Malachi my Guy!

Malachi 3:1-4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

Do you see that window over there of the apostle holding a thing that looks like a canoe paddle?  That, my friends, is James the Less, one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus.  He’s also called "the Minor", "the Little", "the Lesser", or "the Younger", none of which are much better than the others if you ask me.  He has that title so that he is not confused with James, son of Zebedee, also known as James the Great, James the Elder, James, son of Alphaeus or as James, the brother of Jesus.  

But enough about them!  Today we’re less interested in James the Great or James the Less and more interested in that funny canoe paddle looking thing he’s holding!  It turns out it’s not a canoe paddle.  It is supposed to be a “Fulling Hammer.”  It is the tool that “Fullers” used to “Full” of course!  Which should in turn, completely clear up the lessons for today, right?  No?  Well so much for a super short sermon!  Because now you need to be finally, fully filled in on fulling.

Fulling involves the cleaning and thickening of cloth, particularly woolen cloth.  Originally, fulling was carried out by the pounding of the woolen cloth with a club, or the fuller's feet or hands.  In Scottish Gaelic tradition, this process was accompanied by waulking songs, which fullers sang to set the pace (and I can only assume always needed more cowbell).  Starting in medieval times the cleaning stage was done by a water mill that drove fulling hammers, then the cloth was stretched on giant frames known as tenters attached by… you guessed it… tenterhooks!  Which is where the phrase being on tenterhooks came from, meaning to be held in suspense. 

In Jesus’ day though, the work was conducted by slaves working the cloth, ankle deep in urine.  The natural ammonia in the urine cleaned and whitened the cloth.  After the cleaning, the cloth was beaten to mat together the fibers which gave it strength and made it waterproof.  Then all of the “Fuller’s soap” as the Scriptures called it (pee) was rinsed away with clean water.  ALL of which leads us back to the lesson from Malachi for today and also indirectly back to the Gospel lesson from Luke where Jesus quotes from Isaiah.  It also hopefully leads to at least one good point for this sermon!  

We hear these lessons every year and because of Handel and his obscure little work you may have heard of known as “The Messiah” we end up hearing these lessons probably more than most other lessons in Scripture!  I for one can’t hear them read without hearing Handel’s music in my head!  That’s not a bad thing, but sometimes that level of familiarity can inadvertently allow us to miss the deeper content, and the content in these lessons is profoundly deep. 

You see, these things…  making roads straight, filling valleys, tearing down mountains and hills, building roads, all by hand... refining silver in a furnace burning at over 1700 degrees Fahrenheit, and fulling cloth by standing ankle deep in urine to make the cloth clean and bright.  All of that stuff… all of that hard, hot, dirty, nasty smelling, work… THAT is the kind of work that God is willing to do FOR YOU, so that YOU and God might be in relationship with one another!  

These lessons don’t show us a laid back God on a throne waiting for us to make ourselves right while God meanwhile plucks grapes off the stem!  These lessons show us a proactive God… OUR God… busting the Divine Backside, doing literally the most labor intensive, back breaking, undignified work imaginable ALL to get us ready to be with God now and through eternity, regardless of what we do or don’t do in this life!  This God… our God… YOUR GOD… is willing to move mountains for you… sweat over a thousand degree forge in the blazing heat for you… march and pound and walk ankle deep in urine for you… ALL so that YOU, and the God who created you, can be together, bound together, now and forever.

And if this God… our God… YOUR GOD… is willing to do ALL OF THAT for you…  Do you think, even for a moment, that there is ANYTHING God won’t do for you to insure that you and your God will be together?  If God is willing to do the Fuller’s job for you, I think the answer to that is clear.  My God… Our God… YOUR GOD will do literally ANYTHING… and has, in Christ, done literally EVERYTHING to hold onto you forever!  No matter what.  Amen.