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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 about all
ministries (including the proverbial job of a cobbler or
a mother caring for her children) are blessed holy service to
the Lord. We don’t only 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 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 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 I 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.
----
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
* 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.
* 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
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