By Paul Keim, professor of Bible and religion
Scripture: Malachi 3:1-4 (NRSV)
The exuberant refrain of “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord” has been radiating from the Goshen College mainstage production of Godspell (2012 revised version) these past few weeks, resonating with the changing season. The first snow falls. The first fire crackles in the hearth. Minds and hearts and bodies turn, attuned and attentive. Getting ready.
Evoking the same phrase as found in Isaiah’s oracle of return (40:3), our passage announces the coming of a messenger. There it imagined a road building project through the vast wilderness that separated the exiles from their homeland. Here it evokes a path clearing for the sudden appearance of the Lord, whose arrival we have been awaiting, in whose covenant we delight.
But the coming of the Lord is not just a gift (or, God forbid, gifts). It is also a reckoning. Can we endure it? Can we stand before such scrutiny? Like the Levites who corrupted their covenanted obligations, we too are in need of purification. Like them we stand dumbfounded when our compromised offerings are not accepted and ask, “Why not?” (Mal. 2:14). Like them we disregard our moral compass and unashamedly demand, “Where is the God of justice?” (Mal. 2:17).
The day of the Lord’s visitation is coming. It will not be all sweetness and light. We will be put to the test. Refined in the fire. Reshaped and recast. Scrubbed clean with an abrasive agent. Getting ready as a priesthood of all believers, rendering us worthy once more not to receive, but to give, to offer just and pleasing sacrifice, to administer grace.
Scripture: Malachi 3:1-4 (NRSV)
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. 2But 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; 3he 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. 4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.