The Second Sunday of Advent

MALACHI 3:1-4: Anyone who has ever heard Handel's "Messiah" sung (and that probably includes all of us) will be familiar with these verses. After the appealing voice of the tenor has cried, "Comfort ye, my people," and the chorus replies with "Every valley shall be exalted," the bass stands to proclaim, "Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way - but who shall abide the day of his coming?" What is this book of Malachi, that it presents such disturbing news about the coming of the Lord?

The book itself is, as Eileen M. Schuler tells us in the New Interpreter's Bible (6:843) "a relatively short collection of fifty-five verses. As expected in a book that belongs to the corpus of Prophets, in it we find words from God delivered through a human agent, words of both judgment and salvation, directed to 'Israel' (1:1), either to the people as a whole or to the priests specifically (1:6; 2:1). But we also hear the voices of the people and the priests in response. Priests and people articulate their questions and state their complaints in the dynamic of an ongoing dialogue. The book also includes a brief editorial introduction (1:1), one verse of narration (3:16), and an epilogue (4:4-6)."

"Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the book," she tells us, "is the repeated use of questions -- twenty-two in only fifty-five verses. Some questions are rhetorical with a self-evident reply: 'Is not Esau Jacob's brother?' (1:3); 'Did not one God create us?' (2:10). 'Will anyone rob God?' (3:8). Others are accusatory: 'If then I am a father, where is the honor due me?' (1:6). 'When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong?' (1:8). The most profound question, 'Where is the God of justice?' (2:17), is not put to God directly, but quoted indirectly: 'Yet you say . . . 'Where is the God of justice?' (2:17). The questions put directly to God are most often "how" questions: 'How have you loved us?' (1:2). 'How have we despised your name?" (1:6). 'How have we polluted it [you]?' (1:7). 'How have we wearied him?' (2:17). 'How shall we return?' (3:7); 'How do we rob you?' (3:8). 'How have we spoken against you?'(3:13)." (NIB6:849-850)

We have to face the same issue with this passage that we did with the one last week from Jeremiah, namely, this section was most likely not written originally by the author of the book but was added at a later time. "Most commentators," says Dr. Schuler, "have suggested that 3:1-5 underwent considerable development and secondary expansion." 3:1a plus 5 seems to be the original unit. 3:1b through 4 has been added to it. In the added passage, "there is a confusing multiplicity of figures: my messenger, the Lord, the messenger of the covenant. The identity of these various figures remains vague and does not seem to be the main focus of the passage. . . . This independent unit puts the focus on the Temple as the place of theophany." The priests are to be purified, as are those persons who disregard the fundamental commands of the Decalogue (adulterers, false swearers) and exploit the weak, the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the paid laborer (3:5).(NIB6:868-869)

"Behold," says Malachi, "I will send my messenger to prepare the way before me." This is reminiscent of Isaiah 40, where a royal road is cut through the desert for the coming of the Lord, just as a few decades earlier a road had been cut in the desert for the king of the Babylonians and his armies to approach Jerusalem. Just as the Babylonians had appeared suddenly before the walls of Jerusalem and indeed before the precincts of the temple of Yahweh, so the Lord will suddenly appear at his temple.

The added verses further identify the messenger. He is "the messenger of the covenant." This relates him to the story of Moses, through whom the covenant between God and people was established. Who is this messenger? Toward the end of this prophecy he is called "Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes" (4:5).

This single pronouncement set up a great debate at the time of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. Was John to be the Elijah who would come before Messiah comes? If that were so, the prophecy would be perfectly fulfilled. John is the Elijah who prepared the way for Jesus the Messiah. The Gospel of Mark saw the ministry of John followed by the ministry of Jesus in those terms. Other followers of John and Jesus were not so certain. In John's Gospel, 1:19-23, an examining committee of priests and Levites from Jerusalem confront the Baptist. "Who are you?" they ask. John replied, "I am not the Christ, I am not Elijah, I am not the prophet who is to come." "Who are you?" they ask again. John replies, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord.'" So the debate, occasioned by the prophecy of Malachi, went on and on.

