Bishop Meggan Manlove

As graduation season winds down, we celebrate graduates from our congregations and wonder about who these people will become and how they will live out their lives. I am also writing this in the middle of a synod candidacy committee meeting weekend, so I cannot help but hope that some of these graduates will one day become pastors and deacons. But I also hope there will be those who find their calling as teachers, business owners, technicians, mechanics, chefs, elected officials, judges, marketers, nurses and hundreds of other vocations. Beyond daily work, I hope they live out their Christian faith as family members, friends, neighbors, and volunteers.  

Over the past few months, I have shared my own excitement about getting more people participating in the Montana synod’s Lay Ministry Associate program. While my enthusiasm remains, I do not want something else to get lost. Why do we gather for worship, for Bible Study, for prayer? Why do we care about what is read and preached in our assemblies? We worship so we can collectively communicate with the Triune God. We also hope that we will be nourished for the time when, at the end of worship, we are sent forth into the world.

My father, who worked for the YMCA and the church his entire life but was never ordained, was passionate about ministry in daily life. He wrote a newsletter for a time called Salt and Light, taking the name from Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13-16. In that newsletter, dad lifted up all the ways Lutheran lay people were living out their faith in their daily lives. The Lutheran understanding of the priesthood of all believers is one of many reasons my dad became a Lutheran as an adult.

Martin Luther’s passion to make Scripture, the sacraments, and faith accessible to lay people is woven throughout his writing, preaching, and teaching. One of the most powerful examples of his commitment to equipping lay people was his translating the New Testament into the German language, the language of the people.

Another important work to consider is Luther’s An Appeal to the Ruling Class of German Nationality as to the Amelioration of the State of Christendom. It is, like the 95 Theses, a call to reform. In this work, “Luther calls upon the ruling class to reform the Church, since the Church will not reform itself.” In this long document, Luther sets out to attack what he calls the three walls, “which the Romanists have cleverly surrounded themselves with.” Attacking the first wall, Luther writes that in his time popes, bishops, priests, monks, and nuns are called the religious class, whereas princes, lords, artisans, and farmworkers are called the secular class. No one should be frightened by this, Luther writes. “For all Christians whatsoever really and truly belong to the religious class, and there is no difference among them except in so far as they do different work. That is St. Paul’s meaning, in I Corinthians 12 [:12f.], when he says: “We are all one body, yet each member hath his own work for serving others.” This applies to us all, because we have one baptism, one gospel, one faith, and are all equally Christian.”

He follows this up with the statement that is the origin of the phrase “priesthood of all believers”: “The fact is that our baptism consecrates us all without exception and makes us all priests. As St. Peter says, I Pet. 2[:9], ‘You are a royal priesthood and a realm of priests,’ and Revelation, ‘Thou has made us priests and kings by thy blood’ [Rev. 5:9 f.]. If we ourselves as Christians did not receive a higher consecration than that given by pope or bishop, then no one would be made priest even by consecration at the hands of pope or bishop; nor would anyone be authorized to celebrate Eucharist, or preach, or pronounce absolution.”

Luther does believe that our office or occupation gives us different work but not greater dignity as he moves into what became our tradition’s understanding of Christian vocation: “Therefore those now called “the religious,” i.e., priests, bishops, and popes, possess no further or greater dignity than other Christians, except that their duty is to expound the word of God and administer the sacraments—that being their office. In the same way, the secular authorities “hold the sword and the rod,” their function being to punish evil-doers and protect the law-abiding. A shoemaker, a smith, a farmer, each has his manual occupation and work; and yet, at the same time, all are eligible to act as priests and bishops. Every one of them in his occupation or handicraft ought to be useful to his fellows, and serve them in such a way that the various trades are all directed to the best advantage of the community, and promote the well-being of body and soul, just as all the organs of the body serve each other.”

If any of this is intriguing to you, ask your pastor or search your church library for An Appeal to the Ruling Class. Also, read ELCA’s Tim Brown’s column Where Your Heart Is. Find ways to celebrate how you and others in your congregation are being salt and light wherever you are.

Peace,
Bishop Manlove