You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
3 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. 5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. 6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
In this dark I rest,
unready for the light which dawns
day after day,
eager to be shared.
Black silk, shelter me.
I need
more of the night before I open
eyes and heart
to illumination. I must still
grow in the dark like a root
not ready, not ready at all.
Denise Levertov
As we conclude our looking at this passage in Malachi, let’s return to the opening salvo of this, Malachi’s fourth homily. We read the first verses of chapter 3 and we can hear the setting of this text in our minds from Handel’s Messiah; and yet, Malachi’s questions seem laced with dismay.
“Who may abide?” “Who shall stand…before the One who “is like a refiner’s fire,” the One who comes to”purge ” and “purify ” all that is unworthy? We quickly recognize that these are rhetorical questions; no one, in their right mind and earthly body, can bear the glorious, penetrating, blinding light of divine Presence without coming undone.
We rightly desire purity, but we also recognize that purification requires pain…He will purify…with fire, and it is quite sobering, something I never paid attention to, until about two Christmas’ back…Did you notice who it is that are first to be purified by this coming Messiah? It is the sons of Levi…that is…the ministers. We are the ones who must be purified…first. As representative of the people, if the ministers are not purified how will the people be?
This is sobering. Refining, as I have and continue to learn, is deeply painful…but mysteriously, it is gloriously painful. The true burning away of impurity, cannot be a walk in the park, or something that just happens naturally.
No. It is the Lord’s intentional and purposed assault on the sin that has wrapped itself around our hearts so that He might remove it, and this is as the tearing of flesh.
I am not a poet nor very educated in the beauty of this art form…I wish I had been. But there is something about Denise Levertov’s poem that ties into all of this but as a contrast of sorts. For her, the darkness offers a kind of rest, “In this dark I rest, unready for the light which dawns…I need more of the night before I open my eyes…”
It is as though she knows that the light brings the fire of purity…and she knows this is nothing to be glib about. And so as one person commented on her poem: It is a tenuous, temporary reprieve…from the work “not ready” to complete.
The darkness holds for her a tension, underscored in the poem’s short, two-word hinge “I need,” she says, not a flash of fire but time in the dark, to retreat, to repair, and to reach down “like a root / not [yet] ready” to support the full weight of the branches above.
So, the purification that is necessary for us to stand in the presence of God as Malachi invites us to do, is not just a purging, not just the painful blasts of fire and light but will come to us in the sanctifying everyday moments of our lives.
Perhaps some of this work is done and must be done…in the darkness…the preparation…for the fire to come. Roots grow in the dark like bodies repair during sleep. Indeed, the moments in the dark behind the “eye mask” offer her a chance to admit the deep and desperate need that drives her plea: “shelter me.”
Levertov reminds us that even and especially in our daily rhythms—of teaching, or parenting, or forgiving yet again, or hoping still in the face of grief, in these things, these everyday things—we can see God’s sanctifying presence at work in us, drawing us to disciplines of faithfulness and gratitude at grace.
The offering we desire to bring is that of our lives purified as gold and silver. This is done in the fire, but the fire need not be the extraordinary events that make life…life…the fire comes also, in the everyday will, to put sin to death, and to live pure before the face of our God.
God’s gift to you was and continues to be Christ Jesus. And your gift to Him…is you…your life, your thoughts, desires, wants, wishes, actions and reactions…purified…made holy…as a righteous offering.
Malachi invites this work, because inviting this work is to invite into our lives, the messenger of the covenant…the Savior of the World.
Prayer: Father, forgive all my prayerless days and all my celebrations of Advent and Christmas where if truth be told my words were vain and my desires amiss. Help me this day that I cannot look to Bethlehem without also seeing Calvary, that I cannot behold the child in the manger without seeing my Savior on the cross. Fill me with awe at Your love for sinners, at Your love for me, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymns: Kings Choir (An hour of Christmas Hymns!)