December 5, 2021                                  Text:  Malachi 3:1-7b

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Here’s a story for you:  “An optimist said to a pessimist, ‘isn’t this a bright, sunny day?’  The pessimist replied, ‘Yes, but if this heat doesn’t stop soon, all the grass will burn up.’  Two days later, the optimist said to the pessimist, ‘Isn’t this rain wonderful?’  The pessimist replied, ‘Well, if it doesn’t stop soon, my garden will wash away.’  Later the optimist invited the pessimist to go duck hunting.  The optimist wanted to show the pessimist what his hunting dog could do.  The pessimist looked at the dog and said, ‘Looks like a mutt to me.’

    “At that moment, some ducks flew over.  The optimist shot one of the ducks and it fell in the lake.  The dog ran out on the water, picked up the duck, and ran back on the water.  The optimist took the duck from the dog and said to the pessimist, ‘What do you think of my dog now?’  The pessimist replied, ‘Dumb dog – can’t even swim!’”

    Are you the optimist or the pessimist?  How do you see God’s love for you in Christ Jesus?  How do you view God working in your life?  Do you ever wonder . . . 

“WHERE IS THE GOD OF JUSTICE?”

    That is a question posed by the people of Malachi’s time.  It comes in chapter 2 right before our text.  Israel was not ushering in the glorious and prosperous reign they had hoped for.  Israel had internal problems and external problems.  Pagan people were prospering because of their wickedness.  The people questioned God and thought he delighted in all this.  The believers were burdened, the wicked rejoiced.  Things were upside down.  People began to think that God was unlike His promises.  Had He forgotten His people?

    Our text is God’s answer to these wearying accusations.  God will act and soon.  Yet God’s coming will not be as the people expect and hope.  The pagan will not be the first focus of God’s judgment.  Rather, god’s coming will be in the purification of his own people.  They must be upright before God judges the outsider and brings in the everlasting victory.

    The Lord expects better of His people.  As silver gets tarnished in the open air, we easily adopt the ways of the world.  We are influenced by what we see and hear.  We buy into the babble and as we do the image of God starts to be hidden in our lives.  We sing with the world:  “Where is the God of justice?”  We start believing that God doesn’t care.  We start believing that God will no longer intervene with his justice.  We think God has become like certain big city cops who are told to let bad behavior go.  Our world like Malachi’s is turned upside down.

    God could have destroyed Israel for not paying attention.  But He didn’t.  God has every right to destroy our society for not paying attention.  But He doesn’t.  He rebuked them.  He rebukes us.  He warned them and us of God’s imminent coming with purifying fire.  They needed to repent and so do we.  If we do we can endure the coming of the Lord.  He promised the people they would once again be “pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old.” (v. 4)

    Luke announced the “way of the Lord” was the coming of Jesus.  Jesus’ sufferings, going to the cross, were the purifying fire and the fullers’ soap.  Jesus endured the day of His coming and He stood under the judgment of God.  Jesus obedient passion was the offering “pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old.”  Being united in Christ by His death, we return to God, as He returns to us.

    Where is the God of justice?  He is right here with us.  He never left.  Our text, “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” (v. 6)  He’s consistent, we are inconsistent.  He’s a rock, we are sand.  The Lord has control, we spin out of control.  God is the same, we blow like the wind with whatever news we hear that day.  God smiles.  “Dear child, there you go again.”

    In our world God is very near.  This God of justice is fair and righteous.  He has purified us in Baptism.  He has given us endurance to stand in the strength of His body and blood.  He has re-created us in his image so that we can shine clear and bright in the darkness of the world.  

    Like in the time of Malachi the Lord is refining us.  He is making us stronger for the upcoming journey.  He wants us to have a healthy fear of who He is and what He can do.  He reminds us again today that a primary aspect of His constancy is his desire to save.  His willingness to forgive.  His gift of hope.  

