Fifteenth Sunday after trinity, 2002
Malachi 2

A few months ago a Roman Catholic Bishop invited an expert to speak to his priests. As you know the Church of Rome has been rocked by a homosexuality and pedophilia problem. However, we should be charitable enough to recognize that not all Catholic priests are sexual predators. There are many faithful and godly men serving. Nonetheless, the good ones are taunted and devalued along with their colleagues. They are upset about it too. What did the counselor tell them? He explained to them the different levels of victims. In the homosexual abuse of minors, the primary victims are the boys themselves. They are the ones scarred for life. The second level involves the family of the boy. They are secondary victims. They were not molested themselves but their son was, and the pain of it hammers their spirits. There is a third level of victim ­ the innocent priests. These are not primary victims nor secondary victims, they are tertiary victims. They too must suffer the consequences of the sins of their fellow priests. I thought this was a good point, and it seemed to help the decent priests. Could we add one more layer? How about fourth level victims? Are there fourth degree victims when ministers sin? Yes, the Church in general bleeds, and society at large languishes in darkness and decay.

Today's Old Testament lesson treats the sins of the priests. Malachi has some timely instruction for us. Malachi 2:1 says, "O priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not give glory to My name I will send a curse upon you, And I will curse your blessings I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feast; and one will take you away with it."

How would God curse the blessings of the priests? Surely the phrase refers to the liturgical blessing or benediction given by the priests to the people, the Aaronic priestly blessing taken from Numbers 6:24-26. You are probably familiar with it. The priests lifted their arms before the congregation and proclaimed: "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen." It is a wonderful declaration of God's care and favor, presence and peace. What is the opposite? If God the Father's smiling love and approval, protection and peace make for the greatest blessing, what would comprise the most horrendous curse? That is the invective the Lord wants to give the priests. In other words, the priesthood would experience God's abandonment, punishment, disapproval, and hostility.

There are two aspects of God's curse -- the temporal and eternal. The temporal curse robs men of their possessions, and the earth of her bounty. That is why lush lands become arid, green grass turns to dried up thorns and thistles, crops die, the rich become poor, and fertility turns into barrenness. You can read it all in the long list of Deuteronomy chapter 28. The numerous items are temporal, earthly curses.

The temporal curse may be terrible, yet it points to something much more severe, the eternal curse. Let's not forget that Jesus suffered the eternal curse on the Cross. Why? Due to our own sins that He bore, God's hatred for them, and the punishment they deserved, the curse of God the Father zeroed in on His Son. Hanging on the cross, the Holy Father turned His back on His Son Jesus, and tormented Him; The LORD hid His countenance from Him and afflicted Him with unspeakable pain and inner turmoil. The earth quaked at the dreadfulness of it. The land became pitch black in order to conceal it. Why was our Savior's suffering so harsh, so intense? He was bearing the sins of the world. Specifically, He was taking the punishment you deserved. The plan of salvation made a way for the elect to evade the eternal curse of Hell. But it called for Jesus to bear it all. The Innocent One would die for the guilty. Jesus Himself would become a curse in order to remove the curse of the elect. The crown of thorns on His head and the tree on which he hanged are both symbols of the curse. If you are in Christ, He saved you from the curse of everlasting damnation. You and I are no longer enslaved to our sins and destined for God's eternal reprobation. In Christ, God's face shines on you approvingly.

Malachi goes on to proclaim the degradation to the priesthood. "I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts." The priests never stood before the people in business suits while performing God's special office. They stood invested with garments of glory and beauty. They washed themselves from all dirt and defilement. However, the glory of the priests is now tarnished. According to Malachi they would conduct the liturgy with fecal matter on their faces. And notice the timing. Not during the sparsely attended daily sacrifices, but during the solemn feasts. Those were the big three of Judaism: the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Hundreds of bullocks, goats, and sheep were slaughtered. Extra incense was burned in order to cover the putrid odors emanating from the piles of intestines, feces, and blood. These materials were carried outside the camp. But now Malachi states that God will besmirch the priests with the refuse and even carry the priests themselves outside the camp along with the unclean elements, so heinous their lifestyles had become.

What had they done? What was wrong with their teaching and living? They had broken the covenant. The Lord had covenanted with the priests and Levites. They were to be faithful in the teaching of God's law, godly examples before the people, turning away sinners from iniquity. But it didn't happen. They set a bad example and caused many to stumble at the law. Malachi says, "For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have departed from the way" (Malachi 2:7). That phrase, "messenger of the LORD" actually means angel of the Lord. The priests were to be angels. Their words and behavior were to be as faithful as the angels who served God around His throne. No, they had "departed from the way."

How had they departed from the way? The rest of Malachi chapter two tells us. Divorce was rampant among the priests. God told them that He hates divorce (Malachi 2:16), it is a solemn oath and covenant before God and men, yet the priests had abandoned their first wives for trophy brides. That has become an accepted practice today as well. Among the rich and famous, even among the poor, older men leave their older wives for someone young and sexy, a trophy bride. Author Tom Wolfe's book A Man in Full shows the disastrous consequences of this. Sixty-year-old wheeler dealer Charlie Croker leaves his first wife Martha for a young beauty named Serena. Charlie's decision to abandon his faithful wife Martha for Serena is driven by sex; Serena's decision to marry a much older man is driven by money. The arrangement is fun for about a year, then, the relationship disintegrates in a dozen ways. It is an insightful story.

Conversing with a neighbor lady a couple months ago, I couldn't help think of Tom Wolfe's book. Her husband had left her. She told me how the two of them worked together to buy their house, raise their children, and send them to college. But she reached her mid-forties and her husband found a lady twenty years younger and better looking. He divorced her and married his secretary. Life for this poor lady has fallen to pieces due to his selfish lust.

