Evening
Read Malachi 3vv13-18
Silence is kept for two minutes.
13 You have spoken harsh words against me, says the Lord. Yet you say, “How have we spoken against you?” 14 You have said, “It is vain to serve God.”
Reflection
Throughout the Scriptures, the people of God are a nebulous and vague reality until a fresh word from God is spoken. Abraham is told to go from his home to a foreign land. Moses hears the divine name in a burning bush and is told to go to Pharoah. David is anointed as king. But God speaks. And in the interim between the sorts of promises given to Abraham, Moses, and David there are significant setbacks, failures, even sin. Most of all, between the promise and the fulfillment, there is waiting. Malachi describes the frustration of waiting. “What’s the point?” he seems to be asking. Advent is God’s reminder that the waiting is not without purpose, longing not without the “yes and amen of God’s promise.” God sends his word, this time his full and final word, Jesus as the expression of his steadfast love and mercy.
Pray: Lord, when I look at the world I see much that would lead me to ask, “What’s the point of serving you?” Help me to trust, even in the dark of night that the dawn is coming from on high.
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