Malachi 3: 1-4
NPMC
Luke 1: 68-79
Advent 2
Anita Retzlaff
December 6, 2009
The Tender Mercy of God
Grace to you and peace from God the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus the
Christ. There have been times: maybe this year is one such time, when we wash up
onto the shores of advent flattened, broken and deflated. Preparing for this
special and holy time may heighten the awareness that all will not be calm and
bright around the dining room table. Of necessity we may have to share holiday
cheer with those whom we resent or distrust, at home, at work or in other
situations. Health may not be optimum. People whom we care about have let us
down: loneliness and spiritual emptiness threaten to consume. The coming of our
high and holy feast days, of gift-sharing and ultimate connection provoke an
anxiety that hovers, presides over our anticipation and dictates that all must
be polished, poised and prepared. Despair may lurk just around the corner.
It doesn’t matter what time of year it is: our worries do not melt away even in
advent and our covenant-keeping troubles hound us into the festive season. In
fact, this is the time of year when we may be most keenly aware of that which we
lack and we easily succumb to feeling that God has abandoned us. Note how we
equate our misery with God’s absence and that the opposite is also true. If
things are clicking right along and spirits are high, God is so good to us. Last
weekend was a perfect example of that kind of thinking. When interviewed
following the Grey Cup game last Sunday a player from the Montreal Allouettes
thanked God and the Lord Jesus Christ for their win. Where does that leave the
Roughriders and all of the rest of us, the loyal and green fans; at least I hope
we are still loyal. One team must lose in order that another team wins. God is
on one side only? God is with you because you look happy but not with me because
I don’t have everything that I want and I am feeling distressed? The presence or
absence of God is not tied to our feelings: whether they be happy, despairing or
indifferent.
God’s people in all times are reminded in unique ways that God is present always
and in the everyday; in the good and in the bad, in victory and in loss, in
anxiety and in joy. The prophet Malachi announces the coming of the LORD into
the temple, the gathering place of a people who seem to have forgotten that God
exists. They have acted, says Elizabeth Achtemeier commentator on the book of
Malachi, as if God is absent. But, says Malachi, they will be visited by a
messenger who will suddenly come to God’s temple and cleanse the forgetful ones
of their faithlessness. This is judgment alright. The coming of a messenger, an
angel will serve notice to the people: God is intent on making the divine
presence known. Those who have broken covenant will suddenly become aware. God
is about to heat things up phenomenally so that people will again be conscious
of The Holy Presence.
That pesky angel of God nips at our memories and through the real trials of our
lives. Death, loss, disorientation and distress compel us to confess our
shortcomings and to pay attention to the ways in which we break covenant with
God and with each other. Those angel messengers whisper into the depths of the
cosmos that all is not well: that God’s people give up on the Holy and lapse
into despair, fear and blame. Our God-sent angel messengers, taking the form of
the holy prophets of scripture or the modern day prophets who challenge our
small-mindedness, these pronounce the power of a God who knows our weaknesses,
our frailty and our boredom and impatience with the long haul.
Through the refining power of love, of a God and angel messengers who will not
give up on us we are brought back to our senses, brought back to God. We are
remembered by the Lord God of Israel. Maybe life is sweet and full for you
today; that is wonderful! But perhaps life is disappointing for you this day and
this season. If you are faced with mending something in you that is broken, if
you struggle with feelings of worthlessness and angst, know that the purifier of
hearts and minds is storming the gates of the temple of your soul, passing
judgment on your forgetfulness not in order to hamper you in your life goals and
relationships but rather to set you free. “By the tender mercy of our God, the
dawn from on high will break upon you.” So, all of us here today whether we are
happy, stressed, panicked or bored, remember that God is pleased with our
attentiveness. The Lord of Hosts trusts us to remember that we are bound in
covenant. God does not abandon us. When we are able to live at peace with
ourselves and others even when happiness and self-worth are at a low ebb the
healing mercies of God will restore us. We wait, we anticipate, we prepare for
the advent of God’s healing love that storms the gates of our hearts.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will
break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in
darkness and in the shadow
of death,
to guide our feet into the way
of peace.
Thanks be to God! AMEN