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| Rejoice!!! (Zephaniah 3:14-20) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of The Holy Spirit, Amen. Grace, mercy and peace be to you … Well, today, as we noticed earlier, our normally rather bare and stark Sanctuary is now arrayed in all its finery for Christmas. All this greenery … all this life … all this excitement at the hanging of the Christmas greens … Wreaths, Holly, Poinsettias to come, and of course, the Christmas Tree! Thanks to all who participated yesterday in bringing about this metamorphosis. We could almost call this Transfiguration Sunday, … but we’d be really jumping the season. But Look: in here: Greenery. Life. Joy! But outside, a totally different picture. Out there, most of the trees are bare …all the perennials around my house are looking like over-ripe bananas or hanging like limp sludge … Out there, it’s a time when it’s dark when you get up, still dark when you go to school or work, it’s dark all over again when you have to battle past the mall traffic to get home… It’s a time of stark contrasts … In here, everything is coming up lighted and joyful and fresh and green… While out there, everything’s brown, cold, dying and dark … and even getting worse! God seems to love stark contrasts like that. And just like this graphic, visual contrast of the season of Advent verses the season of Winter going on around us, God has also given us yet another visual contrast in our readings for today. This contrast is described by the Old Testament Prophet, Zephaniah, a prophet who wrote at about the same time as the Prophet Jeremiah … close to the time of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. Zephaniah was describing the contrast between the best of times and the worst of times for the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Let’s look at the worst-of-times situation first … the fact that the people had, in word and deed, turned their backs on God. They had been a disobedient people. Not only had they not followed the Lord’s decrees which had been given to them out of His love and for their good … But worse yet, these people, God’s people, had turned their backs on Him to the extent that they now were worshipping every kind of idol they could find. Now. God is, and was even then… the perfect parent. Everything His children had needed, He had provided. Even when they needed discipline, that had come as well. He isn’t, and wasn’t, a spoiler. He spoke to them through His prophets, He spoke to them of His love … and He also spoke to them about His displeasure. And in the days of Zephaniah, He spoke of His anger over His peoples’ lack of worship and respect … and their seeking after other gods. It might be helpful to try to see this “worst of times” from God’s point of view, again, from the perspective of a parent. It’s one thing when your child disobeys. The child can acknowledge the wrong, ask for forgiveness, and be forgiven. We’re all sinners. None of us is perfect. Repentance and forgiveness is a way of life for those of God. But … what about the child that says to a parent’s face: “To heck with your rules, Dad, and by the way, the heck with you, too! I disown you. And as far as I’m concerned, you’re no longer my Dad!” That, in real a sense, is what God’s people had done … not only was their behavior not pleasing to God … but they had also disowned Him … They were no longer doing or even being …what they were, the children of God. So, Parent… God … what are you going to do? Well, at the time of the flood … the answer from God was swift and final. Only eight people were saved. But now, in these days of the prophets, the answer from God was that He would send a savior … His Son, Christ Jesus … to be the Messiah … to be the Scapegoat … to be the one who would take upon Himself the punishment for the world’s disobedience. And so … to help us understand how His coming would change everything, Jesus Himself told us the parable of the prodigal son. A son who did exactly what the Children of Israel of Zephaniah’s time were doing … disowning their father. In the parable, the son took his inheritance, and went off to a foreign country -- in a sense, rubbing the family name into the mud. But the father in that parable never stopped loving that son, in spite of the fact that the son stopped doing and being what a son of his should do and be. In the parable, the son finally came to his senses and returned to his father’s house, repentant … hoping only to be made a servant there. But, the message of the parable was … the Father’s love for His son, and so, God’s love for you, no matter what you’ve done … does not change. And so comes the “worst of times” we spoke of in our reading … that the children of Israel were finally faced with the wrath of their God whom they had disowned … they were standing before Him, like the prodigal son before His father, with their hands hanging hopelessly limp at their sides. And yet God speaking through the prophet Zephaniah promised the other side of this contrast… That in spite of their disobedience, God promised a deliverance that He would bring about through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ … God, though Zephaniah, was encouraging His prodigal people to Be glad and rejoice about that with all their hearts … How is this possible? Because the Lord God in Christ Jesus would take away their punishment they so rightfully deserved … And God would turn back their enemy … so that “never again would they need fear any harm.” Look at that picture! These people were as guilty as sin … and fully deserving the wrath of God’s judgment. But, God took upon Himself that wrath and punishment in Jesus Christ. The result is… In these people, God delights! … And God will quiet their fears and dry their tears with His love … And in that, God Himself rejoices over these people with singing. Wow! Just about as stark a contrast as the season of the greens of Advent … verses the season of the dark, raw, cold winter. So … how about us? … how about you? Has the cold, dark, rawness of this world gotten to your soul? Has the devil been making you fearful of long-ago forgiven sins? Has he erected some kind of wall of fear between you and God? Has He stolen all the joy in your life, even as Christmas is approaching? … Has he turned you into a cynic… a Scrooge… a Grinch? The picture we all need to take with us today, is first of all, the picture of the warmth and the joy these decorations represent .. Because they convey an image … an image of what God though Zephaniah is saying in words: That as we are in Christ Jesus through faith, God, our Father is with us … He is mighty to save! Save you and me from every one of our sins. No exceptions. And because of that …right now … He is taking great delight in you, His child … He is, and He will, quiet you with His love … and right now, right now … God Himself is rejoicing over you with singing! So, besides the warmth of this place … that picture of our loving God is also what He wants us to take with us as we go out from the greenery in here into the winter out there. A picture of God … madly in love … Rejoicing and singing over His favorite son or daughter. Namely, you! So … the real puzzle is, as we leave the greenery, the candles, the Christmas tree behind here today, and head out into the raw, cold world out there … How can we leave what we’ve seen in here … and not speak of it … out there? You think God expects us to go out here and just let our hands hang limp… as if we’re without joy… without Hope? That picture doesn’t seem to fit, does it? No. We are redeemed, esteemed, rejoiced over, children of God our Father. Children who have a great message to share … really a great picture of God to show to those who are indeed standing around with their hands hanging limp. And what a perfect time of year to do it. Because you can tell that person you meet with his or her hands hanging limp, that your joy is all about Jesus. It’s all about a manger and a cross … and even about a tomb and a rising to life again! You can tell them that in this Christ …God actually rejoices over them with singing. What a picture … what a message we have this time of year! And what a privilege to be its messengers. Go … tell it on the mountain! In Him. Amen. |