Creekside Church Sermon of December 7, 1997 "Enduring His Coming" Malachi 3:1-4	Rev. David Bibbee
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Edward Chesterton, the father of G.K. Chesterton came home one day with a fine bit of news. His growing influence and abilities had been recognized and he was elected to serve on the vestry of the town's Anglican church. It was indeed an honor, but when he made the announcement to his family, Mrs. Chesterton greeted the news as a curse. "Don't take it! Oh, Edward, we'll be so respectable. We've never been respectable. Let's not begin now." There are different sorts of respectability. What Mrs. Chesterton feared was the dangerous variety that could turn a warm human being stiff and uppity with an inflated ego. "We've never been respectable. Let's not start now."

She may have had Paul's description of the first Christians in mind. "Not many of you were wise, powerful, or of noble birth." They were called many things, but respected wasn't one of them. But the allure of respectability has always been there tempting us to exchange the weightier matters of life for a little polish on the ego leaving us to die a respectable death with clogged spiritual arteries.

Tell me, why do you do good? Why are you willing to be seen coming here each Sunday? Why are you willing to be identified as a Christian and take Christian stands and do Christian things? Is it because of the sincere desire to love God by living for him and serving him? Undoubtedly. But being the imperfect beings we are, there are often other motives lurking deep within. Do you ever do good to look good? Is it always and only for God that I speak from this pulpit, or could there sometimes be other motives at work? Sometimes our motives are mixed.

There is a very effective tool that evangelists use to bring people contrite before the altar. They plant a seed of doubt. "You might drop dead tonight. Can you say with certainty that you have given your life completely to him? If you haven't, then now is the time to do it...before it's too late!" Though you have said yes many times before to Jesus, though you believe deeply and want to live for him, you know all too well the difficulty Jesus has in controlling every aspect of our being all the time.

Did any of you see the interview with Sandi Patty on Wednesday night? She is the most well known, celebrated gospel singer in the country. She was at the top of the charts. Her songs a powerful testimony to what she believed most deeply. She said everybody looked at the image she portrayed and thought, "She has it all together." What they couldn't see, however, was how her hollow marriage led to an affair with one of her back-up singers. Her beliefs were never in question, nor her love for the Lord. There were motives, secrets, hard to admit realities known only to her.

This is why we begin Advent with soul searching-preparing for Jesus' coming by holding the spotlight of scrutiny to the self. At Advent we endure John the Baptist calling us a brood of vipers, his preacherly cynicism asking, "Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" But I want you to breathe easy because today you are off the hook. The text from Malachi is addressed to religious professionals, like me. No one knows who Malachi was, but the name means "messenger". His message was that the Lord which Israel had been seeking so long was coming to the temple. "He's coming!" Wonderful. Just what we're waiting for. It's why we show up each Sunday, right?

"But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears?" Malachi asked. "He is like a refiner's fire and fuller's soap." The soap dish in my grandparents bathroom always had a cake of Lava in it. My grandpa used it to scour the grit and grime from his hands. It always seemed to me like washing your hands with a wet brick. He is like a refiner's fire, a bar of 100 grit Lava to rub your hide raw. But remember, he's talking about clergy hide, the sons of Levi. The Levites were Israel's priests. It was their job to present offerings for the people...to pray for them and give instruction on how they should live.

The problem was that respectability had taken over. Their instruction was causing people to stumble. They didn't offer God the best sacrificial animals, but the lame and sick ones instead...the equivalent of serving green bean casserole to a king. Worship was high on ceremony, but it was an ethical sham. The priests were messing around with the organist. God's sentiments were the same as were voiced through the prophet Amos, "I despise your solemn assemblies! Your burnt offerings stink! Your four-part harmony makes me sick!"

Who can endure the Lord's coming? Not the clergy. The billows are fanning the refiner's fire. The soap is ready to clean up their act. The need for cleansing the clergy continues, you know. When Jimmy Swigert make pastoral visits on call girls and Jim and Tammy Faye Baker used people's tithes and offerings to build an air-conditioned dog house for Rover, we weren't surprised. We pastors knew they had it in them. But then the sins came a little closer to pastors not unlike us. We read the stories of priests and pastors found guilty of child molestation. A minister in my hometown embezzled thirty thousand dollars from his congregation. The president of a major denomination (married) had a relationship with a church official and they bought a seven hundred thousand-dollar home and furnished it with luxury items. When his wife discovered what he had done, she expressed her displeasure by setting it on fire.

