Text: Malachi 3:1-4
At Advent
we talk about the coming of Christ Jesus in all its forms: his first coming,
his coming into our lives now, and his return.
Today I would like to devout a few minutes to how he comes into and is
present in our lives now. I think the Malachi passage describes this quite well. He comes by means of a messenger, the
proclamation of the Gospel, and then begins to work in our lives like a refiner
and purifier of silver to create righteousness; or faith and faithfulness in
us. But, before getting into Malachi I
think it important to point out two approaches different forms of Christianity
have taken in saying how Christ Jesus comes into our lives now that are a bit
off the mark. The first is that he can only
come in by our invitation and the second is that of spiritually awakening to a
Christ-nature already present in everyone.
The first
approach is the one that says that we must invite Jesus into our hearts and
lives before he will come in and save us.
There are two fallacious assumptions in this approach. First, it assumes that the Trinity is not a
gracious and saving presence in our lives until we wise up and get rational
enough to invite Jesus in. Yet, the
whole Creation exists in a contingent relationship with the Trinity so that the
simple fact that we are alive entails that we are in a relationship with the
Trinity whether we want to be or not.
Every human being who has ever lived is in a relationship with the
Triune God of grace who has revealed himself in, through, and as Jesus Christ
and gives himself to us as the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, the Trinity is at work in the lives of all people to make
himself known and to bring forth faith in us whether we want him to be or
not. Saying that we can invite Jesus
into our lives is like saying my mother wasn’t my mother until I invited her to
be a part of my life.
Secondly,
and albeit for the honourable reason of protecting a person’s right to choose,
this approach very subtly destroys the Trinity’s lordship over his Creation by
placing us, the creature, in God’s place by making our capacity to make a
decision to ultimately become the means by which we are saved. The fact of the matter is that the Triune God
of grace has out of love for us acted to save us in, through, and as Jesus
Christ even and indeed apart from any desire for it on our part. Humanity and all this creation will be saved
whether we want to be or not. It’s like
this and remember all metaphors fall apart in the end, if you saw a child
drowning in a lake would you rush in to save her or wait for her suddenly to find
it deep within herself to put her panicked thinking aside and invite you into
the water to save her? Humanity is like
that child except that even though we can’t swim we insist on going further and
further out into the water. What is The
Trinity to do? Let his beloved children
die because we are too dull to figure out the implications of our being unable
to swim in water that is ever-deepening so that we can invite him in to save
us? Does he wait for us to turn around
and walk ourselves back to safety so he can say “well done, my child.”? No, the Father sends the Son in the power of
the Holy Spirit to become human just as we are - unable to swim - and he rushes
into the ever-deepening water into the midst of our peril and dies saving us,
pummelled to death by us in our panicked state of drowning. But, it does not end there. We have to throw in the Resurrection here and
the Trinity's reworking of the entire situation so that death is no more, the
water is no longer perilous, and the futility or our inability swim all the
while believing we can is utterly vanquished by our being given the ability to
swim (as Paul says in Ephesians "for the praise of God's glory").
[I realize
that I appear to be verging into Universalism, that all are saved. I am not a Universalist. Theologically speaking, we have to respect
the Trinity's freedom to be as he told Moses, "I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." Biblically speaking, the fact that there will
be some who are damned is not so easily side-stepped. Moreover, when broaching this topic we must
humbly remember that it was with respect to people who believed themselves to
be his faithful disciples that Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will
of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many
mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you;
depart from me, you workers of lawlessness" (Mat. 7:21-23). The point of the Doctrine of Election is that
there are those who were drowning but are now standing on the shore as the living
proof that in, through, and as Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit to
the glory of the Father the Trinity is saving his Creation from sin and
death. These are whom Paul calls
"the righteousness of God".
"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him
we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21).]
A second
approach to talking about how Jesus comes into our lives now is to talk about a
Christ-nature or something nebulous to that effect that is present in everyone
to which we must awaken. Spirituality is
a key word in this camp. They say our Christ-nature
can be discovered through practicing spiritual disciples that help us to
experience ourselves in the moment as Christ.
The chief method is more or less borrowed for Buddhism. It is to empty one’s mind and focus on
feeling good feelings like compassion and then to discipline one's conduct to
live as selflessly and compassionately as Jesus did. The desired result is that we become more and
more Christ-like as we awaken more and more to our inner Christ-nature. The trouble with this approach is that we
eclipse the Trinity behind our own disciplining of mind and conduct to be like
Christ. It is like mistaking the moon
for the sun in the midst of a solar eclipse and, indeed, darkness for light. This approach ultimately does not need
God. We do it all ourselves.
