This year for Advent, our pastor instituted a weekly Thursday night Vespers service of music, Scripture, and Communion. When announcing it to the congregation, he said there wouldn't be any preaching, but he couldn't help himself any more than I could. He's a preacher; it's in his blood. The texts he chose for today at first don't seem to be connected, but there is a thread tying the first to the second. Malachi 3:3-4 reads, "He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness."
Years ago I read about a silversmith who was demonstrating his work to an apprentice who asked how he knew when the molten silver was purified. "When I can see my face in it," he replied. I often hear people refer to the difficulties and challenges they face as attacks from Satan. But often it is God himself who fans the flames and orchestrates our situation, guiding us into the flames that he may purify us. His goal? That he, and others may see the Father's image reflected in us. Our friend Darren is in the furnace, and is reflecting ever more clearly the face of Christ to all who see him.
The second text pastor Joe shared with us comes from Luke 3:1-2. "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness." This is one of my favorite texts in the entire Bible. Things haven't changed much in 2,000 years. There were the famous and powerful, the movers and shakers upon whose every word a host of sycophants hung. Back then it was the men whose names are listed here, men who today would be completely unknown if it weren't for their association with the likes of John and Jesus.
As the political scene heats up, the airwaves and newspapers are filled with names like Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and of course, Barak Obama. They all want us to believe that they and they alone can lead the country and solve our problems. The Word of God will not come to any of them, and 2,000 years from now they will be as unknown as these once known men from Luke 3. But somewhere today there is someone walking through a wilderness, living in a barren place, tip-toeing through the fire, wondering why they are there. It is to that person God is speaking, and through whom God wants to be seen. That one walking close to the flames is being purified till they like John, are on fire themselves with the Gospel, reflecting the holiness of Christ. Tonight I am grateful for a time of worship, the Word of God, and the fire that purifies his people.
No comments:
Post a Comment