Can you imagine a majority of priests pulling this stunt? That was the situation of Malachi's day. Not only were they marrying younger girls for sex, but they were marrying foreign unbelieving wives. The Bible approves of marriage with someone of a different race or ethnic background, but not a person outside the faith. "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelieverswhat part has a believer with an unbeliever?" (2 Cor. 14) How can harmony exist in a marriage where the partners' worldviews are at odds? The home should be a place of recuperation from battle. If a Christian man has been struggling against the world all day long, and he comes home to a non-Christian wife, how is he going to find the rest and sympathy he needs? The war against the world continues on under the roof of his own home. He becomes spiritually exhausted; he begins to compromise his Christian convictions in order to get along.

Another problem of the priesthood we discover in Malachi 2:17. "You have wearied the LORD with your words; Yet you say, "In what way have we wearied Him?" In that you say, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, And He delights in them" The priests wee teaching that evildoers were actually good in the sight of God.

Does that sound like a familiar problem, the condoning of evil? making excuses? Good is called evil and evil is called good. When priests and pastors teach that sin is approved in the eyes of God, the people are led astray and directed toward iniquity (Malachi 2:6). Eventually that foolishness permeates the entire culture.

I actually got called in for jury duty on one of those coffee spill cases. A lady was suing a fast food chain for millions of dollars of emotional damage. And it was she who spilled hot coffee on herself. When it was my turn, I expressed my opinion that it was a waste of time to consider such a frivolous incident in court. Her lawyer immediately tried to humiliate me for not showing proper compassion for his client. He quickly dismissed me from the case. The success of his case depended upon the jury agreeing that evil (theft via lawsuit) was actually good.

What a horrible thing it is in the sight of God to call good evil, and evil good. We also know of Islamic homicide bombers who go out of their way to kill infants, children, along with innocent men and women. These people should be condemned in the Islamic world and yet they rarely are. On the contrary fund-raising drives are organized to reward their families. Proverbs 24:24 says, "He who says to the wicked, "You are righteous" Him the people will curse"

Wouldn't this apply to modern parenting techniques? It is a tragic thing to hear of a girl or boy who has been emotionally and physically battered by his parents. Such a child may suffer irreparable harm. Is there equal harm when parents spoil their children and do not punish them at all for wicked conduct? Yes. Refusing to discipline is cruel as well. It promotes the falsehood that evil is good in the sight of God, and that He delights in it.

The Bible does not allow us to call evil good. Proverbs 17:15 says, "He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, Both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD." Likewise, Isaiah 5:20 declares, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, an sweet for bitter!"

When the religious leaders of a society do not have the backbone to condemn sin, when they call evil good and good evil, then we are witnessing the death of a culture. This was the condition of the Church and society of Malachi's day. The priesthood had decided that instead of being salt in corrupt world they would be rotten meat.

Sin in the Church is a recurring theme in history. It is a consequence of the fall. All through the Old and New Testaments we see "heresies, immoralities, apostasies, doctrinal corruptions, and wonderful reformations." The same goes for the next twenty centuries. Defeats and corruptions are mixed with triumphs and reformations. In our day the Church is more corrupt than pure, more puny than mighty. Like the Church of Ephesus in Revelation, God removes the lamp-stands of apostate churches. His glorious presence departs from their worship. The prophet Ezekiel tragically witnessed the glory-cloud of God lift up from the Temple of his day, and depart. Christ told us that branches of the tree that do not abide in Him are cut off and thrown in the fire (John 15:5). Yet, the vine itself is never pulled up, never dies. Malachi foretells the day when God will come to the Church like a refiner's fire and "purify the sons of Levi" (Malachi 3:3). His other great prophecy comes from Malachi 1:11, "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."

This passage and others teach us that the visible historic Church is the central institution on earth. By means of the Holy Spirit's work in the preaching of the Word and the faithful celebration of the Sacraments she baptizes and disciples the nations. It is she who flattens the gates of Hell. It is she who wins the warfare against Satan. It is she who teaches all people obedience to Christ alone. When we see branches of the Church apostatize like the American Episcopal Church, or when we find out how pervasively the Roman Catholic hierarchy winked at pedophilia, we are naturally shocked, we are angered. But let us not give up on the Church. We do not have that option.

Doug Wilson has this to say: "St. Paul used the illustration of the olive tree in Romans 11 to show that Gentiles can be removed from the covenant in just the same way that unbelieving Jews were removed. The olive tree is the Church, the true Israel of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the root. That tree will never be chopped down; we have God's word on it. Moreover, we have His word that the tree will grow and flourish, as a visible Church, until the earth is filled with its fruit."

Malachi has a stern word for the ministry. There are epochs in history when the priests fail to show forth the truth both in their lives and in their doctrine. Be that as it may, there will always be a faithful remnant. Anglicanism does not hold to the infallibility of the Church but she does uphold the indefectibility of the Church , which means that the Church may go through rough waters but she will arrive at her destination, and she will arrive in good shape. Consider St. Paul in his conflict with Judaizers; Athanasius in his lonely struggle for the Nicene faith in the fourth century as the episcopates of both East and West seemed to have surrendered to Arianism. Maximus, a lonely monk refusing in the seventh century to surrender to Monthelitism, which he was told had been accepted universally. Luther and Cranmer in their attempts to reform the Church during the sixteenth century risked their lives often and battled alone. All these men lived during eras when the priesthood was terribly compromised. Like Malachi they exhibited utmost courage. They loved the Church because they loved the Lord. And this led them to fight to see her improve. They were persuaded that she would eventually triumph. Let us have the same attitude today.

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