"The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord" - Malachi 4:1-6
A Sermon by Alex W. Evans, Pastor
Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA
Sunday, November 13, 2022
Malachi 4:1-6
“The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord”
You can see that the title of this sermon brings us to an interesting subject – “the great and terrible day of the Lord.”
While some Christians like to talk about this subject, Presbyterians tend not to dwell or give too much emphasis to “the great and terrible day” – that moment when the present world ends and we transition fully into God’s new heaven and new earth. In all my years of preaching, even with that line in the Apostles’ Creed – “he will come to judge the quick and the dead” – I have only preached on this topic a few times. And, I never said anything like “turn or burn,” or “get right or get left.” That kind of understanding about the “great and terrible day of the Lord” is, in my judgment, not helpful or appropriate. Presbyterians have been more inclined to focus on God’s grace and then our calling to work for God’s justice, God’s coming reign, without dire threats of turning or burning. Presbyterians are also rightfully cautious of the certitude that often comes with assuming who is “left behind.”
But, . . . “the great and terrible day of the Lord” is a subject of the Scriptures. It is mentioned by many prophets in the Old Testament. Jesus has some clear, even harsh and frightening words on this topic, and God’s final judgment. So, it is important to give this some attention – especially when it comes as the lectionary text today.
I want to begin today with some simple reminders to help us. You know the first book of the Bible, right? Genesis. Genesis reminds us about the beginning of the world. GOD CREATES.
Genesis, wants us to know that in the beginning “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.” Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God speaks and creation emerges from nothing.
These opening verses of the Bible want to confirm something very important - God is the source of all life. It is not so much about how creation happened, or when creation happened. That is not the Bible’s intention. Genesis is about WHO – WHO made it happen – God. That is how the Bible begins.
Then we get to the end of the Hebrew Scriptures. Do you know the name of the last book in the Old Testament? Malachi! We have a reading today from Malachi, chapter 4. These words from Malachi are the final words of the Hebrew Scriptures. Turn the page from Malachi and we have the New Testament - the gospel of Matthew – the story of Jesus coming on the scene.
So, listen now – or read along – the final words from the Old Testament - from Malachi 4:1-6:
See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. 4Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. 5Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 6He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Malachi – a spokesperson for God – lived around 450 BC - a few centuries before Jesus. But, remember, life begins with God. God speaks and there is light. God speaks and this long history unfolds across nearly two thousand years. And then we get to Malachi.
When Malachi comes on the scene around 450 BC, take a guess at what was happening. It seems that God’s people were living mesmerized in the present – with no real sense of what was important and nothing but indifference to everything but the most mundane and unimportant.
No real sense of what was important – what do you think that looks like?
All through the Bible, it keeps happening - the people lose the sense of what is important. Usually, it has to do with forgetting God’s actions in the past. Didn’t God provide in prior crises? Didn’t God always make a way? Usually, it has to do with not worshipping or trusting God for the present. And usually, it means not trusting God’s promises for the future. What was happening? People had turned from the upward and outward posture of worship and compassion, on loving God and serving others, to inward focus and selfish concerns.
Isn’t this always our tendency? Called to life in covenant with God the great Creator, with care for creation and compassion for other people – yet we are more inclined toward self and personal preferences. Called to trust God and live into God’s bountiful promises and blessings, we seem to prefer anxious lives that ignore God and God’s commands.
Actually, around the year 450 B.C. in and around Jerusalem, the people had been restored for almost 100 years after all the turmoil of destruction and exile. The people knew peace and tranquility. The temple – once destroyed by the Babylonians - had been re-built and re-dedicated. Life, land, temple, peace – long promised by God – and what happens? It is not faith and fortitude that emerge – but faithlessness and indifference. It is not worshiping God and promoting God’s justice and love in the world. Rather, the people were seemingly mesmerized by selfishness and slothfulness. They had forgotten God’s unending grace, and they were teased into believing that there was no accountability in life, and nothing was more important than whatever people wanted to do.
And we keep struggling with this. We are often mesmerized into the belief that life is life, and we can do whatever we want, whenever we want. The earth is ours and we can use it up as we please. Wealth is ours and we can do whatever we want. Power is to be gained, . . . and grown, no matter who is trampled. It is so often about ourselves, . . . or our tribe, . . . or our brand of politics, . . . or our race, . . . or our nation . . . and we think that is what matters most.
Then comes Malachi’s message – for the people around Jerusalem – and also for us in our times: it is a grave misperception to think that the earth is ours and not the Lord’s; it is dangerous to assume that we can do whatever we want without consequences, and there is no accountability to God. Malachi says, “See, the day is surely coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord.” Malachi says, “the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.”
There are several things to say about this “great and terrible day.”
First, we should be open and receptive to this idea that God has the last word. The Bible spends lots of words trying to show us that God is the Source of all life. And the Bible has many references to this idea that God also completes all things. God has the first word and the last word. God is the beginning and God has the ending. As you have heard me repeat many times – when we live, we live to the Lord; when we die, we die to the Lord; whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. No matter if it is a good season or a bad season, life is held finally by God. This is worth trusting. This is a framework for our living and serving. Life comes from God. Life has purpose as we love God and love others, as we trust God and serve God in the world. And life ends with God – our individual lives . . . and all of life – the world and everything in it – enfolded finally into God’s abiding care. Indeed, nothing can separate us from God. This is why we baptize babies. This is why we commend our loved ones to God’s care when they die. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God reigns. God is the Creator and the Completer. This is the powerful and important framework that shapes our life – all life.
