Lectionary readings: Job
38:1-7 and Hebrews 5:1-10 and Mark 10:35-45
There’s a story
concerning Abraham, our father in faith. Abraham, or Abram as he was still
known at the time, had left his homeland on the Persian Gulf and migrated
northwest following the Tigris and Euphrates until he reached the mountains
between modern day Iraq and Turkey, then turning south down through the
corridor of land that lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the northernmost
end of the Great Rift Valley that runs all the way down through Africa. He
travels as a nomad, herding his flocks, and making alliances with more settled
communities. He has undertaken this migration with his nephew, Lot; but the
place where he has found some degree of rest is unable to support both men’s
flocks and servants, and so they part company, Abraham giving Lot first choice
on where to settle. And Lot chooses the fertile floor of the Rift Valley.
Now the Rift Valley
itself, and the rolling hills rising to its east, are populated with
settlements, each with its own king, or chieftain. And these chieftains form
alliances, to secure trade and a measure of peace. The most powerful of these
was Chedorlaomer, who lorded over eight other vassal kings. Now, after twelve
years of this, five of the kings formed an alliance and rebelled, including the
king of Sodom, under whose patronage Lot lived. After a stand-off of over a
year, Chedorlaomer and three kings who kept faith with him went to war, four
kings against five, and they prevailed over the rebels, carrying off goods and
people, including the household and goods of Lot.
When Abram heard of
this, he gathered his own trained men, and those of three allies, and set off
to bring Lot home. He defeated Chedorlaomer and his allies, liberating Lot and bringing
back the goods belonging to the king of Sodom. And as he returns, another king enters
the story: Melchizedek, king of Salem, later Jerusalem. ‘Melchizedek, king of
Salem’ means ‘King of Righteousness, King of Peace.’ This king is also a
priest, priest of God Most High. Not of the later line of Aaron, a priesthood
that made sacrifices for sin, but a priest whose ministry existed completely
outside of such systems. And what Melchizedek does is to serve Abram.
Literally, to serve a meal. Melchizedek brings out bread and wine and sets them
before Abraham, saying: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and
earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your
hand!” It is, in other words, a Eucharist, a thanksgiving. An act of service
that enables Abram to see and respond to God’s act of salvation, even if Abram
lives with unanswered questions, even if Abram still lives with the unanswered
prayer for an heir to inherit all that God has blessed him with, and to carry
on the alliance between them.
This is what we might
call a foundational story. Foundational to the world that God has ordered, and
foundational to the identity of Jesus the Son, and foundational therefore to
the vocation of the Church, the Melchizedekian priesthood of all believers.
What Melchizedek does for
Abram, as he serves him, is create the conditions for righteousness and peace
to flourish. Peace is not merely the cessation of hostility—which Abram has
already accomplished—but the transformation of relationships, enemies becoming
friends over food, the establishing of right relationship, of righteousness. And
this transformation is as fundamental and profound as the transformation of
grain into bread and grapes into wine. And of course, such transformation is
irreversible: bread cannot become grain, nor wine be turned into grapes; though
bread can go moldy, and wine turn to vinegar, if they are left, if the meal,
the commitment to serve one another, is abandoned.
Abram is active in his
faith, stepping out to bring Lot home. But he must also learn to be attentively
passive, to receive the gift of Melchizedek’s service and to encounter God in
it. Likewise, Jesus learned through his suffering—that is, through those things
done to him by others, for good as well as for ill—to hear and respond to his
heavenly Father. Not least, Jesus learned how to serve by reflecting on his
experience of being served, both lovingly and lacking love. For ultimately, he
comes to serve, to offer up his life that others may more fully live; but he
can only do what he sees the Father doing, only give what he has first
received.
Because of Jesus, our
high priest in the order of Melchizedek, we are called to this vocation: to be
those who through our lives and our service promote righteousness and peace. That
being so, come to the table, on which is set out bread and wine, and with it,
receive the life of Christ afresh. May it bring clarity to your days and
empower you to praise God’s holy name.
Come, those who have
migrated to this place and met hostility as well as welcome.
Come, those who have put
their hope in God, only to carry the pain of unanswered prayer.
Come, those who want
to do great things for God, and those who believe you never could.
Come, those who have
been trodden underfoot, and those confessing their own tyranny.
The table is set.
Come, let us eat
together.
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