Day 1091 - Are you ready?

OT Reading: Malachi 3:1-4

Epistle Reading: Philippians 1:3-11

Before my reflection, a little background may help appreciate the Malachi reading.  For most Christians, Malachi is the short, last book of our Old Testament. By its place we assume all its talk of the messenger of God and the Day of the Lord is a prophesy of Christ’s coming.

Actually Malachi is part of the Hebrew Bible and it does not fall at the end of the Jewish Old Testament (1,2 Chronicles do). Malachi is part of a group of 11 other books called the “Book of the Twelve” that reflect on proper worship and an apocalyptic reflection on the Day of the Lord.

Sometime in the first two hundred years of Christianity, the leaders of the Christian church reordered the scrolls of the Hebrew Bible and placed Malachi at the very end, probably to have its language point us towards Christ.

We don’t know who wrote Malachi, but are reasonably confident it was written after the Jews returned from exile in Persia to Jerusalem. Malachi addresses a problem of social and priestly misconduct in worship of God in an era when there should be joy, hope and proper worship in the rebuilt Temple after the return from Persian captivity. Rather than bringing the first and best of lambs, signifying the great gifts of God, people brought crippled, ill animals or animals taken in battle, for example. Worship had become something other than what scripture required. Malachi looked towards an accounting of this misconduct and necessary purification of the priesthood so the Jews can recover proper worship.

Are you ready?

Are you getting ready for Christmas Day after two more Sundays of advent?

The truth be told, there may be as many people who hope it gets here and over with as there are who hope Christmas day gets here soon and stays a while.

Are you ready for the holidays with the parties and festivities, the Christmas Eve service, gift shopping, football playoffs and bowl games? Perhaps we should do a self-check to verify our attitude about the arrival of Christmas?”

The Christmas season bowl games might be a big deal for you.  Maybe your college team is playing for a shot at the national championship? Or, maybe your favorite NFL team just needs 1 more win to guarantee a spot in the playoffs? 

Maybe bowl games are a different big deal. You can only think, “Oh no!  I’m going to lose my spouse or kids to the TV every weekend and for many of the days between now until after Christmas again. I hope their favorite teams will lose, then maybe I’ll get some attention and help.”

Maybe the parties and festivities are a big deal? You can’t wait for the annual office Christmas party where everyone brings their special sweets and has a great time. You hope the boss’s wife brings her prized date-nut fruitcake and can’t wait to see what gifts the management staff bought for us all.

Or maybe you dread the parties and festivities such as that annual party at the boss’ home that you have to attend to stay on his good side and to let the folks who work for you know you care about them, even that slacker in the shop who always corners you at the party wondering why you didn’t give him a bigger raise for all his good work. You dread seeing the boss all smiles and glad handing when you say hello, even though he mad as a hornet at you because you didn’t fire the slacker in the shop. You wonder how can he toss a Christmas party after he fired that foreman last summer with no reason but spite?

Perhaps the gift giving and cards sour Christmas for you. You may worry you’ll forget to send a card to someone who sent you one last year. You dread fighting the shopping crowd trying to find gifts for family and friends who are so hard to shop for they usually return the gift anyway.

Just maybe you find Christmas in a good place. You can’t wait for Christmas. The build up over advent is so enjoyable and you are so thankful be here in worship with your friends. You hope they sing your favorite carols and that everybody comes to the Christmas Eve service!

Maybe you react with a tinge of regret the way I often do, “It seems every year distractions so preoccupy me all the time before Christmas and suddenly it is here and I have never slowed down to enjoy the waiting. I always say, next year it will be different.”

My guess is we all fit into one or more of those scenarios at one time or another. But regardless of where we find our self, we all know how we are supposed to act…Don’t we?

Christmas celebrates the time 2,000 years ago when Jesus came. In his own words, he invited us to join him to proclaim the good news to the poor, release of the captives and sight for the blind. Advent reminds us of Malachi’s ancient world waiting for purification on the Day of the Lord. Advent is also a time to acknowledge we are waiting for the day of his return after his ascension.

My rambling about our attitudes on Christmas may actually connect to these passages in Malachi and Philippians.

Perhaps Malachi’s concern for purification of the derelict priests conducting misguided worship relates to our fancy Christmas parties, worrying about one-upmanship on whose Christmas card list is longer, and why some people can only make it to church on the special times. Such things don’t seem to fit into proper, righteous worship.

