Deeper understandings Priesthood of all believers Reimagining universal priesthood as neighborliness of all believers
Editor’s note: This series is intended to be a public conversa- tion among teaching theologians of the ELCA on various themes of our faith and the challenging issues of our day. It invites readers to engage in dialogue by posting comments online at the end of each article at
www.thelutheran.org. The series is edited by Philip
D.W. Krey, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadel- phia, on behalf of the presidents of the eight ELCA seminaries.
By Craig L. Nessan N
o slogan from the Reformation has been more misunderstood and less implemented in the
life of the Lutheran church than the “priesthood of all believers.” Whereas Martin Luther sought to activate the baptized as the primary ministers in service to the world in daily life, the retention of the term “priesthood” to describe this min- istry has misled the church in its fundamental understanding of the nature of ministry.
The choice of “priesthood” to
describe Christian vocation as given to all the baptized perpetuates a cler-
ical distortion about who the “lay- people” are and how they are called to serve God in the world. Instead of affirming the wonderfully varied expressions of Christian vocation in every arena of daily life, members of the church imagine “real” ministry as what pastors do. Unless church members are doing things that pas- tors are called to do, it’s not under- stood as real ministry. Furthermore, we have been
deceived into thinking that real ministry only takes place in church buildings, instead of claiming as ministry what happens through Christian service in all stations of life every day of the week. In his treatise on The Freedom of a Christian, Luther makes two claims: • A Christian is perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. • A Christian is perfectly dutiful ser- vant of all, subject to all. While these two assertions seem to contradict one another, in reality they are keys to a deeper understand- ing of the universal priesthood. According to the first claim,
Nessan
Nessan is the academic dean and professor of contextual theology at Wartburg Theo- logical Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.
Luther insists on faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ as our only source of forgiveness, life and hope. Chris- tians are right with God solely through the free grace and mercy granted to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are no other masters: no laws, no rules and no need for priestly interventions. While the word and sacraments normally are proclaimed and admin- istered by those called to the pastoral office, the baptized are in no way
18 The Lutheran •
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dependent upon clerics as media- tors of God’s gifts. By grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, we are set free from every- thing that holds us in bondage—sin, death and the devil (to cite Luther). According to the second claim— and this is the crucial point—Luther asserts that through Jesus Christ, every Christian is also set free for something very specific. While Lutheran theology has been at its best in defending justification by grace, we have been extremely sus- ceptible to the disease diagnosed by German theologian Dietrich Bon- hoeffer as “cheap grace.” Luther already anticipated the sickness of cheap grace by clearly articulating this second aspect of Christian freedom: Christ sets us free for service of the neighbor. Christians are called through bap- tism to universal neighborliness. This is the true meaning of the priesthood of all believers. We need not perform good works to satisfy the demands of a holy God. Rather, as response to the gift of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, we offer good works in gratitude to God by serving our neighbors. In To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Luther wrote: “There is no true, basic difference between laity and priests, princes and bishops, between religious and secular, except for the sake of office and work, but not for the sake of status. They are all of the spiritual estate; all are truly priests, bishops and popes. But they do not all have the same work to do.” At baptism each Christian is
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