Reflections on Refinement

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
December 6, 2009
Second Sunday in Advent

Reflections on Refinement
Malachi 3:1-3

“Be careful what you wish for,
you just might get it.”
Most of us have heard this well-known maxim.
I wonder whether this saying lurks in the back of our minds
during the Advent season,
holding us back from deeper Advent reflection,
turning us to focus more attention on the birthday
than on the promise that Christ will come again.

There is something a little unnerving about the very idea
that Christ will come again.
How will he come? When? Where?
Will it be after endless earthquakes, wars,
famine, pestilence, disease?
Will Christ come again when the world is literally
on the verge of destruction?

It may not be those images
that make us so uncomfortable, though,
that keep us from truly embracing the idea,
the promise of Advent.
What may really hold us back
is the thought that when Christ comes again,
it will be a time of judgment for all of us,
a time of judgment for each of us.
There’s no getting out of it.

The very thought of standing before our Lord in judgment
may be enough to lead even the most faithful
to prefer skipping right past the words
we will say in a few minutes in the Lord’s Supper liturgy:
“Christ will come again”.

After all, did you hear the prophet’s questions in our lesson?
“…who can endure the day of his coming,
and who can stand when he appears?”
Who? You? Me?

Malachi isn’t the only one to throw the door open
to a cold blast as we seek warmth
in our Christmas preparations.
Hear these words from another book in Scripture,
“Be alert at all times,
praying that you may have the strength…
to stand before the Son of Man.”
(Luke 21:36)
These words come from no ordinary prophet;
these are words straight from the mouth
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But let’s be realistic –
It’s been 2,000 years.
If Christ has waited this long,
surely he’s not likely to return in the next day or two.
Surely he of all people
would understand just how busy we are this time of year,
and wait until January, when things are a little slower,
right?

For some 2,000 years, we’ve been trying to pin down
the date and time certain when Christ will come again.
There is no shortage of preachers
who claim to know exactly when and where
the Second Coming will happen,
who claim to be able to decipher codes
they say are hidden in the Bible,
especially in the Revelation.
Apparently they never bothered to wonder why
our Lord said repeatedly
that even he did not know when that day would be,
and that only God knew when that time would come.

Still, Jesus warned his own followers to be ready,
that the day would come in their own lifetime:
“Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away
until all things have taken place.”
Luke 21:32

Paul and Peter both warned the first generation of Christians
that Christ’s coming was imminent,
that they should be alert, ready,
for if it did not happen today,
then it would surely happen tomorrow.
Both men had no doubt Christ would come again
in their own lifetimes.

But time passed, and Jesus did not return.
Paul died, then Peter.
By the end of the first century,
after more than 60 years of watching and waiting,
many followers of Jesus Christ began to think
the whole notion was a myth.

Two thousand years later we wonder.
But still we wait.
And that’s what’s important: we do wait.
Christ’s return is not a myth;
It is foundational to our faith:
Christ will come again
and will come to judge the world.

Advent calls us to embrace that notion for what it is:
not a threat,
but a promise,
a promise filled with hope.
For when Christ comes again,
the world will be made new,
all God’s hope for us, his children, fulfilled,
as God dwells with us,
his home with us and among us.
(Rev. 21:3)

But still we face Malachi’s awful question:
Who can endure it?
Who will be able to stand before the Lord on that day?
Malachi is asking the right questions for us
to ponder during Advent,
even if we’d rather not think about such things.

Here’s the good news:
We will be able to stand confidently before our Lord --
if, if we live our lives righteously,
pursuing holiness, godliness,
and spiritual maturity
in every part of our lives.

Malachi provides us with a yardstick
to help us measure ourselves:
Are we living faithfully?
Do we act with integrity and speak honestly?
Are we concerned for others,
especially the poor and the outcasts?
Do we reach out to the strangers among us,
the aliens and the foreigners?
Do we live truly generous lives,
giving of ourselves:
our time, our talent, and our treasure?
Malachi must have anticipated the greed that has infected
so much of the upper echelons of the corporate world:
for he even asks, are we paying fair wages to the worker?

Advent calls us to do some deep introspection,
deep reflection,
to look inwardly,
to take stock of where we are.
Advent calls us to look within ourselves;
not to compare ourselves with others.
Ebenezer Scrooge justified his life with the words,
“I may not be perfect, but I am no worse than the rest”.
We are to look only at ourselves.

We are to open ourselves, each of us,
each of us in our own way,
to God’s refining power of love,
to burn out those things that we know are within us,
that cause us to turn from God,
those things that, if we are honest with ourselves,
we know would cause us to be unable
to look Jesus in the eye when we stand before him.

The Brief Statement of Faith in our Book of Confessions
leads us where we would rather not go,
but where we must go
with words we are so reluctant to say,
“we rebel against God,
We hide from our Creator,
ignoring God’s commandments.
We violate the image of God in others and ourselves,
accept lies as truth,
exploit neighbor and nature,
and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.”
(Brief Statement, 10.3)

Our Advent call may sound a great deal like our Lenten call,
but is in reality, our call each day all year round.
There is no seasonality in holy, godly living.

I invite you to reflect on your life.
What has hold of you,
that keeps you from reflecting the image of God
as brightly as God wants you to,
as brightly as God created you to?

Advent can and should be a time of transformation for you,
for me,
for every one of us
as we anticipate the coming of the Lord,
And it will be if,
if,
and only if,
we work at it.

Reflect where you need to refine yourself
this Advent season,
so that your own reflection
on Christmas day
and each day after
might be closer to that
of the baby born in the manger,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who came,
and the one who will come again.
AMEN