TEXT: Malachi 3:1-4

The book of Malachi is an interesting book. It is short. But what makes it interesting is that it is full of questions. In just 55 verses, Malachi asks 22 questions. Things like: "How has God loved us? (1:2) Has not one God created us? (2:10) Where is the God of justice? (2:17) How shall we return to God? (3:7)" Many of us like to ask questions. Malachi, in a very poignant and prophetic way, asked questions – rhetorical questions and questions for clarification alike, questions of God and questions of the people, questions of the leaders and questions of the covenant. Questions, questions, questions.

Elie Weisel, the powerful Jewish writer and story-teller who lived through a World War II Concentration Camp, tells a story of his childhood. "When he was a boy, his mother would greet him every day when he returned from school. Every day she would ask the same question. She did not ask, 'What did you do today?' or 'Whom did you talk to?' or even 'What did you learn today?' She would ask, 'did you have some good questions today?'" (Quoted in Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 4, editors David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, p 260)

I liked to ask questions when I was a boy. My questions were mostly why questions. I think I drove my parents and teachers crazy at times. Why does this happen this way? Why are things the way they are? Why, why, why. When I got a little older I asked the deeper questions about the meaning of life or I would ask my peers why they took drugs and drank. Partly I was just contrary-minded; I still am. But partly I really wanted to know. When I got to university, I was much shier in asking my questions – I am at heart an introvert. I still wanted to know, but I would ask the questions of myself and then go and try to find the answers. I guess what comes around goes around because when Iain was our child who asked the why questions and sometimes drove us crazy; occasionally, I'd find myself saying that old parental stand-by, "because I said so!"

Malachi, as Roger read for us this morning, lived in the 400's Before the Common Era; he lived a mere 400 years before Jesus, to give us a reference point. The Jews had lived in exile in Babylon from about 587, when Jerusalem was captured, to 538 when the Persians, the conquerors of the Babylonians, took over the world and let the Jews go home. The new Temple, the 2nd Temple, was dedicated in 515, and Malachi appeared on the scene between 450 and 400 BCE.

It is hard for us to imagine what it would have been like in those days. For 40 years, the Jewish people were forced into a form of slavery in Babylon. For 40 years they thought themselves no longer God's chosen people. For 40 years they thought themselves abandoned by God. For 40 years they had to do another's bidding. And then the Persians, who were very progressive for that time, allowed them to return to rebuild their traditions, their Temple, their way of life. And they did over time. They overcame famine and drought. Bit by bit they rebuilt the Temple and reconstructed their religious way of life. The going was hard, but they persisted.

But then, once things were going well, corruption reared its ugly head. The Temple priests began to use sickly animals for sacrifice, diseased animals, animals injured. Whether we approve of animal sacrifice or not — and I'm sure all of us do not, the Jewish covenant called for healthy animals. First born. What was possibly happening was that the priests were selling the good animals for profit and substituting diseased or injured animals; either way, there was deceit and corruption and the covenant was broken. To make matters worse, foreign idols were being worshipped; or at the very least, religious traditions from another country began to infiltrate the Jewish traditions. This was a great taboo. And Malachi spoke out. He asked his questions about justice and God. He asked his questions of the priests and leaders. "Why are we not following our God, the God who gives justice and who loves kindness and calls us to walk humbly with our God?"

We need Malachi's questions today. We need him to ask where justice is. Where is fairness? Where is integrity? Where is truth? I have found it shameful the way the government of Canada has deflected questions about the torture of Afghan detainees by casting doubt on the integrity of Mr. Colvin. And what have we learned about violence begetting violence. Have we learned anything in the last 20 years since the Montreal Massacre at L'Ecole Polytechnique? The Columbine massacre took place in 1999 in Colorado. The Taber school killing took place shortly afterwards. There's 911. The killing of police officers in Alberta and in Washington State. The killing of soldiers last weekend and earlier in November at Fort Hood. Obama is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. "Have you not seen? Have you not heard? Our God is an everlasting God. Our God is a God of peace and love? Have you not yet learned the violence begets more violence?" This just makes me ask why all the harder?!

