December 14, 2023 — We Are Not Only A Royal Priesthood but the Priesthood of All Believers

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9

I remember the first day I talked to my wife at the church we were attending. At the time we both sang in the choir, and of course she was beautiful and I was the luckiest man in the world to have her attention. Anyway, in the course of time, we married, and soon were introduced to other young couples. Over the years we have lost contact with most of these couples. Some have divorced. Some have moved to another state. We have all changed. And the changes were incomprehensible when we first met. But changes are inevitable. Yes there is some sense within each one of us that we are in control of our futures. And in some ways we do have some control. You see, our choices, both individually, and as couples, lead us all down certain roads – but not the same roads. We will never know where our choices will take us in life, but, as I said in my devotion on December 13, our choices make the future “us”. In the process of making our choices, we should be asking the Holy Spirit to guide us in our choices.

The church is filled with people, and they are not all righteous. The church is filled with flawed, imperfect people. And yet these are the people who make up the Royal Priesthood – or as Luther called us, the Priesthood of all Believers. And our chosen-ness begins in our baptisms. This alone marks us as G-d’s people, and we will remain G-d’s people no matter what happens to us along the way of life.

Pastor Dave