Second, the “coming day of the Lord is both great and terrible.” There is great comfort in knowing that God has the final say on all those people and circumstances where evil and arrogance have seemed to prevail. Malachi says “all the arrogant evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord.” Think about that – all the people and all the evil that seem to win will be made right. All the tragedies and travesties, all the vicious and mean – both people and circumstances - that we cannot understand, that degrade human life, that feel so brutal and wrong, “will be stubble.” This is why it is both “great and terrible.” Evil – both people and systems – will be no more. The manipulative and malicious, the oppressive and brutal, will be burned up. At the day of the Lord - the great and terrible day – there will be a collapse of our selfishness and self-centeredness. There will be a collapse of pecking orders and barriers that secure us at other people’s expense. There will be a collapse of the terrible practice of living in wealth at the expense of the poor. The world, where arrogance and evil seem to be the normative, will come tumbling down. The familiar way that asks “what can I get away with?” – in our communities, in Congress, in business, in the environment, in world affairs – will come crashing down. Malachi wants us to know that God completes all things – God makes all things right. So, we take heart – and we trust in God. And we seek to align our lives with God. All that is arrogant and evil will be judged by God. It will be a great day because the terrible – everything that is terrible – will fall away, including whatever might be the terrible parts of our life. Life is accountable to God – all of life – including our lives.
Then third, these words about the great and terrible day are not only about some day to come in the future. This is a message that intends to shape our life in the present – for Jews in 450 B.C – and for us in these days.
Think about it like this – if God creates the world and brings life and blessing, this should determine how we live in the world – as good stewards of God’s good creation, as co-creators with God in the beauty and wonder of the world. And if God completes all things about the world, then we want to live with God, working for God’s purposes, not our own, walking with and for God in compassion and justice, for peace and care, because God has the last word too.
This past week, two things unfolded for me that give me a clearer lens with which to understand the “great and terrible day of the Lord.”
On Thursday of this week, a bus load of us from Richmond went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. If you have not been, I hope you will go soon. If you have been, I hope you will go back soon, because there is so much to see, to learn, to help and inspire in this museum. The main exhibit in this museum begins deep in the dark basement and the dark times on the African continent – in the 15thcentury – as people were snatched from their families, their life and culture, stuffed into ships and carried to slave life in far-off lands. The hallways of this exhibit carry you through the dark and terrible days – through various regions of this country – through all the struggles and setbacks and up through to the present day – where African American life and culture has made such a tremendous impact.
There are so many emotions that emerge from this museum. The horror and shame, the evil and brutality against our African American sisters and brothers are so palpable as you move through these hallways. There is also the fortitude and faith, the beauty and amazing gifts of African American culture bringing so much to our common life. Even as the horror and shame are mixed with the gratitude and joy for African American culture, I find sincere comfort – the great and terrible day of the Lord has the final say over every soul, every incident, ever chapter of that history. God creates. God completes – and that means all the good and evil, the horrific and beautiful – somehow enfolded into God’s abiding judgment, grace, care, and love.
The other event this week – Ginger and I went on a rainy Friday afternoon to watch the movie “Till” – which is the painful and beautiful journey of Mamie Bradley – Emmet Till’s mother. Emmet Till – you recall – when he was 14 years old - was lynched by white racists in Mississippi in 1955. This movie depicts the deep levels of hatred and injustice, along with the amazing grace and fortitude of Mamie Bradley, the mother. Mamie says this: “I used to just think about me and my boy. Now I realize God is calling me to more,” to a journey toward a better and more just America.
Again, I take great comfort – the great and terrible day of the Lord reminds us that God, the Creator of the Universe, the Author of love and hope, also Completes all things. And every evil is brought to justice, and every soul is accountable to God, and no one is forgotten. We cannot hid behind our lies, our hoods, our masks, our arrogant assumptions, our hypocrisy, our racism. No. All is made right in God’s good time and judgment!
When we know about the “great and terrible day of the Lord,” it is not for us to assume how everything might unfold. We might simply hear the words of the great leader John Lewis: “What are you doing?” We cannot slow down or slack off. We have to keep serving as God’s devoted people, doing justice, loving kindness, walking humbly with God. We cannot offer to God offerings that cost us nothing. We seek to dedicate our lives, devote our gifts, place ourselves as an offering before God because just as God creates life, God completes life. God loves us. God claims us. God calls us to action. All of life is accountable to God. We always seek to become who God calls us to be.
The “great and terrible day” –
When we know God has the last word, and completes all things, we know what we are to do – love God and love others as we love ourselves. May it be so. Alleluia. Amen
Prayer of Commitment: Holy God, pour out your Spirit upon our lives. Fill us with faith and fortitude, courage and commitment. Keep us focused and attentive to your coming reign. We seek to be disciples of Jesus. Amen.
Alex Evans, Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA preached this sermon during Sunday morning worship on Sunday, November 13, 2022. This is a rough manuscript.