Too Slow, Too Fast

Sermon from 12/20/2009: Too Slow, Too Fast
From Scripture Reading: Luke 1:39-45
4th Sunday of Advent


Luke 1:39, 40

“In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.”

Today’s third Scripture reading features two women, Mary and her relative Elizabeth. Both were Jewish. Both were miracle mothers with miracle babies. Both were relatives. Both were the talk of their respective towns. They had a lot in common, but they also had a lot of differences.

Mary was from the north of the Holy Land. Elizabeth was from the South. If the United States were the Holy Land, Mary would be from Michigan and Elizabeth would be from Georgia.

Mary was young. Elizabeth was very old. If Mary were Miley Cyrus then Elizabeth would be Barbara Walters.

Mary was poor. Elizabeth was middle class.

Mary was single. Elizabeth had been married for 40 or 50 years.

There was at least one more difference. For Elizabeth most of her life had been on what we would consider “too slow mode.” She and her husband Zechariah wanted children when Elizabeth was young, but a child never came. In their middle age years, they continued to hope that Elizabeth would conceive, but it didn’t happen either. Then in their silver hair years, they pretty much gave up on ever having children. It was one of those many things in life that was just not meant to be.

Maybe we can relate to Elizabeth. Things often seem to move so slowly. Especially here in West Hawaii. Products from the mainland take weeks, months to get here. Residents in Kona have been waiting decades for just one or two more north/south parallel roads. A branch campus for the University of Hawaii or the Community College was promised years ago but still no buildings. Building permits take extra long.

Living in Hawaii takes the kind of patience that God gave to Elizabeth who kept trusting in the Lord in spite of what seemed to be too slow a pace.

On the other hand, if Elizabeth’s life appeared to move too slowly, young Mary’s life was just the opposite. Elizabeth had to wait 50, 60 or more years for her to have a child. The angel Gabriel told Mary who may have been even a teenager that she would have a baby and Mary was not even married yet.

For Mary things were all happening at internet speed. She probably never imagined that she would be with child before her wedding day, but she got a child anyway. She went straight from being engaged to being a mother and bypassed a wedding. Her mind was probably spinning thinking of all the responsibilities suddenly thrust open her.

For many of us, our experience has probably been that God seems to move too slowly. But there are times when it seems that life is moving oh so quickly. We have a project deadline at work before Christmas. We have a big payment that has to be made before the end of this month. We have guests coming in this Wednesday and we have many things to clean up around the house. We have a huge event coming up in early January, and we haven’t even planned for it yet. Life is just going too fast for us.

Luke even uses the word “hasten” or “hurry” in chapter 1, verse 39 of his Gospel. He writes, “Mary went with haste into the hi to a town in Judah country. . . “ to visit Elizabeth.

Here is the setting:

Mary is about three months pregnant and she hurries to visit her relative Elizabeth who lives about 70 miles south. Why does she hurry to see Elizabeth? We don’t know. Maybe because of all the gossiping that is going on in Nazareth where Mary lived because Mary was pregnant and was not married? Maybe because Mary heard that her relative had a miracle birth, too, and the both of them could support each other in way that no one else could? Maybe Mary hurried to see Elizabeth because Elizabeth was much older and much more mature than she was and Elizabeth could be a mentor and a role model for her?

We don’t know exactly where Elizabeth lived, but some scholars like the founder of the Crossways Bible Study Curriculum says that Mary spent the rest of her pregnancy with Elizabeth in southern Israel just a few miles from Bethlehem and that Mary never went back north to Nazareth. According to this theory, Mary and Joseph then went to Bethlehem directly from Elizabeth’s house and not from way north in Nazareth. There are weaknesses to this theory though because the account of Jesus’ birth in the book of Matthew seems to indicate that Mary and Joseph made the trip from Nazareth in the north and headed southward to Bethlehem.

In any event, Mary rushed to see Elizabeth and her fast paced urgency to get to Elizabeth’s place was indicative of her life.

The main point of the sermon

The true account of Mary and Elizabeth reminds us of the two circumstances in life which we may be going through. On the one hand, God may be working too slowly in our lives. Getting a job is taking too long. Getting out of debt has been too slow a process. On the other hand, things may be happening too quickly and we are dizzy at the speed things are moving in our lives.

In either case, God is working at His pace according to His schedule. It doesn’t matter if we think God is moving too slowly or too quickly. God is going to work things out according to His timetable independent of ours.