    Where is the God of justice?  He is never far away.  He draws near to your heart and mind.  I’m so glad I know that, aren’t you?

                                Amen.     

November 28, 2021                        Text:  Jeremiah 33:14-16

Dear Friends in Christ,

    When do things and/or people become old?  Is a car new until 10 years or 100,000 miles?  What about your fridge or your dryer?  When do your clothes become old?  For some it may be after only a few washes.  Hang on to your “old” clothes and then they become vintage and popular at re-sale shops.

    How about us?  When do we go from young to old?  Is it all about how we feel?  Is it how others view us?  I’ve always been considered young.  “Your to young to be a Pastor you should be in high school” was something I heard a lot in my early pastorate.  Even today when I tell people I have been in this profession for 30 years they have a hard time believing it.  But that is usually people older than I am.  When I ask the confirmands over the years most lowball my age, but not all of them.  By the way, I’ve got your names in my secret book!  I feel good, I can still perform in my sporting events, my mind is still in sync and then a family friend who hasn’t seen me in years says, “Boy, you are getting gray.”  So which is it – young and new or old and decaying?  

    Change is happening and the mirror doesn’t lie.  When change and decay occur then anxiety and insecurity can swell up from within.  Why didn’t I remember that?  Why this pain?  Stairs can look like a mountain.  

    Jeremiah knew about change and decay.  He knew about anxiety and insecurity.  Jeremiah is here to announce God’s deliverance from all of this.  It is a message we need to hear because we all need . . .

“SECURITY”

    God speaks through Jeremiah:  “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” (v. 14-15)

    “They day that are coming” is a reference to the birth of Christ and he will “execute justice”; namely pay for our sins at Calvary.  Righteousness is the obedience God demands of us but we can’t always be righteous.  Christ would have to earn our obedience through His obedience.  God reckons us righteous through Christ who died and rose again to pay for our disobedience.

    Jeremiah had his insecurities.  He saw the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians.  Before that he was in prison and had people reject him because of his preaching God’s Word.  They didn’t want to hear it.  He saw upheavals and uncertainties.  Yet God would comfort him with a promise.  A coming Branch, the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Can we acknowledge the world has always had uncertainty?  We are fearful because we see these institutions of church and government and healthcare and education in upheaval.  We are concerned about the lack of a justice system.  Our security is worn down when people want the pandemic to continue so they can wield the power.  But guess what word I heard from an apolitical doctor the other day – endemic.  We will still have isolated cases but the hysteria will end.  History shows this over and over again.  God gives us hope.  Political bad decisions have consequences that cannot be made sensible by a 30-second talking point.

    “In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely.” (16a)  Alfred Edersheim, a noted Jewish convert to Christianity gave this fascinating description of the Roman World at the time of Jesus.  See if you notice anything.

    “The citizens were idle, dissipated, sunken.  Their chief thoughts were of the theater and arena.  They were mostly supported at the public cost…200,000 were thus maintained by the State.  (There was a rapid decay of home life) partly from corruption, but chiefly from the cessation of marriage, and the nameless abominations of what remained of family life…among the populace religion had degenerated into abject superstition.”

    That is what Jesus stepped into.  He didn’t secure earthly Judah or Jerusalem.  Judah and Jerusalem are references to the church – to Jew and Gentile saved by grace through faith in Christ’s saving us through His blood, death, and resurrection.  He secured for us a heavenly Jerusalem.  It is ours now and forever.

    Let God’s Word address your insecurities:  “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken…For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” (Heb. 12:28 & 13:14)  Hold on to God’s Word when in doubt or when your gut churns with concern.  Also from Hebrews, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

    Rejoice with Jeremiah.  Beyond the disappointment and challenges of this world that come at us from all angles, beyond the anxieties we have security that is secure.  We have the security that the Son of God, the seed of David, brings and freely bestows on us.  Be at peace inside as you meet the world on the outside, for you have security in Jesus.               Amen.