I grew up in a nominally Catholic home. My family rarely darkened the doors of the church, save Midnight Mass. This singular experience of church stood out in my young mind. Nowhere else did I find myself in an entirely other-worldly space. The architecture, the art, the strange crowd reciting things I didn’t know—it all struck me as odd. But most striking were the priests dressed in their ornate vestments. Who were these ominous people?
What comes to your mind when you think of a priest? Do you conjure up long beards and clerical collars? Or maybe you imagine a figure from the Old Testament, complete with robes and a tall, cylindrical hat. And what comes to your mind when you think of the work of a priest? Do you picture someone hearing a confession, performing a Mass, or standing before an altar with a sacrifice? For most of us, a priest is an austere individual, and their work is about as different from our own as we can imagine.
But is it?
What if I told you that every Christian is a priest? After all, 1 Peter 2:9 tells us that Christians are “a royal priesthood.” Protestant Reformer Martin Luther took this passage to heart. He argued that with the coming of Christ, the priesthood is no longer restricted to Israelites from the tribe of Levi or religious professionals, but rather includes all believers in Christ! In other words, there is no special class of Christians, for all Christians are called to minister the presence, forgiveness, and knowledge of Christ to others; and all Christians have the authority and right to read, interpret, and apply the teachings of Scripture.
“We don’t stop being a priesthood on Monday morning. Rather, we leave our gathered worship on Sundays for, as priests, we have “parishes” to keep.”
Believers are “a holy priesthood” who are called “to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:4-5). Traditional priests offer physical sacrifices on an altar, but what are these “spiritual sacrifices” we are to offer? In his letter to the Romans Paul tells believers they are to offer their lives as “living sacrifices” (Rom. 12:1). The implications of this “whole life offering” are profound, and particularly so when we think about what this means for our daily work.
We don’t stop being a priesthood on Monday morning. Rather, we leave our gathered worship on Sundays for, as priests, we have “parishes” to keep. And so, we scatter to our various locations (be it an office, a factory floor, or a room in our home) to perform our daily sacrifices. In these places of daily worship, we employ our bodies and energies to take up the work God has put before us.
Admittedly, this may sound strange. Reframing our work as part of our priesthood is neither familiar nor second nature. And taking up holy and worshipful work in hospitals, retail outlets, law firms, schools, and showrooms is not straightforward.
As a result, many of us struggle to reframe our work as a sacred calling. Undoubtedly, this difficulty comes in part from the messages we receive in our secular culture wherein work is framed as “the grind” and cast as a necessary evil we must get through before we can finally crash and refresh on the weekends.
But our secular culture is not the only thing often at odds with recognizing our weekly work as where we carry out our service to God. Sadly, gathered worship on Sundays seldom recognizes the priestly office we have Monday through Friday. Too often those gathered are counted as mere “attenders” (or worse, fans at a concert) who are told to “forget the distractions from the past week” so they can lose themselves in worship.
“The gathered worship of Sundays and the scattered worship throughout the workweek were made to mutually inform each other. The priesthood is perpetually gathered and scattered.”
Wait a second! Haven’t these priests already been worshiping?! Note how this “invitation” to “forget everything and worship” sends a message that everything before and after the gathering is disconnected. And worse, at the very moment and place where believers should be built up as priests, they are being given a religious version of the “working for the weekend” message.
In fact, the gathered worship of Sundays and the scattered worship throughout the workweek were made to mutually inform each other. The priesthood is perpetually gathered and scattered. This holy rhythm of inhaling and exhaling God’s people into the world was firmly established when the Father sent his Spirit to breathe the priesthood into existence on the day of Pentecost.
This gathering and scattering of God’s holy priesthood have been part of the church’s life from its inception! Week after week God’s holy priesthood gathers from their distinct congregations (be it office or factory) to bring their hopes and fears, their trumpets and ashes. And week after week their hearts and minds are renewed that they may continue to carry out their priesthood by way of their work.
Far from being an escape from our work, Sunday is to be the place where we re-envision our work as worship. Indeed, as one author writes, “If all of life is going to be offered as worship, the sanctuary is where we learn how.” Gathered worship is a primary training ground where God’s people reclaim their priestly callings for Monday through Friday.
How might Sunday morning be transformed into a gathering of priests scattered across Los Angeles? What does this mean for the way time is spent on Sunday mornings? This is one of the fascinating questions we look forward to exploring at our Annual Faith + Work Conference: Labor as Liturgy coming up on Saturday, May 6th.
What Luther started is far from over!
Robert Covolo is a Cultural Theologian and Author of Fashion Theology. He is also on staff here at the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles, serving as our Director of Vocational Discipleship.