Malachi 3:1-4
Thus says the Lord, See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight– indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
It is common for us to have preconceived notions of what God is like. In fact, I don’t think its possible not to. If ever we make an effort to seek God, or Jesus or answers to our questions, we are doing so because we have formed in our mind what that looks like so that we will know it when we find it. I wonder if by saying that “the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, we are being told that what we seek will one minute not be there and the next the answer will and it won’t be based or built upon knowledge and ideas that we already have formulated. The answer won’t slowly come to us, it will be there in it’s entirety. Since it will be nothing like what we have already formulated we are looking for, will we see it? Will we be ready for it?
It seems that Malachi is giving his hearers a bit of a heads up. When the Lord is in his temple. When we find what we are seeking it may not be at all like what we thought it would. It seems that Malachi might be posing the idea of what our worship of God looks like. It looks like us seeing all that is in ourselves that is not of God and offering ourselves to be purified. A welcoming of God’s presence to the degree that we long for the refining fire of his love to cleanse our hearts, that our offerings are more pure.
None of us can stand. None of us can endure the day of his coming. Yet God’s love for us makes us stand and strengthens us to endure his refining love. In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul paints this picture that our bodies are the temple and the Spirit of Christ lives in us to better help us understand how present Christ is in our lives. If we really believe that Christ lives in us then there is no room for hatred of anyone. There is no room for selfishness, pride, lust, greed or my personal biases. There is no room for ego and self. These things are purged and it doesn’t feel good as they are. At least that has been my experience. To invite Christ into my life, is not necessary because he is already there. It is turning my awareness to that, that allows me to see he is suddenly there…and always has been. He is not there to give me a bigger house or a better job or to find me a wife because I am obeying Him. He is there doing what I desperately need the most and I am unable to do myself. He is refining me. He is purging all the impurities.
A 1 oz. chunk of gold ore is no where near as valuable as 1 oz. of gold that has been refined and purified. God purifies and refines us not so that we become more valuable to Him. We are able to experience our lives from a richer place and know how to value what is truly good. Our response to God loving us in such a way is to love better and more purely. Our offerings are greater. Our response, our offerings back to God is to love our neighbor with a greater capacity for all our impurities have been removed.
It is to lay down our lives out of love for others. To not hold tightly to our rights, our agendas, our feelings but to freely give love as it has been given to us. We are the presence of the Lord for each other. It is only through our love for one another that we will be a purifying presence.
I remember a time when I would get that so wrong. I was part of a religious organization/cult that quoted the proverb, “as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” Proverbs 27:17 as justification for calling each other out on sin. So often if my behavior did not fit your idea of “excellence” you would pull me aside and call me out on it. But is that love. If love is patient and love is kind and not rude or self seeking…1 Cor. 13 then isn’t it really out of impatience with my short comings that you are calling me out. Because you are seeking what is best for your self and my lack of “excellence” slows you down, you call me out on it because its better for you if I change. We called each other out out of frustration and not love. I know this because I was called out and I called others out.
God refines us in His ever patient ever merciful love for us not matter how long it takes us to in our not-seeing to “suddenly” see it. We see it because of His patient love not because of his frustration with us. Although we do tend to think God is frustrated with us when we can’t seem to get it right. But that is only because we think God is like us. How many times are we to forgive our enemies, 7 times? “No I tell you 77 times”. Love is the refiner’s soap that God uses. Love is the flame that purifies our hearts. When we “suddenly” see that, why would we want anything else?! Why would we think that we are to treat our neighbors any other way? Jesus gave us the most extreme example of love. Though he was beaten and flogged and punched and crucified on a cross, he returned it with love and asked “Father forgive them, they know not what they do”. That is love!
And that is the love that we are called to as Christ lives in us. And yet I find it hard to love my friend who always goes on with these conspiracy theories. Or my neighbor who lets his dog bark all the time. Or my friend who was late again and I feel that is so inconsiderate. That guy at the gym is so selfish and doesn’t re-rack his weights. What I find interesting is that those are both Christ purifying me and opportunities for me to love with the same purifying love.