Sermon 2nd Advent: God Prepares The Way
God Prepares The Way
Malachi 2:17-3:5
17You have wearied the LORD with your words. "How have we wearied him?" you ask. By saying, "All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them" or "Where is the God of justice?"
Malachi 3
1"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty.
2But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap.
3He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,
4and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.
5"So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.
Good News and Bad News
Two 90-year-old women, Rose and Barb, had been friends all of their lives. When it was clear that Rose was dying, Barb visited her every day. One day Barb said, "Rose, we both loved playing softball all our lives, and we played all through High School. Please do me one favor: when you get to Heaven, somehow you must let me know if there's women's softball there."Rose looked up at Barb from her deathbed and said, "Barb, you've been my best friend for many years. If it's at all possible, I'll do this favor for you." Shortly after that, Rose passed on.
At midnight a few nights later, Barb was awakened from a sound sleep by a blinding flash of white light and a voice calling out to her, "Barb, Barb."
"Who is it?" asked Barb, sitting up suddenly. "Who is it?"
"Barb, it's me, Rose."
"You're not Rose. Rose just died."
"I'm telling you, it's me, Rose," insisted the voice.
"Rose! Where are you?"
"In Heaven," replied Rose. "I have some really good news and a little bad news."
"Tell me the good news first," said Barb.
"The good news," Rose said, "is that there's softball in Heaven. Better yet all of our old buddies who died before us are here, too. Better than that, we're all young again. Better still, it's always springtime, and it never rains or snows. And best of all, we can play softball all we want, and we never get tired."
"That's fantastic," said Barb. "It's beyond my wildest dreams! So what's the bad news?"
"You're pitching on Tuesday." (courtesy yelp.com)
Of course, that's a silly way to start a sermon, but it helps us to get some perspective on the text we read for today. The actual lectionary text is Malachi 3:1-4. But, if you read that part of the text, which is right in the middle of a speech that the prophet Malachi is giving, you only get the good news. Malachi's news was that God is sending a messenger to prepare the way, and that the Lord is suddenly coming to his temple. Now, that sounds like good news. But, when you know why God is coming to his temple, that's the bad news -- God is coming to sort things out, to refine and purify, to judge and to set right everything that's wrong. And, of course, a big part of what's wrong is with the people of God. The back story to Malachi is this --- A rival group of priests have taken over the temple ministry, wrenching it from the descendants of the first priest, Levi.
- As a result, life among the people of God is not good.
- They have lowered the standards of worship so that now they sacrifice the worst of the flocks instead of the best.
- The new priests have betrayed both God and the community by changing the standards, relaxing the teaching, and profaning their office.
- The people have responded to this lack of leadership by dishonoring their marriages and stealing from God.
- But, they also complain about the way things are, asking "Where is God?" as though God were not looking out after them.
- Worship Yahweh, God, only, and not worship idols or other gods.
- Respect the name of God, and not invoke it lightly or profanely.
- Take one day out of seven to give to God.
- Honor their parents.
- Not murder.
- Be faithful in their marriages.
- Not steal.
- Not give false witness or testimony.
- Not covet anything anyone else had.
You have wearied the LORD with your words. "How have we wearied him?" you ask. By saying, "All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them" or "Where is the God of justice?"
Here's the problem: God's people think they know more about how God should do his job than God does.In Malachi's day they were wearing God out with their complaints. Those complaints were that God didn't see things like they saw them. That God wasn't judging everyone else harshly enough.In other words, God's people had grown so accustomed to the privilege of being God's people, that they thought they knew more than God about how things ought to be handled.The Problem With ArroganceSo, in short, God's people have a problem with arrogance. They have all the answers, they know that God isn't doing what God ought to be about certain types of people, and because their society doesn't favor them, they complain not just to God, but about God.Now, here is where this gets really difficult. Because the problems God's people had in Malachi's day and in the first century, are problems God's people still have today. Let's go through the list found in Malachi 3:5. This is what God is going to do when He comes:"So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.
- He's going to bear witness against the sorcerers. This doesn't mean burn your Harry Potter books. Sorcery, in Malachi's day, was calling on the power of something other than the God of Israel. Idolatry and idol worship in another form. Two commandments that begin the agreement of God with God's people.
- God will testify against the adulterers and perjurers. I don't want to pick on Tiger Woods here, but he's the latest example of celebrity "transgressions" as he put it. A writer this week said we used to call "transgressions" sin. But, that's not really my point here. My point is that the people of God break their covenant agreements with each other, and 2 of the 10 commandments in the process. God's people aren't living according to their agreement with God to be different.
- God will testify against those who defraud the hired workers in their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, and who "thrust aside the alien." In other words, God's people are not only not taking care of the worker, the widow, the orphan, and the alien, they are taking advantage of them. God is always on the side of the poor and the weak. Always. Write that down. Always. No exceptions. That's why we have the story of the Good Samaritan, the strong story of the sheep and the goats, the story of Jesus healing, eating with, and ministering to the outcasts of society.Let me put it this way. The coming of God in the form of baby Jesus should be a time for us to examine our own lives and see if we are living our lives differently than the rest of the world.That means that we don't rely on the power of the stock market or international economics, but we look to God. That means that we keep our commitments to our families, our spouses, and tell the truth in all our dealings. Those things are corny and old-fashioned, and there are new examples every week of celebrities, sports figures, politicians, and movie stars who violate those values. But we are the people of God, we are the contrast society, we are the ones different from all the world.God Prepares The WayIn Malachi 4:5-6, the last two verses of Malachi, God says --
Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse. -- Malachi 4:5-6 NRSV
So, the preparation for the coming of the Lord is receiving the word of the Lord from the messenger of the Lord, which heals the most basic of relationships. In theological terms, we call this "reconciliation" -- making peace between one party and another. In other words, remembering what we are supposed to be with those closest to us because of God's covenant with us. Madeleine L'Engle has this to say about remembering who we are supposed to be --
"If Jesus of Nazareth was God become truly man for us, as I believe he was, then we should be able to walk on water, to heal the sick, even to accept the Father's answer to our prayers when it is not the answer we hope for, when it is no."
"In art, either as creators or participators, we are helped to remember some of the glorious things we have forgotten, and some of the terrible things we are asked to endure, we who are children of God by adoption and grace."
"One of the great sorrows which came to human beings when Adam and Eve left the Garden was the loss of memory, memory of all God's children are meant to be."
"Perhaps one day I will remember how to walk across Dog Pond." Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, p. 11-12.
We may not remember how to walk on water this Advent season, but we can remember this -- we are God's people, and God has come, is coming, and will come to us over and over again.Cardinal Suhard said, "To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist." Walking on Water, p. 26.The mystery no longer resides in the manger, but in our lives. We are the living presence of God in this world, and when God comes to us, He comes to this place, to our church, so that we might live out His mystery in this community.