FULL MEASURE 2021 ADVENT CELEBRATION DAY 8 12-5-21

©© by Pastor Jennifer Rousseau Cumberbatch (proprietary)

MODERATOR: Pastor jen Cumberbatch  

Welcome Friends to The Full Measure’s Celebration of Advent 2021

ADVENT CELEBRATION DAY 8, Sunday, December 5, 2021

SCRIPTURE: Malachi 3: 1-4

READERS: The Hawkins Family

THEME: PEACE

CANDLES: Light 2 purple candles for each reading The HOPE Candle from  Week 1 and The PEACE candle from Day 8-Day 15.

Malachi 3

New International Version

3 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men, (humans) who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in days gone by, as in former years.

READING

Malachi is a short but powerful 4 chapter book in the Bible.  It is God’s message to Israel, through God’s prophet Malachi. The theme of the book is God’s case against Israel.

God’s message to Israel, via Malachi, is like the catchphrase of the late comedian, Rodney Dangerfield, God said to Israel “I don’t get no respect.” 

God made Israel the prototype for one nation under God, knowing full well that in God’s eternal redemption plan to restore the earth to good, one of the descendents of Israel would bless all nations and restore all peoples to fellowship with God. This descendent, the messenger, about whom Malachi speaks, would mediate a new relationship between God and humanity,  remedying the estrangement caused by sin. 

God brings a case against his beloved people contending that they have not and do not give God proper honor in gratitude for God’s provision, guidance, and protection.  Instead, their offerings brought to God are leftovers, rejects and the people break covenant relationship with God, by being unfaithful in their marriages and failing to teach their children reverence for God. And, God longs for true fellowship with God's beloved humans. 

Malachi declares that God will send 2 messengers The first messenger would be the front-man for the next. The second messenger was God’s promised Messiah, God’s Christ---The Anointed One, who would mediate the new covenant of grace between God and God’s people in his own body and, with his own life-blood. 

This messenger would bring the kingdom of God to the earth.  He would restore sight to the blind, unstop, the ears of the hearing impaired, heal humans from physical disease, deliver them from tortuous evil powers and bring peace to troubled minds.

In ancient times, a ruler's arrival into a city  would be announced by his hype man---a messenger or herald… “Here ye, Here ye His or her Majesty the most honorable (fill in the blank with the ruler’s name)” would be the herald’s cry.   It was also this messenger’s job to clear the way of any debris, people or physical obstructions to the King’s entry.

Between Malachi and the arrival of Jesus in the earth there were 400 years of silence from heaven.  There was no prophetic voice or God inspired writing to the people of God. 

Then four hundred years after Malachi, God speaks, through a messenger.  God sent the angel, Gabriel, a heavenly messenger, to the priest, Zacheriah, in the temple, while he was performing the once in a life-time task, the burning of incense on the altar. 

Incense on the altar represented the prayers of the people standing outside the holy of holies, which was the inner sanctum of the temple, where God’s presence dwelt. 

The people would bring their petitions to God, but could not go into the presence of God, for themselves, instead a representative, a priest would offer the special sweet smelling incense on the altar on their behalf and God would receive the prayers of God’s people. There had to be an intermediary between God and the people, because of their sin. One couldn’t just walk up to the presence of God in the inner sanctum of the temple and make a petition. because, the intimate and familiar fellowship between God and humanity had been interrupted by sin---human rebellion, and dishonoring of God. 

God scolds the people through Malachi, shuts up the heavens and 400 years later God speaks. Gabriel tells Zacheriah that God has heard his prayer for a child. He and his wife, Elizabeth had been childless all their married life, and are now beyond the childbearing age. God’s promise to Zacheriah is that Elizabeth will conceive and have a son, who they should name John and that John would be the front-man, the herald for Jesus the Christ’s arrival on earth and his coming into his temple, as prophesied in Malachi.   

So, the first messenger in Malachi is John the Baptist, preparing the way for God-Incarnate, God in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us, the Word of God made flesh, Jesus the Christ. John would prepare the people of God to receive the One that  Israel had been seeking for 400 years.

John’s message was “Repent” for the kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus, the second messenger, came to make peace between God and humanity.  Shalom was, and is now, the message of Christ.

Wholeness, health, prosperity, peace: the putting together again of that which was splintered into more than one piece.  

Glory to God in the Highest and Peace on Earth Goodwill to humans was the message then. Peace is the message from heaven through Jesus, now.  And, peace will be God’s message, when Christ comes again.  

Hear ye, hear ye, the word of the Lord, Christ has come that ye might have peace with yourself, in your human relationships and most importantly in your spirit with God. 

Prayer

Dearest God, 

We heard your messengers, Malachi, the prophet, John the Baptist, the forerunner, and Jesus, the Peacemaker.  In this Advent season we prepare our hearts to be your messengers in our spheres of influence in the earth; to ready the world for Christ's arrival, through us, the Church, now, and when Christ returns.  Help us oh, God to embrace your peace, human to human and human to God.  

In the matchless name of Jesus the Prince of Peace we pray,  Amen!