Day 11 • The Week of Peace
Scripture Readings:
Psalm 27
Malachi 2:10-3:1
Luke 1:5-17
The theme of broken relationships defines our scripture readings for today. Some translations of Malachi 2:10-3:1 will even be titled “Breaking Covenant Through Divorce.” In that passage, the prophet skillfully points to the literal reality of divorce and also uses it as a metaphor to describe the southern kingdom of Judah’s relationship with God. Infidelity, division, and harm.
During my time in the Congo of Africa, I saw firsthand how marriage functioned there very much like an exchange of property between two families, including the exchange of a dowery for a daughter, such as a fatted calf. With the way the culture was shaped, if divorce occurred, it would highly favor the man, often abandoning the woman into poverty or, worse, prostitution in order to survive.
My work during my time there was to provide free training for clergy, which would clear the way for them to be ordinated within the church there. With over 200 clergy in attendance at our classes, over 75% of them were women. This was part of the subversive act of Christ’s gospel we were carrying out in that context. Ordained women would not only have a job, but they would be leaders in their community. We were doing our part to prevent people, especially women, from falling into poverty in that culture. We were pursuing equality. Divorce shouldn’t mean a sentence to destitution or poverty or worse.
Similarly, this is what Malachi says that God strongly opposes in 2:16, where he writes, “The man who hates and divorces his wife does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty. It is this same oppressive use of divorce that Jesus speaks against in Matthew 19:8-9. As you can see in Malachi, women were not only being abandoned into poverty but also used for the sake of political power in that context. Malachi is prophetically condemning this practice and using it to show how the southern kingdom was treating its first love, God, in the same way.
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Then, we contrast this with the gospel accounts of the “Christmas story.” Especially in Luke’s gospel, women play a central, and I would say, leadership role in God's coming into the world. With both the announcements of John the Baptist and Jesus, Elisabeth and Mary play the central, prophetic roles, while Zechariah and Joseph play more “behind the scenes” supportive roles. This is an intentional move on behalf of the author. It is to remind us of how Eve was the one who picked the fruit in the first garden while Adam stood silently by. Where the fruit of the garden brought death into the world, women would now be the ones who bring the fruit of life into the world. Furthermore, as all four gospels show, women would also be the first ones to carry the news of Christ's resurrection to everyone else. Where was the tomb? In a garden. Christmas and Easter are grand reversals of what happened in the first garden.
We live in a world where division and separation seem to be everywhere we look. As in the days of Malachi, people are still seen using their relationship with God and with others for the sake of political, religious, and cultural control, which, as God says, “does violence” to the ones we should protect. When we think of Jesus bringing “peace on earth” at Christmas time, it is this kind of division and harm we are aching to see confronted by Christ’s way of peace.
Reflection Steps
As you reflect on this theme today, ponder the areas in which you have experienced the difficulties of division. Many in our culture are dealing with religious and spiritual wounds, and perhaps you are as well. Many in our culture are also dealing with division in communities, families, and friends, which can feel especially acute during the holiday season. Whatever you may be dealing with, reflect on how you see God in that situation. Do you see God in the same way Malachi writes? As one who is suffering with you and as one who is prophetically opposing the divisive practices being carried out by those who claim to worship God? Perhaps we should spend some time, as Malachi calls us to, to reflect on that picture of “God with us.”