Malachi 1:6-14 “What Connects Christians?”
Sermon, August 15th 2013

What one thing connects Christian people all over the world, down the ages and across the world? Christian worship. All have worshipped or worship the covenant making God.

During Malachi’s day a number of Jews had returned to Jerusalem after the exile. They had, with the encouragement of Haggai, rebuilt the Temple (a more modest structure than Solomon’s Temple)- but the walls of Jerusalem remained in ruins, pilgrims hadn’t been flocking back to Jerusalem in droves and the city was an economic backwater of the Persian Empire. The sparkle had come off their return to the city of God – they had become cynical and jaded with God and when the prophet Malachi spoke God’s word- his covenant people gave a sharp retort.