Priest, prophet, pastor

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I love my country

I love my faith system

I love myself (I hope in a healthy way)

 

Therefore I examine

Therefore I have moments of disapproval

 

Socrates said that the “unexamined life is not worth living”

But self-examination is not always an easy thing

 

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. asks this follow-up question.

“But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?” (Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons)

 

And Alex Bosworth suggests, “Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. But you know, an over-examined life can be a real crap festival, too.”

 

One of the things that has always impressed me as I have read the Bible

Has been the presence of healthy criticism

 

In the Hebrew scriptures, we have the prophets

Who are nothing if not feisty and critical

Not to mention blunt

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,

who put darkness for light and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

 

In the teachings of Jesus, we have those moments when

He exposes our worst tendencies as human creatures

Our judgementalism (You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel)

Our hypocrisy (Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence)

Our failure to take care of the vulnerable (Matthew 25)

 

Yes, there is more!

 

And Paul and the other writers of the letters certainly had no trouble

Calling out the early church for its various foibles.

Paul, for example, called out the church in Corinth for turning the Lord’s supper into an occasion for inequity and worse.  “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, and another gets drunk.”

 

Thank God for this honesty!

Perhaps one of the things that has allowed me to remain within the bounds of the Christian faith is my belief that there is room for

Doubt

Failure

Anger

Fear

Frustration

 

And there is room for criticism, change, and growth

 

There is a place to call our nation out for the ways it is wrong

A place to call out the church for its failures

And a place for challenging ourselves.  How with think, how we respond to others, and how we behave.

 

One of the greatest challenges of a person ordained into the ministry of word and sacrament is to find a balance between challenge and affirmation.

 

Between being a prophet and a priest

Priests are about the status quo (I think)

About passing on the beliefs, and yes, the rituals, of the faith system

Priests are those presiding at the table, reminding us to remember the works of God

 

Prophets are those calling us to be better

They are those pointing out how we have stumbled off the path

And are failing to be what God calls us to be

 

(I think there is also the role of pastor, which is very important for many people.  It seems to me this role was actually given to those called Deacons.  But this role in many churches is also laid on the shoulders of the clergy)

 

So Pastor, Priest, Prophet

 

Can one person embrace all of those roles?

I suspect we lean in toward one role over the others

 

I believe I am, perhaps, heavy on the prophet side of the equation

I can be one who challenges.  Even blunt.  One who stirs things up

 

I can be pastoral

And I do, in fact, administer the sacraments

 

But I suspect I am more prophet than priest

I also suspect that in the American church, there are more priests than prophets

Although I think many consider themselves prophets but are really priests

They “protect” the church, and point to enemies without

They call out the sins of others but are blind to the sins of the church (blind guides)

 

I have an element of pastor (I am a licensed therapist)

But honestly, as an introvert, I struggle to be that warm, reassuring presence some seek

(and need)

I often wish I had a better balance

 

But…

 

I believe the American church needs more prophets

It needs more Martin Luther King Jr’s

More people like William Barber, Richard Rohr, Matthew Fox, Jacqui Lewis

Barbara Brown Taylor, Rachel Held Evans, Nadia Bolz-Weber, and Diana Butler Bass

 

Yes, we need the priest (for we need the sacraments)

Yes we need the pastors (we are pretty beaten up)

 

But we need the prophets

But we need prophets who, once they have challenged

Can welcome and comfort

 

Like Jesus did

 

As I said, it’s a complicated thing

Its something I am thinking about on this summer solstice morning