The Great Reversal

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

In this Christmas, Advent season there is so many different traditions like the giving of gifts, spending time with family. But one tradition that we don’t see as often anymore is the tradition of Christmas Caroling. It’s a joy to go and bring the message of Jesus in the form of song to all different people who need to hear the good news. Our school kids at Bethany at the opportunity go and make visits to different facilites, different homebound members, different people to share with them the message of Jesus as they sang all the different familiar songs, like “Go Tell it on the Mountain” or “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. But I would argue for the most part, singing Christmas carols - going to people’s homes around the neighbor isn’t as popular as it once was, it isn’t a normal thing that we see other people doing in our world. Maybe that’s due to the invention of Ring doorbells, where you can see exactly who is coming to your door, or maybe its due to our culture and how we are much more individualistic nowadays, or perhaps there are many who simply just don’t feel like singing.

If there is anyone who wouldn’t feel like singing joyous Christmas songs of praise it would be the people of God in the tribe of Judah at the time the prophet Zephaniah was doing his ministry where God had called him to a mouthpiece for Him. The Book or the message of Zephaniah we are told in the beginning of the book, is taking place during the time of King Josiah. And if you don’t remember anything about King Josiah - King Josiah was the one who helped rediscover the scroll or the law of God. King Josiah was 8 years old when he was put and chosen to be King Judah - the Southern Kingdom of Israel. But the kingly line that Josiah followed was his grandfather - Manasseh - who reigned for 55 years and it said that he did evil in the sight of the Lord. It says that in Manasseh’s reign as king he led the people to do more evil in the sight of Lord than the other nations that the Lord had destroyed. Think of Sodom and Gomorrah, think the evil nations chasing after other gods. And its says in 2nd Kings that King Manasseh led the people to more evil, more unfaithful than them. This is the kind of kingdom that Josiah the king is ruling in, this is the kind of attitude that many people in the kingdom have. And its in the context, the words of Zephaniah are filled with law and judgment! Zephaniah tells Judah that judgment is coming because of your idolatry, judgment is coming because of the evil. If anyone doesn’t feel like singing Christmas songs of praise, if anyone doesn’t feel like praising God. I’m sure its these people. People who are waiting this impending judgment which we know to be the Kingdom of Babylon coming, people who are waiting for the day when they will meet God’s wrath for the evil among them. For these people, there isn’t any good news to share. There isn’t a Christmas carol or a tune new that will cheer them up.

But it is in the midst of this impending judgment where we hear this call for the Lord to the people starting in verse 14, He is calling them to Rejoice. It says in the prophet Zephaniah, “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your judgments against you; He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. On that day is shall be said to Jersualem” The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love…”Zephaniah after telling the people about this impending judgment coming, Zephaniah gives the people of Israel - he gives God’s people this comforting message of good news. The message that one day is coming when there will be this restoration, one day is going to come when the Lord will be in the midst of the people and the Lord will take away the judgment, the Lord will take away the punishment that His people deserve. And because of the work of the Lord, the enemies of God’s people will be vanquished, the enemies of God’s people will stand no longer. The prophet Zephaniah is pointing forward to a day where this will be a reality. He gives the people hope and he speaking of things as absolute certainty. It isn’t you should hope for this to happen, it isn’t Zephaniah trying to find a silver-lining in the judgment he declared for God’s people, but it is revealing to the people that one day after this judgment is endured - there will be a day when you will fear no longer, there will be a when you will rejoice for the work of the Lord your God. So in the midst of this difficult situation, Zephaniah is giving people hope - teaching them a new Christmas carol to sing!

This is an interesting time that we live in with much of our Christmas shopping done online. It is so convenient, it is so easy to go to website, click add to cart. This is so much easier than getting in the car, bundling up when it is extremely cold outside, driving in your car to get to the store filled with many different people, waiting in line. It is so much easier to go to a website, click the link and wait for it to arrive in the mail. Have any of you ever had that experience when you have bought something online - you have receipt emailed to you and you check the tracking number the give you and you begin to worry and panic. The Christmas party is only a few days away and the packages that you are waiting for haven’t arrived yet. You go and look up the tracking number and you find that all it says is, “Shipped”. A few more days go by. You do the same thing, you can search the tracking number given to you, and this time it says, “Out for Delivery”. A few more hours go by and you find yourself checking the ring app at work to see if the package that you are expecting will ever arrive. Out of fear, out of doubt, out of lack of trust from the postal service, you find yourself continually trying to see the reality of the package and the item that you bought.

We hear this words from Zephaniah - this great description of the peace that Jesus brings in the Christmas season, and we look out in the world and perhaps we act the same way. We see pain in the world or in our lives and we crack open the Bible see the peace that God talks about and we maybe say to ourselves - maybe we are still waiting for that to be delivered. Or we look out at sin and temptation and the power that they seem to have over our lives and we open God’s Word and maybe we begin to think - maybe that is still “out for delivery”. Or this Christmas season perhaps we look at the broken relationships that we have and deal with in our lives and perhaps we say to ourselves maybe this peace of Jesus got lost in the mail out on delivery.

But this Christmas season, despite the brokenness of our world and despite the brokenness of our lives we do rejoice and we do celebrate - that Jesus Christ has come for you! He has come to deliver on come through on God’s promise that one day He will come to dwell with His people. Jesus comes this Christmas season to bring and deliver God’s peace, it is in Jesus where we have our judgment taken away against us, it is in Jesus where we have our enemies defeated through His work on the cross, it is in Jesus that we evil loses its power. God has followed through on the first fulfillment of this promise of Zephaniah as Jesus has come to be the medium or the focal point of God’s judgment for you removing your sin as far as the east is as from the west. And out of His love for you, He has poured out the Holy Spirit in your life and He is with you always to the very end of the age. God in Jesus delivers on His promises for you!

This great reversal of shame being turned to praise of evil lasting no longer, we experience that in our individual lives through the work of Christ coming to be with us, but today we continue to wait for that day when all creation with be able to experience this with their own eyes, the day when sin and Satan and death are no longer! But even in our waiting for that day, we wait in hope knowing that Jesus has done the work, we wait in hope knowing that this day is coming. And it is through hope in the work of Jesus - just like Zephaniah describe we rejoice, we give thanks, we lift our voices to sing of the greatness of our God. The work of Jesus gives you a new song to sing!

Now may the grace of God the peace of God which surpasses all understanding may it guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.