Some twenty-four centuries ago, when the prophet Malachi's ears were assaulted by an impertinent question, he heard it as a confession of irresponsibility. When the men and women of Judah shouted at this prophet, who had accused them of wearying God, who had charged that their blabbering talk was just about to tire the Almighty – when they heard Malachi accuse them of terminal boredom, they confessed their irresponsibility by shouting at him, "Where is the God of justice?" They unmasked their cynical excuses for being disengaged and disconnected with the jeering cry, "Where is the God of justice?"
The truth that jumps out at me from the pages of this prophet is this: that when men and women want to know when God is going to do something about the issues, it means that they themselves are escaping their own responsibility. When we ask the question, "Where is the God of justice?", it means that we are really asking, “How can I wriggle out of doing what I ought to do?” "How can I avoid the tough business of confronting oppression and injustice, how can I retreat to a cocoon of comfort, how can I get off the hook of being my brother's keeper?" "Where is the God of justice?" may actually mean, "Can I get a God in the box to jump out and fix it all so I won't have to?"
Now you and I know, just from everyday living, that there are plenty of times and plenty of circumstances in which it has seemed perfectly natural to ask, with Judah of twenty-four centuries past, "Where is the God of justice?" You and I know that sense of helplessness and feebleness that takes us over some times, so that about all we can think of to do in seasons of distress and grief is to shout it out, "Where is the God of justice?"
In a world which in my childhood could be strangled by a Hitler, with his Auschwitz and his Buchenwald, six million Jews no doubt cried out with unspeakable anguish, "Where is the God of justice?"
In a nation which during that same period allowed and even encouraged night riders in robes and hoods and burning crosses raised against the humid clouds of Mississippi or the supposedly more congenial fields of Indiana, I can scarcely fault wives and mothers, oppressed so hard they could not stand, who would retreat to their churches and scream, "Where is the God of justice?"
In a world which during my youth reigned Stalin with his gulags and Mao with his forced collectivization, who could blame millions of Russians and Chinese and others from muttering from behind clenched teeth, "Where is the God of justice?"
In a nation which during the days of my youth and young adulthood we could elect governors with their lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, and we could choose police commissioners whose dogs' teeth hungered for human flesh, I too began to learn to cry, "Where is the God of justice?"
Growing up in a religious system, a church, a Christian church, which saw nothing odd or contradictory about black churches and white churches, separate and distinct; growing up in a church which could argue about who should be admitted, when, in truth, it is God who admits to His Kingdom and to His church, not we; growing up and loving a church which thought itself to be a creative outpost of the Gospel, but which never, never challenged the way things are in the name of the way things ought to be, I had to learn to wonder, "Where is the God of justice?"
Then coming to a city in which until only a few years before I arrived there were parallel systems, parallel schools, parallel restrooms, parallel, separate ways of life, and through which a park runs like a great Chinese Wall dividing the two, a city in which the memories of 1968 were so strong that in the Sunday School class my wife and I joined in another church the women said, "My husband won't let me go into the city." Funny how we find somebody else to blame when we are afraid, and if you won't blame your husband or your family or yourself for your fear, maybe you will even blame God and will say, well, "I'm waiting for the God of justice, and where is He?"
Ah, well, you say, that's all history. That's over and done with, and we've come a long, long way. No doubt we have. But I submit to you that we are still waiting for the God of justice, and that if we hear Malachi correctly, he will tell us that to ask, "Where is the God of justice?" is to confess our own irresponsibility. To wonder when God is going to do something about the troubles of this world is to admit that we do not want to engage these troubles ourselves.
You see, in a world even today where apartheid crushes lives and snuffs out hope, surely someone is wondering, "Where is the God of justice?" In a society in which a third of all black Americans still live below the poverty line, are we found still shrugging our shoulders and musing, "I wonder when God will handle that." "Where, after all, is the God of justice … out on the golf course? Tied up on hold? Out to lunch? Where is the God of justice?"
The prophet Malachi has two surprising answers to that recurring question. If we keep on wondering where God is and when He will act to bring justice into this world, according to this messenger in ancient Judah, there are two surprises in store for us.
The first of these is that God will come in justice, but when He comes, it will be to deal with us first. When God comes to work a work of justice, he comes first to his own people and purges them, refines them, and only after that does He stand against the workers of oppression.
Is that a surprise? Is that peculiar and does that seem unlike a God of justice? Then hear what the second little surprise down in God's gunny sack is: that after the church is purged and refined, God's redeeming and empowering presence is dependent on what you and I will do. Malachi tells us that a God of justice is first of all a God of covenant, and that we are going to have to lay ourselves on the line before He will deal with the powers of injustice and oppression.
"Where is the God of justice?" First of all, He is coming, to His own people, to deal with us and refine us so that we will be useful. And second, He will come and bless and work His own unique work when we have kept our side of the bargain. Two surprises:
I
God says through this powerful prophet, "Look, I am sending my messenger who will clear a path before me. Suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to His temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight is here, here already, says the Lord of Hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand firm when he appears? He is like a refiner's fire, like fuller's soap. And he will purify the sons of Levi and cleanse them like gold and silver, so they shall be fit to bring offerings unto the Lord."
