Sermon C: 2 S in Advent: Malachi 1:7

Moving right along to the second Sunday of Advent for Series C in the revised Lutheran lectionary (series of Bible passages), the three readings assigned for Sunday, December 10, 2006 are Malachi 3:1-7b (The messenger who will prepare the way for the Messiah); Philippians 1:2-11 (He Who began the work will complete it) and Luke 3:1-20 (John the Baptist ministry). Chosen to apply is Malachi 1:7 which reads, “‘Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

That doesn’t sound very Christian, does it? Maybe that’s why some people consider the God of the Old Testament as Law while the God of the New Testament is Gospel. However, since the true Triune God authored both testaments, such a distinction is improper. The proper distinction is definitely that between law and Gospel. But how so?

At first reading it appears that God is willing to make a deal. “You return to Me and I will return to you. Until you return, I will forgetaboutyou!” How do we get around that apparent interpretation of the text. The problem is not that the Bible is so hard to understand; it is that we are so hardened not to want to understand it as God meant it to be understood.

The text is obvious. If you don’t return to God; He won’t return to you. But is that not contrary to everything we have learned about the Christian faith? Our God is not one of justice Who will give you what you deserve. He is one of mercy and grace in that He not only does NOT give you what you deserve but also DOES give you what you do not deserve. But that makes this text even more confusing.

For on the one hand God does promise to return to us. But it appears that He will do so only after we make the effort to return to Him. And that is where the problem lies. Our old Adam interprets the text to mean that it is “I” who must make the EFFORT to return to him. However, once we understand the Law as the demands from God that we can never fulfill, our understanding of the text changes radically. If we are not the ones to fulfill the demands of the Law, how can we return to Him first?

Perhaps the following analogy is helpful. A nurse completes her hospital shift and is driving home. Her car is hit by another vehicle driven by a drunk driver. The ambulance radios the hospital that the nurse is in serious condition. The emergency room physician states that if she will return to the hospital, they will treat her. But she is not only injured; she is unconscious. How can she possibly return to the hospital since that is the demand to be met prior to being treated? Easy. The ambulance transports her to the hospital.

We are to return to God before He returns to us. How so? The ambulance is none other than our Savior, Jesus Christ. He returns us to God the Father by the words from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” But we need not even go to the New Testament books and the cross to hear that promise of the coming of the Messiah. We only need to look six verses ahead of our text of Malachi 1:7 and read of the Lord, the Messenger from God, the Christ, “Who will come to His temple and purify the sons of Levi, purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.” (verses 2 & 3).

That is why God the Father says to God the Son, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” For Jesus does for you what you were unable to do for yourself. He returns you to God through faith in His promises so that God now returns to you. And the beginning of that blessed work we celebrated this past March 25 with the conception of the Virgin Mary so that on this December 25 we celebrate His birth. For, you see, He was born to die for you!