On that Day

Read: Malachi 4:1–2a

 

Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost - November 17, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

 

That day, that great day – how should we define it?

 

The radio financial talk-shows have an interesting definition:

That Great Day is when we have accumulated enough money so that we can use what we want and the pile of money will continue to grow at a rate greater than the rate of inflation, without our having to do any real work at all.

Most of us would perhaps be just a tad more modest and say that the great day is when we are sure that we won't out-live our financial resources.

But the modesty is only a difference in degree of self-absorption.

 

All this has nothing in common with what the Bible means when it uses the term.

The “great day” does not have our personal securities in mind at all; this great day is The Day of the Lord.

Now the question is:  Do we fear it or welcome it?

Do we flee it or embrace it?

 

Just before the year 2000 there was so much hysteria, complete with timetables for this or that event signaling that the end is near.

This is nothing new: all the way back to the apostle Paul we can trace the mischief worked by those who would like to control God's time, instructing God what to do and when.

 

Remember the fuss a dozen years ago about the millennium and all of the terrible things that were going to happen, more than just the computers all malfunctioning at the same time.

None of those troubles, real or imagined, could be tied to the Second Coming of Jesus, because we don't know for sure when he was born. 

The scholar who figured out our present calendar may not have had the best information, and scholars still are debating the question.

There have been theories advance for dates as early as 4 BC to 6 AD, so it may have been 2004 AD before we were even all anxious and fussing about the millennium!

 

The Day of the Lord comes when we are not expecting it –we'll not be able to work out a time-line .

But we still try to twist it into something which we can control.

There were some in Israel who felt sure  that the Great Day would be when Jews from every corner of the world would return to Jerusalem and praise God there. 

Aha!, say some, Today we should be looking at what has happened in the past 25 years or so:

--the Jews of Ethiopia have been smuggled out, after being practically hidden for all these centuries, these dark-skinned Jews are now residing in Israel and giving quite a different flavor to life.

--thousands of Jews from Russia have fled to Israel, despite the dangers there, they feel that they have a better chance at life in Israel than in the Russia that continues to blame them for the disintegration of society in Russia.

Are these signs of the end, as some claim?

 

There were others in ancient Israel who thought that the Day of the Lord would surely be when all of the enemies of Israel were thrown back, indeed, when they came under the rule of the house of David.

Aha! Say some folks in our day.

Look at each of the victories of the state of modern Israel since 1948; are they signs of the Day of the  Lord?

 

But the wrestling we do with the big questions, the questions about the meaning of my life and the worth of my time cannot be short circuited by this kind of search for quick proof-texts.

The prophet Malachi, the apostle Paul, the Gospel-writer Luke, and our Lord Jesus  are interested in far more than cheap predictions with instant gratifications.

They intend to tell the truth about the present, and to point to God's intention for all of creation.

 

We all know folks who treat the church as a sort of good-luck charm.

They keep it on a string so that they can find their way here from time to time; we have a beautiful building which can spur memories of the safety of childhood, or whatever.

We also know the active despisers of the church, who will do anything they can to belittle or impede the church's works of evangelism and service.

And then there is all the rest of us, the ones inside the community of the church, who are sometimes complacent about it.

After all, haven't we been here doing things, singing God's praises, and earning some points for all of our work and study and praise? Really?

 

We heard earlier just two verses from the prophet Malachi, but it was enough.

The book goes on to say that we will be subjected to the refiner's fire which burns away the garbage in our lives – yes, our lives, the good, hard-working, point-earning people that we are.

 

That day, that great day is that terrible day, as some see it.

A day of destruction, a day when we lose all for which we have been working.

Of course, that still leaves open the question of what it is for which we have been working.

Are they things that can be measured by bank accounts and balance sheets, by the number of descendants or the length of the Christmas present list, or any of those usual means?

 

There is a good reason why we don't have to worry about all of this is quite the same way as others have done...

because we know that in a key sense the Great Day has already come,

the key event of history has already happened,

the Messiah has already been among us,

the death of Jesus is already known as the height of evil's power

and the resurrection is announced as his vindication.

This is the down-payment on the outcome of history, the peek ahead to where all of this life is headed.

We don't have to try to calculate the time of another crisis; we already have been caught up in the one crisis of Jesus Christ and the outcome of his life, death, and resurrection.

 

There is a point in a football game when everyone senses what the outcome will be; a time when the opponent simply does not have enough time and resources to win.

That doesn't mean that the last part of the game will be easy; lots of injuries can still be inflicted, but the outcome is assured.

That point in life was reached in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

There are and there can still be tough times, but the end is not in doubt.

Jesus' resurrection is the key and final score.

That was the Great Day not only for Jesus, but also for us as well.

 

A writer some years ago phrased it well:

“What will finally happen to the world and its people is already well-known. 

You won't find it out from crystal ball of fortune tellers, nor from secret and mysterious books. 

What is going to happen is a part of Jesus' great news.

This world is going to come to an end and we will fall into God's hands.

When, where, and how?

At the time that he calls us by name.”

 

And you and I know that has already begun.

“Dallas, you are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

“Scarlett, child of God, you have been marked by the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit forever.”

Yes, the Great Day has already begun for us, and we need not look for another.

Here is the meaning of life.

Here is why we get up to the line of scrimmage again and again.

We know that death has already lost, and the life of Christ in us already is winning.

Christ will be persistent in us all the way to his finish.

 

There is an old story told of Martin Luther, perhaps apocryphal but still illustrative, who was asked one day what he would do if he knew that the end of the world was coming within the hour.

He replied that he would keep right on teaching his class.

He would do the best job that he could in his corner of the battlefield with Satan.

And that is just the right attitude for us as well.

We should use our time well.

We should get our special talents into action.

We should praise God with every breath we take.

We don't sit around waiting for someone else: God has called you and me, God has given us the equipment we need, blessed us with resources, and sends us out for action.

 

“Do not weary in doing what is right,” Paul urges the Thessalonians and us, for God will use it all and transform it and us into the new heaven and earth.

That day, that Great Day, that wonderful day is hard upon us, now. Amen.