Bells of Advent:  Clear the Way

Luke 1:68-79; Malachi 3:1-4

December 7, 2003

 

INTRODUCTION 

Some things happen only once every three years

      Triennial Conference of College and University Presidents

      Presbyterian Youth Triennium 

      And the triennial reading from Prophet Malachi during worship

            Next TCCUP is in 2005

            Youth Triennium is this coming July

            But today is the day for triennial reading from the Prophet Malachi

Book of Malachi is last book in section of Prophets > arranged by length

      Malachi literally means “my messenger” so much discussion about identity

      Was Malachi a real person with new message > or someone like Ezra > nobody knows

      Generally supposed that Malachi received his words from the Lord about 500 years before Jesus

SITUATION THEN

In those days > Israel was sick

      People returned from exile in Babylon to find deplorable conditions

      Violence broke out on the streets in protest > they were not nice to each other

      People of faith married people with no faith > usually spouse’s influence pulled them away

      Men divorced their wives over slightest displeasure [like burning dinner]

            It was not a happy place

As if it weren’t enough for Israel as a country to be sick

      People of Israel and God were not healthy, either

            Priests had become corrupt

            People brought worst animals to be sacrificed at worship instead of the best

            Even worse than that > people are not paying their tithes

      Skeptics were beginning to believe God was not powerful enough to make any changes

People in those days lived with big problems

But God did not leave them alone in their distress > God came to the rescue

      God send Malachi

      It’s almost as if Malachi were an ambulance > lights flashing, siren wailing

            Clear the way!  Clear the way!

      But who was driving the ambulance?  Was it human messenger, or heavenly messenger?

      To the faithful living in the first century > obvious that driver/messenger was John the Baptist

          John would make them ready to receive Jesus

                Zechariah learned this in a vision > Rodgers read his response

SITUATION NOW

We can sympathize with those long-ago people, can’t we?

      Our world is sick, too > we need an ambulance to take us to the hospital

      When I listed what was going wrong in Israel > did your mind fly forward 2500 years?

            Violence in their streets = drive-by shootings in our neighborhoods

            Faithful marrying faithless = Christians marrying people of no faith at all

            Men divorcing wives for no reason = Divorce columns in paper longer than marriage lists

      And when I listed sickness where God was concerned?  Did you think about the Church today?

            Their Priests became corrupt = our Clergy are abusing their office

            They brought blemished animals = we expect church to meet our needs

            They did not pay tithes = we tend to pay God last instead of first

They didn’t believe God could help > didn’t believe God could make any changes

What about us?

      Do we believe in God’s power?  

      Is there another driver for God’s ambulance?

I believe the answer is YES!  I believe there is another driver!

With every ounce of my being I believe the driver is US

                        [I remember when I was about 4 or 5 we were at my grandparents’ house one night                                   they had large picture window in living room where we were visiting

                        I saw something moving beyond the window and was a bit frightened

                        I was standing by my mother and whispered “Who is that?”

                        Mother said, “It’s us.”

                                                It was years before I realized that “us” meant all the people in that room

                                    What I saw was our reflection in the glass was Mother, Daddy, grandparents,

My aunts and uncles, cousins, my brother and me

                                                I saw “us”                       

So, when I say I believe the driver for God’s ambulance is US > I mean you and you and you and me

            God needs each one of us to clear the way > to make things right again

Brian Cavanaugh writes about an old Jewish tradition [Sower’s Seeds Aplenty, Paulist Press, 1996]

            God sends each person into this world with a special message to deliver

            With a special song to sing for others, with an act of love to bestow.

            No one else can speak [your] message, or sing [your] song, or offer [your] act of love.

            These are entrusted only to [you].

            According to this tradition,

the message may be spoken,

the song sung,

the act of love delivered only to a few,

or to all the folk in a small town,

or to all  the people in a large city,

or even to all those in the whole world.

It all depends on God’s unique plan for each person. 

To which Cavanaugh adds:  The greatest gift of God, one would think, is the gift of life. 

The greatest sin of humans, it would seem, would be to return that gift, ungrateful and unopened.

As we come to this Table today, we receive this remembrance of the Gift of Life

            Tiny piece of bread > little sip from the fruit of the vine

            It is for us what gasoline is for the ambulance

                        It gives us the power we need

So we can clear the way in our own little worlds for the coming of Christ

Every time you hear a siren, or see flashing lights, remember this One who comes!