"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Thursday, 26 March 2009 | |||
|
Call a Priest | |||
|
The conversation somehow turned to Catholic jokes. It was
not entirely surprising since my pastor friends and I were eating lunch
together in a Catholic retreat center. One of us shared one that goes
like this: "An old woman was kneeling in the church before a statue
of Mary, praying intently. All of a sudden, Jesus Christ spoke to her,
'My daughter.' She did not answer or even look up. So the Lord said
again, 'My daughter!' Again the woman ignored what she heard, so finally
He said, 'My daughter, it's I, Jesus!' Looking up in irritation the old
lady replied, 'Won't you be quiet? Can't you see I'm speaking to your
mother?'" Unfortunately, it's not only our Catholic brothers and sisters who forget what the writer to the Hebrews emphasizes for us this week's text Hebrews 5:5-10 . It is only in and through Jesus Christ as our mediator that we have access to God and the blessings of salvation. We are not naturally children of God. We are not naturally obedient to His will. It's only by coming to God through the obedience and faithfulness of Christ that we can claim God as our Father (or Mary as our spiritual mother, for that matter). In most Protestant churches, we have very little to guide our minds in appropriating this priestly imagery which permeates the letter to the Hebrews. We are so accustomed to the Reformation doctrine of the "priesthood of the believer" that we may almost ignore the unique priestly and mediating role of Jesus Christ. At least in the churches that call their clergy "priests" there is one more barrier to a presumption of an immediate and unrestricted access to God that may simply ignore failure and sin. The Greek and Latin words for priest ("iereus" and "sacerdos") mean one who offers sacrifices. We often think in terms of Jesus offering the sacrifice of His life, or of His blood, but here the important thing seems to be His offering of obedience. Jesus gave to God for us what we are unable to give Him in and of ourselves, a whole life of obedience. Verses 8 and 9 say that by Jesus' obedient life, even to the point of suffering and death, Jesus became the source of our salvation. One commentator notes that verse 9 says, "he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him," emphasizing that last phrase and our own response of obedience. Christ's priesthood for us is meant to bring us into a relationship of believing obedience, like Jesus' own obedience. That kind of faithful life is what our Lord mediates for us and to us in His priestly role. Another reflection on this text lies in the quotation from Psalm 110 which the writer appropriates here in verse 6, "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." It suggests Christ's priestly role is unending. We never "get over" our need for Jesus to mediate His righteousness for us and to us, but we will forever live as people who meet God in and through the person of Jesus Christ, even in eternity. As the Lamb at the center of worship in Revelation shows, Christ is forever the center of our existence. | |||
|
Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
|
Blog Posts |
Archives |
|
|
SurgeMail - Blog Server Software |
Windows Mail Server Software |
UseNet News Server Software
Lowell Thomas Hey, Steve, I was browsing blogs today, and I really enjoyed this one although I'm not a fisher. I looked you up to share it with you. It's from Britain. (I had to take out the internet prefix before your blog would allow me to post it.) timebytheriver.blogspot.com/ Here's my blog too while I'm at it: snowbrush.blogspot.com/ I was shocked to see that you're dying your beard gray now. There's no accounting for tastes, I guess. (03/30/09)