They All Did What was Right in Their Own Eyes

They All Did What Was Right in Their Own Eyes
JUDGES 17:1-13

I am an Episcopalian/Anglican priest, but I don’t really believe in priesthood. One of the first things God pointed out at Sinai was that the whole people of God is a priesthood (see Exodus 19), and the New Testament reaffirmed the principle (see 1 Peter 2). God doesn’t want some clique claiming to control everybody else’s access to God. The trouble is, this arrangement doesn’t work. Within the church that was designed to be a priesthood, congregations were already going off the rails within New Testament times and needing someone to exercise some authority to get them back on track. Soon after New Testament times the church was inventing the “monarchical episcopate,” the idea that one “bishop” (like a senior pastor or rector) had the key leadership position in a congregation. The trouble is, this only relocates the problem. What if senior pastors go off the rails, as they often do?...