The readings for this Sunday included Malachi 3:1-4 and Luke 3:1-6. Judgement hasn’t featured much in my preaching. Here I try to make amends and begin to understand why.
December 8th 2024
The context of our readings is everything.
First we have Malachi. In our three year lectionary cycle we only read three times from Malachi. It is the last book of our Old Testament. Today’s reading is from the penultimate chapter. We don’t know who Malachi is but we do know that the word Malachi means my messenger.
When we finish reading Malachi and turn the page in our Bibles we find that we are in the New Testament, into the gospels and the story of “my messenger”, namely John the Baptist. Luke gives the context in historical detail. “It was the 15th year of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee …” It was at that time when the country was occupied and governed by Rome and, precisely that time, when things were so bad, that the word of God came to John … in the wilderness, beyond the pale, outside, in the uninhabited margin. It was then and it was there that the word of God came to John and John becomes malachi, “my messenger”
That is so dramatic isn’t it, turning from one page to another, from one testament to another, from the promise of a messenger to the delivery of the messenger in just a word from God? Like most times it was the worst of times but the worst times are the best times for hearing the word of God.
As Charles Dickens describes the times in Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
Or, as as we read in the verses immediately following our reading from Malachi, a time of sorcerers, adulterers, of people who swear falsely, of people who oppress hired workers in their wages, who oppress widows and orphans and who thrust aside those who are aliens and refugees. In other words, times just like ours. God promises judgement against them, the sorcerers, the cheats, the liars, the oppressors, the callous and indifferent. And promises judgement in favour of their victims.
Judgement is very much a theme of our readings through the season of Advent. It makes it a season of judgement and the coming of judgement. I suspect that this is something that has been downplayed in our minds. By and large I suppose we have come out on the right side of history. We live in a nation which can afford to protect itself. We have an economy more advanced than most. We are more prosperous even though that prosperity may have been the result of companies being able to exploit their power to mine resources which properly belong to the earth or to others. We can afford to defend ourselves. We can pay the insurance.
It is those on the wrong side of history who long for judgement, those who suffer in the system, those who are oppressed who need the judgement to set them free. It is the exploited, abused and hurt people who long for their day in court.
We have so downplayed the idea of judgement that we have stylised it. We have kicked the can down the road. It’s a second coming, on a date to be confirmed, and we can’t believe that either, can we?
It was an age like this when paths are crooked and the ways of the world are anything but smooth and straightforward that the word of God came to John in the wilderness. It is in the turn of a page from the intention of “sending my messenger” to the actual arrival of the messenger, a real malachi, “my messenger” whose every word was the word of God.
His place is the wilderness – like no other place, and so a judgement against those places and the crooked ways of the town and city. His appearance is like no other – no dedicated follower of fashion. He wore coarse camel hair wrapped in a belt. He ate locusts and wild honey. He is wild and in that wild-er-ness the judgement of God drew near.
Luke pictures crowds of people flocking to John to be baptised by him, all of them asking “what shall we do?” The tax collectors came asking “what should we do?”. The soldiers came asking “what should we do?” What should we do? And John told them what they should do. “Share what you’ve got”, “don’t rob or cheat” and don’t do anything that is going to force others into crooked ways. This was the word of God that came to John in the wilderness. What they should do is the judgement of God.
Crooked ways of living make the victims of crooks walk crooked ways, often leaving people with no choice other than the devious path and the ways of subterfuge, cunning and craftiness to survive the traps set for them. The crooked path, from pillar to post is not the easy road. When crooks hear the judgement of God, the message of the prophets, and change, their ways become straightforward – and that smooths the road for their victims.
It is at times like these that when our own paths are crooked and the ways of the world are anything but smooth that the word of God comes to us. We might have taken the idea of judgement lightly. We might feel that we have done little wrong. We all think that don’t we? That is part of our natural self defence. We might have focused far too much on “forgiveness” and forgotten the importance of judgement. But what of those we’ve wronged, those we’ve hurt, those we’ve taken advantage of, those we’ve demeaned and those we’ve neglected? What about those who have suffered because of us, because of a harsh word or because of our harsh judgement of them? What about those who have had to stay in the closet? What about those who can’t walk straight, or hold their heads high because of our words, attitudes and behaviours?
THEY need US to come to God’s messenger. They need us to ask that same question, “what must we do”, “what must we do to change?” They need us to hear the judgement of God. They need us to take the judgement of God to heart so that they will not be oppressed, belittled or shamed because of us.
Malachi describes the messenger in terms of a “refiner’s fire” or like “fuller’s soap”. Goldsmiths and silversmiths melt their precious metal in a crucible of fire to refine the silver and gold. Once a metal is melted down the dross rises to the top and then removed before it cools.
Fuller’s soap is the soap used by the fuller when cleaning the wool of the sheep. Sheared wool is never clean having got tangled and dirty while growing on the sheep. The fuller’s soap would bleach the wool and kill the bacteria. So, a very fitting image for us, “all we like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6)
That is how judgement is pictured by Malachi in the last pages of the Old Testament, like a refiner’s fire, like fuller’s soap, showing that the judgement of God is never about punishment or condemnation, but always about change, cleansing and refinement. It shows the great love of God for us to believe that we can be refined to something precious – worth our weight in gold, precious as silver in the kingdom of God.
And this is how John the Baptist practised – as the messenger of God, with words of judgement, for times such as these. “He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” – a baptism which shows our hearts and minds changed and turned to Christ so that we become a blessing to those around us rather than a curse.
Grits and Grains 