But verse two changes everything. The "messenger of the covenant" comes not with words of comfort but of judgment. You had looked forward to his coming, says the prophet. "But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?" In his presence, your sins, your need for purification, will be overwhelming. The prophet employed two sharp images to bring his message. He is like fuller's soap, a bleach so strong that it will make white everything it touches, said the prophet. He is like a refiner's fire, that roaring fire set up in the primitive kilns of the day to purify metal. He will refine the sons of Levi with the blazing fires that a refiner uses to refine silver and gold. After those startling images, the conclusion is, for us at least, a let-down. The messenger does all this so that these priests of Levi will be able to present right offerings to the Lord. Then, says the prophet, "the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years."

If this conclusion is a deflation to us, it was not to the people to whom this passage was first written. They had been deprived of their temple during their days of exile in Babylon. To be deprived of the temple was to be deprived of the ability to come before God and make the sacrifices that joined God and God's people together. Then came those heady days when Nehemiah and Ezra had led a portion of the people from Babylon to the ruins of Jerusalem, where the throne had been cast down and the temple leveled to the ground. They had rebuilt their temple, a poor shadow of its former self, to be sure, but still in their eyes the temple of God. Then - disappointment. The priests who had returned with them were poor shadows of the former priesthood. What could be done? The people could do nothing, but God could do everything. God could come, God could purify the priesthood, God could make their sacrifices effective again. This was the conclusion of the story of the prophet and the people. God would come, to restore priesthood, temple, and people to the high position they had held before God in former years. The offerings of the priests and the people would be made once more, and these offerings would restore the harmony with God that the people of Judah had enjoyed in the days of old.

Perhaps this passage also serves as a corrective for much of our thinking about Jesus. Especially at Christmas, we tend to think of him as the infant in his mother's protective arms, the "sweet little Jesus boy in the manger," who fulfills all our sentimental pictures about God. But the sweet little boy grew to be a man. He went to the same Jerusalem where Malachi lived, and he went to that same temple to which "the messenger of the covenant" was to come. He cleansed that temple, he cleansed the priesthood, he cleansed the lives of the people. For that he was put upon a cross, from which his own fled when they saw him silhouetted against the sky. The prophecy of Malachi has truth in it: "I will send my messenger, and he will suddenly appear at the temple. Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?

LUKE 1:68-79: Instead of a psalm, the lectionary for today brings us a song from the New Testament. This song is placed in the mouth of Zechariah the priest, the father of John the Baptist. The song reputedly contains the first words to come from Zechariah's mouth, after he had seen the vision of Gabriel, the messenger of God, in the temple and had doubted God's word that a son was to be born to him. For this he was struck dumb. Only after the child was born could he sing these words.

The song breaks itself into two parts. The first part, 1:67-75, is in praise of God that God has visited and redeemed his people. The second part, 1:76-79, tells of the part that John the Baptist will play in the coming salvation of God.

The first part faithfully recites what God has done in the past in visiting and redeeming God's people. From the house of David, says this song, the instrument of salvation ("the horn of salvation") shall come. By his prophets God promised the people that they should be saved from their enemies and from the hand of those who hate them. God promised also that he would grant mercy to the people and would remember in their behalf his holy covenant. The song relates this covenant to Abraham rather than to Moses. God had promised Abraham that, when he goes out, "in thee . . . all the families of the earth shall seek one another's welfare" (Gen 12:1-5. This is Samuel Terrien's meaningful translation of this key verse in Till the Hearts Sings, p 155.) In seeking each other's well-being instead of their own gains, all the people of earth shall be able to live without fear of one another and to serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of their lives.

The second part is addressed to the child John, and it gives his detailed job description. ("John," by the way, means "God has been gracious.") This child shall be a prophet of the Most High.

