merefaith: discipleship in the ruins of empire

In worship we discover that we are engrafted into the story of God. It is in worship that we acquire the skills to recognize who we are - sinners. In Trinitarian worship, we also acquire the skills to discover and live our identity as priests, an identity centered in blessing and offering, or receiving and giving. We receive the forgiving and sacrificial love of Christ, and are enabled to extend this to others through intercession and service. Paul Fiddes describes this ecclesial identity well when he states that the church as a priestly people has the 'power to serve, to focus the presence of the Spirit and to mediate blessing only because it is caught up in the life of the triune God'. To be caught up in the life of God is most certainly a gift of God's grace, one mediated to us through the material Body of Christ. With Schmemann, we need to emphasize that in the church the sum is greater than the parts, not because of human effort but because of the presence of the risen Christ who freely uses 'the created order in the work of redemption, particularly the gathering and building of the church'. The priesthood of all believers is not an internal, spiritual phenomenon, but an ecclesial form of life, sustained by the faithful worship of God.

- Elizabeth Newman, "The Priesthood of All Believers and the Necessity of the Church," in Recycling the Past or Researching History?: Studies in Baptist Historiography and Myths. Anthony R. Cross and Philip E. Thompson, eds. Carlisle: Paternoster, 2005. Final italics mine.

Labels: Baptists, Discipleship, Theology

Posted by Chris Schelin on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at Wednesday, October 17, 2007 | Permalink