Br. Luke Ditewig

Zephaniah 3:14-20

In Advent we wait, preparing to celebrate how God came as human in Jesus Christ. We also await God’s final triumph, accomplished and not-yet. Advent is more than these weeks before Christmas. Karl Barth wrote: “What other time or season will the Church ever have but that of Advent?”[i] Leaning toward the Word Made Flesh and the restoration of all is our life.

The prophet Zephaniah spoke to the people of Judah during the reign of King Josiah. Most of the book warns of coming judgement and destruction to Israel for turning away from God and for Israel’s enemies. Like other prophets, it’s a call and warning is to change behavior, to return to right living. There’s a dramatic change at the end including today’s text. The last word is not warning but instead joy and restoration. God “will rejoice over you with gladness” and “renew you in [God’s] love.” God says: “I will remove disaster from you,” “gather the outcast,” “change shame into praise,” “bring you home,” and “restore your fortunes.”

From prison, Paul encourages the church in Philippi again and again to rejoice. Rejoice in all circumstances, in suffering, even in chains. Celebrate. God is near. Act rightly by being gentle. Don’t be anxious. Pray your whole life—gratitude, grief, and desire—because God loves fully. We belong to God. God holds us as we are, including loss, grief, and in captivity. God’s peace, the wholeness here and not-yet, the restoration of everything that is beyond our understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

In our Gospel lesson, John the Baptist echoes previous prophets with stark warning. He instructs repentance with how to act rightly. Share food and clothing with those in need. Don’t collect tax beyond what is due. Don’t exhort money. Be satisfied with what you have. Then John points to Jesus coming with far more power.

Jesus kept surprising folk including John. Jesus called for right action and enormous compassion. Jesus taught repentance is like a lost sheep. The shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep to search for the one lost. The shepherd seeks, finds, lifts onto shoulders, and walks back carrying the sheep.[ii] What does the sheep do? It accepts. Kenneth Bailey wrote: “Repentance is not a work which earns our rescue. Rather, the sinner accepts being found.”[iii]

We expect we must work to be saved, for God to love us, but the truth is so much better! For God seeks the lost like searching a house to find a coin. God is wildly generous like a gardener who doesn’t just plant where growth is likely, but scatters seed everywhere for every possibility.[iv] God loves no matter what. God gathers the outcast, changes shame into praise, restores goodness, rejoices over with gladness.

What does it feel like to be rejoiced over with gladness? When another’s face lights up at seeing our face, we feel love. The psalmist says: God, look at us. “Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.”[v] God looks at and saves us. As one who finds a lost sheep or coin, God then says to the community around: Come celebrate with me![vi] Imagine seeing another’s face wide-eyed with big smile. We naturally mirror on our faces. Notice how it feels in your body, the delight, this joy. God feels it for you!

Joy is the third Sunday of Advent theme, so there’s pink in the vestments and pink roses in the wreath. Joy, a theme throughout scripture as God’s gift, is delight not dependent on circumstance. It’s less what we seek and more what we accept. It comes in experience not confined to what may be described as religious or even spiritual. As with Paul, rejoicing, thanksgiving, and prayer go together.

Henri Nouwen wrote that our life of faith: “… requires choosing for the light even when there is much darkness to frighten me, choosing for the life even when the forces of death are so visible, and choosing for the truth even when I am surrounded with lies. I am tempted to be so impressed by the obvious sadness of the human condition that I no longer claim the joy manifesting itself in many small but very real ways.”[vii]

What small but very real ways reveal and spark joy for you? What has been grace, goodness undeserved, unsought, unexpected?        It need not be anything religious but ordinary like sunlight, touch, and a smile. What are you thankful for? What last made you laugh at wonder? Look back and look around to see.

Look forward. Despite the terrors of today and encroaching darkness, God has triumphed and will restore all. In a cosmic way, the bitter cold of winter will thaw to spring. The One who triumphs came as an infant. God seeks, finds, and carries us home, rejoicing over us with gladness, so “rejoice, give thanks, and sing.”[viii]

i] Karl Barth (1988) Church Dogmatics, IV/3.1. New York: T&T Clark, p322.

[ii] Luke 15:1-7

[iii] Kenneth E. Bailey (2005) The Cross and the Prodigal: Luke 15 Through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, p34.

[iv] Luke 8:4-8

[v] Psalm 80:7

[vi] Luke 15:6-10

[vii] Henri J. M. Nouwen (1992) The Return of the Prodigal Son. New York: Doubleday, p109.

[viii] Our post-communion hymn