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The Heart of the Matter
Going through the motions. Autopilot. Not giving it too much thought. Sometimes, knowing something so well that you can do it without thinking about it is a good thing - as you know if you have ever found yourself putting your foot on the brake and coming to a stop before you were fully aware that something or someone had stepped out in front of you! But there are other times when it is not helpful or healthy. When we forget why we do what we do. When we continue to do things, but our heart is not really in it, and people get hurt.
For the people who received the message of Malachi, the issue of having lost their focus on what was at the heart of the matter was a huge issue. The language in Malachi is strong, and God's sadness over all that they were missing is evident. As the passage to the right reflects, Malachi uses the imagery of faithfulness (or the lack of it) and injustice to illustrate what has happened to them because they have not focused on the heart of the matter - the relationship God wanted with them, and for them to have with those around them.
But the good news is that, despite the reality that they had lost focus, God does not walk away, but promises that He will come to them. The One who was the embodiment of what is at the heart of the temple they had rebuilt would come and turn their hearts back to God and each other again. There was hope on the horizon for those who wanted it.
This is the hope from the message of Malachi that Pastor Jon reminds us of this morning, and explores with us once again. And it is in that context that we celebrated communion together as well.
If you would like to listen to this message again, or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library by clicking here.
Malachi 2
(NIV)
10 Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?
11 Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. 12 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob —even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.
13 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wailbecause he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
15 Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring.[d] So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.
16 “The man who hates and divorces his wife, ” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,”[e] says the Lord Almighty.
So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.
“How have we wearied him?” you ask.
By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleasedwith them” or “Where is the God of justice? ”
3 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant,whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
4:5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents
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