PRIESTHOOD AND BAPTISM
by Bea Spelman
By virtue of their Baptism and Chrismation all Christians have the renewed vocation of offering creation to God and communing with God through creation. It is the renewed vocation, because this was the original vocation of man by virtue of who God created him to be. The whole service of Baptism and Chrismation is the beginning of a priestly life. The service itself is a priestly act. Water and oil are offered back to God and restored to their original purpose, a means of participating in God's life. "O Master of all, show this water to be the water of redemption, the water of sanctification, the purification of flesh and spirit, the loosing of bonds, the remission of sins, the illumination of the soul, the laver of regeneration, the renewal of the Spirit, the gift of adoption to sonship, the garment of incorruption, the fountain of life." (Service of Baptism) The fountain of life is what water was created to be, but it has become a vehicle of death. One only has to think of the pollution our water has suffered or to recall great "natural" disasters to see some of the results. In the Baptismal service, it is restored. Water becomes the source of life in Christ. Oil also is restored to its original life-giving purpose. "The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit." In the Old Testament, priests were ordained by anointing them with oil. "And you shall take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head and anoint him....Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons." (Exodus 29:7-9) Chrism is the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of sonship, the gift of adoption. To be son of God, to be adopted into the same sonship which Christ has from the Father is to become priest as Christ is Priest. The newly baptized and chrismated servant of God is then tonsured. "Bless, now, thy servant who is come to make a first offering shorn from the hair of his head." Now that the Christian has been re-made a priest, he offers to God his first offering, hair shorn from his head.
The Baptismal service embraces all of creation. "The sun singeth unto Thee. The moon glorifieth Thee. The stars meet together before Thy presence. The light obeyeth Thee. The deeps tremble before Thee....The choirs of Archangels fall down in adoration before Thee." The whole created universe, material and immaterial, glorifies the Lord. In this prayer man acknowledges creation as blessed, as communion with God. Man, as the crown of creation, calls upon all created things to sing to, glorify, meet together before, obey, tremble before and fall down in adoration before God. All creation confesses and glorifies God, not only in thanks for being called into being by God, but also in thanks for being restored by God. "For Thou, who art God inexpressible, existing uncreated before the ages, and ineffable, didst descend upon earth..." All creation is to glorify God because of the incarnation. The prayer goes on to speak of the incarnation as manifestation, salvation, and sanctification. The service of Baptism recalls in this way Christ's priestly work, the sanctification of all creation. Christ's priestly act is experienced in Baptism, and the newly illumined servant of God is recalled to a priestly life.
The Christian is called to a priestly life which includes seemingly mundane things such as obeying God. "Enable him (her) to walk in all Thy commandments, and to fulfill those things which are well-pleasing unto Thee....Make him (her) to rejoice in the works of his (her) hands, and in all his (her) generation; that he (she) may render praise unto Thee, may sing, worship and glorify Thy great and exalted Name always, all the days of his (her) life." To rejoice in the work of our hands can only be to find God in them. This is again what a priest does: offer creation back to God. We cannot truly rejoice in our generation, if we do not offer our children back to God, if we do not teach our children to know the joy of life in Christ. Everything is said and done that the Christian may praise, sing (If we took this more seriously, our services would fill the Church with the voices of all parishioners.), worship and glorify God. All of life is covered by these prayers. In renouncing Satan and uniting oneself to Christ, the Christian begins to live a godly life. This means more than obeying some arbitrary set of rules. Doing God's will and fulfilling His commandments mean offering one's whole life to God. This is the priestly calling. All of life becomes the communion with God that it was created to be. All of creation is touched, and all of a Christian's life is included. All of life becomes the evident blessing from God which it is. Life becomes Life in Christ instead of death.
When Christians come to know God's gift of priesthood to us, then the mission of the Church will begin to be accomplished. As a person begins to offer all of life back to God, the mission of the Church is happening. The sanctification of the little corner of creation which is that person's life is started. First of all, Christians must know who we are, who God is, and who God has called us to be. Once we come to an experiential, not merely intellectual, knowledge of these things, and respond to that knowledge positively, then Christians will be fully priests and fulfill the mission of the Church. We must first know who we are as the Church, then we will worship, teach, serve, heal, witness, preach and baptize. We offer creation back to the Creator, and in so doing, receive the creation as communion with God.
(Bea Spelman is a parishioner at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Boston.)
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