Well, to
speak kindly of these two approaches, first, it is good to invite Christ into
our hearts, but not as the means to get oneself saved. Rather, we should do so continually as a way
of being open to God’s work in our lives.
"Come, Lord" (Maranatha) was one of the earliest prayers and
proclamations of the church. Second, it
is good to meditate, but meditate on Bible verses not on good feelings. It is
also good to desire to want to be Christ-like and to desire and strive to be as
selfless and compassionate as him. But,
it is important to note that everything Jesus did was not for the sake of being
selfless and compassionate. He did what
he did because he came to do the Father’s will.
He was striving to be faithful to the Father and to what the Father had
sent him to do. He was selfless and
compassionate by nature and for us to share in anyway in his nature is a gift
from him through the Holy Spirit as Peter wrote: "His divine power has
granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the
knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has
granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you
may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption
that is in the world because of sinful desire" (2 Pet. 2:3-4).
Let’s now
take a look at Malachi. Malachi says
that a messenger comes first to clear the way for the Lord is coming. Then he says the Lord comes into his temple. Finally, in his temple he takes his seat as a
refiner and purifier of silver and works so that we may present offerings to
the Lord in righteousness.
Jesus’
coming into our lives now is preceded by a messenger. When Malachi gave this prophecy he was
speaking of John the Baptist preaching repentance out in the wilderness
preparing the way for Jesus’ first coming.
Today the proclamation of the gospel takes the place of the
messenger. Whenever the Good News is
proclaimed that Jesus is Lord and the Kingdom
of God is at
hand seeds of grace are planted in people and God begins to work savingly in
lives. Whenever we proclaim that our
heavenly Father because of his love has sent God the Son in, through, and as
Jesus Christ so that in his life, death, and resurrection he has saved us,
humanity, truly the whole Creation from sin and death and that his resurrected
life is at work now in us, humanity, and truly the whole of his Creation by the
outpouring of God the Holy Spirit, whenever this is proclaimed the seed of
grace is planted in all who hear regardless of whether they want it, believe
it, or understand it or even think it is ridiculous. A seed is planted that will make every effort
to grow into faith.
Next
Malachi says that the Lord comes into his temple. When he first made this prophecy he was
referring to the temple in Jerusalem. But since Jesus and the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the temple has become you and me, the Church. Second Corinthians 6:16-18 reads, “For we are
the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and walk
among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people…I will be your
father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord
Almighty." The seed that God plants
in us is the Holy Spirit who comes into us simply by having heard the
proclamation of the Gospel. He comes to
do his work of creating faith in God the Father and to make us into the image
of the Son, Christ Jesus. We can say
“no” to this work and indeed we will.
Because of sin in us, "no" is the only thing we are truly
capable of saying. Jesus has said “yes”
for us. It is by his faith and
faithfulness that we have been saved, a faith and faithfulness that we participate
in through union with him in the Holy Spirit.
We’re drowning, remember. We are
unable to say "yes" apart from the work of he Holy Spirit upon us.
Next, Malachi says that when the
Lord comes into the temple, into us, he takes his seat, which in the Jerusalem
temple was the mercy seat, the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. But for us his seat is his claiming Lordship
over our lives, a lordship which the art of refining silver is an apt
metaphor. When refining silver, one must
hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as
to burn away all the impurities.
Moreover, the refiner sit in front of the fire holding and watching the
silver the whole time it is being refined.
The fire must stay hot enough and the silver must not be left even a
moment too long in the flames or it can be ruined. The silversmith knows when the silver is
ready when he can see his image in it.
This
metaphor speaks loudly of the Lord’s faithfulness and love for us and his work
in our lives to restore his image in us both as individuals and as a fellowship
of believers which has been marred by sin and death. The Trinity is at work in every one of us to
create faith and faithfulness in us that reflects his image back to him. He works with us each in accordance with who
we are. For some of us, the flames have
been hotter than for others. He will
burn away our impurities so that we won’t suffer with them anymore. He works with us each according to our unique
questions, doubts, and fears. The main
thing we must do is acknowledge our "impurities" and that we are
powerless over them. The rest is the
work of the Trinity. Our loving Father
by the work of the Son through the Spirit will bring us to know him and to have
faith and be faithful, to be righteous so that we offer our lives to him for
the praise of his glory.
The Triune
God of grace has made it so that we can have a life-giving and personal
relationship with him and with each other in him because Jesus Christ has said
“yes” for us in the faithful life that he lived. A seed has been planted in by the
Spirit-filled proclamation of the Gospel in our hearing. Help it grow and enjoy this refining
relationship with God that you have been freely given. Our individual lives and our life together in
Christ are what God has chosen to be his own righteousness. Live for the praise of his glory. Amen.