The One of Hope
Dr. Jim Wilson, December 6, 2009 We all have uttered the plea. Perhaps it was in response to a tragedy, such as 9-11, or it maybe it was at the loss of a job after nearly twenty years of faithful service. Or perhaps it took place when a threatening diagnosis was received despite taking care to live a healthy life-style. Or it maybe it was said simply when evil seemed to prevail, when wrong was rewarded, or when mediocrity was honored. Yes, we have cried out, “Where is the justice in all this? Where is the God of justice?” Oh, we know that life is not a system of rewards and punishments, nor would we want it to be. Yet, we long for a sense of justice, so that when all is said and done, God’s New Order, an Order of justice and peace, love and joy, will come in fullness. This is our hope, a hope that God in Christ will indeed establish his kingdom. This is at the very heart of the Advent message Without such hope, we are indeed are a desperate people; a disillusioned, despairing, cynical people, at best. The folks Malachi is speaking to are raising the same question. Most scholars date our text in the mid-fifth century B.C. Israel has returned from Exile, the Temple has been rebuilt, but the Persians occupy the land. It is a time of malaise, disillusionment, even despair. The prophet tells the people, “You have wearied the Lord.” When the people ask, “How have we wearied the Lord?” the prophet lists out the charges against Israel; corruption of the worship life, oppressing the weak, infidelity in marriage, and by living in ways that deny God’s promise. The people respond with a complaint: “Where is God? Look around, the wicked seem to prosper, and it almost seems as though God delights in evil doers. The faithful seem to be ignored. So just where is this God of justice?” The prophet replies by announcing that God is indeed coming, just as he promised. Even now, Yahweh is sending his messenger to prepare the way for his visit. Incidentally, the Hebrew word Malachi means “my messenger”, suggesting the title of the book may not be the proper name of a prophet, but a function the prophet performs. Be that as it may, the messenger is coming to get things ready for Yahweh’s visit. But before you run out and get the party supplies, says the prophet, hear this: He is coming in judgment to purify the worship life. Like a refiner’s fire and the fuller’s soap, the messenger will purify the priests and leaders until the worship life itself is once again pleasing to the Lord. Sounds like Malachi and John the Baptist went to the same seminary, doesn’t it. Both offer a message of hope that God will indeed come to our world to bring salvation, to establish justice, to initiate peace. Yet, both remind us that this hope is shaped by judgment, honed by repentance, and forgiveness. It is not a pre-Christmas special, a hope in hope. It is a hope in One who is to come, the One of hope. As an Advent lesson, the words of Malachi, like the words of old weird John the Baptizer, articulate the hope of this season, even as they affirm that God will come, come in the very One who embodies God’s hope, the hope God alone can give. Such hope is front and center in Clint Eastwood’s new film, “Invictus,” which is to be released this coming Friday. “Invictus” tells the story of the efforts of Nelson Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman, to bring unity to his racially and economically divided South Africa in the mid-1990s. Mandela had been elected as South Africa’s first black president in 1994 after spending decades as the leading opponent of apartheid, the white government’s official policy of racial segregation. His opposition to apartheid resulted in his being imprisoned for 27 years. He was released in 1990 and elected president just four years later. In 1995, South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup Tournament. Rugby in South Africa was exclusively a white man’s game and the national team was entirely white, despite representing a nation that was over 80% black. The team had a logo or symbol, as most teams do. It was a leaping gazelle, called a “springbok,” a logo that reminded black South Africans of the country’s racist history, much like the “stars and bars” do for black Americans. Black president: White team---after 27 years in prison, you would think that Mandela would not look favorably on these players. But you would be wrong. For those 27 years saw the “refiner’s fire and the fuller’s soap” cleanse and shape the hope in Mandela’s heart for a united South Africa. His anger was refined to firm, uncompromising commitment; his despair was refined to an invincible hope for a new day, a new day marked by justice and unity. A few days before the tournament was to open, Mandela showed up at a press conference wearing the South African rugby jersey and cap, complete with the springbok logo. To a group of shocked reporters, he said, “These are our boys now. They all may be white, but they’re our boys, and we must get behind them and support them. The next day, the Springbok coach took the team to the prison where Mandela had spent nearly three decades of his life. The coach said to his players: “This is the cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. He was kept there for 27 years by the racist policies of our government. We tolerated his imprisonment for all those years, and yet he has backed us publicly. We can not let him down.” And they didn’t. The Springbok played far beyond everyone’s expectations and made it to the championship game. Again, President Mandela was there, wearing the Springbok jersey. During a time out, he brought a children’s choir onto the field to lead the 65,000 spectators in the singing of a black South African miner’s song. When the Springbok returned to the field, they could not be stopped. They won the World Championship. In the celebration, all South Africans, black and white, saw each other as fellow citizens of a multiracial nation. A hope was realized, if for but a moment, a hope fashioned by the refiner’s fired and the fuller’s soap;” a hope born of struggle but realized in fervent expectation. Such is our Advent hope. We too experience the refiner’s fire giving shape to our hope, that hope expressed in God’s promise to come and bring justice and peace, freedom and joy to us. There will be times when this hope will grow dim, when life seems to deny its possibility. Such times are when the refiner’s fire is at work, times when we are forced to realize that this is God’s hope, not ours, that it is God’s Promised One who will embody this hope, not our latest gadget or most recent program. For many years, a bit of proverbial wisdom, given to me by a very wise parishioner, has been my mantra. It goes like this” “When the world shouts, ‘Give up! It’s over!’ hope whispers, ‘Try again, one more time,’” This hope has a name, It is Christ Jesus, the One of hope. May you and I listen for hope’s whisper as we journey through these days of Advent. Such is a holy expectation. Thanks be to God! Amen! |
