Hope and Fear: Two Ways to Spell Love

 Hope and Fear: Two Ways to Spell Love

 

Malachi 3:1-4
3:1 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight--indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

3:2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap;

3:3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.

3:4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

 

The Advent preacher is initially faced with three challenges: 1. Seminary teaches us to avoid heisting prophetic texts from the Hebrew Bible to apply to Jesus; and 2. Advent, in the tradition of the church, is focused on the second coming of Jesus, something we little understand, and rarely agree upon just what that looks like! However, the folks sitting in our pews have none of these reservations. They can “see” Jesus in all of these Old Testament prophecies about a “new hope” for God’s people, or most certainly when the texts speak of a messiah-like figure; AND some have “read the books” (Hal Lindsay, Tim LaHaye, et. al.) and can often speak in much detail of exactly what will happen when the “rapture” occurs, and may even have theories about a date and time. And 3. A majority of our people just see Advent as a countdown to Christmas, still rooted firmly in the anticipation we remember from childhood. So, is the role of the preacher to dispute these popular ideas? Probably not, but we are compelled to “speak our truth” and be prepared for pregnant questions resulting from the arising cognitive dissonance, both of which are welcome opportunities for the engaged pastor. Honestly, if I have “fallen prey” to any of these popular distortions, it is the latter, as I’ve never gotten over my love of Advent as the “countdown” and Christmas as the “blastoff.” If you likewise choose to err, go with this one, and “sneak in” some of your seminary teachings about proper etiquette with OT prophecy and the “second coming.”

 

With this extended introduction out of the way, let’s look at the Malachi text. Clearly it is a prophetic word of God’s promised “messenger,” and a word we hear echoed in the Gospels. Commentator Anne Stewart says of it:

 

The prophet Malachi raises a disturbing question for all who proclaim God’s arrival with joyful expectation. Are you ready? Do you know what it means? Who can endure it? In the prophetic tradition, the day of the Lord anticipates God’s victorious kingship and a period of righteous judgment. Consequently, the prophets describe the day of the Lord with dramatic language that is both uplifting and fearsome. Depending on the context, it is the promise of deliverance or the threat of judgment. In fact, it is usually both elements at once. In either case, it is the might of God’s power that comforts and disturbs.

 

I like her assertion that hope and fear belong together. Those in trouble hope for a rescue, as did ancient Israel on many occasions. However, along with the rescue will come a change of lifestyle, which we may have come accustomed to in our distress, AND some answer to our rescuers as to how we fell into the mess in the first place. Hope and fear can certainly both be drivers. In a perfect world, hope would motivate us to grow, improve, and be ready for the promised hope, which is to come, as well as to work toward the goals the object of our hope has laid down for us. In that same world, fear would not paralyze, but become the “guide rails” along the journey, and like those guide rails, would be something we would never go head to head with unless we seriously “run off the road.” However, as Israel often discovered—and I would submit the church has frequently, too--HOPE can paralyze, as we wait for “something else” to come along, and stop working to dig ourselves out.  FEAR may become our primary motivator, leading us to a life of bouncing off the guide rails, as we use them as a harsh GPS. Malachi’s author uses words like “covenant,” “refiner’s fire,” “soap,” “purifier,” “gold and silver,” and “pleasing offerings” to put hope and fear in their proper place and prepare Israel—and us—to receive God’s messenger and God’s message.

 

Between the ideas of hope and fear, we encounter another valiant word: respect. When I think of what the word hope describes, I must also consider the things I respect, which make hope a possibility. In matters of human endeavor, I must respect the people in whom I hope,  to partner in bringing that for which is hoped for, about. I must respect the human efforts, gifts, and sacrifices that are typically necessary to bring to reality that which is hoped for. If we do not respect these people, these gifts, and these efforts, then hope will never become  reality for us, or for the human community. We must respect each other. The “laborers” must respect the ones investing hope in their labors, and those who hold out hope must respect those making the effort, even when they have doubts that that which is hoped for will become a reality. And, even if the efforts fail, respect must be paid to those who put their hearts into the project or problem, because it the right thing to do, and shows compassion for one another. Those who hope, and who provide encouragement along the way earn respect, too. Throughout history, those who have provided support to important human endeavors are often just important to the work as those who are actually “hands on.” Respect is the fuel of hope, hard work, problem solving, and higher aspirations. 

 

Without respect, fear is nothing but a debilitating emotion. When fear compels us to respect the “giants” we face, we have a shot at hitting them square in the forehead and felling them, even when they eclipse our size. And yet, we must also develop a self-affirming respect for who we are, as we face our fears. If fear fosters only doubt in ourselves and our efforts, it has won. But if we hold a healthy respect in our abilities, our past successes—and even in our failures from which we have learned important lessons—and in our own spirit of dedication to the task, we can fell giants, overcome the insurmountable, and navigate the darkest seas life may put in our paths. 

 

For the believer, our faith in the Divine breeds this respect—respect in our ability to hope, respect in our ability to act, and respect for ourselves. When we respect God, pray to God, and yield to God, God uses our fear to foster hope, and hope to build faith, and our faith to feed our path forward.  As the apostle says in Romans 5:

 

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³ And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

 

Here, Paul summarizes how fear, hope, and even respect are the key ingredients in love. God’s love is not an emotion, it is an act, it is a fruit, and a fruit which breeds other fruits such as compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and grace. 

 

The prophetic text from Malachi was intended to both comfort and disturb Israel, as Anne Stewart states. As Christians the call of Jesus Christ to us as Christ’s followers is also both a comfort AND a disturbing challenge—hope AND fear. We take up the challenge out of respect for Jesus, and out of the respectful belief that, propelled by the Spirit of Jesus, we can succeed in whatever God calls us to do. The paradoxical elements of comfort and disturbance are present in just about every prophecy Israel heard or read in the Hebrew Bible. They are both present in the teachings of Jesus, and certainly in the letters of Paul. Our faith leads us to respect the fear, but more than this, to respect God, ourselves, and our calling, and NOT to fear those times when, temporarily, circumstances disturb more than comfort us. Most of believe life would be easier if we could just be lovingly led along, rather than need the occasional kick in the butt to move forward, but this is not the way of discipleship. And it is not the way of the active love of God that visits upon us.

 

And it certainly was not the way of the Son of God whose visit among us we are preparing to celebrate again in this most loving of seasons. Amen.