Advent Cleaning?

Focus: God sends a messenger to prepare us before judgement

Function: that the hearers may spread the cleanliness to prepare others

Structure: Frame & Refrain

Text: Malachi 3:1-7

Intro: Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. No one likes to be the dirtiest one or messiest one in the group. When you’re a guest at someone’s house, you don’t want to be the messiest guest they have ever had otherwise, they might not let you stay there again. When the kids are told to clean their rooms, they don’t want to be the messiest ones because they want to outshine their siblings. This upcoming holiday season with all the parties, the gatherings, in your family or friend group you don’t want to be the one who has the messiest house, in fact you may even work extra hard to try and make your house the cleanest. No one likes to be the dirtiest or messiest one. I wouldn’t say the dirtiest or the messiest, I would just say no one wants to be known as dirty or messy. Well, I want you to imagine with me a family getting ready to host their family’s Christmas party this year. The house is in the process of being prepped and cleaned for all the guests who are going to come over in a few hours. And this family had two sons, and they worked hard for a little bit, but just like most kids they got bored pretty quick with cleaning. So they decided they wanted to go play outside and get some fresh air. And while they were outside, like boys sometimes do they challenged each other and started to wrestle. One of them grabbed a hold of the other and they both fell down in a giant mud puddle and they were rolling around trying to pin one another to the ground. In the middle of their wrestling match they heard their parents call, so they decided to head back inside and while they were going towards the house they were trying to wipe off as much mud as possible because they were dirty, and they didn’t want their parents to see. They got a few steps in the door, they left some muddy footprints; because of them the entry way of the house was covered in mud. Their parents saw them as they entered the house and they asked, “What happened?”. Well, the sons began to blame one another, they said, “He started it!”… “Look how dirty he is!” .... “I’m so much cleaner than him”. The Father after seeing them blame one another, after seeing them covered in dirt, He says in a calm tone, “Be Cleaned”. When covered in the dirt of life, the Father says, “Be Cleaned!”

Trouble in the Text: In our text today, from the book of Malachi, we see the people of God acting like the two boys who wrestled in the dirt and got dirty. The people of God were looking around at the dirt, mud, and messiness of the world and they were so focused on that, they failed to see their own messiness. These people had been exiled to Babylon years before, a land that wasn’t there homeland. Then they were finally allowed to return and they were allowed to build the temple to worship God, but things weren’t the same. They were under they power of another nation. They still never had the true freedom that they wanted. Everywhere they looked, they saw evil in the world succeeding. In fact, right before our text for today in chapter three, in chapter two verse 17, the people of God are crying out and complaining to God saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord.” They also say, “Where is God’s justice?!”. They were so focused on the evil, the dirtiness of others, they failed to recognize that they continually broke God’s commands. They continually had turned their backs on God to chase after gods and other that God had instructed them not to turn to. If they really looked at themselves, instead of just pointing the finger at others, they would have seen that the people of God, His chosen and beloved people were just as evil, they were just as dirty, they were just as messy as the other nations who they were complaining to God about. The people of God were too busy looking around at the dirt, mud, and messiness of the world, that they failed to see their own sin, their own evil, their own dirt in their lives.

Grace in the Text: Christmas time is right around the corner, you know what that means right? Christmas shopping! Who here has filled out, texted, or emailed out their Christmas list this year already? Do you ever get everything on your Christmas list? I know for me, almost every year when I was younger, I would get swept up in the holiday season, and add things on my list that I heard other people liked and I never really wanted and I for sure didn’t need. But my parent’s they knew what I wanted, and they would always find a way to give the gifts that would bring the most joy. We see this same kind of “giving discernment” with God in our text. God, He, hears His people crying out for justice, crying out for God to punish the wicked. And God He knows that He couldn’t give them what they were asking for right then, because then He would be bringing judgement on His loved people. Instead, God in answer to their cries for justice, He says, “Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before Me....But who can stand, who can endure the day of My coming?… He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them.” God, He knew that His people were dirty, He knew His people were messy. They were asking for judgement, but instead He says that He will send a messenger to refine them, to clean them to prepare them for His final coming, to prepare them, for the judgement they were asking for. For the people of God, When covered in the dirt of life, the Father says, “Be Cleaned!”.

Trouble in the World: As much as we may want to think that we are different than the people of God in our text for today, we really are pretty similar. We just like those people, look at the dirtiness of the world and fail to see our own dirt or worse we get comfortable with dirtiness in our lives. For example, when watching the news, or TV and anytime politics gets brought up, we may say to ourselves, “Wow! They really talk bad about each other, I can’t believe it!” There are times when we talk the same way about other people. Maybe it’s at your family’s Christmas party and a nice discussion turned into a heated discussion about the COVID vaccine and there are people on both sides of the argument screaming and yelling at each other. Or when someone in your family does something that gets on your nerves, instead of treating them with and sharing the love of Jesus with them, we snap, we get angry and upset at them and boy do we let them know it! Or maybe we look in the world and see the way people treat and act towards each other and we may say, “Wow! Our society has no forgiveness, people are being punished for things they did years ago!” At the same time, we people that maybe we hold grudges against because they said something bad about us. Maybe there are people in our lives we don’t want to forgive, because they just aren’t sorry for it! Maybe there are people in our lives that have hurt us in some way, and we just can’t seem to let it go! You and I are pretty similar to the people of God in our text! We are maybe quick to point the finger and cry out for God’s justice, but we are just as dirty, we are just as messy!

Grace in the World: Well, this is the Advent season, where we celebrate the first coming of Christ, but also prepare for the second coming of Him - the second coming where Jesus is going to come to judge the living and the dead. Well, God saw us in our dirty state, He saw our muddy lives. Out of His great love for you, He sent His Son, Jesus to come to earth to purify You! Jesus took your dirty, muddy, sinful lives upon Himself and freely gave you a clean, white robe of righteous! Jesus came to prepare you for the judgement that is going to take place at the end of the world! Instead of sending judgement like we deserve, God sent Jesus out of His love and mercy for you! For all the times where you dirty yourself by talking poorly about others....Jesus has purified you! For all the times you selfishly only look to your own interests and not the interests of others.... Jesus has purified you! For all the times you have failed to follow God perfectly… Jesus has purified you! He has purified you, so that you will be able to stand before Him and because you are made pure you will stand before Him forever! When covered in the dirt of life, The Father says, “Be Cleaned!”

Conclusion: When covered in the dirt of life, The Father says, “Be Cleaned!”. The two boys who wrestled in the mud and were covered from head to toe. At first they heard their Father say, “Be Cleaned!” and they tried to clean themselves. They wiped their faces on their shirts, they tried to wipe their shoes on the welcome mat, but it was only making the house more messy. The Father left them for a few seconds and came back with a clean set of clothes, a clean towel to wipe their faces, and said again, “Be cleaned!” and they were! And after they cleaned all the mud off, the Father gave them instructions to get the rest of the house ready for the Christmas party that was happening soon! You too have been Cleaned by the work of Jesus, and now that you are cleaned God encourages you to spread that cleanliness, to clean and prepare for the second coming of His Son. He invites you to tell others of the source of your joy, love, mercy, and peace! He invites you to tell others of Christ’s work, so that they may be cleaned and ready! He invites you to spread the cleanliness you have received and get ready for Christ’s return; get ready for next Christmas party!

Now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, may He guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Sean, I love the narrative to introduce and to close - I’m guessing that’ll really stick with people. And the language you use with it will help the meaning behind it to stick too! Way to go man!