MALACHI 3:1

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

TO PONDER:

I sat across from this dishevelled man who had reached out through the media ads we played on the radio. The single bulb light in the lounge room her the coffee table was the only light in the room. All the curtains were drawn...it was the middle of the day. He pulled one used cigarette butt after another from a flower pot of butts that he had obviously collected from various places and he pulled out the remaining tobacco to roll his own, which he lit in front of me. He proceeded to tell me his story...a story that was told in a minor key. It was dark. It was sad. It was devoid of hope. But it was his question at the end that surprised me...'The radio program said that God is loving and just and always for the forgotten...but you tell me, where is the God of justice now?'

'Where is the God of justice?' That is the very question that lies behind the response given in the reading today. Israel had been asking the question a lot. Everywhere they looked, it seemed that God favoured the wicked while the righteous suffered. It had caused God's people to become disheartened and to lose hope. The God who would restore Israel seemed to be missing in action. So where is the God of justice. God speaks through the prophet Malachi and answers that recurring question. When you least expect it, when you have all but given up hope, the God of justice will come. The invisible God who seems to be missing in action, who seems to pay no attention to the evil and wickedness in this world will come to clean things up, to wipe away the guilt of sin and restore us to a relationship where we can confidently bask in his presence. That's a promise you can depend on. This cleansing, this purifying won't always be comfortable but the God of justice is faithful to all his promises and loving to all he as made. That's the hope that the first candle of Advent prepares us to receive.

What has you feeling disheartened today? What promise of God do you need to hold on to so you can live with hope?

PRAYER

God of justice, when I feel disheartened by the events of the world and my own life, fill me with the hope of your coming. Cleanse my heart, forgive my sin and lift up my head to watch and wait for your coming again to bring true justice to this world. Amen.

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