THE NEXT STEP in lay emphasis was the fact that the Holy Spirit was not given to the Twelve alone, but to the 120, including the women. Had the Holy Spirit been given to the Twelve alone, that would have been decisive—there is an especially sacred group and an especially sacred calling. The fact that God’s highest gift—the gift of the Holy Spirit—was given not to a prophet, priest, or pastor, but to a person as a person, was also decisive. There is no especially sacred group or especially sacred calling; there are only sacred persons. Those persons are the “chosen” and sent, and that includes everyone who is in Christ.
Interestingly enough the Greek word laos, from which the word “laity” comes, means “the chosen people of God”—the laity were the chosen people of God. The word kleros from which the word “clergy” comes, meant exactly the same in the beginning. Bishop Westcott, an Anglican, said: “The only priests under the Gospel designated as such in the New Testament are the saints, the members of the Christian brotherhood.” His concise formula: “All Christians are God’s laity (laos) and all are God’s clergy (kleros).” This was all changed in the Council of Nicea:
The bishops did not allow this any more. Canons five and eighteen of the Council of Nicea define clearly, not the society of the church as a whole, but of the clerical order. The laity vanishes from the picture. The bishops in the Councils are collectively the organ of the Holy Spirit. As “spiritual” men they exercise their divine, disciplinary authority, and in their collectivity may judge all things, but be judged by hone. (A Theology of the Laity, Kramer, )
The opposition clergy-laity became practically synonymous with sacred-profane. There was a devaluation of the laity. Ignatius and Cyprian stated clearly: “The Church is constituted by the bishops and clergy.” The laity were in the background.
O God, my Redeemer, we stand amazed at the twists we have given to Thy redemptive movement. We separate what Thou hast joined. Life is a whole, and Thou dost redeem it as a whole. We thank Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am a chosen person of God, for I choose God as my all and in all.
