Priest

6 min read

64 These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. 65 The governor, therefore, ordered them not to eat any of the most sacred food until there should be a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim.
— Nehemiah 7:64-65

How devastating it must have been for those families to not be able to find their family records and serve as priests as their ancestors had done. Apparently, Nehemiah ordered them to wait for the Urim and Thummim so that their eligibility as priests could be determined by God.

When I was younger, I never had much interest in my family history. My father claimed that we had come from nobility of some sort before the Japanese occupation, but all I knew of my family was that my grandfather had died of alcoholism (I never met him) and that we were extremely poor. My grandmother raised me until I was about four or five. She was one of those seaweed divers that gained some fame a little while ago because of the difficulty of the work that they did.

To my shame, I felt shame whenever I thought about my roots in Korea. On the inside, I truly felt that I was white. I know now that this is what might be called ethic dysphoria. Eventually, I came to accept my Korean heritage and to even be proud of it—and this before S. Korean entertainment became a worldwide phenomenon.

With the acceptance of who God had made me, I also started to become more interested in my family history. My family originated from Jeju Island, and when we visited last year, I was hoping to be able to speak with the person who maintains my family records. Unfortunately, the records office was closed, but I am determined to speak to the record keeper on my next visit.

My curiosity about my family history comes from a desire to try to understand who I am a little better. Of course, I also know that my identity now is fully grounded in my union with Christ. I am a child of God!

And God has called me to be a priest, but not in the sense that I am a pastor. God has called all of us to be a royal and holy priesthood, as Pastor Jeff reminded us at the retreat, to minister before God, to minister to one another, and to bear witness to Christ to the world (1 Peter 2:9). And in a way only preachers are fond of doing, I would call that “stepping in, stepping up, and stepping out”—stepping into our relationship with Christ, stepping up to serve one another, and stepping out to tell the world about Jesus.

Our calling as royal and holy priests comes from our adoption as sons and daughters into the house of the LORD through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Without a doubt our families are extremely important to us, and they are to God as well. But we should never forget how extremely important our spiritual family is too.

Father, You have established this GCC Canvas family by the blood of our Lord Jesus. I thank You for bringing me here and making me a part of this family, and more so for adopting as a son into Your household. Forgive me when I forget or disregard my adoption. Teach me Your ways and let me know Your love and power. In Jesus’s name. Amen.