Malachi 3:1-4 Commentary

Commentary:

Advent is most commonly referred to as a season of waiting. But the minor prophets don’t let us off that easy. They rightly point out that there is a world of difference between waiting and preparing.As little kids, we thought the waiting was the hard part. As adults, we’ve learned that waiting around with visions of sugar-plums dancing in your head won’t get the tickets to The Nutcracker purchased or the holiday cards in the mail or travel plans secured. Preparation is waiting that works up a sweat. The Christian remembrance of Advent reminds us that there is a world of difference between waiting and preparing. And that, when it comes to our souls and our spirits — not just our trees — there is trimming and lighting and sprucing up to do. The Christian remembrance of Advent involves what poet Luci Shaw calls “the kind of waiting that feels like work.” Which is exactly the kind of waiting the hearers of Malachi’s prophecy don’t want to do.

“Where is the God of justice?” It is not an uncommon question for the people of Israel to ask. In slavery in Egypt — where is God? Why hasn’t God heard us and liberated us? In the wilderness, wandering for 40 years — where is God? Why hasn’t God lead us into the promised land yet? Under the rule of tyrant kings, in exile, experiencing calamity — where is God? Why hasn’t God saved us? Two thirds of the psalter (the book of Psalms) is made up of these prayers. Lament is a perfectly appropriate response for those of us waiting in a world that doesn’t seem to match up to the character and promises of God.

So what does Malachi mean when he accuses the people saying that they have “wearied the Lord with (their) words”? This is not a case of obedient followers experiencing unjust suffering. Instead, as Biblical scholar Elizabeth Achtemeier identifies the recipients of Malachi’s prophecy, the people of the covenant “are living disobedient lives, and they do not think that it matters one way or another — because God is totally absent from the scene and does nothing.” They aren’t asking, “Where is God?” with clenched fists or tears but, instead, they are asking “Where is God?” with a shrug of their shoulders and the tiniest smirk of a smile. God isn’t here. God doesn’t care what we do. What difference does it make whether we choose obedience or disobedience? Justice or injustice? Kindness or meanness?

Illustration:

Around about 2016, a meme became popular of a cartoon dog, sitting at a table with a cup of coffee.  With the room around him in flames, the speech bubble coming from his mouth read, “This is fine.” Drawn as an indictment of the way we accept or normalize behaviors that should, in fact, concern us. We hear evidence of clear wrong-doing by public officials. “This is fine.” We give into addiction, temptation, anger or despair. “This is fine.”  We accept the expectation of 60+ hour work-weeks and expect the same of others in turn. We aren’t as present to our families and friends as we would like. “This is fine.”

As prescient, insightful, as this might seem for us today, it is exactly the same behavior that God’s people were tempted by and engaged in nearly 2400 years ago. They allowed their relationships to deteriorate, their home lives were in shambles but “I’m sure this is fine.” They went through the motions spiritually, did the bare minimum (and maybe not even that) when it came to loving their neighbor. “This is fine.” Corruption and injustice dominated their public life. “This is fine.” After all, where is God?

Again from Elizabeth Achetemeier, “The important point is that to a people who think that the covenant relationship and its God are non-existent or merely memories from the past, the Lord of the covenant will himself come. That is a frightening prospect for any age that thinks God to be absent from the world.”

If you are waiting and hoping that everything will mostly just stay the same, then you really don’t want Jesus to show up. Cause he didn’t come the first time to baptize the status quo in society or in us. Jesus came and is coming again to change the world. He came to prepare us for a different Kingdom.

He came to people of humble means,

to upend the affluent and to prepare us for a different Kingdom.

He came in unexpected ways,

to refute the arrogance of our expectations and to prepare us for a different kingdom.

He came to lead a ragged bunch of fishermen and misfits,

to counteract our pride and to prepare us for a different Kingdom.

He came to preach about self-sacrifice and mercy,

to challenge our selfish indifference and to prepare us for a different Kingdom.

He came to die an unjust death on a cross,

to confront our sin, to forgive — a much needed preparation for this different Kingdom.

And that’s where Malachi comes in with these images: like precious metal being refined in a skilled metal-workers fire; like the dirt and grime that accumulates on us in this work-a-day world being scrubbed off (along with a top layer of epidermis) with lye soap.

In a final observation from Achtemeier, “The amazing fact, however, is that all in Judah are not already consumed by the fire of God’s wrath, nor will they be consumed, for this is the God of covenant love who will come. God has loved his people and God loves them still. God does not change. The covenant still stands; his purpose still is to use Israel as his instrument in bringing all people to acknowledge his universal reign over the earth, which will be characterized by his just order and unstained by human sin. He still presses forward through Israel’s history to fulfill his purpose of love for his world.”

God’s purpose of love for the world is embodied and enacted by Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection. He came to be raised to life and to intercede for us, to comfort our fears, to be our companion in loneliness and, in this way, Jesus continues to prepare us for a different and better Kingdom.