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2001
28th October (am) - A Passion for Justice
MALACHI 2:17-3:5

In June 1982 a burglar broke into a house on millionaire's row, Bel Aire, Los Angeles. While on a sack-filling tour of this palatial mansion, he went through the ballroom, down the lift to the indoor swimming pool, up through the library and into the dining room, out of the annex and into conservatory which contained 63 varieties of tropical plants and a cageful of sulphur-crested parrots.
Deciding it was now time to make a quick get-away he went back through the dining room, up to the gymnasium, across the indoor tennis court, down a spiral staircase to the enclose patio with synchronised fountains, out of the cocktail lounge and through junior's sound proofed drum studio, and found himself back in the room of increasingly excited parrots. By this time he was panicking slightly - he ran back through the library, on into the gallery containing some valuable works of art, found himself in the state of the art kitchen, and then in the jacuzzi room ...... at which point he became hysterical, ran along several corridors and into the master bedroom to that he wake up the owners in order to ask them how to get out of the house.
In order to spare him further distress, they arranged for a local police officer to escort him from the premises.

Stephen Gaukgroger quotes that story from a book called 'The Return of Heroic Failures' by Stephen Pile( published by Penguin1989) - it's a funny story which appeals to us because we like to see the wrongdoer getting his come-uppance - especially a stupid wrongdoer like this burglar. There's something in most people that makes them want to see good coming out on top of evil - a sense of justice.
One of the problems in the lifetime of the OT prophet, Malachi, was that people were beginning to say that good wasn't coming out on top of evil - that people could do whatever they liked and get away with it:
- that even though they had been brought up to believe that if you did what was right and good, it would be best, life didn't seem to work out that way;
- that even though they had been taught to believe that God recognised and rewarded those who did what was right, and judged and punished those who did what was wrong, real life didn't seem to be like that.
This is the sort of thinking that Malachi is trying to deal with in ch.2:17 Where is the God of justice? Some were even beginning to say: All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them.
We can easily understand some of their frustrations - like them, our experiences of real life sometimes make us wonder why it is the way it is - where those who are selfish, uncaring, willing to walk over the top of others, even downright evil, seem to get away with it all and have a great life ...... while good people seem to get life hard and have to cope with all kinds of undeserved suffering.

Life is like that, and we are not on our own in sometimes asking the 'why' questions - read Psalm 73 sometime, or the book of Job, and you'll see god-fearing people struggling with such questions - I have no hesitation in saying that God, our heavenly Father understands us when we feel like that - it's not wrong to face up to those sort of questions. It's not wrong to ask them if we are genuinely seeking greater reassurance of God's goodness and control, if we are like the man who said to Jesus, 'Lord I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief'
However it is wrong when we say those sort of things in order to excuse our lack of trust and obedience - when we are trying to distance ourselves from any real responsibility for the right and wrong of our behaviour - when we are trying to tell ourselves or others that it doesn't matter because God either doesn't care or isn't there at all.
This is an entirely different scenario altogether - and it was that kind of wrong attitude which Malachi detected in his day - for at least some of the people were asking those questions in a way that was utterly critical of God - where they were almost saying that it was a waste of time trusting in God and trying to do what was right:
( By saying, All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them. Where is the God of justice?)
They had become critical and cynical - maybe they had almost stopped wanting genuine answers - their critical comments about God were maybe becoming a kind of excuse for their own apathy of faith and avoidance of obedience - It doesn't make any difference, anyway, they would have said.

I think that it is terribly important for us to understand this difference between the genuine, soul searching, anguished questions we sometimes find ourselves asking ..... and the critical comments people sometimes make when they really don't want proper answers. You have wearied God, says Malachi to his people, by the way you talk.

But having said that, there must still have been a good many people in Malachi's day who continued to believe, deep down, in God's over-riding rule and final say - who did believe that God would eventually come in justice and judgment - even if their lives didn't always show many positive signs of this conviction.
I have a feeling that it is still a bit like that for a good many people in our day - they have not stopped believing in God's reality and rule, even though, in practical terms, they live pretty much as if God did not matter.
Malachi seems to be speaking to this type of attitude and addressing these sorts of people in ch.3 vs.1. On God's behalf, Malachi says: 'God will come'. 'See, I will send my messenger ....... then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come .........' Of this, be in no doubt.
In one way this happened roughly 400 years after Malachi's time - when, firstly the messenger came - these words of Malachi are actually used by Jesus to describe John the Baptist .... and of course his ministry gave way to that of Jesus himself - the Lord from heaven - God's full and final word, both of love and judgment - God's love and judgment displayed and worked out at the Cross.

