Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, 2002
Malachi 1

One day a fox who had never seen a lion was walking in the woods. Suddenly the king of beasts stood in the path before him, and the fox almost died of fright. He ran away and hid himself in his den. The next time he came upon the lion he merely paused to allow the majestic beast to pass by. The third time they met the fox boldly approached the lion and passed the time of day with him and asked after his family's health.

What is the moral? Familiarity breeds contempt. So goes one of Aesop's fables. At first the fox was terrified of the lion. The next time the fox watched him pass from a distance. After that the fox decided to waste the lion's time with chitchat. With repetition the fox had lost his fear and reverence for the king of beasts. As we'll see, the same change can take place in the spiritual realm.

Our Old Testament text begins with a statement by God to Judah, "I have loved you." That assertion can be demonstrated countless times in Israel's history. God's love to his people had been a covenant love, an electing love. He brought her out of Egypt with mighty works and settled her in Canaan, a land of milk and honey. Even when the people disobeyed him repeatedly he maintained his faithfulness to them. When they totally abandoned their Lord, he finally sent judgment. The Assyrians took the northern tribes into captivity; Babylon carried off the southern tribe of Judah. Judah remained in Babylonian exile for seventy years. God was good to them there as well. He caused the Persians to conquer the Babylonians, and the Persians were much more friendly to Judah. The kings of Persian allowed the Israelites to return to their land. In a second exodus, the people departed their homes on the Euphrates, went back to Judea, and rebuilt Jerusalem. The restored temple stood and its worship was conducted on a regular basis. The Jews were still a colonial people in the Persian Empire, but the government was benign and peace prevailed.

How did the Hebrews respond to God's electing love? They didn't seem to care. They replied, "In what way have you loved us?" It was not a very satisfactory answer. The Holy Creator says, "I love you." And they respond, "How have you loved us? Prove it!" Such cynicism reveals blindness to God's love; it reveals selfishness and ingratitude. People are too absorbed in themselves to appreciate God's goodness. This is the situation that the prophet Malachi had to deal with. He faces a wall of apathy and indifference. During times of war and calamity the prophets could more easily rally the people. The threats of death, persecution, and starvation tend to cause men to seek the Lord. But how do you stir up a people to serve the Lord in the midst of peace, prosperity and ease? That is the prophet's hardest task. Malachi spoke of the faith to a people for whom religion had become tedious.

When Malachi reminded them, "God loves you," they basically replied, "No, we do not think so. Prove it. We are tired of sacrifice and bored of worship." In the next verses Malachi comes up with an interesting rejoinder. Reading Malachi 1:2-5. [Read them.]

"Jacob I have loved; Esau I have hated." How is that relevant to Malachi's argument? Actually Esau and Jacob stand for two nations, Edom and Israel. Edom and Israel were neighboring countries which arose from the twins belonging to Isaac and Rebecca. Do you remember that? Esau was the burly hunter who sold his birthright to his brother Jacob. The people would have known what Malachi was talking about, and they would have been able to compare their national situation with that of their neighbor Edom. God had chosen Israel, in love, to be the nation through whom the world would see God's light; He did not choose Edom for any such privileged task. And Edom's experience of history had been a devastating one: its land had been reduced to ruins. A nomadic, desert group called the Nabateans had recently defeated the Edomites. These Nabateans, called by Malachi, "the jackals of the wilderness," now populated the Edomite cities. Even if Esau's descendents were to attempt to rebuild their shattered nation, they would be unsuccessful. They had become the object of God's wrath.

"Jacob I have loved; Esau I have hated." God's love for the one, and hatred for the other was made apart from anything these men were or did. God's choice of Jacob, for example, took place before Jacob was born (Genesis 25:23; Romans 9:11). Combine the facts of history, God's covenant with his people, his sovereign grace in election, and the conclusion is clear: God loved Jacob. He loved the nation of Israel that had emerged from Jacob, just as he loves the Church that issued from Israel.

Malachi's is a message of love, though there is not much comfort in it. The "hatred of Edom" theme makes this a tough love. Why so? Israel had taken advantage of God's love. They knew that God loved them and got used to it. They took it for granted. And, instead of loving the Lord in return they developed a terrible case of complacency. Worship had become dull. They honored God with shoddiness and leftovers. A spiritual malaise had set in. The priests were corrupt.

Malachi directs his next words to the priests and declares, "A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, "In what way have we despised your name?" (v. 6)

The Holy Spirit guided the prophet Malachi to accuse the priests. The people are guilty too, but the Lord rebukes the priests especially for despising the name of the Lord. To despise the name of the Lord is to despise the person and character of God. And how had the priests despised God's character? They had not honored and reverenced the Holy Creator in worship. God believes the absence of reverence and honor a serious problem. The word "worship" is derived from the old Anglo-Saxon "worth-ship." It means, "to ascribe worth." We ascribe worth to a person or thing worthy of special honor. To worship God is to ascribe to Him supreme worth. Revelation tells us that the choirs of angels in Heaven express precisely this sentiment. Surrounding the Lamb on his throne, the great throng reverently and joyfully sings out: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!" The priority of reverence is a timely word for our day. Modern worship has a propensity to lean toward entertainment, excitement, and adrenaline without paying our Holy Father the reverence and honor he deserves. We should not be surprised when rudeness and irreverence spread through the culture.

Verses 7-10 show other ways in which the priests were dishonoring God. [Read Malachi 1:7-10]

The priests were offering polluted bread and defective sheep on the altar. Sacrifice was at the center of Old Testament worship. The Israelites brought some gift, a sheep or an ox. It must be a flawless gift, and the greater its value the more it expressed their recognition of God's supreme worth. So how did the priests of Malachi's day honor the Lord? Did they bring their best? No, they brought blind, lame and sick animals. And by picking the blind, crippled and ill they revealed their contempt for worship. The Law of God commands: "You shall offer a male without blemish from the cattle, from the sheep, or from the goats. Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer" (Lev. 22:19-20).

