"A DIFFERENT KIND OF JOY"

(Zephaniah 3:14-20) "Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! {15} For the LORD will remove his hand of judgment and will disperse the armies of your enemy. And the LORD himself, the King of Israel, will live among you! At last your troubles will be over, and you will fear disaster no more. {16} On that day the announcement to Jerusalem will be, "Cheer up, Zion! Don't be afraid! {17} For the LORD your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty savior. He will rejoice over you with great gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will exult over you by singing a happy song." {18} "I will gather you who mourn for the appointed festivals; you will be disgraced no more. {19} And I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you. I will save the weak and helpless ones; I will bring together those who were chased away. I will give glory and renown to my former exiles, who have been mocked and shamed. {20} On that day I will gather you together and bring you home again. I will give you a good name, a name of distinction among all the nations of the earth. They will praise you as I restore your fortunes before their very eyes. I, the LORD, have spoken!"" (Luke 3:7-18) "Here is a sample of John's preaching to the crowds that came for baptism: "You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee God's coming judgment? {8} Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God. Don't just say, 'We're safe--we're the descendants of Abraham.' That proves nothing. God can change these stones here into children of Abraham. {9} Even now the ax of God's judgment is poised, ready to sever your roots. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire." {10} The crowd asked, "What should we do?" {11} John replied, "If you have two coats, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry." {12} Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, "Teacher, what should we do?" {13} "Show your honesty," he replied. "Make sure you collect no more taxes than the Roman government requires you to." {14} "What should we do?" asked some soldiers. John replied, "Don't extort money, and don't accuse people of things you know they didn't do. And be content with your pay." {15} Everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether John might be the Messiah. {16} John answered their questions by saying, "I baptize with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am--so much greater that I am not even worthy to be his slave. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. {17} He is ready to separate the chaff from the grain with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, storing the grain in his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire." {18} John used many such warnings as he announced the Good News to the people."

In the Hebrew Bible, there are twelve books known as the books of the minor prophets. Most of you can probably remember hearing things from Amos, and Micah, and you all know the story of Jonah, but The Book of Zephaniah isn't one that is well known, or oft quoted. In fact, this is the only time in the three-year lectionary cycle when a passage from Zephaniah is included. Not much is known about Zephaniah, but what can be pieced together is the following. He was probably of royal descent, his preaching showed no concern for the poor of the land, and he was a master of negativity. His prophecies are almost exclusively predictions of God's harsh and angry judgement, and his message that, "I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth, says the Lord. I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. I will overthrow the wicked; I will cut mankind from the face of the earth, says the Lord," was even gloomier than that of Amos, who only said, "The day of Yahweh will be darkness and not light." In fact, today's scripture comes from the only positive section of the book, and is a psalm inviting Zion to rejoice, of all things, because salvation is at hand.

The passage is so out of tune with the overall tenor of Zephaniah's writing that it is thought these words aren't Zephaniah's at all, but an addition by a later editor. Yet the psalm is crucial to understanding his message, because even as Zephaniah preaches about the ultimate destruction of Judah and Israel, and even as he predicts the fall of Jerusalem, the psalm reaches far beyond the failure and brokenness of God's people, to show a time when they will be redeemed and forgiven, gathered together, and transformed by God, who not only judges, but who reconciles us in love, with mercy. In the psalm, Zephaniah points toward future possibilities of joy promised in even his direst prophecies, using the most graphic images.

Luke reports similar imagery and tells of dire predictions in his account of John the Baptist. He speaks of the "wrath to come," and of, "the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire and who, "would use his winnowing fork to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." As you can hear, neither John, nor Zephaniah were cheery guys with warm, fuzzy messages, but prophets with warnings about how we choose to live, and about the consequences of our choices.

Zephaniah promised a time when God would lead the people out of the unholy mess they'd made of their lives, and into safety, and beyond even that, into a new place of love and peace and joy.

