16/11/25 St. Peter’s 2nd before Advent
Malachi 4:1-2a 2 Thess 3:6-13 Luke 21:5-19
Spend too long looking at the news at the moment and you’ll come away depressed by the way the world works - where’s the integrity, where’s the compassion, where’s the justice. It can all be rather gloom making so we ask the question - ‘In a world like this how can we live as followers of Jesus, Where do we start?’
The evidence of our readings is that what we see now is nothing new - there’s corruption in the OT, persecution in the gospel and even Paul’s injunction to make sure everyone did an honest day’s work isn’t particularly light hearted - our era isn’t unique; it’s an old story being retold with modern characters.
This may not seem a very enticing start to a sermon but it wasn’t the intention of any of the writers to leave us feeling hopeless. Rather they are realists. It has always been difficult to live a life of faith but all our writers want us to make as good a fist of it as we can. The path through our three lessons is designed to restore our souls. Malachi diagnoses, Paul points people to what makes for health and Jesus urges us to hold firm to what is true.
1) Malachi is a painful book to read and so it should be. It talks of the failure of those who should be upholders of God’s truth. Malachi is a book of God’s displeasure, of his weariness with those who should be the shepherds of his flock. The priesthood are short changing God in the worship sacrifices, people are feathering their own nests rather than bringing the tithes in, the worshipping community feel they are doing God a favour by turning up. Malachi throws his hands up when he sees what is going on and concludes that Israel’s problems are down to a turning away from God and turning towards self interest. More than 2000 years later we know church people and leaders getting it wrong was not just a problem of his time - it’s been a continuing thread through history.
There is a sickness of the soul in Judah because the people who should be helping people to God are pointing them in the wrong direction, they are proving false friends. Malachi focusses on the religious wrongs of his own time; what we need to discern are the things we get wrong, what for us - you and me - gets in the way of the forgiveness and reconciliation that are properly at the heart of church life.
Cutting though he was even Malachi has a note of hope Two verses of Malachi - the first is of judgement - See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. His diagnosis was pride and self interest have overtaken those whose concern should be the kingdom of God; but the second verse is of hope - to God no problems need be terminal But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.
2) There are problems too in the second lesson but here we see Paul getting a handle on them.
There is a generally held supposition - not certain but plausible - that amongst the church in Thessaloniki were a group of people who had an unhealthy interest in the return of Jesus - unhealthy because it so dominated their lives to the exclusion of anything else that they ended up exploiting the rest of the church.
Jesus is coming back soon they thought - so what is the point in working? After all the church we are part of is a community of love - our brothers and sisters will look after us. Whilst we are waiting for the Lord’s return we will talk and philosophise and put the world to rights. It won’t be long before Jesus is here and we want to be prepared for that moment. Their particular theology suited living their best life, and it turned them into parasites.
Paul recognised people were using their claims of devotion to set aside their proper responsibilities and would have none of it. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
It is easy for us to to see where the Thessalonians were getting it wrong and we’re unlikely to face the exact same problem but there are lots of examples within church life, historically and today where other sincerely held beliefs have got out of balance and led to a church life with little connection to Jesus and the life he called us to.
In terms of living a godly life it is not only theology that gives us scope for own goals. We can get so attached to our own feelings and prejudices they dominate our inner life and spill into the way we live. Paul would say, ‘See how unbalanced, bitter thinking can curdle your soul - it doesn’t have to be like that. Do what makes for health.’
Diagnosis from Malachi - putting our own interests before God corrodes the soul
Paul gives a route to health ‘ Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.’
3) In the gospel Jesus tells his followers that they will have to face persecution, betrayals and breaches of trust - our situation may not be as extreme as that of the early disciples - though in some parts of the world it certainly is - but it is worth noting that in the gospel passage there is a reminder that ultimately our faith makes sense because though it starts in this world it carries us through to the next - when things are going well this can stay in the back of our mind, but at times of loss , at times of difficulty, this hope in God’s future can be the rock to which we cling - we may not face the persecutions of Jesus time but all of us have to cope with what life throws at us - not the church’s fault, not our fault just life as it is. Following Jesus gives us a pattern of living that will sustain us and honour God whatever our circumstances..
The 1st verse of Malachi talked of arrogance and evil but, there is another OT passage which is the antidote. It’s from Micah ‘what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’
Such simple things, who could possibly argue with them - do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God - Micah’s not legalistic - he isn’t giving laws, he’s saying adopt this attitude - open ended - there’s no limit to where it can take you. do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God This is the way of health we are called to
Malachi’s people needed to hear it - it would lead them from folly into God’s hope. For us too it is a reminder of our direction of travel. We’ll never finish doing them, we’ll never exhaust them, we’ll always be able to think of ways we could have done them better but how can we revere God’s name? by making them the pole that our compass points to.
For Paul, the Thessalonians doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God meant buckling down as a constructive member of the community.
For those people Jesus was talking to facing persecution and turmoil - what should they do, what does God require of them - justice, kindness and a humble walking with God - humble does not mean feeble, or doormat - it is how we walk with our friends - at ease and guileless, true to the person God has made us to be. Here is hope and comfort. But it won’t just happen - we have to choose and go on choosing this way or our bias to self interest will scupper our best intentions
We started with sombre readings because a mixture of false friends, own goals and the vicissitudes of life will always present a challenge to living well but the answer to that challenge is remarkably simple - not always easy to do, but as moral compasses go it is pretty straight forward
what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
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