He Is Like a Refiner’s Fire

The reading from the Jewish scriptures for last Sunday’s Second Sunday of Advent was from the prophet Malachi:

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire . . . and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.

This text is set brilliantly to music in the early, Advent portion of Handel’s Messiah, an incomparable and inspired composition on which I cut my classical music teeth as a youth.

I was immediately reminded of the last time I heard Handel’s Messiah performed live, exactly three years ago as we were struggling with the pandemic. I wrote about that experience the next day. Here’s what I wrote, including some more performance links.

“For Unto Us”: An Afternoon with Handel’s Messiah