“Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a Kingdom of priests.” ~Exodus 19:5-6

The Lord places our priesthood in the context of the whole world. We are not saved by God to rule the world. We are not saved by God to ignore the world. We are saved and called by God to participate in his plans for the world.

A priest is someone who stands between two parties – a liaison, a go between – usually between the people and God or, in this case, the world and God. Priests represent the people in the presence of God. So as a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation, Israel was called to represent the whole rest of the world to God. On behalf of all the people on earth, Israel was to offer praise to God. And sacrifices and offerings. Confession and prayers. Worship.

Worship is a priestly duty. Our worship is for the sake of the world. We mostly think of worship as for the sake of the individual, for my personal sake. We act like the purpose of worship is to inspire me, to enrich my own private walk with God. That’s part of it, I think. But we need to remember that we represent all of creation when we come together in the God’s presence to worship.

Christ for the world we sing! The world to Christ we bring!
With loving zeal;
the poor and them that mourn, the faint and overborne,
sinsick and sorrow-worn, whom Christ doth heal.

Christ for the world we sing! The world to Christ we bring!
With fervent prayer;
the wayward and the lost, by restless passions tossed,
redeemed at countless cost, from dark despair.

We sing for the whole world. We intercede for the world. We speak to God on behalf of the world. Part of being priests is that we sing and pray for everybody. We ask God to be merciful, we ask God to forgive, we ask God to save – not just people like us and not just people who like us. Everybody.

Once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy. So we ask God to show that same mercy to all people. We intercede for the world in our worship.

Peace,

Allan