Messengers.
Messages. I am going to ask you, this morning, to reflect on how you receive
“messages,” and who has “messages” for us, messages from family, from friends,
from your pastor, from our politicians, and…from God. The other side of this
may be the content of those “messages.” What’s different in the messages we
receive from our friends and family than what we receive from strangers, our
pastor…or God?
Malachi
in Hebrew can be literally translated as “my messenger.” Some scholars call
Malachi the “Messenger of Jehovah.” Let’s just agree to settle on “messenger.”
Luke’s
gospel about John the Baptist begins by describing him as a “messenger,” a
voice shouting, crying out in the wilderness…repent.
Malachi
and John were both prophets with a message from God. Both men were exhorting
people to repent, to change, to be cleansed…refined, purified. People “heard” their messages…many times.
Today,
in this time and place, we’re able to read…and hear the same message, this
message to repent, be refined, to be purified. The “Voice” still shouts from
the wilderness.
One
difference is that, today, the “message” is delivered through many different
medias, books, email, Facebook messages, blogs, newspapers, and orally via the
pulpit or podcasts or Youtube. With all
that diversity the “message” still calls us to change, to repent.
Luke
set the context of his “message” within the political environment of his day,
Herod, Pilate, Tiberius, and Lysanius. He also included the religious
powerbrokers of the day, Annas and Caiaphus.
The
“message” today is also delivered amid politicians who seek to “control” the
world. The shouting from the wilderness comes to us from those with influential
power in our various denominations as they try to discern what or who should be
“in” or “out.” The “Voice” still…calls us to repent, to be refined, to be
purified.
Do
we have ears to hear? Or…are they stopped up with wax (dogma or our very own
paradigms)? Or can we only hear them if we go to the wilderness, away from the
polluting noise of the world?
Who
are the messengers who’re shouting to us from the wilderness? Who are those
calling us to repent, to be refined, to be purified? Can we hear their voices?
Are we listening? Is the darkness being penetrated by their voices?
Or…could
we be the messengers God is using today?
That’s a scary thought isn’t it? Who’s listening to our voices? Who’s
watching how we’re living? Who’s paying attention to our “message?” that can be
real scary can’t it?
There
are so many questions and not enough straight answers. Maybe that’s why we need
this season of the year to slow down, sit down in the dark, and listen and
reflect on what we read and…hear from the “messengers.”
Listen to one of our contemporary
prophets…
Reflection
The
past is always brighter
when
viewed from the depths
of
the present.
Memories
take on a rose tinted hue
when
they are explored
from
the safety of distance.
We
have an amazing capacity
to
filter out the dross
and
capitalize on the glitz,
the
ability to find glimmers of gold
in
the muck and mud.
And
our God is way ahead of us
already
sifting,
testing,
cleansing,
scrubbing
up the old and tired,
restoring
to glory all that’s worth keeping,
bringing
joy when least expected,
transforming
all the familiar landscapes
with
love,
and
laughter,
and
a baby’s cry.
Settling
into the world
and
upending everything
making
it real
with
the pangs of labor,
birthing
new life and new hope
in the mess of the world.
Roddy Hamilton-Spill the Beans Issue 6
