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Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our Father and from our great High Priest,

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Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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Hey doll, merry doll, ring-a-dong-dillo, it's with those whimsical words that Tom Bombadil

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comes bounding onto the pages of The Lord of the Rings to meet Frodo and friends.

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Now some of you probably still have no idea what I'm talking about, so here it is.

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Tom Bombadil is probably the strangest and most polarizing character in The Lord of the

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Rings.

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Some readers love him, some readers hate him, usually it's for the same reason.

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Tom just doesn't make sense.

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In a story where every character seems to have a detailed backstory and a category they

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fit into, Tom does not have any of that.

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This merry fellow seems to operate by his own set of rules.

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He doesn't even seem interested in the main story.

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Even the One Ring, the object of ultimate evil, has no temptation, no power over him.

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Complete master of domain, of his domain, he steadfastly refuses to explain where he

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came from or where he's going.

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And yet it's precisely because Tom stands outside the main story that he's able to enter

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the hobbits' story and help them to overcome weird supernatural obstacles that they would

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be unable to face on their own.

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He enters the story by rescuing Frodo and his fellow hobbits, he brings them to his

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house, feeds them, and he sends them on their way.

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And then he finishes his role in the story by rescuing them one more time.

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After leaving Tom's house, the hobbits find themselves stranded in a fog on the Barrow

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Downs, haunted grave mounds.

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And before they even know what hits them, they find themselves lost, knocked unconscious,

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and they wake up in one of those grave mounds at the mercy of its undead inhabitant, a

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Barrow-wight.

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A terrifying situation that they've found themselves in.

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And Frodo, helpless to save himself and his friends, does the only thing he can.

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He calls Tom, come Tom Bombadil for our need is near us.

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And Tom comes, he bounds into that place of death, singing merrily, he banishes the

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Barrow-wight with nothing but his word, he dissolves the enchantment of the tomb, rescues the hobbits,

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and sends them on their quest once again.

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Without this mysterious character, the main story of the book would have come to an early

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end.

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Some of you are starting to see where I'm going with this.

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Melchizedek is basically the Tom Bombadil of the Bible.

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Like Tom, he doesn't seem to fit any of the normal categories.

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Like Tom, he has approximately zero backstory.

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He simply bounds onto the pages of the Torah.

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More than any other Christ figure we've looked at in this series, he seems to come out of

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his own story.

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And yet like Tom, he also enters the main story and helps Abram to overcome a challenge

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that he's not prepared for on his own.

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So in Genesis 14, Abram more or less stumbles across Melchizedek's domain in the course

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of his own travels.

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And if you're following the course of the story of Genesis so far, this really does

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stick out.

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Abram has seemed like the one bright spot in a very dark downward spiral of the story

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of humanity so far.

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And even Abram seems to just be wandering around, waiting for God to fulfill this promise.

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So nothing else in the Bible would have prepared us to find that here in Genesis 14, the ancient

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Canaanite city of Salem, also known as Jerusalem, would already have an official priest king

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loyal to Abram's god, a full eight or nine centuries before King David even thought about

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conquering this city and making it his capital.

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How did that even happen?

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Who is this Melchizedek, this priest king?

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We've just got to know more, don't we?

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But we're not told.

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He stays a mystery, a character out of another story, a story that's known only to God.

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And that is exactly what makes Melchizedek such a good priest.

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Because you see, a priest is someone from another story, or maybe better, someone who

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belongs to God's side of the story.

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A priest is a holy person.

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And we hear all the time that God is holy, but what does that word holy mean?

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It means that God is completely other.

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He is set apart from everything else that exists.

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It means he has his own perspective on the story of creation that no one else really

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shares.

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And yet at the same time, throughout scripture, God sets apart human beings, and he calls

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them holy too.

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He brings them into his side of the story.

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That's what a priest is, a holy person, a man plucked out of the common, mundane human

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story and placed into God's side of the story for the purpose of entering back into that

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everyday human story and bringing God's provision and perspective to others.

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Melchizedek does the office of a priest admirably in this story.

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He really checks all the boxes that an ancient Israelite would expect him to.

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He blesses Abraham, Abram, speaking good words from God to him that give him God's perspective.

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He feeds Abram with bread and wine, which are the classic side dishes for a sacrificial

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meal.

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And he even accepts a tithe offering from Abram.

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He's a priest par excellence.

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And that's a very good thing because Abram could really use a good priest right now.

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You see, Abram's encounter with Melchizedek is connected closely to an encounter with

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another king.

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You heard about him in the reading, the king of Sodom.

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And the confrontation that Abram has with the king of Sodom immediately after what we

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just heard seems like a harmless exchange from a human perspective.

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But from God's story, it's a spiritual battle.

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It's a danger that only faith can see.

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Abram's on his way back from rescuing his nephew Lot.

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Lot had been living in Sodom when he was captured by invading kings from the east.

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So Abram hears about it, gathers all his allies together.

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He attacks the kings in a night raid, rescues Lot, grabs some plunder.

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A risky battle, but a resounding victory for Abram.

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And here comes the king of Sodom to meet him.

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And he's got a bold offer.

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Give me back all the people that you rescued, but you can keep the stuff for yourself.

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Now from the perspective of the human story, from the culture of Abram's day, he would

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have been fully justified in accepting this offer.

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He even would have been fully justified to say, no, go pound sand.

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You got pillaged fair and square.

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And then I took it back fair and square.

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I'm keeping it all.

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But he doesn't do that.

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He responds in words that sound very similar to Melchizedek's blessing.