And yet, in another way, God is still to come - Jesus spoke of a final day yet to come - when he would come in unmissable and unmistakable glory - as the book of Revelation puts it when every eye will see him, even those who pierced him or as Jesus himself put it when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him ..... and all the nations will be gathered before him ...
There will be a day when all the unanswered questions will be answered and all the apparent injustices of life will be put right. Be assured of this, said Malachi. We can be even more sure, for that is the truth which was so clearly and strongly affirmed by Jesus himself.
Because of all that we know of Jesus when he came the first time, we also know that he will come the next time as Lord and King and Judge. This is our assurance and our hope - Right and Good and Justice will triumph over wrong and untruth and downright evil. But we need to be very careful indeed as we affirm this faith and this hope - for it also means that we have some thinking to do about ourselves. Look at how Malachi puts it for his day in ch.3:2-4 - 'But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?' When we affirm God's rule and justice and coming, says Malachi, and take our hope from that conviction, we need to understand that God's searching scrutiny and correcting judgment will apply to us as well, and not just to the wrong and the evil which we see around us in the world - we have to understand that, in a very real way, we are part of what is wrong in God's world, not just innocent victims of it.
This is where it gets less comfortable - Malachi clearly felt that there were many things in the lives of the people of his day - even in the lives of those who still affirmed their faith that was not as it should be and needed to be.

In vs. 5 he lists some of those things:
- sorcery ( an unhealthy dabbling/involvement in all kinds of superstitions and alternatives to true religion).
- careless disregard for the loyalties of marriage and family life;
- perjury which probably covers all kinds of legal dishonesty, whether in the courts or in other areas of legally binding commitments and responsibilities.
- defrauding labourers of their wages - sin in the realm of daily work and business, which can certainly come from both directions - those who employ and those who are employed.
- concern for the daily, practical well-being of other people, like widows and the fatherless, and strangers.

Who could endure the day of his coming, who could stand, if it came to a close scrutiny of all these areas of life, says Malachi to the people - and maybe, in a sense, these are only selected examples of the widespread and endlessly varied ways in which sin shows up in practical form.
And what about us - what about our lives - our attitudes, our standards, our priorities, our underlying motivations, our thoughts and secrets - who can stand when he appears? When he appears he will be like a refiner's fire or a launders soap .... he will refine purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. vs.2-3
Even the people who are profess their faith and hope in God - the people who are identified with God's cause and God's work - there will be a scrutiny and a sifting and a purifying. The Levites, whom he mentions were the most obviously religious people of the day
- Levi was the tribe which provided the priests - even they needed to be purified and refined by God.
This is not a reference to final judgment, but a reminder to them that there was much in their lives that was not as it should be for believing people - a challenge to them to allow God to refine and purify them now - like a gold or silversmith getting rid of the impurities in the metal he was working with.
Do we need to apply this clear word to ourselves? Is there a bit of us which makes us good at applying everything to other people but not so much to ourselves - that because we don't do some of the things other people do, we feel a little bit smug - that we maybe even use a little list of things that Christians do or don't do, and so long as we keep to that list, we are all right - that we try to avoid the most obvious and agreed forms of 'sin'. It is possible to do something like this - and it helps to make us feel reasonably satisfied with ourselves. It's the kind of approach which Jesus observed in the Pharisees of his day - and we know how critical he was of them.
I wonder ..... do we need to take a look at ourselves, and go on taking a close look?

Are there any areas of our lives where we have not really considered the practical applications and challenges of our faith - have we, in any way tried to keep our faith separate from many of the other aspects of our daily living - either in the private and personal aspects of life, or in our relationships and responsibilities and opportunities towards other people?

It is certainly vitally important that we guard ourselves, with a fierce intensity, from that self righteous way of thinking where we begin to feel that we actually are living a more worthy life than many other people we know - where we feel unhealthily good about ourselves, like the man who wanted to take the speck out of his brother's eye, but couldn't see the plank in his own - for that can be very dangerous for our own Christian well-being, and very unattractive/off-putting to others who assess what Christian faith is like by looking at the Christians they know. They need to see positive, active, practical love and goodness rather than simply negative, smug, self righteousness.

