|
“Opening the Windows of Heaven” Sunday, November 8, 2009 David Schneider, Interim Pastor |
|
Malachi 3:6-12 I. God says, “‘See if I do not open the windows of Heaven and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.’” A. What a wonderful promise, what a magnificent imagery for the season of stewardship and Thanksgiving! 1. Everything that our Creator does for us is done in a measure of overflowing goodness, a cup and a half! a. – unlike the way we give back to God. 2. I remember very few things from when my sister and I were 3 or 4. Something I do remember from our little row house back on the east coast in the late 1940's was when the coal was delivered. The window in the basement was opened, the chute extended from the coal truck, and hundred of pounds of pure black dusty coal would slide down into our basement. I loved to be down in that basement room and let the coal engulf me and nearly cover me up. That is how God’s goodness is to us! Of course, being down in the coal basement was a mortal sin, absolutely forbidden, deserving of immediate corporal punishment. 3. Let’s put it another way. In the 1980's in southern New Mexico a group of us were putting together a food pantry for the Salvation Army. We heard that the plant which produced Progresso Soup and the Old El Paso brand of Mexican food would give out unuseable cases of their produce to non-profit organizations. We called them. Yes, if we had an 501-C3 status and the right certificates, we could come and pick up a donation. Several of us drove down in a van near El Paso. We were not prepared for what the plant gave us. A full pallete of canned green chiles, hundreds of small cans. It took us several years to give all the canned chiles away!
B. “The windows of Heaven” is a metaphor belonging to the ancient concept of the world as a 3-tiered structure. 1. In Malachi’s day, everyone knew the world was a flat round pancake on stilts, which held it up from the watery chaos and sea monsters below. 2. Above the world was a protective impermeable case something like heavy glass. There were “window” between the earth’s atmosphere and the sky, which God might open to let the rain and wind through. 3. God also sent through these windows the angels who were his messengers; [PAUSE] a. thus Jacob’s dream of angels on the ladders.
II. This is a rhetorical question in the final book of our Old Testament canon, which serves a didactic or teaching purpose, and also to admonish or warn us. A. This prophet uses rhetorical questions 7 times. 1. He puts the same questions in the mouths of the audience or readers. a. The whole book is written in the form of a conversation or a dialog, 2. It is all about the renewal, the rededication of the Jewish people who are left over, the remnant who have returned to rebuild their destroyed homeland. 3. We encounter 6 teaching interrogatives and responses. These might be used in worship. class=Section3>3. a. First, Yahweh loves Jacob his child. b. He is Israel’s father c. He is the father of all Israelites --and all nations. d. #4, Therefore, God wants honesty, not words because e. #5, God is faithful to his word. f. #6, There is a repetition of Yahweh’s desire for honesty-- honest worship and faithfulness. 4. This 7th question then is about their honest stewardship a. the tithe, the requirement for one tenth off the top, b. the first fruits of their crop, the best portion.
B. Two important considerations Malachi forces us to deal with: 1. Our stewardship may only be understood within the context of these 6 questions of God’s faithfulness and our complete honesty. 2. Second–and the most difficult for us, his hard definition of the tithe, which is more radical than anywhere else in the Bible, and which we water down and compromise in today’s world with our giving to secular charities, taking our taxes off the top, putting away money for our kids’ education! 3. If we do not return to God the tenth he wants, God says, “You are robbing me...” a. Your offering is “like a curse”; we in fact are cursed yourselves. How does that grab you! b. God asks, “‘Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house...” 4. The blessing of opening up the windows of heaven follows upon our honest stewardship and worship, telling ourselves the truth about our motives for giving. 5. You all know Jesus’ parable of the rich church member who had just finished building another storehouse and had gathered his harvest in. He put his John Deere equipment away. He went home, sat down in his Lazy Boy, took off his boots, opened a Miller Lite, turned on his HD TV, opened his Investment Daily, and took a big breath, saying to himself, “What a blessed man I am to have ample goods laid up for many years.” a. But that night the Lord called him something we are told never to call one another. b. God said to him, “‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’” (Luke 12:16-21) [pause]
C. Certainly this is a radical treatment. Jesus himself often does that to us as well ... maybe a case of “argumentum absurdum.” Taking things to the absurd! 1. We get the point- too well. 2. But we need to start somewhere. a. Maybe you are not ready for Malachi, with the first fruits off the top, not 10%. b. The point is to begin somewhere, and not with leftovers. Even God wants some of the best fruit of the apple, not the apple core...working up the percentage ladder to heaven: 5%, 6%. 3. We also need to start somewhere with our response to how much God loves us, how faithful our God has been to us in this church in the past years, in 2009. (page 2) 4. We need to start somewhere on the linear scale with our own honesty about why we are here, honesty about our worship, our prayers, how well we truly serve.... 5. As the leaders, some of us need to do some navel-gazing and soul-searching, like Malachi. a. How well are we telling the story, sharing information? b. Are we truly trustworthy? c. Are we indeed “Loving, Serving and Sharing!”? d. Is it good stewardship to have ignored the building fund for the past?
III. Now you might say to me, “Pastor Dave, stewardship Sunday is next week. You are a week early.” A. True. But many people stay home on Stewardship Sunday; they do not want their consciences pricked. So I am heading you off at the pass, and getting there ahead of you. 1. Really next week will be A Great Celebration! We have so much to give thanks for–you and I together.
B. Second, Malachi is one of the almost-unknown minor prophets of the Old Testament. 1. Why do you suppose his book is the last one in our Old Testament, and not Nehemiah-Ezra, as in the Hebrew canon? a. Can you name the last 4 books of the Old Testament? b. Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (2 M’s & 2 M’s). 2. And why end the Old Testament with this warning about honest worship and honest stewardship? 3. One answer is that it is in Malachi where the idea is mentioned that the age of prophecy, God speaking directly to the people is now at an end. If you believe this, then Malachi is the final prophet. 4. Take a look at some of these last, seemingly insignificant prophets. They have some interesting things to say. a. Have you ever even opened your Bible to those pages? 5. Malachi warns his reader about the coming judgment, to prepare the way for his messenger who will come suddenly! a. And so we prepare for Jesus, who again is how God opened the windows of heaven and blessed us... b. beyond anything we could imagine or hope for!
C. I leave you with words from a modern hymn,
The windows of
heaven are open
|