A Royal Priesthood

A Sermon for the 5^th Sunday of Pascha (RCL A) 5-22-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5,15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14

Themes:         Stephen’s martyrdom, living stones, a holy nation, the greater works
Title:               A Holy Priesthood

My dear brothers and sisters, I have a question for you:
Do you know who you are? I mean, do you really know who you are? 

It seems to me that many of the problems of our lives come about because we forget who we truly are.

Martin Luther made it a practice every morning, as soon as he stood up out of bed, to make the sign of the cross and to declare his identity out loud: “I am a baptized Christian!”

It was a way to remember, a discipline of remembrance, so that every one of his days would begin and would be shaped by this remembrance of who he was at the core of his being.

And it was a practice which he encouraged all Christians to adopt.

For this is the truth of the matter, the truth of our lives: God has chosen you to carry on the works of Jesus in this world.

It doesn’t matter how you feel about your relationship with God; how you feel about your faith or about the church. It really doesn’t even matter what you’ve done or what you haven’t done. It doesn’t matter whether you feel ready or adequate for this calling.

None of that matters, because it’s not about you or me after all!

This is God’s choice. God has chosen us to be God’s own special and peculiar group in this world.

But why does God do this? What is the purpose? The apostle tells us clearly: 

 
"In order that we might proclaim the mighty acts of the one who called us out of darkness and into God’s marvelous light!"

Do you see? We have the incredible privilege of participating in what God is doing in the world. The works of Jesus continue, and even greater things are being done today in his name. And we have been drafted to be those through whom God is redeeming the world.

So I invite you right now to listen, my friends, once more to what was written in the name of great apostle Peter.

Listen, and remember!

4 Assistants come forward to a front table now. Each takes a candle in her/his hands.

Reader:          Now we are newborn infants, Reborn in God’s grace.

                        Let us thirst for the pure, spiritual milk

                        So that, by drinking it, we may grow into our salvation.

                        Remember what the scripture says:

                        “You have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Reader:           Come then to the Lord, the living stone,

                        Rejected by men and women as worthless,

                        But chosen by God as precious.

                        Come and let yourselves be used

                        In the building of God’s spiritual temple.

                        Remember what the scripture says:

                        “I am laying in Zion a chief cornerstone.

                        Whoever trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

Reader:           This is what God says about us:  “You are a chosen race.”

Assistants:     Move out to 4 random individuals and give them candles. While handing over the candles, say You are a chosen race. Then they return to the table and take another candle.

Reader:           Listen, my friends, and remember. For this is what God says about us: 

“You are a royal priesthood.”

Assistants:     Move out to 4 other random individuals and give them candles. While handing over the candles, say You are a royal priesthood.

Reader:          Listen, my friends, and remember. For this is what God says:  “You are a holy nation.”

Assistants:     Move out to 4 other random individuals and give them candles. While handing over the candles, say  You are a holy nation.

Reader:           Listen, my friends, and remember. For this is what God says:  “You are God’s own people.”

Assistants:     Move out to 4 other random individuals and give them candles. While handing over the candles, say You are God’s own people.  After giving out this last candle, the Assistants return to their seats.

Reader:           You … and you… and you

are chosen by God,

chosen to proclaim the mighty acts, the wonderful works of Christ

who has called you out of darkness

and into God’s marvelous light! 

Once you were not a people; now you are God’s people! 

Once you had not received mercy; now you have received God’s mercy!

Called out of darkness and into God’s marvelous light! That is who you are! Beacons of light and truth and goodness in this world.

My friends, let us never forget who we are; let us never forget who God has made us to be. Amen.

This symbolic action is adapted from a resource from the Iona Community in Scotland, He Was In The World: Meditations for Public Worship by John L. Bell (1995: GIA Publications), p.97.  He Was in the World : Meditations for Public Worship