Connection Makers

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is 1 Peter 2:9-10.  It says

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  (1 Peter 2:9-10)

This passage tells me my identity.  I am chosen.  God has made me holy..  He has made me royalty.  I am his.  And my favorite description is that I am his priest.

What is a priest?  In the Old Testament, they represented the people before God and they represented God before the people.  They were the connection between God and us.  They assisted Israel in the worship of God and they were messengers of God, teaching the people (Malachi 2:7).  They were connection makers.  They were from the tribe of Levi, specifically descended from the family of Aaron, but God did not consider them to be the only priests.  In fact, God called all of Israel to be priests right before he gave the Ten Commandments.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” (Exodus 19:5-6)

Here we see another example of how our Christian calling is not different from Israel’s calling. The 1 Peter 2:9-10 passage echoes the Exodus 19:5-6 passage.  The people of Israel were called to be  “a kingdom of priests”. I believe, to be “a kingdom of priests” means as Israel was to be a witness to the surrounding nations.  They were to connect the surrounding peoples to God, just as we, Christians, are to do so today by proclaiming “the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. 

Note that every descriptive term in 1 Peter 2:9-10 describes a group of people.  If we step back a few verses, we see in 1 Peter 2:4-5 that we, individually, are part of a bigger structure, a spiritual house.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)

So Christians are to act together to be a holy priesthood.  That is why we meet together.  Each congregation works together to connect people with God.  It is not a purely individual effort.  One may individually share the faith, but eventually that person needs to be connected to other Christians as well as to God, to fully participate and grow.

So because of our identity as Christians, we have been given a special task.  We are connection makers.  In sharing God’s love and the Good News about Jesus, we assist in connecting people to God.  Or in other words, we connect people to God because that is what priests do.