Aren't you glad this is about someone else? The coming of the Lord isn't all roses. It's the settling of accounts. It requires evidence of the good we have done with what has been given us. It's about the disposal of anything which doesn't serve the Lord's purposes.

I was struck by a statement which highlighted a professional pitfall which pastors face. Someone said, "A sure sign of atheism is the ability to handle the things of God with no feeling." If I am unmoved by the need that brings you to your knees for anointing and go person to person rubbing a little oil on the forehead like you're on an assembly line; if I can give you the bread and cup next Sunday without even a little trembling and trepidation over what it means to do it, if week after week I stand in this pulpit without being blown away by the thought that I am speaking on behalf of God almighty, telling with mere words something beyond the power words to express; if I can do this without half-choking, something is wrong. If I somehow think I am capable for such a task and do it without an awareness of the parts of me that are yet fickle and fraudulent, I'm fooling myself.

The coming of the Lord isn't a baby shower. It's a soul scrub. Sandi Patty spoke of enduring the refining fire. Her marriage ended in divorce. Her humiliation and shame was lived before the public eye. She lost lots of fans. After all, she professed one thing and had done another. She had started her life and career over. She sings the same songs now that she did when she spoke so passionately of Christian values and lived a painful secret. Grace wasn't cheap for Sandi Patty. The fact of the past will always be there. The reporter then asked, "What's different about your concerts then and now?" She said, "Before, what I sang, I deeply believed. And because of my experience, now, what I sing, I deeply know."

With each passing year I become more and more aware that our seasonal consumer orgy and vague expression of peace and good will have nothing whatsoever to do with the coming of the Lord. At best the festivities help us forget the fact that there is a fraud and fake in us all. There's nothing much to be done except to admit that's the way we are and do our best to cover up, and in the mean time have a ball. But the coming of the Lord will not let the situation slide. He comes to make things right, first with the sons of Levi and all the priests, prophets, pastors and performers since they offer instruction and example. But it's about you too. You really didn't believe me when I said this was just about the clergy, did you?

Who can endure the coming of the Lord? Me, with my imperfections beneath the veneer of respectability, you with yours, how can we stand before God's truth and not be known? But here is where we need to keep God's purpose in perspective. The surgeon's scalpel causes pain, but it is principally an instrument of healing. The purpose of the refiner's fire and fuller's soap is not to destroy, but to purify and cleanse. Confession and repentance mark our preparation for His arrival. It's about having those wayward parts of ourselves brought into alignment with his purpose.

The oracle of Malachi begins, "I have loved you," says the Lord. It is out of love and the desire to make us a pleasing offering that he comes.

I watched a remarkable interview on 20/20 last month. It was with Bill McCartney and his wife. Bill was the former head coach at the University of Colorado, and the founder of the Promise Keepers movement. The impetus for this interview was a just released book the McCartney's co- authored that reveals something about them the public did not know. Bill preaches the necessity of Christian men giving their all in service to God and paying attention to the needs of their wives and families. This inspired message has created an incredible response because it has tapped into a very deep need. But while Bill told millions of men what they should do, his own wife suffered. For most of their marriage she came after football. Then she felt she came after Promise Keepers. He brought her on stage at Promise Keepers event, spoke words to her about honoring and serving her, and left the impression they had it all together. But they didn't.

Prior to the Orange Bowl game on New Year's Day in 1993, Bill made a confession to his wife. He admitted having an affair twenty years before. She went into a severe depression. Lost seventy pounds. But he chose not to see it. He continued to model the words of honoring and loving her on the platform before thousands, all the while she was so depressed and angry she contemplated suicide.

In telling their story, the McCartney's share how subject we are, even when espousing the highest ideals, to falling short. He said, "I want men to know that the change we are called to make is far from easy. I am a poor example of the very thing I tell others to do. It takes the hard work of repentance and confession and a daily commitment to do better. But by God, we can do it."

The Lord is coming. Each day He comes with truth that mocks ours. Each day He comes with righteousness that makes ours look like dirty rags. Even with our best, we shall always come up empty-handed. Who can endure his coming, then? Who can take the heat and the scrubbing that honesty requires? We can, for by it we become better and our lives become a pleasing offering to the Lord.

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