Sunday 8th December – Punishing or preparing – Pastor Adrian Kitson

8-12-2024, Malachi 3:1-4, pastor adrian kitson, Pastor Adrian Kitson 8-12-2024, Punishing or preparing

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. ²But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like washers’ 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.

I wonder how you tell that you are ready for Christmas – whatever your Christmas is going to look like. I guess the bigger the gatherings the more you have to do to be ready.

As a family of six, we have had all kinds of Christmas – some big with lots of family around for lunch and dinner, but most small with just our own little family far away from our home. A couple of times we have sat in an empty house having Christmas dinner sitting in deck chairs ready to leave for a long journey and another chapter in life to begin Boxing Day morning. That is what has happened as one Call ends and another begins…..

So, on the Christmas-O-Ready meter, out of ten, how ready are you for Christmas?

Malachi asks one question, this time of year. All the prophets ask the same question over and over when they speak of this ‘Lord of Armies’, Divine ‘Messenger’ coming. Malachi, the last prophet, who spoke four hundred years before the Messenger appeared asks, are you ready?

Of course, Malachi is not talking about Christmas trees and food and presents and accommodation and holiday plans. He is talking about your soul; your heart’ your humanity; your survival.

Yes. Survival. For him and all the prophets before him, and for many Christians for these two millennia, this ‘coming’ of the Lord has been something that is both familiar and strange, comforting and fearful; wonderful and disturbing, hopeful and a thing of God’s judgement.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian and pastor, writes of this theme of judgment in an Advent sermon he preached in 1928:

It is very remarkable that we face the thought that God is coming, so calmly, whereas previously peoples trembled at the day of God . . . .

We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us.

We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience.

Only when we have felt the terror of the matter, can we recognize the incomparable kindness. God comes into the very midst of evil and of death, and judges the evil in us and in the world. And by judging us, God cleanses and sanctifies us, comes to us with grace and love.¹

“Frightening news for anyone who has a conscience”? The only one who can truly know me will know all of me and my little life, and judge me rightly – hold me to account, put me on the scales of his justice is this ‘messenger’.

As he comes, the prophets all ask

²But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

Why does Malachi say this? Because he knows this sent ‘messenger’; this ‘messenger of the covenant’ will hold up his expectations of how he created me to live my little life knowing full well all my failings, my wrongs, my addictions, my fears; see me at my worst, my regrets, my hurts, my unfulfilled promises, my broken promises – in full measure.

So, Malachi asks the obvious question:

²But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

Not me. Not you. Not anyone. Are we feeling the terror of God’s coming judgement on us?

True terror? It is very hard to find when we are surrounded with comfort, things, safety, security, money in the bank, family all around, options, choices, means and all the world telling us this is all untrue and irrelevant – or some in the church saying the same.

“C’mon Pastor, God is love and Christmas is nice and warm and filled with sparkle”….

But, as Bonhoeffer says;

Only when we have felt the terror of the matter, can we recognize the incomparable kindness.

Are you ready for the incomparable kindness, of which Bonhoeffer speaks?

What is God’s kindness?

“… he is like a refiner’s fire and like washers’ 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.^[

Here is the kindness of the Lord for you: The purpose of divine judgment is not to punish but to prepare. He see it all, knows it all and yet, chooses to prepare you not punish you.

The Spirit tells you again this morning that the purpose of God’s rightful accounting, his aim to finally judge the world, hold us all accountable is not to punish you but prepare you.

Prepare you for what? For the incomparable kindness of full forgiveness, restoration, belonging and hope.

Any terror you feel, any consequences you accumulate because of wrong done, promises broken, other people damaged at your hand is to bring restoration and renewed life into your life.

God is always training you in obedience to the covenant; in following his Word, so that in the end there is joyous relief and high praise for this kindness undeserved but fully given.

Friend, is God punishing you or preparing you at the moment? Do you trust that he always about preparing you way above punishing you? Not everyone does. Sometimes we all feel like he is punishing us more than preparing us for the good.

I have heard so many people and have sometimes felt myself that God is punishing me. The costs go north and the prices go south, the business is shaky, the conflict grows, the car wont start, the little ones are sick, the loved one gone, the marriage over, the career in tatters….. “Pastor, God is punishing me”.

Not according to Malachi. Not today, friend.

He is preparing you.

There is his kindness. In all you face, that is what is going on in all the trouble and trembling, friend. Washing and purifying of you, not punishing. No, this Messenger is also Messiah/Saviour.

This messenger of the covenant relationship between God and us does not seem to be bent on punishing you but is actually bent on preparing you, so you are ready for all his goodness.

John the Baptists knows his Malachi! John himself lives his calling as Malachi and all the prophets did – actually embodying God’s kindness;

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him … (Luke 3:4)

Friends, the Lord wants us ready not repulsed. He wants us living not dying, hopeful not hopeless. He sends that fiery man to put the blow torch on us so we are aware, waiting, listening, ready for the ‘one who is to come’.

Thank the Lord for John and for Malachi. Their message might be out of whack with our version of Christmas. Our preparations are often informed by pastoral images of sweet baby Jesus surrounded by choirs of angels and placid sheep around the manger. Jesus brings serenity, peace on earth, goodwill to all.

And yes, he is good news of great joy for all people, but this does not mean that Jesus’ presence demands nothing of us or leaves us unchanged.

No, like a refiner’s fire and cleansing soap, the arrival of Jesus among us calls us to respectful following and a heart centred on his praise, not our own endless needs.

Friends, Jesus the Sent One, the holy one, the ruling one, does not leave you unchanged as he works to prepare you not punish you.

He does not need to punish you because he has been for you – and completely. All punishment for all sins and broken promises and hurt hearts has been completed in this divine human saving in the midst of enormous suffering and evil … all for the ones he loves.

Are you ready?

Are you ready for not being left unchanged by this Saviour of love, and in fact, ready to be re-formed, refined, re-born as you allow his Spirit to shape you into him?

Are you ready?