Christ, Who Calls All

The New Revised Standard Version Chapter 5

5 Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; 3 and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. 4 And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,

“You are my Son,

today I have begotten you”;

6 as he says also in another place,

“You are a priest forever,

according to the order of Melchizedek.”

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; 9 and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10 having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Prayer

Introduction

Who has authority in our life together? Who leads you? Who will we follow?

Today’s passage is about calling. The calling of Christ to live under the authority of God’s direction. But also our own callings, our own direction to serve with our lives.

And why would we follow God’s leading, God’s calling? We might say that it gives us purpose. Or it is the best use of our gifts.

What this text shows us is that to live into our calling is to find a wholeness, an intact, complete part of ourselves that God has designed to flourish in service and restoration work. We are meant to be healers, bridge builders, peacemakers, reconcilers. This is a calling for God’s people to live into.

We see it modeled in Christ. We will hear examples of how this is modeled in our community today. And I hope this text gives you pause to consider who you are called to be as a part of God’s family, here at St. James, and what this requires of you.

Acknowledging Melchizedek

So that we do not find ourselves distracted by the unknowns of this text, let’s first take a moment to discuss this enigmatic character who appears twice in this reading and pops up throughout the book of Hebrews: Melchizedek.

As I mentioned when we began our study of Hebrews, a working knowledge of the Hebrew Torah, the books of the law, is helpful as we go through this book. We hear of Melchizedek only a handful of times throughout the Scriptures — in Genesis, in the Psalms, and in Hebrews.

In the book of Genesis, Melchizedek meets Abram after Abram returns from rescuing his nephew Lot, who had been taken in battle during a disagreement among other local kings. Abram returns from battling for Lot and finds Melchizedek, King of Salem.

Melchizedek has set out bread and wine to greet Abram and bless him in the name of the Most High God. Genesis 14:17-20 recounts this story: “17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him one-tenth of everything.”

This story doesn’t give us much to work with. It tells us of a somewhat mysterious king or priest of an unfamiliar order blessing the patriarch of the Hebrew people.

So, what does this have to do with Jesus? And what does it have to do with us?

The text says Melchizedek was King of Salem. Curiously, most of the other kings listed in this section of Genesis come from regions we are familiar with from other parts of the Abraham story: Gomorrah, Sodom, Elam, Shinar, etc. Most of these locations are identifiable pretty quickly as we recount Abraham’s journey.

But looking at Salem, it was curious for me to discover that it is a location that is associated with the future place of Jerusalem. In a sense, it is a location that is yet to be.

Before we go too far down the rabbit hole here, this is what I’m excited to share about Salem. When it says that Melchizedek is a priestly king of Salem, we can look at the translation of Salem from Hebrew and realize that it means “complete, intact, safe, untouched.”

Stay with me here: We can wonder at this — Melchizedek is an enigmatic priest of some previously unknown order. He is king of Salem. And Salem is what is safe, what is refuge, what is intact and complete. It is hope, it is resolution, it is fullness.

So, when we hear this applied to Jesus, what do we do with that?

Could it perhaps be that this is an Old Testament reference that speaks of a whole priestly order under God’s direction that is one of fullness, completion, of what is to be and what is promised? Could this meal with Abram and Melchizedek prefigure a communion table, the breaking of bread and sharing cup that are central to the life of faith in Christ? These questions help guide our understanding.

Is Jesus the living fulfilment of that order? We don’t hear that Jesus is of the Levitical order, a priest like Aaron. No, Jesus, the Christ, is designated as a priest of fulness, completion, intactness. Where earthly leaders are flawed and only partially know their true calling, Jesus is the firstborn marker of this priestly service, fulfilled.

We’ll see why this matters as we explore how our calling connects to Christ’s calling.

Calling and Ministry

Today, at the end of the service, we’ll highlight the strong staff we have here at St. James. We do this every year, remembering the significant work our staff does to support our ministry life here. But I want to also frame this with the notion of calling.

You don’t get into church work because it’s necessarily glamorous or lucrative work. People who spend years in full-time ministry have to have other purposes beyond honor or position. Ministry work is often difficult, as these last two years have absolutely proven. It takes grit, fortitude, and deep purpose to keep going. In caring work, it can be difficult to see tangible results. Time and energy are given, trusting that God is at work, God is growing us together. And this trust relies on also trusting our calling.

I believe wholeheartedly that God has called together the staff we have at St. James for such a time as this. Right now, we have what I believe is the strongest, most capable staff I have had the privilege of working with in my time here as pastor. We have a terrific music director, whose innate gifts have added so much depth and joy to our worshipping life. We have a creative and engaging Children & Families director, whose leadership has helped our programs for our younger church goers blossom and thrive, even amidst the pandemic. We have an administrative ministry assistant who gets it — who offers compassion and friendly presence to all people who connect with our church throughout the week. God has also called a talented treasurer, a meticulous groundskeeper, and caring nursery staff to support and enhance our collective work together.

