LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 105

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106

priests. ... For it must be our aim to restore the little word
“priests” to the common use which the little word ‘“Chris-
tian” enjoys. ... And just as you are not called a Christian
because you have a great deal of money and property but
because you have been built on the Stone and believe in
Christ, so you are not called a priest because you are
tonsured or wear a long coat but because you may approach
od...

Therefore when Peter says here, “You are the royal
priesthood” this is tantamount to saying: “You are
Christians.” ...

A priest must be God’s messenger and must have a
command from God to proclaim His Word. You must, says
Peter, exercise the chief function of a priest, that is to
proclaim the wonderful deed God has performed for you to
bring you out of darkness into the light. And your preach-
ing should be done in such a way that one brother
proclaims the mighty deed of God to the others and how you
have been delivered through Him from sin, hell, death and
all misfortune and have been called to eternal life. Thus you
should also teach other people how they, too, come into such
light. For you must bend every effort to realize what God
has done for you. Then let it be your chief work to proclaim
this publicly and to call everyone into the light into which
you have been called. (ZW 30, 63—65)

“Priests before God” therefore implies that we are
servants before men. And we serve them best when we
witness to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We serve
them best when we tell others what great things God in
Jesus Christ has done for us. We serve them best when
we proclaim Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Savior of
mankind. We serve them best when we extend God’s
gracious call and invitation to them to “come and see”
and to “come and taste and see that the Lord is good.” In
short, we serve them best in the words of St. Peter when
“‘we show forth the praises of Him who has called us out
of darkness into His marvelous light.”

It may be well to remind ourselves at this point that
the Biblical teaching of the universal priesthood of all
believers in Christ is not a concept introduced by, or
found exclusively in, the New Testament. Already in the
Old Testament, God speaking through His servants, the
prophets, said, “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh”
(Joel 2:28). Through Jeremiah God said, “I will put My
Law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts;
and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ...
for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the
greatest” (Jer. 31: 33-34). Through Isaiah God said, “All
your sons shall be taught by the Lord ” (Is. 54:13). In
lecturing on these texts sometime between 1524 and
1526 Luther wrote the following:

Here, then, he is speaking about the Holy Spirit as He is

manifestly poured out and revealed with obvious signs... .

Here there will be no respect for persons, for to each will be

given the authority to teach and to preach, neither through

man nor by man but divinely by God. There will not be
some order—as there was in that old people—of those who
alone had the power of priestly function. Instead, the Holy

Spirit will be poured out on all flesh. All will be teachers and

priests of God.... This was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.

.. You see, there is no doubt about the verity of the Gospel,
which was confirmed by such clear and visible signs at a
time when there was a need for it, when the preaching of it
was still anew thing. We, therefore, must no longer look for
signs to confirm the Word, which has already before been
clearly confirmed and shown to the world. . . . This
prophecy of Joel, then, is a prophecy . .. of the Holy Spirit.

After all, the Holy Spirit has always been in the devout

from the beginning of the world, which no one can deny, but

DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS

He has not been publicly manifested. ... We now have no.
other revelation of the Holy Spirit other than the Holy
Scripture. (ZW 18, 106—108)

Commenting on the prophet Joel’s words, “Your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men,
shall dream. dreams and your young men shall see
visions. Even upon menservants and maidservants i in
those days, I will pour out My Spirit,” Luther states:

In this kingdom there will not be some difference o

persons. There will not only be prophets, priests, and;

Levites as before, but sons as well as daughters will

prophesy and teach without difference. . . Christ says that?

all His faithful people are going to be priests. After all, wha
else does a priesthood require except the declaration ‘of th
works of and the Word of God? No one can deny here tha’
this is being given to every Christian. Indeed, Christ sa
without any discrimination of persons that He will give Hi

Holy Spirit to both sons and daughters, meriservants an
maidservants, etc. (L W 18, 108—109)

How appropriate these words of the prophet Joel ar
for us today during this convention in which we are?
emphasizing the importance of youth in the church an
the significance of their role in ministry to one another.
to the whole church, and to all people. The prophet Joe!
stresses the fact that the outpouring of the Spirit’s gifts
is notsomething that is reserved exclusively for parents:
or for adults. No indeed, he specifically includes, “sons,
daughters, young men, and young women.” The youth
are just as much priests before God as are adults and thé
elderly. All of us are privileged, all of us are command
and most importantly, all of us are enabled by the Spi
to show forth His praises and to proclaim Him who h
called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

There was a time not too many decades ago whent!
attitude prevailed among many that children and
agers should be seen but not heard. Then shortly afte
World War II the pendulum of public opinion began'té
swing in the other direction. Children and youth sud
denly began to be regarded as the most import
people in the world. For a time our society began almo
to idolize and worship at the shrine of youth a
youthfulness. To be young was equated with good; t
old was bad. Needless to say, both of these extre
positions and distortions of the truth are to be avoide
The fact is that youth are neither more important‘
are they less important than adults. Rather, youth
equally important as adults. They are equally impo
because Christ died for the youth no less than for adul
They are equally important because God loves you
just as much as he loves adults. They are equ
important as adults because their sins have‘
equally forgiven. And they are of equal status be
God because both adults and youth are equally pri
before God. a

In the church today as throughout the ages, Satay
seeks to divide the membership of Christ’s body. Sa
likes to fracture and fragment the unity of spirit
break the bonds of peace which unite us in broth
love and harmony. Satan likes to pit one group ag@l
another. He would pit white against black and aga
brown and tan. He would pit women against men