The day of the Lord was something to be feared. Isaiah portrayed it as a day on which the stars would not give their light, the heavens would tremble and the earth would be shaken out of its place. Malachi spoke of this coming day burning as an oven ready to consume evildoers and the arrogant like stubble.

The New Testament is shot through with references to the day of the Lord as well. In First Thessalonians we are told that the day will come "like a thief in the night". The Second Letter to Peter speaks of the wrath of the Lord of Hosts in the day of his fierce anger. This notion of a day of terrible transformation in between two ages of very different character was one of the basic concepts of Jewish religious thought from the time of the prophets to the days when Jesus taught.

On the one hand the day of the Lord will be a time of terror, on the other hand it will give birth to the Kingdom of God - a state for which faithful Jews longed, and one which we profess to desire as well. To pray earnestly for God's coming was the kind of prayer you would speak haltingly with a dry mouth while your heart beat fast in your chest. Clearly it is hard to maintain such a state of heightened awareness and anxiety for long especially if there appears to be nothing going on that supports your expectations.

This is why Malachi brought up the subject of the day of the Lord in the Old Testament lesson this morning. People were talking. They looked around and saw that injustice went on day after day without any sign of God's impending intervention. The day of the Lord and its righteousness clearly wasn't the day they were experiencing. Perhaps it wasn't coming, ever. What was the point of even trying to do the right thing when "evildoers not only prosper, but when they put God to the test, they escape." This concern is not limited to the age in which Malachi lived. It is a question faithful thinking people ask today.

How do you keep your chin up, and your face turned towards God day after day when the visible evidence seems to suggest a lack of interest or movement on God's part. How do you stay hopeful that the world will become a better place?

Not that you necessarily want to see the stars start falling into the sea and the moon turn red as blood - but couldn't the almighty give some indication that He was paying attention. Maybe all these attempts to be faithful are just a waste of time. God raises up prophets to give a word when people wonder or wander. God raised up Malachi to answer the murmured concerns in his day.

It is the role of the prophets to speak the word of God - to give an indication of things to come, perhaps, but even more to disclose the nature and character of God. Malachi told the people that God had heard them, and that God was acting even then. Malachi said that a book of remembrance had been made and the names of the righteous had been recorded.

Why should anyone have cared? It mattered because Malachi's words assured the righteous that they were already regarded as beloved children of God, right then, even before the new age came.

Justice will indeed be done. The day will certainly come. But when the day of the Lord comes the righteous will be spared just as a parent spares his or her own child. "Keep on keeping on," Malachi seems to say. Hold fast to your faith in the God who is faithful to you. All will be made right but the timing is up to God. Our work is to be faithful, no matter what.

Paul in his turn had to exhort the Thessalonians thousands of years later. Some had lapsed into idleness, drifting away from Paul's teachings about the character of God and losing their grip on the reality of Jesus Christ. Some wanted the benefits of community without contributing anything to the common good. This spiritual problem is not confined to any single time in history either. Paul's admonition to the Thessalonians is for us too - "do not be weary in doing what is right."

We cannot know the day or the hour of Christ's return but we do know that we are to be about the Lord's work until He comes. We are members of Christ by our baptism and joined to one another in this enterprise called the church. This parish is the place in which we gather to hear the apostles' teachings, to say the prayers, and break the bread. We are charged to do more than simply eat the feast. We have work to do in Christ's name. This is the place in which we give of what we have for the benefit of the work we share with Christ. Do not be weary of doing what is right. Pray, work and give because it is the right thing to do. It is the faithful response.

Sometimes the evidence around us will challenge us as it did Malachi's people. Sometimes the visible signs for which we long may not be apparent in the current day and place. But God is still faithful to us. All God's promises remain in force, then and now. It is only a question of time until the day comes. It is only a question of time until Christ himself is with us. Our work remains the same regardless of what we see, and in spite of what we do not yet see. Keep the faith. Pray, work and give.

Jesus stood in a group of people who were staring at the Temple in Jerusalem. The splendor and the sense of permanence of the building entranced them. Who wouldn't have been so effected? One could see the Temple for miles looming like a snowy mountain of marble. The columns on the porch were forty feet high; each one fashioned from a single block.

So much beaten gold covered the face of the front of the Temple that the rising sun would flash from it so brightly that pilgrims and unbelievers alike would have to shield their eyes.

For Jews the Temple was the center of the sacred universe. But Jesus turned their eyes and chilled their hearts when he said, "the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." Then Jesus spoke of destruction, persecution, betrayal, hatred and the trials that would come.

Can you hear the echo of the day of the Lord in those words? Can you hear the echo of Malachi and Paul when Jesus promises His hearers that, in spite of it all, "not a hair on your head will perish"? Malachi, Paul and Jesus are pointing to something better than mere survival. They are pointing to salvation, eternity in God's Kingdom, days without end on the other side of the day of the Lord.

Look back and see that the Temple was indeed destroyed. But see also that Christ rose from the dead and became the focal point of our faith - the living God - a person not a building. Look back and see that the persecutions of which Jesus spoke did indeed come. The Romans partied by the light of burning martyrs. But the Roman Empire has fallen and Christianity is still on the rise.

Were people betrayed by their own family members because of the faith they professed? Yes, it happened in first century Palestine and it is still happening today in the Sudan, the Middle East and various other places in the world. If you are a faithful Christian there are others, near and far, who will hate you, fear you, ridicule you and even come after you.

Life will deliver a variety of experiences - we may see splendors like the Temple, but we will also see horrors in our own day and time. But still the call remains the same. Be faithful. Act out of that faith, believing that God will deliver on God's promises in God's time. It is easy to march along when everything is going our way. It is harder to stay on the path when they are not. But we are called to endure uncertainty, disappointment and all the other vagaries of this world because Christ himself has promised that "By your endurance you will gain your souls. "

Let us neither shrink back out of fear nor slip into complacency. Prophets, apostles and martyrs urge us on, bidding us to be faithful, as God is faithful. The day will come for those who revere God's name when the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings as Malachi foretold. The day has already come when the Son of God rose from the dead to save us. We stand in that first light as we turn to look toward the Advent horizon. Keep us strong Lord, in this middle time, until the day of your coming. AMEN.