As we see this healthy, thriving, collaborative staff at our church, I want us to also be reminded of the priestly calling that is placed upon these people. God has called these folks, with their unique skills and gifts, together to form a collective team who carries out God’s good work on our behalf and alongside all of us.

Today, I want us to link up the priestly calling of Christ with the work we do together. I want you to see your own part as a calling, whether that is as a volunteer, an elder, a deacon, a prayer team member, an usher or a lector. We are called by God to this work, called to this community, called to partake in Christ’s priestly work as we respond as children of God.

This also makes me think of my own calling.

I began working in full-time ministry a little over 15 years ago as the Retreat and Small Groups coordinator for a student ministry at Western Washington University.

We worked really long hours, stretched our creative energies to the max, and did important ministry on a shoestring budget. When I step back, 15 years removed, I can see that I started out not knowing what kinds of sacrifice or growth ministry work would require of me, but with a hope to do something of good for people I cared about. There was and is something “whole” about this work — a wholeness and hope that drive the daily work. That in this, we are on about the restoration of wholeness in all that we do, reconciling and making a way for all people to encounter God’s love through our daily actions.

Vs. 4 from our reading is important here: The one who is called does not presume the honor of the role or position. The text says that the high priest takes on the honor of the calling only when it comes as a God-given direction, as it has always been with the priestly line of Israel. God calls, we respond.

Now, we don’t have high priests in our tradition, so we might gloss over this in the text. But if we attend to it, we acknowledge that we do, in fact, call pastors and staff together, in God’s name and through God’s will, to serve our churches and offer their gifts on our collective behalf.

Five years ago, St. James was in the midst of a pastoral search, what we name a “call process” in our denomination. You all were discerning God’s direction for the congregation and had entrusted a pastoral nominating committee to pray and search their hearts for the calling of God as it was placed upon a mortal to come and serve among you. On the other end of the equation, I was searching for my calling, looking to God about where I was to serve after finishing seminary and my ordination process. God called us together. I’m no high priest. But I know what it means to follow after God’s call and pursue it with my life. This work is so much more than a job — it’s a way of life, a vocation, a good burden to take up and carry in Christ’s name. Again, with Vs. 4, the called ones do not presume the honor. Rather, it is given and taken on, called out by God.

With this sense of calling, I need to take us back to Jesus, to Salem, and to the order of Melchizedek.

With a calling like this, Christ, our text says, offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

Christ, ordained as our high priest, offers up prayers for his people.

Christian theology tells us that Christ is still submitting those prayers on our behalf. We understand that we have been swept up into this calling as well, like Christ. What we see in Christ, we see on offer for us. Christ is a new human and we are children of this new humanity with him. While we might be quick to dismiss our alignment to Christ’s way, thinking ourselves less than or not enough, please, don’t forget this — we are little Christ’s, Christians, followers of this way. So…our prayers, our cries, our actions — they are to be submitted to God with wholeheartedness, expecting the same — that God hears us and responds.

Through Christ’s obedience and submission to God, God made him perfect. And we, as Children of God, are offered this same gift — restoration, wholeness, and purpose to serve on behalf of others.

Priesthood of All Believers

We bear the calling of Christ in our own lives. We may not always recognize it, it might be dim or obscured, but the calling is there for us to hear. Do we believe this? Will we submit to this? Can we let ourselves know, deep within and in community, that God has called us together to serve and live and move and have our being as active participants in God’s restoring work? Can we let ourselves believe this?

You may be in a place of life where you are able to step up into this calling all the more. Perhaps you have a sense of God’s direction to service in ministry alongside us here, giving your time and energy and skills to bring healing and wholeness in this community. Perhaps you don’t have that same level of energy or ability any longer — but are you called to pray, to share what you have, to encourage? YES! So heed this calling.

Really practically, circling back to our staff and volunteers here: One of the simplest ways to be of help and to live into this calling is to encourage each other and lift up in support those who serve. I love what I do. I love this work, this calling, this opportunity. And I need encouragement. The work gets hard, lonely, difficult to distinguish progress or results. I, we, need your prayers, your vocal support, your gifts of time and talent. We need your cries and supplications.

When we offer these things to each other, we can help each other live most fully into who we are. Like our healthy staff, we get to see a picture of flourishing in community.

In this obedience, in this sacrifice and giving away of who and what we are…we find wholeness, salvation, perfection.

When you and I live into our calling, our gifts, we are able to touch upon and become a part of this priestly order, this order of all believers, under the authority and power of God.

May it be so with us, that we attend to our calling as priests and agents of God’s restoring love. Amen.