120609

December 6, Second Sunday of Advent

Lesson: Malachi 3.1-6; Luke 1.68-79

Sermon Title: Messenger Service

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INTRODUCTION

Bud Frimoth, Portland, OR notes: “My five-year-old grandson. Toby. was taking a bath and practicing some of the songs he was to sing in a Christmas pageant at church. His mother overheard him singing. ‘We three kings are glorious guys...

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A six-year-old girl was asked by her mother to get ready to go to church for the Christmas Eve service. The girl said she didn’t want to go to church.

“It’s Jesus’ birthday party,” her mother explained. “How would you like it if one of your friends didn’t want to come to your birthday party?”

The girl replied, “Mom, just once I wish Jesus would have his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese.”

—via Jeff Totten, Bemidji, MN

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During the children’s message at the Christmas Eve service at Mantua (NJ) United Methodist Church, Rev. Karl R. Kraft read a little story from a new book about Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem.

The pastor would read a page, then show the children the picture illustrating the story,

The story had progressed to where Joseph was approaching the door of the inn.

Kraft turned the page and read the first words: “Knock, knock, knock!”

Without missing a beat, a little girl responded: “Who’s there?”

I. Who is there?

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MAIN BODY

I. Who is there?

A. Who is there is an allusion to the custom of sending messengers to prepare the way for the march of an eastern monarch, the coming of Christ’s forerunner is described.

B. Then the coming of Christ himself, v. 1; with the terrible judgments which were to accompany that event, in order to refine and purify his people and his priests, vv. 2-6.

1. The messenger is John, the Baptist.

2. The Refiner is Jesus.

II. This does not appear to be a peaceful process.

A. Notice the details in Malachi 3.

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; ³he 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. ⁴Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

⁵Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.

⁶For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.

B. The process is necessary because of the description of apostasy in Malachi 2.10-17.

¹⁰Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors? ¹¹Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. ¹²May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob anyone who does this—any to witness or answer, or to bring an offering to the LORD of hosts.

¹³And this you do as well: You cover the LORD’S altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand. ¹⁴You ask, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. ¹⁵Did not one God make her? Both flesh and spirit are his. And what does the one God desire? Godly offspring. So look to yourselves, and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his youth. ¹⁶For I hate divorce, says the LORD, the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.

¹⁷You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:10-17, NRSVA)

1. I am familiar in a small way with the refining process.

a. Working at the Middleborough Gazette producing cast lead ads.

b. We would reuse the lead, but it would need to be cleaned.

c. Once it was melted and brought up to temperature you added some flux that would bring all the impurities to the surface where they could be skimmed off the molten lead.

d. When you added the flux you stepped back. It had a powerful and obnoxious odor.

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III. But then what is peace.

åkñÞíç eireôneô i-rah'-nay Probably from a primary verb ånñù eiroô (to join); peace (literally or figuratively); by implication prosperity:—one, peace, quietness, rest, + set at one again.

A. Peace is not the absence of conflict.

1. What did Jesus teach?

a. Peace is not the absence of doubt or fear.

1) John 16:32-33 (NKJV)

a) ³²Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. ³³These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

2) John 14:27 (NRSVA)

3) ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

B. Peace is the capacity to enjoy the moment and to see the benefits of it.

Once a family visited Yellowstone National Park. They were sitting among a crowd of other tourists beside the famed Old Faithful geyser, waiting for its hourly eruption. The family’s bored, antsy children obviously didn’t want to be there.

The geyser erupted right on schedule, sending its plume of super-heated steam and water soaring high in the air. After the crowd’s cheering died down, one child complained to another, “Is that all? Disneyland was a lot better.”

1. I have been to Yellowstone and have seen the explosive jet of Old Faithful.

2. I have been to Disneyland in California.

3. Here there is no peace!

C. Peace is to open one's self to the alternatives that might not fit with the preconceptions. In other words, change.

1. In a great city, there was a church.

A world-famous architect designed it, and it was glorious: beautiful stone, classic Gothic design, lovely stained glass — a truly worshipful space.

Over time, that sanctuary became the site of many a baptism, many a wedding, many a funeral — not to mention the week-in, week-out hallowing of its stones by the patient feet of worshipers.

The people of that church loved their building. They loved it so much that, when things got rough in that urban neighborhood and people “like them” began moving out to the suburbs, the congregation made an extraordinary decision. They decided to move.

And move they did, literally. Stone by stone, they picked their church up, labeled each individual piece, loaded it onto trucks and moved it to the suburbs. They had the money to do it, so “Why not?” they asked themselves. Why not re-create their beloved church, just as it had always been?

Out near the university was a fashionable new area. Expensive new homes were under construction. Young families were moving in. There were broad streets and lovely parks — a promising location!

So there it was that the people reassembled their church. (They did have a small crisis along the way, when some of the pieces fell off a truck and got lost. But they ran newspaper ads and offered high rewards, and the lost pieces were found and returned.) At long last, the people could breathe a sigh of relief. No longer were they a church in the city — surrounded by crime and heartache and urban decay — but a church by the university, a safe and respectable location.

The people loved their church. They loved it so much, they didn’t want a thing to happen to it. So even though they were located but a stone’s throw from the university, they refused to permit student groups to use it. They drafted strict policies for outside groups, so strict that most of those who applied gave up and went elsewhere. Those people loved their church so much, and they’d worked so hard to move it that they didn’t want it to get dirty or broken or messed up.

2. The people of the new neighborhood got the message. Not many of them joined the congregation.

a. The old members continued to travel there, but in time their numbers dwindled.

b. Finally, there was simply no one left to love that church.

c. The denomination dissolved the congregation.

d. It sold the building to a nearby hospital that wanted the land for expansion.

e. A huge crane appeared in the churchyard, and a wrecking ball smashed, again and again, into the imposing stone walls.

f. That was the second and final time those stones had been separated, one from another.

g. There was no peace.

D. Peace is the ability to make changes in lifestyle and enjoy the change.

1. I read a story about a 92-year-old woman who provides us with a wonderful example of peace.[1]

One summer day, a petite and well-poised 92-year-old woman, who fully dressed herself, put on makeup and fashionably coiffed her hair before 8 am. each morning, moved into a nursing home. Her husband of 70 years, a beloved pastor in their community, had recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, her escort provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheet that had been hung on her window.

“I love it,” she stated, with the enthusiasm of an 8-year-old who’d just received a new puppy.

“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room, just wait.”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. How the room is arranged has nothing to do with whether or not I will like it ... it’s how I have arranged my mind. I have already decided to love it!”

2. She went on to share.

a. “Each morning when I wake up, I choose to be positive and work with what I have, not dwell on what I have lost.

b. As long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away just for this time in my life.”

3. This is peace.

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CONCLUSION

I. We have God who is big enough to help us handle the storms in our lives

A. This is so that we can be at peace and sleep well on stormy nights.

B. The messenger service has acted out its part.

C. The Messiah has come

1. As Zechariah proclaimed in Luke 1:79 (NRSVA):

⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

2. (May) the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 (KJV)

Amen

[1] —“Deposit a lot of happiness,” Just Between Us, Summer 2009, 6.