You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
      You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people; that you may proclain the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.                   -1Peter 2.5, 9 New King James Version

RELIGION comes in two varieties. One may choose the temple kind, with its sacred places, special days, a religious elite, and a veil separating ordinary men from access to God. Or, there's the upper room type, which witnesses eloquently that barriers have been broken down, that God is present in ordinary places and working mightily through common people of both sexes and all ages.

We find no special priestly class in the upper room. Collectively the church was called a "priesthood," with the individual Christians named "priests." Not just a select few, but the whole church was given a part in the unfolding drama of redemption.

The priesthood of every believer meant two things: First, privilege: every believer could approach God directly without an intermediary. Second, responsibility: he must go to God in behalf of others, and his concern must include the world.

By the end of the second century, however, this New Testament concept began to deteriorate as the church accepted a false dualism for the sacred and the secular, the clergy and the laity. Added to this was the sacramental view of salvation, consisting primarily of good works and penance. For the next 1200 years Christianity reverted to the temple variety, in which the clergy was the church and the laymen had little part.

With the sixteenth century came reformers, who gave the church a real face-Iifting. The medieval image of the priest who both prayed and sacrificed (mass) at an altar was completely rejected for two basic reasons: First, Protestants wanted to discard any possible notion that the original sacrifice of Jesus could be repeated in any form. To them His crucifixion was a once-and-for-all sacrifice. Second, early Protestants wanted to deny that the priest had a special place before God that the ordinary Christian did not have. Every suggestion that the keys of the kingdom belonged to a few had to go.

One important concept of the priesthood was still missing, however. While strongly advocating the privilege of every Christian to approach God without an intermediary, the reformers overlooked the responsibility of going to God in behalf of the world. They failed to hear the words of Jesus, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye...that he will send forth...!"

What about us? In spite of some appearances to the contrary, God is surely preparing a harvest in the world today. In Japan alone, two and one half million indicate leanings toward Christianity. What if God is working and we, "the people of God" entrusted with a "royal priesthood," are not working together with Him? By assuming our priestly responsibilities we multiply the work of God.

                     - Helmut Schultz, OMS OUTREACH