Between 1988 and 1998 the World Council of Churches had the Ecumenical Decade in Solidarity with Women. It was a decade to learn about violence against women and how to change the systems that perpetuate that violence. The World Council of Churches, realizing that we are slow learners, instituted another decade in 2001 to end in 2010. It was meant to be a decade to seek reconciliation and peace! It was to be a decade to again consider the systemic nature of violence, the nature of the military-industrial complex that is so entrenched in our Western world, the social conditions that exploit and encourage people to turn to violence as a last result. Have we learned anything?

We need a refiner's fire and fuller's soap. We need a new awakening to the ways of peace and reconciliation and the power of getting people to talk together. We need the vision of Isaiah, who said that the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, the fatling and the lion together, and a little child shall lead them—the vision of the peaceable realm of shalom. We need a new baby to inspire us to new acts of courage and selfless love. We need Christ returned to lead us in the ways of non-violence and to seek a new path of reconciliation. We need a new commitment to justice with peace, to grace and truth-telling. We need a new commitment to all brothers and sisters, fellow human beings and other creatures of the earth. We need a new commitment to our island home. We need a new Advent, a new Adventure of the blessedness of life. I recently discovered that Advent and adventure come from the same word which means "about to happen." To me, this means that Advent is our invitation to make things happen. To make peace happen. To ask the hard questions and hold our leaders accountable. To make non-violence the norm. To make sure that women are not exploited and murdered. To ensure that all live in safety with access to clean water, a place to live and adequate and nutritious food. Come Christ Jesus and be born in us again that we may realize the fullness of the potential for love and peace and grace that you have given each of us.

I want to leave you with a poem that came out of the Decade in solidarity with Women; it is a poem of hope and new beginnings and it is by Anna Karin Hammar, Jean Sindab.

One voice: IT IS NOT TRUE that women should feel and experience that being a woman is of secondary value to the communinty.
All: THIS IS TRUE that women are created women, the image of God, co-workers with God in caring for life, in struggling for the liberation of humanity and for a world order that respects each one's dignity.
One voice: IT IS NOT TRUE that the land has to be robbed from woÂmen and their communities by transnational, profit hungry companies.
All: THIS IS TRUE that the earth belongs to the living God and God's people belong to the earth.
One voice: IT IS NOT TRUE that women – and men – should remain divided by sexism, racism, economic injustices and impeÂrialism.
All: THIS IS TRUE that all women – and men – are called to be in solidarity with each other's struggle for dignity and justice, to learn from one another and to challenge one another as true sisters and brothers in a critical and prophetic solidarity.
One voice: IT IS NOT TRUE that becoming a refugee is an acceptble and inevitable situation for millions of women and their children.
All: THIS IS TRUE that the whole people of God is called to denounce militarism, to challenge the root-causes of poverty in the name of God of Hagar, who as a refugee was the first person who according to the bible dared to give God a name.
One voice: IT IS NOT TRUE that women should accept rape and incest, battering and humiliation, as the fate of women.
All: THIS IS TRUE that Jesus Christ has come into the world to heal the broken community between women and men, to restore our sense of self, dignity and inclusion.
One voice: IT IS NOT TRUE that young girls should not be given the opportunity to learn how to read, to write and how to analyse the developments of their country.
All: THIS IS TRUE that everyone is called to respond to the gift of life and to the needs of our community with all our heart, all our soul and all our reason.
One voice: IT IS NOT TRUE that sexual slavery, bondage and prostitution, are not possible to counteract and eliminate.
All: THIS IS TRUE that Jesus Christ has come into the world to overturn the tables of injustices, that women and men, empowered by the holy Spirit should challenge poverty and patriarchal culture.
One voice: IT IS NOT TRUE that women and men should not be able to live in mutual and just relationships, respecting one another's integrity and personhood.
All: THIS IS TRUE that God the Creator has given us the responsibility and trust to care for all of creation in humility and faithfulness, to work and to love as co-creators of God.

     LET US PRAY:
     Holy Living God
     The day and the night whisper your name
     And sparrows proclaim your glory.
     Make us by grace the winds of justice and the flames of peace in the world
     In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
"Prayers, Poems, Songs and Stories: Ecumenical Decade 198801998, Churches in Solidarity with Women." p 73-74