friend)
in the Old Irish Church. I am a bit fuzzy on what it
actually meant (and there may be some pagan part in it),
but it seems to me that it could be useful to investigate
and if possible to re-purpose this institute for the
confessional ministry.
x
* the other side of the priestly ministry is our intercession being in place of the prayed for in front of the God
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We can claim that the sins are forgiven because of the promise of the Scripture:
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to
you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. //
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in
darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. // But if we
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us
from all sin. // If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. // *If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.* // If we say we have
not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
— 1 John 1:5-10
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TODO:
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* technology: listen to the confession as if it was confessed to the God (in place of God)
* declare forgiveness
These two are the only **mandatory** parts of the ministry. Everything else is optional, if the Spirit leads us.
* listen for and deliver any word from God
* NO ADVICE!!! We are not qualified and it is not the right place even if we were.
* secret of the confessional!!! (there is a question of the possible confessed crimes and duty to report to the police, but I think we can ignore it here)
* it may be possible to consult the situation with other person (wife, pastor, counselor), but in such case ONLY WITH PRELIMINARY EXPRESSED permission FOR EACH CASE from the confessing brother.
* anybody can be a confessor, but it is better to have somebody fixed for a longer time; somebody, who is trustworthy, trained, wise? (however, with the only minimal confession, nearly anybody can serve)
* a 2008 poll by Georgetown’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate found that 45 percent of American Catholics report never taking part in Reconciliation. (cited by http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/07/uber-but-for-penance)