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He says, I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God most high, possessor of heaven and earth,

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that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that's yours, lest you say

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that I made Abram rich.

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It isn't obvious at first glance how Melchizedek connects to this incident with the king of

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Sodom.

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But I think that just maybe it was Melchizedek's blessing, his proclamation that enabled Abram

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to see this danger and escape it.

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Listen again to that blessing.

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Blessed be Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.

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And blessed be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

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God has delivered your enemies into your hand.

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In other words, it's not your victory, Abram.

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It was God's.

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God rescued Lot.

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The spoil doesn't belong to you.

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It doesn't even belong to the king of Sodom.

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It belongs to God.

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That's the perspective from God's side of the story that enables Abram to see the danger

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and to overcome it.

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God used his priest to give Abram the provision and the perspective, the courage and the clarity

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to overcome this challenge and to avoid betraying God's story by giving the impression that

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his success came from anyone but God.

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All of Abram's victories, they are God's victories.

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And brothers and sisters, we also are no strangers to spiritual dangers that only faith is able

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to see.

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Situations happen all the time in this world that seem straightforward or innocent from

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our human story.

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But when looked at from God's perspective, they're full of complexities and unseen pitfalls.

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As a beginning example, I would suggest to you that this is why so many of the people

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that will ask you future pastors to do a wedding for them are already living together.

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I mean, from the practical human perspective, it does make sense.

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It makes financial sense to share rent.

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It seems to make relational sense to ease into marriage slowly.

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It's only when you understand the role that marriage plays in God's story, the way that

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it's supposed to represent the radical commitment that Christ made to us, that you can begin

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to see the danger to your faith, the way that it could pull you out of God's story.

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But you future pastors and deaconesses are not immune to these sorts of situations and

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temptations.

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Oh no.

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In ministry, you'll be pulled into situations that are more complex and messy than you realize

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at first glance.

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An influential donor comes and wants to make a very public and very generous contribution

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to your church.

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It seems like an absolute win until you start to see the kind of control that this donor

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wants in exchange for his generosity.

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Your congregation gets involved in a lawsuit to defend its rights to religious freedom,

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rights that are totally legitimate from the human standpoint.

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But you underestimated just how bad a nasty lawsuit looks to your community, how it undercuts

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your witness.

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You get called in to bring reconciliation to a family squabble and you think from the

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outset that you know exactly who's in the wrong, who needs to repent.

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That is until you get to the house and you see the real situation is more complex.

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Situations like this require all the courage and clarity that you can muster.

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But unfortunately, courage and clarity are often the last thing it feels like you have.

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You desperately need God to strengthen you with his provision and give you his perspective.

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And yet unlike Abram, you don't always overcome those temptations, do you?

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Sometimes you're more like Frodo and his friends, blindsided before you know what hit you.

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Before you know what you've done or said something that betrays God's side of the story and you

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find yourself entombed in sin and conflict.

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So even more, you need someone from outside your story to come and rescue you from the

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power of sin and death.

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What you need is a good priest.

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So it's a good thing you have the very best.

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Jesus Christ is the priest in the order of Melchizedek, the one better than Melchizedek

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himself.

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He comes to do the office as no one else can.

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He comes into our human story of sin and death to rescue us from enemies that we are unable

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to face on our own and to feed us with the provision that we need and give us God's perspective.

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Jesus like no other priest who came before him truly belongs to God's side of the story.

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He is the Holy One of God.

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And Jesus is no stranger to rescuing sinners from situations where they are helpless to

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rescue themselves.

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Just think for a moment about the apostles.

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Jesus spent years with these men, pouring into them, training them to see the world

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through the perspective of God's kingdom.

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And on the night when He was betrayed, when that final crisis was approaching, when the

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powers of darkness were coming out to meet Him, he fed his apostles with bread and wine,

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which were more than just physical provision.

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They were the body of Christ himself, His blood of the new covenant that filled them

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with His own life.

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And what did the apostles do with all of that provision and perspective?

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Ran away.

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All of them.

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Just like all of us have done, they failed and betrayed God's story before they knew

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what hit them.

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But when Jesus is your priest, defeat is never final, not for them, not for us.

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Because even when Jesus was left all alone, when He was crucified and buried by the powers

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of darkness, He bounded into that place of death, almost like old Tom Bombadil singing

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merrily.

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He banished that wicked old Barrow-wight, that true king of Sodom, Satan, with only

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his word.

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He broke the enchantment of death that hung over all of us and broke open hell in the

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grave to rescue everyone who was bound that direction.

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And when His disciples met Him again, what did He do?

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He kept being a priest.

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He was there to break bread for them again.

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He was there to forgive them for their failure.

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He taught, he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, to finally get God's side

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of the story.

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And as He was ascending to sit at God's right hand, a priest forever after the order

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of Melchizedek, He raised His hands and He blessed them.

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The greatest spiritual danger of all is not a match for the priest of all priests, Jesus

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Christ.

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So if you're out of your depth, if you're caught in a conflict you can't see the way

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out of, if you're trapped by temptation, hear the blessing of your priest.

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Blessed are you by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most

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High who gives you the victory.

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If you've been defeated by sin, know this, you're forgiven.

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Your priest is waiting for you with bread and wine to strengthen you.

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And good words of blessing to ready you for the next challenge that will come.

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Because the next challenge is coming, so you have to do the only thing you can.

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Call on Jesus.

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Come Lord Jesus, great high priest, for our need is near us.

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In Jesus' name, amen.