Oh, how I long for it. . .

A hierarchical structure is as ancient as sinful man and never new.  What has been in dispute, however, is whether or not the Church is hierarchical.  To many the hierarchy of Christian Church is pretty much the same as have been the ancient hierarchies of business, academia, and government.  It was this that was behind the Reformation (at least on Luther's side).  Is such servile obedience given to a man, a council, a teaching magisterium, or Scripture?  Luther, as he certainly discovered, was in battle against a hierarchy that would ultimately become self-destructive and manifest a tyranny that would work against the faith.  As long as the top of the heap was a good or simply benign man, the faith could survive but as we have witnessed in Rome, when that man is neither good nor benign, the hierarchy has the power to silence and destroy the faith along with the faithful.

According to Rome, God has designed the Church to be a hierarchy and not a democracy.  On this Luther would certainly agree.  What is in contention is what or who is at the top of that hierarchy.  For Rome, the successor of Saint Peter is at the top.  The Eastern Church would certainly insist that it was not the man or the office Rome claims.  Luther would also agree to this.  But what was new in the Reformation was the idea that in place of man or council stood the catholic Scripture, the Word of God that does not change and that endures forever.  According to Rome, the pope rules the entire Church and there is no Church apart from him, from his rule, and from his reign.  Rome has not quite figured out what to do with the East and its answer for Luther was excommunication with the presumption that if the Pope wanted Luther in hell, he had the power to make it happen and for God to do it.  So remains the question of the hope of the hierarchy.

According to Rome, the bishops are the successors of the twelve apostles but the Pope is more like Christ.  Jesus does not rule through a collegial authority of bishops but through the Pope.  The authority of a priest remains inextricably bound to the authority of his lawful bishop (during ordination he solemnly promises to respect, obedience, and fidelity along with obedience to the Deposit of Faith).  The abuse scandal in Rome has highlighted the dysfunctional character of this hierarchy in large measure because the pope is not honest with his bishops and his bishops are not honest with him just as bishops are not honest with their priests anymore than the priests are honest with their bishops.  Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that hierarchies always seem to be in pursuit of power and territory.  Even when the papal claims were surrendered in favor of a financial remuneration, popes have continued to sit at table with the world's leaders and speak and act as if they were one of them.  Apparently Jesus' words about His kingdom not be of the world have fallen on deaf ears.

Of course, the hierarchy of the Word of God did not quite pan out like Luther thought.  There were those only too happy to throw the baby out with the bath water.  Lutheranism has been the odd church out since with Protestants of all stripes disdaining everything except their own wisdom and fearful of all things catholic.  Yet, it all said, Lutheranism remains the brightest light before us even if its jurisdictions and people have not lived up to the promise.  A catholic Scripture living at home with catholic doctrine and practice remains the top of our pyramid.  A priestly ministry which lives not over but with, living out a different vocation than the lay but together as one in complementary life between church, home, and world remains still the vision before us.  When Jesus said in His Church there would be no lording it over as they do in earthly kingdoms and realms, He did not mean either a hierarchical monarchy for His Church nor a democracy in which the majority ruled.  He meant something so different that it has remained more goal than achievement -- namely, the hierarchy of God's Word before the hearts and minds of a people so precious to Him that He was willing to become incarnate, live for their righteousness, die for their atonement, and rise for their immortality.  This will not accord well with a papal authority above the Word of God nor the vote of council in a different majority rule even as it will not live in the democratic sacred space of the ballot box.  But it will live where the Spirit works and the means of grace live here so that we might live there with God forever.  Oh, how I long for this vision to become real.