Malachi 4:1-2
Proper 28 / Year C
This morning’s
first reading is taken from the Book of Malachi, the last of a series of twelve
Old Testament writings known as the Minor Prophets. Some background on its historical setting
helps to put its message in context:
·
The Hebrew people exiled in Babylon for two
generations return to Jerusalem in 539 BC.
·
Having been sacked back in 587 BC and left unattended,
the Temple is in ruins and much of the city, including its walls, is in disrepair.
·
Through much hard work and sacrifice and thanks to the
leadership of Haggai and Zechariah, the community is able to rededicate the
Temple in 515.
·
After this, Ezra, a priest, and Nehemiah, the governor,
marshal the effort needed to repair the walls and gates.
The people of
Jerusalem are feeling pretty good about all they have accomplished and what
they have become. Into this moment steps
Malachi, whose name which means “my messenger.”
And Malachi’s message, in a nutshell, is this: You have tended to the infrastructure
of your city but have neglected the soul-structure of your community.
The Book of
Malachi contains six short sermons which comprise its message. These are some of the themes they touch on:
·
The priests have failed the people by offering
inferior worship, sacrificing blind and sickly animals rather than the best of
the flock.
·
This same group has failed to provide the people with
proper education and instruction.
·
Intermarriage, unfaithfulness, and divorce are
rampant, which Malachi sees as being a metaphor of the people’s relationship
with God as they dabble in the practices associated with foreign gods and
cults.
·
The rich are exploiting workers and show no
appreciable concern for the most vulnerable people in the society: widows,
orphans, and refugees.
·
The people complain the wicked prosper while the
righteous suffer and thus say religion is a waste of time, withholding their
tithes to the Temple.
Malachi’s assessment
is this: God judges their civic morality and personal piety to be lacking.
What will happen? According to Malachi, judgement and
salvation. “A day is coming like an oven,”
he says, “it will burn up the evil and arrogant.” This is the judgment part. Here is the salvation: “The sun of
righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.” The imagery reminds me of the end of those
Disney movies when an evil spell is broken, a new day dawns, and what had been
a black and white world once again is filled with color.
We in the
Christian tradition, through the life and message of Jesus, tweak the pattern
of judgment and salvation in the prophetic message. We critique it as being too focused on “them”
(the evil) and “us” (the good). We talk
rather about “Crucifixion” and “Resurrection”, about death and rebirth. We understand each of us needs to die to self
in order to rise in Christ. We see
ourselves in Peter, who denies Jesus, in Thomas, who doubts, and even in Judas,
who betrays. We understand our personal need
for the healing rays of the Lord’s day to fall upon us; to make us new, to make
us whole.
In the bible, end
of time visions such as Malachi’s express a longing for a time sometime in the
future when God’s final judgment will separate the wheat from the chaff, banish
sin once and for all, restoring all that is fallen in our broken world. 2,500 hundred years later, we still
wait. But Malachi’s vision also calls
for repentance and amendment of life in his own day, his own time, in his own
society, and in the hearts of everyone who hears his message.
We in the
Christian tradition share his hope for the future as we anticipate the full and
final establishment of the Kingdom of God here on earth. We also look for signs of its healing rays
breaking through the darkness of our own day and in our own hearts. And we find in this moment, in the meal we
are about to receive, the healing rays of Christ’s own Body given for us and Christ’s
own blood shed for us. From them we
receive the strength to confront the challenges of our daily lives, the wisdom
to know what we ought to do in an ever-confusing world, the courage to speak
and act for the good and the right, and a hope which endures through all
hardship.
One day, we believe,
the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings to reign over all
space and time. In this moment we find
the rays of the Son breaking through to touch our hearts and lives empowering
us to go forth to love and serve the Lord.
Rejoice and give thanks for the warmth of the Light which God sheds on
you this day. It exposes what is
dark. It banishes all that must go. It heals.
It renews. And it is enough.
