The Phil Files

Honor is word that has lost its luster, its richness, in today’s speech. Fame and notoriety are more important for many people than honor. Honor is reserved for special people who do special things and lived at special times. Those who nobly give their lives for their peers in battle, those who go battle dragons or wild beasts and marauding armies in a Tolkienesque tale, and those who remain faithful under great stress and heartbreak are people of honor. Honor is not much expected of us mere mortals who grind and strive in the profane and practical world of day to day. Or is it?

So much underneath the story line in the prophecies of Malachi — our reading today is Malachi 1 — have to do with real, genuine honor for the LORD Almighty in the daily grind of faith. Like in our day, God’s people had lost their sense of hope, wonder, and awe of God. They performed their sacrifices and the religious rituals without expectation of the glorious God meeting them in those moments. Far from treating God with honor, they defiled and brought dishonor to him by their half-hearted gestures of worship and their contemptuous excuses of sacrifice.

God is God, the LORD Almighty. His name will be glorified among all peoples. How can we, and better yet, how can I, offer him less than what is worthy of his glory and grace?

//Inspiration: Malachi 1:6a
“A son honors his father, and slaves honor their master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty.

//Incarnation: My take on what this means to me
How many times have I just gone through the motions with my worship or with my service or with my daily life? God wants of me something beyond excellence; he wants holiness. He wants consecrated service — something that offers him my best, something that is intended to cost me something and honor him with my heart. So as I begin this day, my thoughts and my actions and my work and my interactions with others must be given to honor him and bring him glory and make his glory and grace known where my footsteps carry me.

//Invitation:
O LORD Almighty, the Great King above all the rulers on earth and in the spiritual world, I confess that there are times in my discouragement and frustration I lose sight of your greatness and the grace you have showered on me. Please forgive me for my times of darkness and lack of faith. Fill my heart with the assured hope of your presence and work in my life. Please receive from me the work of my hands, the speech I share with others, and relationships I enjoy as offerings to you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.