In The Order (the pattern) Of Melchizedek

It's been my privilege now for 77 years to grow up on the fringes of institutional religion. Now only in my third institutional church, my journey has rubbed spiritual shoulders with many denominational leaders, even at times in fellowship with leaders outside the bounds of Christianity.

My current affiliation is Presbyterian, though this body of believers seems quite different from most. You'll soon see a thread here, that seems providential.

I use the word fringes, given that I was raised Pentecostal. My great grandfather, a horseback riding, mountain preacher, at least until he finally settled in as pastor of a brick and mortar church in Statesville, NC. His small ordination document with the Church of God is in my possession.

Today's Pentecostals in some way, seem linked to the Azusa Street revivals.

If you've not heard of such, The Azusa Street Revival was a Pentecostal revival that began in Los Angeles in 1906 and is considered the catalyst for the modern Pentecostal movement. Led by William J. Seymour, a Black holiness preacher, the revival was characterized by its emphasis on spiritual experiences like speaking in tongues, divine healing, and racial and gender integration.

That “gender and racial integration”, you would think would be revered as a spiritual mandate, but sadly would soon be violated by prejudice within the Body of Christ. This would once more result in fragmented denominational movements, especially along racial lines, and as well birthing rarefied emphasis on the various spiritual gifts.

Religion has a tendency toward divisiveness, though we profess unity! Hello 2025!

Lest I digress, my thoughts this morning seemed more aligned around a curiosity with this man, Melchizedec.

Genesis 14:18–20 mentions his first appearance, “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.

And he blessed Abram…”

This is the only narrative appearance of Melchizedek in the Old Testament, though referenced numerous times with implications of a new order beyond the Levitical. We seem to have missed something important as Christians, at least it now seems that way to me.

Melchizedek meets Abram (later Abraham) after Abraham’s victory rescuing Lot.

His name Melchizedek (מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק) means “King of Righteousness”, and he is king of Salem, likely early Jerusalem (from shalom, “peace”).

He is described as both king and priest, though no genealogy or lineage is given — which is highly unusual for a priest in Hebrew tradition.

Melchizedek is mentioned 9 times in Hebrews, and once each in Genesis and Psalms, for a total of 11 references in the entire Bible.

Who was this individual and why would he appear, outside the Levitical priesthood. Why would scripture align Jesus more so with him than with the lineage of Aaron, Moses and the Levitical priesthood. Entomology seems to imply a new “order”, a new pattern, though Christianity seems to cling to Aaron's Judaism. The Book of Hebrews seems to address such.

"Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever."

Hebrews 7:3 NIV.

The Hebrew word for “order” implies a “pattern”, perhaps missed by modern Christianity, with its focus on the one man, Jesus, rather than the concept of God in man, the Christ. Could Melchizedek have been such as well?

Had God earlier manifested in individuals such as Melchizedek and if so, is this a “pattern” that God uses to bring all men to Himself (gender bias unintended). Is the pattern a progressive unveiling of what love truly is, humanity even perhaps on stage before far more superior Beings.

This Blue Dot in the Milky Way, some Divine Play in which we humans through the Spirit's impartation eventually become like Him?

Yet, with each advancement, our free will tainted by way of an also often mentioned “tempter”, one “fell from heaven”, using religion to divide us, keeping such love from “integrating” us in unity as a Body?

Having such thoughts as a child in my Pentecostal “order” would have been deemed blasphemous. Also, we were caught up in escapism, with blissful tunes by the likes of the Happy Goodman Family (look ‘em up) and others.

“I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away!” seemed our theme. And, so that no one should be left behind, our focus was missions and global evangelism, though the Body would be perpetually fragmented by denominationalism, though repeated renewals are cited throughout history.

The Azusa Street Revival, though it seemed right out of the Book of Acts, wasn’t given credence by established religious institutions, though history foretells the impact and necessity of such renewals.

Catholicism was interrupted by the German Reformation, the Church of England and others by the Great Awakenings, Methodism the seedbed for Seymour's Azusa Street.

However, such renewals seem always soon absorbed by the establishment.

Then once again, such a movement would be rebirthed and ironically this time known as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal!

It first occurred in February of 1967 when a group of students on retreat at Duquesne University began praying for a fresh outpouring of Pentecost. Many of them had profound “baptism in the Spirit” experiences and they shared these experiences with others in prayer.

That movement would touch the market place, giving birth to the Full Gospel Businessmen's movement, which would inspire a small interdenominational prayer breakfast in the small town of Lexington, where my wife and I had purchased our first home.

An invitation by the Methodist school principal under whom my wife and I taught, would provide a window for this long astray Pentecostal, by then married to a fully surrendered Missouri Synod Lutheran. We would soon reenter the Institutional Church world.

Our first experience in mutual membership would be the Assemblies of God, a descendent of Azusa Street, but in our case by way of a spirit-filled Presbyterian pastor who came to speak at that prayer breakfast.

I am now wondering if our experience is not a micro of some pattern of renewal, necessary given our human tendencies that often arrest and reorder what God might be doing, even globally.

Such would seem the case as I study Judaism, then Antioch's Christianity, followed by Constantine's reordering and the birth of Catholicism. Then fomenting within a fostering of Luther's Reformation, and centuries later, Azusa Street.

Perhaps now emerging is another critical moment as Christian Nationalism seems at the forefront, at least in America.

Could the God of Melchizedek, later manifest in Mary's son, the Christ, now perhaps be again asking, “How's that working for you?”