Getting Connected

Have you ever been a kind of bridge between two people who needed help with connection? I suspect you have. We are social animals, and we live in an ongoing reality of communication and connection. We all know the wisdom of boundaries, to discern and avoid the problem of being caught in communication “triangles”. We know enough not to be a third party when things are better handled directly between person A and person B. Still, there are many situations in which it is truly a healthy thing to be a benevolent go-between agent. In these instances, two who need to connect can come together with a little facilitation.

I don’t know if you have thought about this, but one of the roles of a priest is to intercede, which is a type of bridging. In the Old Testament and most religions alongside the Hebrew traditions, some figures connect the people to the Eternal One in sacred intercession.

This is true as well in the Christian Tradition even now. The role of the priest at the altar is to offer the Great Thanksgiving, bringing the bread and wine of the people: food that represents their life and their labors symbolically. The priest then delivers the same substance back to the people. Only, at this point, it is, by the sacramental intentions of the Body of Christ, God’s own life and grace. This presence of God and life of God is internalized by all who partake.

So, the priest in this way and several other ways is a go-between figure. It is important to add, however, there would be no priests except that the whole communion of Christians is a priestly people in the first place. The priestly people of God call out from the body people to ordain as priests (deacons and bishops as well) to do particular ministry in their midst.

Let me add something regarding the “Great Amen” at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer. That consecrating prayer is the bidding of the whole gathered people. The one celebrant is giving it voice, but doing so on behalf of the whole worshiping bunch. It is the priestly people’s prayer, and they offer it, give assent to it, with the single word, “AMEN”, at the conclusion. I am underscoring here that the wonderful work of connecting the people to God in the sacrament of Holy Communion is the praying work of the people and priest together, calling out in thanks to God, merciful and mighty.

The whole notion of priests as intercessors and mediators between God and the people takes on supreme significance when we consider the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true Mediator between God and humanity. Jesus, God Incarnate, brings together within his very person the reality of the universal human family and the very energy and reality of God. In this way, the teaching we find in the Epistle to the Hebrews stresses what we must know: that Jesus, holy and sinless, is our Great High Priest forever. No longer do we need any other high priest:

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but Jesus holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came late than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. (Hebrews 7:23-28)

Jesus bridged the chasm between sinful humanity and a Holy God. We are connected to the life of God through him. In that connection, you are part of a connecting ministry in the daily experiences you have. I don’t know whether this is possible, but I wish you could remind yourself every day you are a reconciler in the world. You have a ministry of reconciliation. The Outline of Faith in the prayer book, page 855, states that your ministry as a Christian is to bear witness to Christ wherever you may be, and with your gifts “to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world.” This comes directly from St. Paul’s teaching:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

Enjoy the reality that you are connected to God. Enjoy just as much that you are getting others connected who need a reconciling bridge to other people and to God who loves them so much and holds out new life to them. Whom will you help reconcile today?