Just as God decided that the perfect time to send His promised Son to be born of the virgin Mary would be during the reign of Caesar Augustus and that the perfect time for Jesus to die would be under the jurisdiction of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, so did God set in place the events that took place in Elizabeth’s and Mary’s life.

And so it is with our lives. Just as Jesus was born at the right time and the right place and just as He died and rose from the dead at the right time and the right place, so are you right where God has placed you and so are the events surrounded you just as God had it planned.

The test for us is to trust in God’s perfect timing and schedule. On our own we cannot trust in God’s cadence and pace. We will want to either try to run ahead of Him or we will lag far back behind Him, but by the working of the Holy Spirit, God will give us the kind of faith that Elizabeth and Mary had to place their lives into His schedule. God gave to Elizabeth and Mary the gift of believing that all sequences of events in our lives take place for God’s reason and purpose.

We remember Jesus who placed His life completely into the time table of His heavenly Father. 30 years as a self-employed contractor or carpenter. Not a problem. 3 years as a rabbi and prophet. Not an issue. Suffer and die on the cross. Extremely painful but let’s get it done.

We pray that God would give us the submission of Christ to just accept and not to moan and groan about how slow or how fast God is moving in our lives. The pace that God has set is the right and only pace for us.

Lord grant us such obedience to you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Refined Like Gold

Sermon from December 6, 2009

2nd Sunday in Advent

From scripture: Malachi 3:3

Introduction

Some of the finest natural gold is mined or panned in places like Australia, Alaska, California and Georgia. But even in these gold centers, those who buy raw gold say that one hundred per cent pure gold in its natural state either does not exist or is extremely rare.

98% pure gold is probably the highest percentage that any prospector can ever expect to find. Most natural gold is around 70 to 90 per cent pure. Natural gold usually has quartz, copper, silver or other elements mixed with it. Hence, there is a need to refine gold in order to make jewelry, coins or watches.

In this morning’s Scripture reading from Malachi chapter 3, we read about how we humans are not perfectly pure and are like raw gold needing to go through a fiery cleansing and refining process.

Before we consider some of the teaching from Malachi chapter 3, here is the setting.

Background

The prophet Malachi lived around 400 years before the birth of Christ. Many scholars say that Malachi was the last prophet of the Old Testament and that there was no prophet for the next four centuries until John the Baptist appears in the wilderness of Judea.

The people in Malachi’s day should have been thankful and dedicated to the Lord. After all, God had just given them freedom after being held as hostages in Iraq for 70 years. But instead of being more committed to the Lord, the people had become indifferent.

Instead of giving their best sheep to the Lord, they gave to him the diseased ones. Instead of marrying a person because of her or his inner spiritual beauty, people were marrying a person because of her or his physical attractiveness. And when people did get married, instead of being faithful to their wives or husbands, they cheated on them.

The condition of the people of Israel could be described as sloppy, half-hearted, apathetic and blasé. This description could very well apply to how some of us. We are sort of going through the motions in our relationship with God. Our gifts of time, energy, focus, and sacrifices to the Lord are after thoughts or leftovers.

In today’s reading from Malachi 3, the Lord says that he will purge the mediocre attitude and the lukewarm spirit of the people. He will get rid of the grit and dross in their souls. He will burn out their “I don’t care” mentality.

1. God Takes What Is Harmful And Makes It Helpful.

Malachi 3:3 states, “He [the Lord] will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver.”

The purification of gold is an invasive and tumultuous process. In ancient times, to remove the quartz, copper, silver and other elements and compounds stuck in gold, 1000 degreee Fahrenheit fire was used. If that weren’t severe enough, today heat is also used but we’ve taken the purification of gold to new higher levels of severity. Now days to purify gold to a greater degree than what the ancients were able to do with fire, we use toxic chemicals such as cyanide, mercury, lead, hydrochloric acid, or chlorine gas. All banned substances for us average people. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to start a gold refining operation in Kona? Can you imagine what the environmental impact statement would look like? Can you imagine the toxic waste that would have to be managed?

What is so amazing is that harmful energy like 1000 degree Fahrenheit fire and poisonous chemicals like cyanide and mercury improve the quality of gold rather than destroy it.

In a similar way, toxic and devastating events such being fired (notice the word fire,) getting injured, or having a falling out with a close friend often turn out to be the best things that could have happened to us. Instead of weakening us, these crushing occurrences strengthened us. Instead of demolishing us, they rescued us. Instead of punishing us, they blessed us by the grace of God. These so called bad events purified, got us straightened out, got us back on course, and put the fear of God in us.

