Malachi's Christmas (Malachi 2:17 - 3:5)

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

December 6, 2009

Malachi’s Christmas

Malachi 2:17 – 3:5

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I loved the relaxed time, spending all day together with my family for several days in a row. For many of us Christmas means family time.

But food always goes together with family. In my house there was always more food than we could possibly eat: turkey, honey-baked ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce (sometimes still shaped like the can), and best of all pumpkin pie with whipped cream and pecan pie with old-fashioned vanilla ice cream. (I know I’m making myself hungry, too!) Nothing says Christmas like the sin of gluttony!

And of course there are presents. My mom has two great spiritual gifts: giving and shopping. Christmas at our house overflowed with all of my mom’s bargain gifts. Christmas gift-giving is such an important image in American culture that economists gauge the health of the entire economy based on Christmas shopping.

And the presents have to go under a Christmas tree. Through some accident of history, green triangle shaped trees have become one of the world’s most recognizable symbols of the holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus.

In Korea, Christmas is primarily a couples’ holiday – something like Valentines Day. It’s a time for young people to go to the movies and take long romantic walks in the cold night air.

Some people think mostly about the songs and the movies. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Miracle on 34^th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Charlie Brown Christmas.

For Christians, the primary images of Christmas are often a little different (at least when we’re thinking about church stuff). We usually think about Christmas carols and special Christmas Choir Cantatas. We think about the classic Christmas songs: “Away in a Manger,” “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” and others. These songs are always full of joy and appreciation for God’s greatest gift to the world – Jesus.

And of course, the single greatest image of Christmas for Christians is the baby in the manger – or feeding trough. Most Sunday School kids can draw that baby in the wooden box with the X-shaped legs and hay. We might even add a nice yellow glow of light coming from the quiet little baby in the hay.

Our images of God’s coming into the world are overwhelmingly positive. We think of joy and peace, family and friends, comfort and abundance. Even when we think theologically, our thoughts are deeply positive: light and salvation and grace and peace for the world and good news for all humankind.

Many of the Bible’s texts do lead us in this direction. But not today’s text. Today’s text is from the prophet Malachi – the last prophet recorded in the Old Testament. Listen as Malachi explains God’s coming into the world. This is Malachi’s Christmas.

Lectio Devina with Malachi 2:17 – 3:5.

Israel was eager for God to come and to make the world right. God had set them free from exile in Babylon. Eventually, after stumbling and failing, they had rebuilt the temple. Now, they expected the Messiah and all the blessings God had promised.

But reality was different. They still suffered from drought. They still suffered from enemies who seemed to be stronger than them. Their priests were still corrupt. Their worship was still hollow. Their poor were still poor. Their weak were still oppressed. The foreigners were still strangers without rights and legal support. Injustice ruled religiously and socially.

Israel was sick of injustice. They cried out, “Where is the God of justice? How can God bless evil people and let good people suffer? It’s not fair! Give us the God of justice! When will the Messiah save us and restore justice to our land?”

Malachi says, “Be careful what you ask for. God is coming. The Messiah is coming. Christmas is coming. But Christmas won’t be all blessings and presents and turkeys. Salvation begins with judgment. Correcting injustice in the world begins with correcting injustice in us.”

Malachi’s Christmas is different.

Malachi’s Christmas is like pouring hydrogen peroxide on a wound. It hurts, but it helps.

Riding a skateboard is fun. Going fast is fun. So riding a skateboard behind a bicycle going really fast will be really fun, right? Absolutely … until the wipeout. These kids didn’t have their camera ready for the wipeout, but they did video the First Aid.

--- PEROXIDE VIDEO --- [[Warning - This video has profanity. When we show it in the worship service, this will be edited out.]]

Malachi’s Christmas is like pouring peroxide on a wound. It hurts, but it helps. It gets the bad stuff out. It heals us, but the healing hurts like crazy.

Malachi’s Christmas is like lice shampoo. Have you ever gotten head lice? I have. That shampoo sucks! But it gets the yucky, itchy bugs out of your hair. It hurts, but it helps.

--- SHAMPOO VIDEO ---

Malachi’s Christmas is like lice shampoo. It burns. It stings. It gets in your eyes, but it gets the bad stuff out. It hurts, but it helps.

Malachi’s Christmas is like a wrecking ball. Sometimes a building is so old or so damaged it just has to come down. The wrecking ball does the job.

--- WRECKING BALL VIDEO ---

Malachi’s Christmas is like a wrecking ball. It breaks. It crushes. It destroys. It gets the old bad stuff out of the way so that new good stuff can be built. It hurts, but it helps.

Christmas begins with pain. Salvation begins with judgment. God heals us, but the process hurts. God cleans us, but the soap burns. God fixes our messed up lives, but sometimes he has to tear things down first.

As we prepare for Christmas, let’s not just expect blessings and turkeys and fun movies and a day off of work. Let’s join together to reconsider our lives. Jesus comes to us as a refining fire. Our lives need some strong soap to get the dirt out. We need the same kind of purification Israel needed.

Israel was giving God their leftovers. Malachi said Israel was insulting God by giving bad offerings: “When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” (1:7-8).

Are we giving God our best or our leftovers? Are we giving God our leftover time? Whatever we have left after work and play and kids and study and TV – we’ll give that to God, but only that, whatever isn’t used up with other stuff. Are we giving God our leftover money? If we have a little extra, we’ll put some in the basket, but if we have to cut back, we’ll cut back on giving. Are we giving God our leftover energy? What happens if we don’t have any energy left?

Israel was lacking in personal integrity. They were trying to take shortcuts through magic and manipulation. They were shady with the truth, and they were unfaithful to their spouses.

Are we living with deep personal integrity? Do we ever try to manipulate others? Do we hold back a key piece of information because being completely honest might blow the deal? Do we keep our promises? Are we keeping our marriage vows to love, honor, and cherish at all times, for better or worse?

Israel was living with injustice. The rich didn’t give their workers what they deserved. Some people took advantage of widows and orphans, and the rest did nothing to help. Foreigners couldn’t get justice.

Are we caring for the weak in our society? Is it enough for us not to do wrong? Are we doing something that is actively right? Are we content to look the other way? Are we happy enough to have our happy Christmas without feeding the hungry or helping the oppressed?

We need Malachi’s Christmas. We need the refiner’s fire. We need God’s strong soap to clean up our lives. We need healing. Yes, it will hurt! But it will help us. It will help our church, and it will help our world!