- He will go before the people to prepare the ways of the Lord

- He will give knowledge of salvation to the people

- He will offer forgiveness of sins through the tender mercy of God

- When God brings the new day upon us to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, he will guide our feet into the way of peace.

"Peace" is an important concept in Luke's Gospel. It is promised here. It is promised in the angel's song at the birth of the messiah. The child brought peace to aged Simeon, and as a man he brought peace to the woman with a hemorrhage. To bring peace to Jerusalem, he died. When he returned from his grave, he said to his disciples, "Peace be with you." This "peace" is related to the "shalom of God," when God brings well-being to the people. In Jesus Christ God brings this peace.

PHILIPPIANS 1:3-11: These are the opening words of Paul's letter to his favorite church, the church at Philippi.

The church in Philippi was the first church that Paul formed in Europe (as opposed to Asia Minor, where he had worked before). This church was originally established by women. According to Acts 16:11ff, Paul had entered Macedonia at Neapolis and followed the Egnatian Way east for seven miles or so until he came to Philippi. Paul's usual approach to church building was to go to the local synagogue and try to persuade some of its members that Jesus was indeed the Christ. But there was no synagogue in Philippi. Apparently there were not enough Jewish men, not even ten, in that city to permit the formation of such a group. So on the sabbath Paul and Silas found a small group of women meeting for worship outside the walls of the city by a riverside. They spoke with the women, who were led by a Lydian woman who had a lucrative business as a dealer in purple dyes, and she and her household were soon baptized. That was the beginning of the church in Philippi.

Paul and Silas, however, had trouble in Philippi. As they were going one day to the place of prayer outside the walls, a slave girl followed them. This girl had a reputation for clairvoyance, and her owners had gained much for her soothsaying. The girl announced to everyone, "These men are servants of the Most High God." Paul and Silas asked her to desist, but she kept following them for days. Finally in annoyance Paul turned and charged the unclean spirit within her to come out of her. It did. But after Paul spoke to her, that gift, or depending on the point of view "that annoyance" left her, and she no longer could be used by her owners for money.

The owners convinced the authorities to seize Paul and Silas, and they were put into prison. They were charged with "being Jews who were disturbing our city, advocating customs which are not lawful for Romans to practice." To us this looks like merely a charge of disturbing the peace, but in the excitement of that moment, it was a charge of treason. The Emperor Claudius in Rome had expelled all Jews from that city because of the clamor going on in the synagogues. Christians of Rome were trying to convince their fellow religionists that they too should be honoring Jesus Christ in their synagogues, and the result was protest and rioting throughout the city. Claudius' Edict had attempted to end that. Word of the edict had just come to Philippi from Rome when Paul and Silas were arrested.

The two men were beaten with rods, a painful punishment, and thrown into prison. At night, in prison, in an earthquake, their prison was opened and their bonds fell from their wrists. The magistrates were about to let them go, but Paul announced that he and Silas were Roman citizens and that the magistrates should answer to Rome for their shameful treatment its citizens. The magistrates did apologize to them, and Paul and Silas left the city and went peacefully on their way.

There was something about Philippi that appealed to Paul, the Roman citizen. Philippi, unlike many other cities in Macedonia, was filled with other Roman citizens. When the great battle between the forces of Brutus and Octavian took place near Philippi in 42 BC, the battle that had secured the position of Octavian as the successor to Julius Caesar (Octavian later took the name of Caesar Augustus, the Caesar at the time of Jesus' birth), Octavian had rewarded his victorious troops with houses and land in and near Philippi. Philippi in its culture and government had set itself to be a "little Rome." When Roman men were brought into the church, they began to favor the Roman citizen who had been wronged in their community, and they supported him with both prayer and money. Paul had stayed in touch with them through reports of his Christian friends. But now Paul was imprisoned in Rome, and he sent a letter to his friends in Philippi.

