Malachi 3:1-4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 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 washers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years.

Sermon Text

Scripture defines our present age in many terms. We read about how sin has broken things down to their fundamental level, staining humanity and rendering even our best intentions far short of what they could be without the stain of wickedness upon us. We are prone to do wrong, this is clear to anyone who is ever honest with themselves. We are prone to cause harm; this is true to anyone who has suffered at the hands of friends or enemies. Yet, the word that I think defines scriptures witness about our current broken way of being – is violent.

When Adam and Eve left the garden, their children found no temptation to sin greater than the temptation to take what they wanted by force. Cain killed Abel, and we are told that humanity after that point became more and more violent, culminating in God’s erasure of the world in rains and floods. The new world, born of Noah and his children, was not the caricature of the ante-diluvian world that once was, but they still learned to fight against one another for their own advantage. As humanity spread across the world, as relationships became strained over time as they forgot one another, there came a point where violence once again was the most common of human sin.

Violence is not limited to bloodshed or physical threats either. Violence defines this world in the way that we tear each other down in words, how we wound ourselves with similar cruelty. We profane the image of God in ourselves, we profane the creation God has given us to care for and enjoy, and in all these things we commit a sort of violence that threatens, demeans, and ultimately destroys. The promise that God gives to purify this world is a promise to put away all violence and replace it with something more significant – more substantial – an eternal, all encompassing peace.

The promise of peace can seem far off, but it is found in the same place, the word of God, that we looked to last week to find our hope. We read how the prophet Malachi looked to a refining fire, a purifying presence coming into the world to prepare the way for God’s ultimate salvation. Before God’s salvation fully appeared within the world, a prophet would appear to give the people a way forward. This prophet would give a promise of peace that could only come from them giving away this violence in their heart and embracing instead God’s abundant goodness. A messenger comes to pave the way, and God would do wonders once they did.

We know that this messenger did indeed come, and he was called John the Baptist. In the wilderness of Judea he proclaimed salvation, not with a cheap call to come and suddenly find yourself on the right side of history, but an authentic call to be changed. He took water in his hands and called out to the people, “I baptize you with water for repentance!” The sign of the water was a sign of God calling the people to something more. God’s grace led them to him and called them to be covered in the cold, muddy water of the Jordan. The filth on their bodies left by the riverbed, ironically was the ultimate sign of their purification.

It was not a magical ritual though, the grace that led them to the river did not in itself erase the violence in their hearts. They had to desire to change, they had to keep moving with the inertia that had been given them. When his opponents came to receive God’s grace, John gave them an ultimatum. “Even now,” John cried, “the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” It was not enough to throw themselves into the water, nor enough to confess they had changed with only words. They had to show they had made a difference. They had to practice the preach that God had offered them, and cut themselves off completely from the stench of cruelty that they had previously been covered in.

Those of here who call ourselves Christians, must also give up on the violence we have taken as normal, internalized completely. We cannot be hungry to fight each other, nor can we desire to harm anyone or anything. We cannot speak cruelly of those around us or of ourselves. We have to accept the peace that God has offered us, and we have to accept it in every inch of our body. Light, life, newness and more are available to us if we can see what God is doing and go along with it. I think we all can admit that we take part in the evils of this world. We should also be able to see that that willingness to do wrong, despite knowing it is wrong, is one of the primary reasons this world is still as broken as it is.

How often do we say, “I shouldn’t say anything… but.”? How often do we have the chance to help, but decide not to out of convenience? How often is there a problem we could do something about, but we decide we benefit more from it going unresolved? I could go on and on, but the point remains, we are not only victims of the broken things of this world, we are participants in the cycle of sin and death. Luckily, the cycle has been broken, and we can enjoy the resurrection that frees us from it, as long as we willingly go along with it.

Stop aggression toward other people. Stop speaking ill of yourself too, you’ll never grow better in anything by hating yourself. Stop throwing away God’s good gifts and squandering the good things God has given you. Repent of all violence and find that the only thing left to take part in is peace.

Peace, in Hebrew, is Shalom, and this word is not simply the absence of trouble. Shalom is an ideal state of being, the completion and fulfillment of the self that allows for a person to be all that they are meant to be. The Greek equivalent (εἰρήνη, eirenay) is often used in a similar way. To take part in God’s peace is to accept a holistic approach to goodness. God sent us hope through the prophets, and through John the Baptist showed us the first step toward achieving the peace that God will someday complete in this world. To put away the violence we have toward ourselves, toward others, toward the world itself – and replace it with God’s divine guidance and goodness. People of God, bear fruit worthy of repentance and give up the fight. – Amen.