Priesthood of all believers and confession of sins ################################################## :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 God and the other one oriented towards others. [#]_ We will deal in this article only with the first one: 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) not only for himself but for others as well. Contrary to some other denominations (and especially contrary to many non-Christian religions), Protestants don’t see the need of a special consecrated person to mediate the access to God. We do not believe that there is a 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. .. [#] The other part of the doctrine of the universal priesthood of all believers is not about all Christians serving as intermediaries between people and the God, but the notion that all ministries (including the proverbial job of a cobbler or a mother caring for her children) are blessed holy service to the Lord. Not only, we don’t need priests for the sacramental service, but we all are priests in whatever service we are called upon, because the Kingdom of God which should be the focus and goal of all our Christian activity, does not happen only in the church on Sunday, but everyday anywhere Christians show up. There is perhaps 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. I think that we in PCF do better in this priesthood than many other churches. 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 in the priestly position. One particular ministry 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) What I read in these verses is not that his sickness was caused by his sin, but that his sickness (and perhaps every sickness?) is an opportunity and encouragement for us to seek the Lord, to go over our issues, to use available free time (as much as the sickness permits us) for reconciliation. And having this text about confession of sins in the middle of the James’ 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 cannot resist the idea that some link between illness and being distant from the God exists. .. [#] And I do not think the lack of this Biblical ministry is limited only to Protestants. I believe Catholics has a lot work to do as well in this area: 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 Grayson Clary in “`Uber, But For Penance`_”) .. _`Uber, But For Penance`: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/07/uber-but-for-penance 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. It seems that any Christian can act as a confessor. However, I would still put a little of limits on the 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 too 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. [*]_ Which does not mean that if the need of confession arises and there is no close friend at hand, any Christian brother or sister is better than staying with our sin unreconciled. Just if this happens too often, I would question some level of unwillingness to be accountable. .. [*] 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. * 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) * Also of course somebody who routinely participates in the practice as a confessor, who asks for forgiveness of their sins themselves. ---- 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 ---- TODO: ===== * 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 * 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. * vyslechnout vyznání, jako by ho říkal Bohu * zvěstovat odpuštění pokud své viny vyznáváme, on je věrný, naše viny nám odpouští a očišťuje nás od všelikého hříchu * by Barbara Hall on Joan of Arcadia. You will never hear in the confession “Oh, don’t worry about it, it is not that bad.” or “You need to cut some slack to yourself.” Confession is done in the context of everybody trying to grow to their best and the sin is something which we need to get rid off by pulling it into the light. Also, it is not so much deciding whether it is good or bad, confessor has already decided that it was a sin and now he wants to get rid off it. Never comment on the confession (perhaps later you two can analyze it). * NO ADVICE!!! We are not qualified and it is not the right place even if we were.