Usually, we’re excited to go home. Home is a place to belong. It’s filled with memories, and family. And with Christmas inching ever closer, maybe you’re excited. You’re enjoying the decorations. You’re looking forward to parties, or hosting, or any other holiday traditions. But sometimes that’s not the case. Sometimes we’re anxious about going home- when the holiday table could lead to difficult, divisive conversations. When judgments are felt and differences seem impossible to overcome. For some, home brings up memories of failure or neglect or abuse. Or when Christmas is rushing us and there isn’t enough time to get everything done.
That can be true about church too. Sometimes, coming to church is amazing and feels like coming home to a beloved church family. Other times, it has all of the drama that family does. As we confessed, we aren’t always as hospitable as we could be. We don’t always provide the sense of home that we’d like.
And then there’s coming home to God. We can see it as we discussed it last week- that we are preparing to go home to the kingdom, where we will study war no more, where people will walk in the light, where joy will be found, and where love will be the tie that binds us together. It’s the kind of home that will complete us and will transform the world. But Malachi and Luke remind us that this isn’t necessarily easy. Malachi says, “Who can endure his coming?” He reminds us of fires and purifying and the one who prepares the way.
In the gospel of Luke, that one preparing the way was John the Baptizer. But Luke wants to make sure we know this was in a particular time and place, when historical figures were in power. By naming these rulers, Luke is “grounding this whole event in the real world.” But there’s more going on here. In his Preaching Notes for this week, Rev. Dr. Derek Weber noted that all of these leaders listed were “powerful leaders in the world at the time. They were emperors, governors, rulers, and high priests. They were the ones who held the reins of power. They were the ones who determined the course of civilization.” But after naming these powerful historical figures, Luke just moves on, “say[ing] simply the word of the Lord came to John in the desert.’” The Word of the Lord doesn’t come to any of them, not the Emperor, or the governor, or one of the rulers, or even the high priests.
“Instead of the ones that we would have chosen, …God chose a nobody in the middle of nowhere. And God told him to get things started.
“‘Prepare the way.’ He then went about launching the construction project that would bring the source of real power onto the scene. So make way, he says; straighten the highway, fill in the trenches, smooth out the bumps in the road. …There is work to be done: getting-ready work; opening-up work; pulling-the-kinks-out work.”
Malachi reminds us just how difficult this work is. Repentance means changing our hearts and lives. As I told the kids, Malachi talks about how “God will clean and make pure again the people who lead Israel. Only then will all the people of God shine with holiness and the love that God gives them. Change is hard. …When God invites us to change and to start cleaning our hearts and our actions, our lives become different.” And Malachi uses the imagery of refining silver to drive his point home. “For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver”
We like to think of fire as the campfire or bonfire we roast marshmallows and hot dogs on outside; the cozy fire in the fireplace that keeps us warm. But get too close, and we remember that fire does more than warm a room or cook dinner. Fire burns. And the silver refiners' fire was intense.
There’s a story that floated around Facebook a few years ago about a women’s Bible study group who wanted to know more about this silver refining that Malachi talks about. So one woman got in touch with a silver smith and asked to watch him work.
“As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the impurities.
“The woman …asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
“The man answered ‘Yes’, and explained that he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be damaged.
“The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, ‘How do you know when the silver is fully refined?’
“He smiled at her and answered, ‘Oh, that’s easy. When I see my image in it.’”
This purification is an intense process. “The one who sits to refine silver often gets burned. The one who tends the fire sometimes has to suffer in the process. You can’t leave it in the middle; it has to be watched. It isn’t easy, it isn’t quick. But it is worth it.
“Malachi says that God is willing to be with us throughout the process. Malachi says that God is willing to hurt for our salvation, for our purification. Malachi says that God is willing to endure the fire that we might be made whole. Malachi says that we can endure because God endures with us.”
As we go through difficult times, as we grow in Christ and experience this purifying, know that God is with us every step of the way. And God isn’t just sitting in the background. Like one who purifies silver, God is actively with us every step of the way, never taking his eyes off of us, that we might bear God’s image and shine with God’s love.
Let us bear witness to the home that will complete us and will transform the world. The kingdom of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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