Despite our best intentions and efforts, there is no doubt that there is a purifying and refining process that needs to go on in all of us - we need to be open to it, and ready for the changes that it shows a need for.

As Peter wrote to the Christians of his day: it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God (1Pet.4:17) - he didn't mean final judgment - he meant refining and purifying judgment - he seemed to associate that process with some of the painful and difficult experiences of life - that sometimes these things are needed to make us face the truth and the changes.
Often the difficult times of life have nothing whatsoever to do with this refining process - but maybe just sometimes they do. Maybe if we can be open to God's refining process all the time, ready to think about the things that he is showing us and willing to do something about them, then at least some of the painful experiences can be avoided.

But as well as a refining process, Malachi also talks about a Judgment: vs.5 'So I will come near in judgment. I will be quick to testify against .......'
These are tough words, but we cannot really skirt round them. They sound as if they refer to more than a purifying process, much more to a final, solemn judgment. And we surely need to recognise this truth of Christian Faith that is so definitely spoken of in the Bible.

Christian Faith puts a marvellous emphasis on God's goodness, love and hope - all of these aspects are at the very heart of everything that Jesus was, and said and did. And yet, and yet, we cannot, and must not, think that God's love and hope will always be there for everybody regardless of what they have thought about him during their lives, how they have lived, what their basic attitude to Jesus Christ has been. Christian preaching and church life should have much encouragement and inclusiveness and love about it, but it must also make the word of judgment very plain. There is a judgment - that truth is unavoidable. That judgment, says Malachi, will examine all aspects of our lives as human beings - our fear of / reverence for God, our personal morality, our ethics when it comes to the matters of everyday life, relationships and dealings with others.
Now when it comes to these things, none of us could feel very confident - not if they all-seeing eye of God is applied to our lives, inside and out.
This is why our Christian hope is not based on what we have achieved by ourselves, but rather on what Christ has achieved for us by his death and resurrection - we need to make sure that our faith is firmly and fully placed in him - that we have recognised our need and come to him as Saviour, in personal trust for our lives and for our futures - and of course such trust requires us to commit ourselves to him, and to be willing to allow him to purify us and begin changing us.
That's a very important matter for us to consider and clarify, even this evening - Have we recognised our sinfulness and our need of Jesus Christ and what he has done to deal with our sin. Have we put our trust in him?

We must never simply presume upon his love, mercy and hope. It is as Peter put it in his second letter - maybe thinking of people who felt that they would have plenty of time to think about these things at some later stage - or of people who took the view that all would be OK for most people at the end anyway. Peter wrote to them: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Have you and I responded to his patient, abundant love and unbreakable hope ... or are we simply hoping for the best, presuming upon his goodness?
Sometimes this mistake is made when people make a tragic assumption about death and heaven - the assumption that for everybody who has lived anything other than a thoroughly disreputable life, death leads automatically to heaven. Even though it comforts us at a time of sadness, can we really say that - if the person has shown no clear signs of trusting personally in Christ?
I know that this is a sensitive and difficult matter - and we dare not set ourselves up as judge and jury - but we do need to remind ourselves of at least 2 basic points:

Malachi's reminder to us here reinforces all that the Bible says about the Day of God's judgment.

If we say we believe in the necessity of the judgment which Jesus faced at the Cross and by his death, then how can we also say that people who have not seemed to take Jesus and the Cross seriously in a personal way, can have the hope of God's forgiveness and God's heaven?

This is a very solemn matter - we need to think it through for ourselves, and we need to take it to heart in our concern for others - especially others whom we know and care about and love - that we might do everything possible to encourage them to trust in Christ as their Saviour - a real trust rather than a matter of simply not denying any trust in Christ and doing nothing outrageous in life.

So here is Malachi speaking clearly and strongly to the people of his time. His words speak to us also.
- the refining process that all Christians need, and to which we must be open.
- the reality of judgment, which we dare not forget, and which ought to make us very concerned to see others around us coming to trust in Christ as their Saviour - for this is what 'Saviour' means - he saves us from the final judgment of eternity.