Isn't that clear enough? Yet, the priests continued to pollute the altar by offering diseased and worthless creatures. They kept the best for themselves. By their action, they were saying in effect that the worship of God Almighty was unimportant and contemptible. Verse twelve further reveals the mind-set of the priests. In the midst of worship they sigh, "Oh, what a weariness!" Again we see a form of complacency. Instead of recognizing the weight of worship, they were bored. This led to a half-hearted and careless spiritual condition.

Boredom, complacency and indifference; this was the atmosphere in the priesthood. And if this was the attitude of the priests, then the attitude of the people could not have been much better, and eventually a low view of God's greatness works itself into the very fabric of society. In later chapters Malachi lists the problems of his community: families torn to pieces by adultery and divorce, fascination with sorcery, the courts corrupted by perjury, the widows and orphans exploited (Mal. 3:5). What is the lesson here? Sooner or later, the nation that will not worship God turns cruel, wicked, and degenerate. Malachi connects worship and culture. In reality, it is impossible to disconnect them. If the Church is obedient in her teaching and worship, then the society will eventually experience blessing; if she disobeys God in her word and sacraments, thus despising him, then the entire culture suffers his curse.

Can this principle apply to our day? Certainly! We are rightfully alarmed at the depravity of our nation: the advancing homosexual agenda, the horror of abortion, pedophilia, pornography, radical feminism and evolutionary fundamentalism. It is easy to point our fingers at the media, academia, and Hollywood, and plainly they bear a great deal of responsibility. Yet they are not the major villains. If we accept the teaching of Malachi, we cannot say that cultural decay around us is primarily their fault. The real blame rests with the Church. She has not been faithful.

It is no wonder that the Lord becomes exasperated. In Malachi 10:1 God asks, "Who is there even among you who would shut the doors..?" Their worship has become so shoddy that God states it would be better for the Temple doors to be locked and the whole operation shut down.

The first church I pastored was located in Fort Worth, Texas. It was a rough part of town. Two blocks down from our facility stood a massive abandoned church building. Doors and windows on the lower level were boarded up. All that remained of the upper windows were jagged shards of glass. Tall weeds blanketed the landscape. The bells in the tower had rusted and broken. It was an ugly, eerie spectacle. Nevertheless, the Lord would rather see that than let continue some sham worship masquerading as true sacrifice.

So far Malachi paints a pretty gloomy picture. Now in verse eleven we get a glimmer of hope. "For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In every place incense shall be offered to My name, And a pure offering; For My name shall be great among the nations," Says the Lord of hosts."

What a remarkable promise! One day, some day, the whole world will be dotted with sacred places of worship. From one end of the earth to the other, God's name will be great among the Gentiles. Out of the blue, God boggles the mind with this statement of the future universality of true worship. The fact of the matter is, God will triumph and he will multiply churches of true worship to His name from around the globe. What a wonderful word of hope! Consider the incense. "In every place incense shall be offered to My name." Surely the incense mentioned refers to the altar of incense in the Temple. The sweet aroma and ascending smoke symbolized the prayers of the saints (Rev. 5:8) going up before God. The amazing revelation however, is that it would be offered "in every place," not just the temple. That must have startled Malachi's listeners. How could that be? Remember, worship at that time was centered in Jerusalem.

The prophecy finds fulfillment in Christ and His teaching on the Church. In the Old Testament, true worship was centralized in the Temple of Jerusalem; in the New Testament true worship becomes ubiquitous. Evidence for this is seen in Christ's command to the Church, "Go and make disciples of all the nations and baptize them." Every tribe, tongue and culture on the face of the globe must be baptized, and with the sending of the Holy Spirit on earth, they shall be baptized. Furthermore, since the Church is Israel now, the Promised Land is no longer limited to Judea; it embraces the whole world. And Jesus promises, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matthew 28:18; 18:20).

Twenty-five hundred years after Malachi uttered these words his prophecy has only attained partial fulfillment. But the promise is still valid. Christ's kingdom will overcome all opposing kingdoms and bring all nations into submission to Him. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against Christ's Church. "For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In every place incense shall be offered to My name, And a pure offering; For my name shall be great among the nations," Says the Lord of hosts."

Malachi motivates us to give our best in worship. If Christian sacramental liturgy will one day be set up over the whole earth, if what we do today is the prototype of the New Heavens and New Earth, then we need to engage it seriously and joyfully so as to construct Christ's kingdom.

Besides that, Malachi teaches us the evil of complacency. God does not tolerate a habit of wandering half-heartedly through the liturgy, giving it a ho-hum, humdrum effort. What we do here either builds up a righteous civilization, or destroys it. Complacency may be the devil's most effective weapon. Christianity does well when believers are threatened by persecution, sickness and death. The growth of the Early Church attests to this. Presently the churches of Southern Sudan and China seem to be expanding under brutal conditions. In the meantime, as America enjoys strength and prosperity, we hardly appreciate God's love and goodness. We are paralyzed by self-satisfaction. When things are going relatively well too many give up on devotion to the Lord. God, help us to overcome our complacency!

Come now to the Holy Communion. Offer yourself to the Lord, your soul and your body, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto your Heavenly Father. Confess your complacency to Him. Resolve to fight it. Realize the centrality of worship. You know that you need God's grace in His Word, Sacrament, and the fellowship of Christians. Ask the Holy Spirit to renew your devotion to His means of grace.

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