Malachi’s unsettling apocalyptic question is a statement about how we prepare for Christmas, “(W)ho can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?”

Are we sure we are ready for Christmas? Are we ready for Jesus to come (again)?

Reading this Malachi passage in advent season reminds me of the old lead-in to Monday Night Football on TV, “Are you read to play football?!!”

If you loved your NFL football those words signified a celebration waiting for the action on the field, being hopeful your team will win…

If you think a little bit more about Monday Night Football, you realize that question stirs up mixed emotions in different people. Anxiety and dread might get stirred up, especially in the players – or folks betting on the game. 

For players Monday Night Football (now also Sunday and Thursday night) is a singular time in the pressure cooker before a national TV audience when every accomplishment and shortcoming that a player makes is exposed for all to see. No one wants to be the object of scorn over coffee Tuesday morning.

Towards the end of the season one team with no chance of salvaging a good season worries of an embarrassing rout facing a powerhouse or how to find the will and way to rout them. Some times two teams on the edge of getting in the playoffs play for that one more win to sew it up.

 “Are you read to play football?!!” causes sweating and worry about whether they can pass the endurance test and do their job well for players in that kind of jam. If there is any celebration for them, it likely is back at home after the win.

Malachi’s question is, ”Are you ready for the messenger who proclaims the Day of the Lord? ” That question implies an expected judgment of one’s righteousness in worship and need for purification.

Does it do that for us in advent? Are you ready for the coming of the messenger of the Day of the Lord that shines a bright light on all your weaknesses? Will you need to be purified as silver is by fire, or cloth by Fuller’s soap? (If you don’t know it, you must burn wood/charcoal with silver or copper to remove the oxide impurities and make the metal lustrous, malleable and valuable, and Fuller’s soap made from adsorbent clay extracts all the filth, discoloration and nastiness you find in freshly shaved wool from an animal that lives in the field.)

For a Christian, purification is not a consequence of judgment. Jesus proclaims salvation for all who have faith. He judges only those who have no faith.

John Calvin says the faithful are “justified.”  In legal words, like Abraham we are reckoned righteous by our faith. Being justified means the charges against us are dropped before there is an indictment or judgment. Faith puts us beyond judgment.

Recall that Jesus said the Lord is the God of the living. 

But faith isn’t a free ride rather it is a changed life. Our changed life is a living effort to turn away, or repent from our sinful ways. John Calvin describes the process of a Christian living and working to be a more holy person, as “becoming sanctified.” Becoming sanctified is a ceaseless life-long task of loving God and neighbor.

Paul talks about building holiness with the Philippians by proclaiming the good news with endurance. Paul says (v 3-6), “I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.  I am confident that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. (Day of the Lord)

Paul, the master of encouragement gives them more credit (probably) than they deserve because he knows and holds his congregation in high regard. He says, “I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day when Christ returns you may be pure and blameless. You will have produced the harvest of righteousness that comes by your journey in the world striving to walk as Jesus Christ did, all for the glory and praise of God.”

The bottom line for people of Christian faith is that our commitment places us on the side of holiness. Paul’s words are not faint praise but hope and joy. Wouldn’t you feel uplifted if some one described you with those words and feel emboldened to hope for that day of the Lord’s coming, knowing you having lived your life filled with Christian compassion?

Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians early in his ministry but his words are as appropriate then as now, whether the Day of the Lord that we await happens tomorrow or in 10,000 years.

Listen to the words again, “9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

In other words, he might have said, “In the Day of the Lord you will not be found shooting up people in buildings with assault rifles, you will be found proclaiming the good news to the least of his people, loving the least as the greatest.

So, the connection between the question that launched Monday Night Football, and my question, “Are you ready for Christmas?” is found in Malachi’s wondering who can endure the day of His coming and in Paul’s encouragement in the Letter to the Philippians to causes us to recognize our need for holiness and to strive to perfect it.

Regardless of whether you are feeling joy and excitement, or sad and put off in this season of Christmas, whether you have sweaty palms wondering if you will play to the best of your skills, your presence here in this congregation waiting for Christmas during advent says you are ready and striving to live the Christian life you embrace. Amen