Today’s sermon text from the prophet Malachi describes a scene of the Lord suddenly coming to His temple in person to cleanse His people and purify their worship. This language is used frequently in some of our most beloved Advent and Christmas hymns. Most directly, the hymn Angels From The Realms Of Glory nearly quotes Malachi 3:1 in its fourth verse: “…suddenly the Lord, descending, in His temple shall appear.” All My Heart This Night Rejoices pictures Christ coming to render us “meet for glory” by purifying us from sin, while Gentle Mary Laid Her Child remarks on Jesus’ own purity, calling Him “the undefiled.” “Light” is an image used frequently in hymns like Silent Night, On Christmas Night All Christians Sing, and Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, both as a cleansing agent (“Love’s pure light”) and as a contrast with the darkness of sin (“out of darkness we have light”; “the darkness clears away”). O Come All Ye Faithful, which closes our service, combines many of these themes: Jesus is called the “Light of light” (quoting the Nicene Creed!), while we are commanded to greet and adore the “Word of the Father late in flesh appearing.”
—Henry C. Haffner