A pattern that we find in the Bible from Genesis to Malachi and from Matthew to Revelation is that God takes toxic events and turns them eventually into pure gold.

The greatest and ultimate example of God turning what is lethal into what is alive is Jesus dying on the cross and rising to life. Even though Jesus did not need to go through any refining process, he willingly subjected himself to a brutal and tortuous execution in order to purify us from our sin. The cross and the resurrection together is the bill board message that God has purified sinful persons like us and made us worthy by the blood of Jesus to receive everlasting life.

2. God’s Messenger Who Prepares The Way For The Refining of Souls Has Already Come.

Malachi 3:1 promises, “Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

We who live in the New Covenant also called the New Testament can read this verse from the stand point, “Behold, I, the Lord, have sent my messenger, and he has prepared the way before me.”

The season of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, is an uplifting time when we recall how God kept His promises to send the Refiner, the Purifier, the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

The messenger whom God sent was none other than John the Baptist who deliberately dressed, talked, acted and preached like the Old Testament prophet Elijah. He was the Elijah whom the Old Testament stated would be God’s messenger to prepare the way for the Messiah.

John the Baptist’s message was basically the same as Malachi’s. Malachi’s main

theme was to shake people up from their half hearted, mechanical, and ho hum commitment to the Lord. This was the same emphasis of John the Baptist. He shook up the apathetic and the partially committed.

The plea from God’s messenger is the same plea to us. Wake up. Get focused. Pay

attention. Jesus is already here. He has already come. Rely on him to turn us into pure gold.

3. What A Pure Gold Life Looks Like

Malachi 3: 5 describes, “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.”

When the Holy Spirit refines us often through painful events, our lives are changed. Our lives more closely resemble the pure gold life that God planned for us. Malachi 3:5 gives us a glimpse of what that pure gold life is like.

It means being careful to not get caught up in alternative solutions to Christ. In Malachi’s day, the Jewish people were very tempted to go to sorcerers or people practicing fortune telling and séances. God wasn’t good enough. People felt they needed to get a second opinion for life’s challenges. I don’t think any of us or at least many of us will ever resort to palm readers or tarot cards to find comfort, but some of us including myself fight the temptation to do things our own way rather than to wait upon the Lord. We become our own sorcerers, our own palm readers, our own deck of tarot cards when we do things in an alternate way than what God describes.

Malachi 3:5 also depicts the pure gold life has not committing adultery and not swearing falsely. Not committing adultery and not swearing falsely means being honest and truthful with those around us. Yes, it means not cheating on your wife or husband, but that’s just the start. It means being genuine and sincere with all people. Not doing things in secret that would break our promises or commitment to them. Telling the truth and not lying to anyone. When Christ refines us, we become more true first to God and then to others.

The pure gold life in Malachi 3:5 also includes fearing God. There’s a term in Malachi 3:5 that often gets overlooked. The term is “the Lord of hosts.” When I hear that description of God, I have to keep myself from imagining that the Lord of hosts means God standing in a big hotel lobby among a hundred convention volunteers each with a stick on name tag labeled “HOST.” “Welcome to the Gold Investors Convention. I am on the host committee. Do you have any questions that I could help you with?”

No, the Lord of hosts does not mean that God is chairperson of the host committee for a convention. The word in the original Hebrew was “sabbaoth” not to be confused with the similar sounding Hebrew word “sabbath.”

“Sabbaoth” was a frightful word. It meant thousands of heavily armed troops. “Sabbaoth” or hosts might describe the 30,000 combat soldiers being sent to Afghanistan. “Sabbaoth” or hosts does not mean smiling convention volunteers but stern, lean and mean troops marching into battle.

The people in Jerusalem at the time of Malachi had little respect or fear of God. They did not see him as a commander of thousands of warriors ready for action.

Today we too have lost that reverence for God as person who is not to be messed with. We look upon him as a smiling chairperson of a convention host committee (which he can be because he is the God who serves His creation through His Son Jesus) but he is more than a host. He is also the God who can send fire and toxins upon anyone who will take him lightly.

But as we trust in God and love Him because of the love that His Son Jesus gave to us, God will use His mighty hosts, His mighty army, to protect us. Even the fire and poisonous events that happen to us will be turned around to purify and strengthen us because of Chist’s victory on the cross.

Because of Christ, in spite of all the sediment and dirt in us, God looks upon us as pure gold.

Amen.