Do you ever feel that our society has lost its way? That we no longer know the difference between right and wrong? Or at least that there are so many varied ideas of what constitutes right and wrong that we lack a common understanding of what justice might actually mean?
Well, this is not new- throughout history people have despaired of their current age and either looked back- to a time when everyone was reliable, decent and respectable or else they have looked to a future age when a right order would be restored.
It is exactly these kinds of sentiments that Malachi is responding to in tonight’s OT reading. The people to whom he was prophesying had suffered the terrible ordeal of living in exile. They had been allowed to return to Jerusalem and have been trying to recreate their society and its religious practices in the temple.
Yet these attempts have not worked. The restoration of their temple should have created a dwelling place for God but the priests are not doing their job properly. They are palming God off with second-rate offerings and this has led to a deep malaise within the people.
With this has come doubt and scepticism; they have begun to wonder why God hasn’t intervened. A belief has arisen that God doesn’t care- about the corrupt priests or about justice.
Malachi responds to these doubters with the news that the Day of Judgment will come and the wicked will get their just deserts. At this time, when God will finally intervene, the righteous will be able to rejoice in freedom and healing. In fact more than this they will join with God in treading down the wicked
.
This doesn’t provide a very comforting, or comfortable image of God. He is described in harsh and violent terms. My first thoughts on hearing these words of Malachi are ‘what role would I have in this scenario?’ Would I be one of the wicked being tramped upon or one of the righteous doing the tramping? Neither of these roles appeal but I suspect I would be beneath the boots rather than wearing them.
Where is the God who forgives us our trespasses and who seeks healing and restoration? Do we dismiss this presentation of God as the God of the Old Testament who was only superficially, simplistically and primitively understood by the Israelites who sought to express his divine word?
Well, in dismissing this presentation as simplistic we risk ignoring God’s role as judge; we may end up domesticating God until he is just like a larger version of ourselves; someone who is fundamentally liberal or who adopts a ‘live and let live attitude’- an attitude which in the end can serve to deny that we live in relationship with one another and where social injustices can be overlooked. By ignoring images of God which make us feel uncomfortable we fail to see that God is completely other and that he is awesome in his power. In fact this power is unendurable for ‘who’, asks the prophet ‘will stand in his presence?’
The discomfort that we feel when considering God as judge probably arises because we all know that there are areas of our lives which have remained untouched by God. That we take the short-cut or are simply selfish and untrusting of God. We know we are in no position to escape the God who sits as refiner and purifier. Except of course this is the point: God when he comes in judgment does not stop at judging but rather he seeks to make us whole and better able to serve him and be in relationship with him. It is because God yearns to be in relationship with us that he sent his Son Jesus Christ to live among us and to restore us to himself.
So judgment does not spell the end of things for the wicked, or for the priests: They will be refined and purified and through this Judah and Jerusalem will be able to make offerings that are pleasing to the Lord. As is said every week in the absolution “‘God desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live;”
In Malachi’s prophesy judgment is ultimately redemptive.
But being refined isn’t presented as a painless process. Rather it will involve suffering. This is another thing that we might find challenging in this passage. It is as if, having a toothache one sat in pain awaiting the intervention of a dentist. When that long awaited day comes the pain is tackled in a way which involves even more pain- perhaps through the extraction of a tooth. Looked at like this God can appear vengeful or as a masochist.
Yet it is an inescapable fact of life that change, and change for the good, brings with it inevitable hurt and pain. We might look to times in our lives when we have seen ourselves grow perhaps through having something taken away from us that we had thought we could not live without. The loss of perfect health or of someone we love, whilst tremendously painful, can become a time when everything in our lives comes under scrutiny. When we judge what is really important. Having lived through this we might find that our lives, our ideals and our motivations, have been refined.
This is an inevitable part of life for everyone, but as Christians we invite God to participate in this process of weighing up what our values are and should be, to scrutinise our lives and to sit in judgment. So through a process of discernment we might come to see our lives and our relationships as God sees, or judges, them. Through this we are preparing ourselves for, and living in sight of, the end time. Amen