Advent 2
“ADVENT 2”
Malachi 3:1-4 Luke 3:1-6
Second Sunday of Advent, Year C, December 5, 2021
First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Andy Kennaly, Pastor
We don’t often read from Malachi, one of the minor prophets, a book, for Protestants, placed as the last one in the Hebrew Scriptures. This morning we see images of a refiner’s fire and fullers’ soap. A refiner is someone who melts down metal to get purity. The impurities are removed so you’re left with good silver, in this case. Fullers are laundry people, cleaning cloth to make it white. Their soap is very intense and able to clean and whiten cloth. The image continues to say this process of refining and purifying is done to people, the “descendants of Levi…until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.” I love that word, righteousness, not in a churchy sense or arrogant way, but as it’s intended – to convey that something is working as it is created and meant to work, that everything is as it should be. That these images and processes are appointed to people would imply that we all have issues we need to deal with, layers of complexity that complicate faith’s simplicity, and delusions that need removed to see a clearer image, like silver cleansed from tarnish so it now has a polished shine.
A pastor friend of mine shared a story making its way around the internet regarding that image mentioned in Malachi. The story is called, Refiner of Silver. It goes like this:
There was once a group of women studying the book of Malachi […]. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three, which says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” This verse puzzled the women, and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study.
That week this woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot – then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered “Yes” and explained that he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be damaged.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”
He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy. When I see my image in it.”
If today you are feeling the heat of this world’s fire, just remember that God, our Father has His eyes on you.” (https://www.facebook.com/sonsofkatie/posts/10158547588473579)
“When I see my image in it.” “Held in the middle of the hottest part.” “Remember that God, our Father has His eyes on you.” That’s a nice story, touching, gets us thinking, especially when it says that group of women “wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.” The character and nature of God gives shape to everything else.
Richard Rohr puts it like this, saying, “Your image of God creates you.” How we view who God is and what God is like is foundational to who we become, how and what we think, and how we live. These two scripture readings, Malachi chapter 3, Luke chapter 3, both talk about the “sending of my messenger…” the “voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD, make his paths straight’.” Luke adds about hills getting made low, valleys lifted up, crooked made straight, rough ways smooth. Everyone is in on this: “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” All creation has access to this connection, this relationship. Everyone has an image of God that creates them. These stories intend to help us clarify that image.
The story about the women watching the refiner ends by describing “God watching over us,” but this would imply that the Presence of God is external, in some place, watching us, maybe close, or, from a distance. These scriptures take us even deeper in Advent preparation to open our hearts to the Living God as Christ is born in us; in us, over and over; in us, again and again; in us, day after day.
Preparing the way of the Lord is God’s way to invite us into new thinking. Not just having different thoughts, but a new mind, a transformed, renewed, mind. This isn’t an easy process, but one that involves giving over to, dying to the self, letting go. That’s the repentance part, the metanoia, the turning, which has more to do with putting on a new mind. “Change your mind!” but this isn’t a will power thing, not driven by the ego, not even something we are in charge of, but we do invite it, and we allow God to direct this as a process we trust because God directs it.
The Incarnation of Christ points out that creation is blessed, God’s Presence is imminent, and it’s good to human because God deems humanity worthy enough to take on flesh and blood in the life of Jesus. “All flesh shall see the salvation of God” because the Living Christ is in all flesh, every created being; otherwise, things would not exist. To allow an image of the Living God to create us in healthy ways, God moves us deeper into love; unconditional, present, active. Sometimes this involves struggle, or pain, and growth rarely happens if everything is smooth and easy. Great suffering is often a catalyst, needed to open doors we didn’t even know were closed. That’s the center of the fire part, the heat used by the refiner.
This transformational process leads to “Presenting offerings to God in righteousness” which is biblical language, “Bible-speak,” expressing the importance of having a new mind and an open, pure heart that are receptive to God on God’s terms, which are always loving and just.
This is the Advent season. A season to prepare, to wait, but an active waiting, because inner work is so important. Those hills and valleys, those rough ways; they’re inside us. God’s presence is coming, and it’s God’s presence inside us that helps us prepare. Only the infinite can satisfy the depths of our soul, and our soul is held in the depths of the Infinite.
May we trust God, the Source of voices crying out in places that help us connect to Christ, who was, and is, and shall be, our Advent hope and love. Amen.