John promises that God has a plan which includes some quite drastic consequences for making poor choices, yet John gives us good news and tidings of great joy that, through baptism, in true repentance--forgiveness and the power of the Holy Spirit will lead us to a new place, and beyond even that, into a new heaven and a new earth. And the process of telling the truth about our shortcomings, admitting to the wrongs we do, reflecting on the ways we fail, and asking God's forgivenss will set us free. In the moment when we come face to face with ourselves, honestly, and completely, we can choose to repent, seek forgiveness, and begin again. In that moment, we come to a new place of freedom, peace, and deep joy. The challenges are behind us, and the future is open and filled with potential and possibility and promise.

I know it's not in vogue to talk about sin that we'd all prefer to think of ourselves as good people who make an occasional mistake, which is the truth, of course. There's one important thing we tend to forget though; God requires a penitent heart. Why? Because only in a soft and open heart, can God work the miracles of healing and forgiveness.

The process of repentance is to reflect on our thoughts, words, and actions, admit to our mistakes, have a desire to grow and learn and change because of them, and then ask God to forgive us. The main thing about this sinning business isn't that we are sinners, or even the sin we commit. The most important thing is the process itself: reflecting, repenting, asking for forgiveness so that through the process, we come back into right relationship with God, others, and ourselves. We do things on a daily basis that are hurtful and unkind, and these mistakes never seem important enough to take to God and ask for forgiveness. After all, we're not like the -soon to be exiled people- of Judah and Israel, and we're not part of any brood of vipers. We're basically doing good things with our lives: we're mostly faithful and upstanding. So, somehow the whole process of admitting that we "sin," and then asking God to forgive us, offends our post-modern notion about whom we are, and what God requires of us. To be sure, sometimes sin is pure evil, and some acts are despicable, and impossible for us, in our weak humanity, to forgive. Those sins, we have to leave in God's hands.

What? You may be thinking, does all this have to do with the joy of Christmas? And why? You might be asking, are John the Baptist and Zephaniah intruding with all this talk of destruction and sin, into a time supposed to be filled with sentimental and hopeful Christmas feelings?

I think the answer to that question, and to the reality that we are all sinners each in our own unique way, is answered by this: that if we don't accept at the very core of our beings that we are poor ornery people, sinners in need of salvation, that we are lost and lonely, and anxious in our souls even though we project an image of having it all together, then we have no need to show up here week after week, or to celebrate Advent, or to wait with some unexplained longing to celebrate the birth of a savior. To wait for Christ, is to acknowledge that we can't live completely by ourselves that we need salvation. To anticipate the coming of the light of the world, and then welcome it into our hearts and minds and lives, is to admit that we have dark corners of guilt and shame and fear. It is to admit that we make mistakes, sometimes cause hurt, forget that we are a holy people, and need forgiveness.

To prepare for the birth of Christ in our lives is to admit that we are not whole without the love of God in our midst.

The incarnation of God in Christ, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, is a mysterious gift of grace. We were lost, and the babe found us. We were blinded by the darkness, and God gave us sight through the light of the world. We were drowning in sin, and God poured down the waters of baptism to wash over us, and make us new. To prepare for Christ, and to know deep joy, is to understand that we fail, and need saving, sin, and live in need of grace, and find life in the mystery of God's love.

There is a different kind of joy in knowing you are a sinner. It isn't the exuberant kind that bursts onto the scene in noisy pleasure. It is like the soft and gentle dawning of radiant light, the quiet certainty that God is with you, and that comes after passing through the dark night of the soul. It is the joy born of hope and courage and faith that no matter what you do, you can trust that God forgives a contrite heart. It is the kind of joy that comes when you continue to face the future with hope and the expectation of triumph, even though everything seems hopeless in the moment, and the future seems hard to envision. It is the joy that comes when you give up believing that you know it all, or can do it all, or can have it all, and let God lead your life. It is the kind of joy that comes from having something new revealed that takes you forward into some new place, where hope is born and peace is possible.

In Luke's gospel, John teaches us that our baptism reaches far beyond the failure and brokenness that are part of our lives, and shows us again and again that we are redeemed and forgiven, gathered together and transformed by God, who not only judges, but who reconciles us in love, with mercy. John points us toward future possibilities of joy promised to us as a gift, given by that tiny babe so long ago.

In this time of waiting and expectation, may you know in new and deeper ways, the power and truth, light and life, of a different kind of joy . . . in Jesus name . . . AMEN






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