"I thank my God for all my remembrances of you all," Paul began his letter. The opening lines of the letter are so important that we should look at them in detail.

Why did he thank his God for them? They had been "partakers (the word may mean 'business partners') with him in his imprisonment and in his defence and confirmation of the gospel." While Paul was imprisoned, they had sent Epaphroditus to him in Rome. Epaphroditus was to serve Paul and take care of his needs. Since prisoners had to pay for their own expenses while imprisoned, Epaphroditus, acting in behalf of the church in Philippi, presumably paid his expenses and took care of him in other ways. Paul appreciated him so much that he called him "my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier" (2:25). Paul's "defence of the gospel" was his public presentation of it to those who had not heard of Jesus Christ. The Greek word is "apologia," and this was a powerful word, since Plato had used it in presenting Socrates' case before his accusers. Paul's defence was like that of Socrates. Paul had put his life on the line for Jesus Christ, and he had defended his actions in the most articulate manner possible. "Confirmation" means that Paul supported his plea with convincing evidence. "Imprisonment," "defence," and "confirmation" are three phases of the same process. Paul was imprisoned for his faith; he laid a plea of innocense before his accusers; and he supported his appeal with compelling evidence.

Paul also asked something of the Philippians in this introductory section of his letter. He asked that their love may abound; that this love may be filled more and more with knowledge and discernment; that they may approve what is excellent and pure and blameless; and that they bear the fruits of righteousness.

Each of these key phrases has a story behind it.

Paul calls first for knowledge and discernment in their love. The Greek word for discernment is "aisthesei,". You can see that it is related to "esthetics," seeing something and yet having insight into it. It is the application of basic principles to particular situations, the application of the accurate knowledge. Their love is good, but it is lacking something: a knowledge and discernment of the principles involved and the application of them. "Enabling you to have a sense of what is vital, so that you may be transparent, and harm no one," may be the sense of the phrase.

"That they may approve what is excellent and pure and blameless." A literal translation would read, "That you may test the things that differ." This phrase was used by Greek writers to denote essential qualities, as opposed to those which are secondary. Christians are to set their hearts on the highest things, and they are not to be misled by appearances or side issues. The word for "pure" is related to the word for "the sun's rays" (heile) and refers to that which is found pure when it is unfolded and examined by the sun's light. "Blameless" has to do with "not stumbling." It is used of the traveler who has met no accidents and arrives in good time at this journey's end. One commentator (E. W. Sanders, p 64) translates it "surefooted." Taken together, the passage may mean that the Christian has to form correct ethical judgments at each given moment of his life. In the Christian life this capacity for judgment replaces the Jewish law and any other form of commandment the church or state may place upon her or him.

Paul sets his comments in a time frame. He is thankful for their partnership with him "from the first day," and he looks forward to the completion of this partnership "at the day of Jesus Christ." "From the first day" apparently refers to the beginning of the mission in Greece, because Philippi was the first place in Europe where the gospel was preached by Paul. "The day of Jesus Christ" points forward to something even greater, the fulfillment that will come when God brings to perfection everything that God has already begun in the ministry of Jesus Christ. To have Christ's love perfected in this imperfect world; to have Christ's sensitivity to others displayed in a world that dehumanizes people; to have Christ's justice fulfilled in a world that loves spectacles of power; to have the hungry fed and the oppressed set at liberty and the captives released - will God do this for us? We trust that God will do this. We wait for the revelation of that day. It is our advent task, to watch and wait, to work and pray in this day that the Great Day will soon come.

LUKE 3:1-6: The ministry of Jesus began when John the Baptist, son of Zechariah the priest, began his preaching in the Jordan Valley. The "word of the Lord came to John in the wilderness," says Luke. But the usual word for "came" is not used here. The verb might better be translated "happened"; "the word of the Lord happened upon John in the wilderness." I get the sense that the word of the Lord was seeking someone to hear it and act upon it. Then it "happened" upon John and he reacted faithfully to it.