I submit to you this morning that there is a terrifying truth here and one that I would rather not hear, but there it is, nonetheless. The truth is that injustice exists in this world largely because the people of God allow it to; and so when our God moves against oppression He moves against those who permit oppression. When our God moves against injustice he first moves against those who turn their eyes because these eyes are too holy to see dirty things, who shut their eyes to obscenities, because these ears should not listen to four-letter words. Our God, when He begins to work as the God of justice will come first of all to the church and will refine it and cleanse it. He is like a refiner's fire and He is like fuller's soap … God is industrial strength … because the church is his chosen instrument and we are not ready. The church of the living God is here in the world to be his arms, but we have folded those arms in defiance and have ranted, "Where is the God of justice?" The church is here in the world to be his hands of power, but we have decided that those hands can do no more than clasp in prayer, that they can do no more than wring out the plaintive plea, "Where is the God of justice?" But He's here, He's here, and in the light of all that is happening in our world, I have to worry with the prophet, "Who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears, for he is like a refiner's fire?"
You see, if the church of God were already purified, the homeless would have shelter, and more. They would have dignity and salvation and direction. If the church of God were already cleansed, black and white, rich and poor, old and young would be learning from one another. I do not say they would live in total harmony, because I believe that conflict is God's way of teaching us and refining us; but that's another sermon. I say they, we would be learning from one another. And if the church of God were like gold and silver, fine and precious before God, you and I could be observing King's birthday knowing that his dream is on its way, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
But you see, God comes, the God of justice is here already, and he is refining his church. When King began his work in Montgomery, he says that he was afraid that the pastors of Montgomery would hang back as they had so many other times. King says that many of those who were sympathetic were afraid to have their names published. But it was a layman, E. D. Nixon, who got the group off dead center by saying, "We are acting like little boys. Somebody's name will have to be known, and if we are afraid we might just as well fold up right now. We'd better decide if we are going to be fearless men or scared boys."
You see, our God has a way of winnowing out who is ready and who is not. He has a way of testing our mettle to see if we are prepared to work for justice, knowing that he is already among us; or whether we will forever sit on the sidelines and wait for him to rescue us. "Where is the God of justice?" I'll tell you. He's in His church, finding those who will not fear to put themselves to the test, refining those who would sit idly by and wait and wait and wait while the souls of men and women are dying. That's where the God of justice is.
II
If that surprises us … if it comes as a rude awakening that some of us in the church might be discarded as useless … then see what else Malachi will bring forth for us. See what other goodies are in God’s gunny sack!
"Return to me and will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. You ask, 'How can we return?' Will a man defraud or rob God, that you defraud me, rob me? You ask, 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and contributions, tithes and offerings. Bring the tithes into the storehouse, all of them, and put me to the proof, says the Lord of Hosts, and see if I do not open windows in the sky and pour a blessing on you as long as there is need."
Oh, how like a preacher! He can always get in a way to tell us we ought to give more money! But listen to what Malachi, God's messenger, is really saying: that if you want this world to he changed, that if you want justice to be done and oppression to be slain, then you will have to pay for that. If you want real change to come about, it will cost you something. If you want God's work to proceed, do not suppose that it can be done on well-wishing and on good vibes alone; it will be done when we make a commitment of substance. And then the empowering presence of the God of justice will be evident. "Return to me and I will return to you."
I well remember a woman who was a leader in my home church when I was in a teenage group there. In 1954, right after Brown versus Board of Education was decided, she, with tears in her eyes, said, "My prejudices are very strong, and I am having a hard time with this; but I am a Christian, I know what God wants, and so I am going to give more of my money and more of my time and more of my witness every place I can, so that people of every race can learn to love each other." That's right. That's it. Do not sit idly by and wait for God to do something without you, in spite of you. He just might do that, you know, but I would a thousand times rather be found committed to what he is doing with my time and my heart and my wallet on the line than to be discovered planted in a pew whining, "Where is the God of justice?"
We as a church have made some crucial decisions in the past. We decided to stay on this corner and to minister to all people, white and black, Hispanic and Asian, all people. We decided to focus on missions, here and around the world, and to put a good deal of our money into that. We decided that we would look toward the future and accumulate properties and resources that could be used when ministry opportunities came along. We saw hurting people – some of them illiterate, some of them aging, some of them emotionally disturbed, and we said we would provide ministry for them. All these things and more we did in past years, when the God of justice came to us and refined us and used us.
Now we face a new era. Now we face a time in which our resources do not seem to be adequate for all that we might do. We face a time in which some of us are tempted to rely on past glories and to enjoy the God of justice past. We face a time when some of us are waiting, still waiting, for the return of this glorious God of justice, and until He does, somehow it seems good enough to pitch in the price of a movie ticket … you know, to pay for the entertainment … until He returns. We have not heard Him say as He does through Malachi, "Return to me, and I will then return to you." Lay yourself and your substance on the line … bring the full tithes into the storehouse, put me to the test, says the Lord of Hosts, and see if I will not open every window in the sky and pour you out a blessing beyond your needs.
Where is the God of justice? Hear Dr. King's words: "We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. We have come to remind America of the fierce urgency of now! Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood."
Where is the God of justice? Oh, He is here … Now.
