Lesson 38 – How Do We Determine God’s Word – Clergy

Christians often check their inspiration with clergy. I was always being asked questions such as “Is it all right to cremate?” or “Will the Lutheran Church support my conscientious objection to the war?” At the beginning of my ministry people were seeking continuity with tradition they regarded as the wisdom of the past. I was trained to read the deposit of faith that was passed down in the Apostolic Succession. I felt I was called to interpret the fixed canon and custom for our specific time and place.

In the later stages of that ministry people were more interested in creativity than continuity (Marlin’s terms) as they tried to understand the new directions in which the Holy Spirit is leading us. With the overall loss of authority and radical democracy in our society, they came seeking my opinion that they would then consider as they formed their own positions. They were not only interested in my teaching, but even more in the integrity of my life as it served as a witness for them that the Gospel could be practiced. I found myself struggling to live by faith in the uncertainty of our contemporary society. More and more I felt I was called to be prophetic in these uncharted waters.

The office of clergy was originally established for some continuity to overcome the abuses of the early charismatic prophets, self- appointed lone rangers who channeled God’s Word. Without denying that God can speak directly to individuals concerning their situations, the Church needed the office to serve the needs of the community. Very interestingly, when Paul laid out the guidelines for their selection in I Timothy 3: 1-13, he made character primary. Pastors were to be persons respected by those in and outside of the Church. They were expected to be moral, kind, and wise.

Too often the clergy has promoted the institution rather than the community as they reacted to losing their authority in recent times. The Roman Catholic “restoration movement” tries to return to a long bygone era when clergy could control laity with a centralized power structure. In some ways, they have gone beyond those old structures by promoting the “infallible” teaching office. (Check out the great talk sent by Rita) The Pentecostal Churches describe themselves as “restorative” claiming they return to the offices and charisma of the first century. Pastors operate without checks and balances, much like the early prophets. They speak Words of Knowledge that are supposedly direct messages from God, their own kind of “infallibility”. Some Mainline clergy pretend they can go back to a time when they were among the very few educated people in town. That supposedly makes their ideas orthodox, the standard for what real Christians must believe. Others avoid any challenges by preaching positive thinking rather than prophecy.

These efforts to regain authority are rather futile with all the clerical scandals in all branches of the Church. Although the pedophilia of the Roman Catholics gets most of the press, every denomination has high officials involved in scandals of infidelity, adultery, embezzlement, fraud, and deception. No matter how much we insist authority goes with the office not the person, we all know Paul was right, character is an essential witness.
The consequence of all this has been many people report they have faith in the church but not the hierarchy, the teachings and practices but not the leadership.

I see the way clergy operate in the liturgy as the model for how they should help us determine what God’s Word is. The sermon applies the fixed canon to the present situation where we live life. Next week I’ll take a crack at how restoring a sense of true community in which the laity engage creatively in decision making might help the contemporary Church.

Tags: apostolic succession, clergy, continuity, creativity, hierachy, prophet