Never Fear, God Is in Your Midst—Lectionary Reflection for Advent 3C (Zephaniah 3:14-20)

Zephaniah 3:14-20 New Revised Standard Version UpdatedEdition

¹⁴ Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;
    shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
    O daughter Jerusalem!
¹⁵ The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
    he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
    you shall fear disaster no more.
¹⁶ On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Do not fear, O Zion;
    do not let your hands grow weak.
¹⁷ The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
    a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
    he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
¹⁸     as on a day of festival.”
I will remove disaster from you,
    so that you will not bear reproach for it.
¹⁹ I will deal with all your oppressors
    at that time.
And I will save the lame
    and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
    and renown in all the earth.
²⁰ At that time I will bring you home,
    at the time when I gather you;
for I will make you renowned and praised
    among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
    before your eyes, says the Lord.

                **********

                There’s no reason to be afraid because God is here in our midst. So, let us rejoice and be glad, and give glory to God, who gives us victory. Words such as the ones we hear on this Third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy (This is Gaudete Sunday, so be sure to light the pink candle). This call to rejoice comes at a time when many folks are feeling anxious about a future that is uncertain politically, economically, culturally, and religiously. Joy is hard to come by in many circles when threats abound. Might I or a family member be deported? Could protections for women and minorities be stripped away? Despite this uncertainty, we hear a call to rejoice in the LORD, who has turned away our enemies. I realize that it will take a lot of faith and trust that such a reality will be true. It’s easier to accept when you face fewer threats, which is the case for me as a white cisgender, heterosexual, married, Christian, male.    

                This week the first reading as provided by the Revised Common Lectionary points us to the words of Zephaniah, another of the “Minor Prophets.” The prophet connected to this book can easily be mixed up with the one who follows in the lineup—that would be Zechariah. They are two different prophets who speak to two different eras in Israel’s history.

So, who is this Zephaniah who speaks to us on this Third Sunday of Advent about joy along with God’s victory over the enemies of the people? According to the opening verses of the book, the Prophet speaks to the people on God’s behalf during the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, in the late seventh century BCE (Zeph. 1:1). As is often true of prophets, Zephaniah is concerned about corruption and injustice and proclaims a word about God’s judgment on the nation. In fact, the prophet declares, on God’s behalf: “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth” (Zeph. 1:2). This sounds rather apocalyptic! Fortunately, this isn’t the word we are pointed to by the lectionary. However, it’s good to know the full story. While the verses that are chosen for us speak of God gathering up the people, this word goes out before the fall of Judah and Jerusalem to the Babylonians. While Jerusalem hasn’t yet fallen, that doesn’t mean the kingdom of Judah didn’t face significant threats from its neighbors. What our reading from Zephaniah 3 does, however, is issue an invitation to celebrate God’s deliverance of the people. 

                We hear this word during the Advent season. Christmas is close at hand. While we would rather sing “Joy to the World” and skip the challenging stuff, Advent does take us to places that have an edge to them. The texts from Scripture can be a bit cranky, which may lead to cranky sermons. Then again, Advent is a season of introspection. Nevertheless, Zephaniah invites us to celebrate God’s victory over Judah’s enemies. The good news is that the days of wrath have passed by. God has taken away the judgments against the people, and Yahweh (Adonai) will serve as its king.  It is indeed all good news. There is a reason for the people to rejoice. At the same time, there are these closing words about God gathering the people and bringing them home. These are the kinds of words we expect to hear not during the reign of the good king of Judah (Josiah), but during a time of exile. So, perhaps this is a word that is yet to be fulfilled. In other words, this reading has an eschatological dimension, which is appropriate for Advent.

                Our reading begins with an invitation to the people of Jerusalem (the daughters of Zion) to sing and shout and rejoice and exult with their entire being because God had taken away the judgments laid upon the people (who were corrupt and unjust) and sent away their enemies. Now, God reigns as king over Israel, therefore there is no need to fear disaster. This is good news for people who live on the edge of disaster. But then comes a word that sounds like things aren’t completely in place. Yes, God reigns in their midst, but maybe there is more to come. The prophet tells the people that “on that day” word will come: “Do not fear, O Zion.” So maybe the people still live with a degree of uncertainty. Nevertheless, God is a warrior who brings victory and will renew the people with love. Yes, a day is coming when there will be a festival, but maybe that day has not yet come. That is a word worth hearing as we find ourselves wanting to skip ahead to Christmas. But take comfort in knowing that God will deal with the oppressors, save the lame, gather the outcast, and “change their shame into praise.” Yes, the day is coming, even if it is not quite here yet. The people still await that moment when God will gather them up and bring them home, making them famous among the people. Yes, God will restore their fortunes. The day is coming, but it’s not yet here.

                It is an eschatological word that we hear in Zephaniah’s message today. It is these words about what God will do that give us hope as we prepare to celebrate Christmas, and with it the celebration of the coming of the incarnate one. There is a promise here that God will deal with the oppressors, saving the lame and gathering the outcast, so that their shame might be turned into praise. This is a word that brings hope to the hearers, including us. It’s not a word of optimism, but it does involve a promise that God will act. This, of course, invites the question of how God will act. Will God’s action require our participation? The answer to that question, it seems to me, is yes!    

                With this promise in mind, on this Third Sunday of Advent, we can answer the call to rejoice in the Lord, who acts on our behalf. The invitation we hear in Zephaniah 3:14 to sing joyous songs fits well with the word we hear from Paul in Philippians 4: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phil 4:4). Yes, we can stop for a moment and experience the joy of the Lord.

                But, once again, we need to keep this call to rejoice in God’s presence within the larger context of Zephaniah’s ministry, which speaks of God’s judgment on the people, indeed, the world. We hear that word in the opening chapter, but a word of judgment appears in the third chapter as well. This chapter begins with a warning to the “soiled, defiled, oppressing city!” This is a city that has failed to accept correction and trust in God (Zeph. 3:1-2). That must change. When all is said and done, the prophet, speaking on God’s behalf, tells the people “I will leave in the midst of you a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD—the remnant of Israel; they shall do no wrong and utter no lies . . . Then they will pasture and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid (Zeph. 3:11-13).

In other words, God will act on behalf of the people but will involve a change of behavior. In context, it does seem as if something traumatic has happened. Perhaps Zephaniah is written during the early days of Josiah’s reign, before and then during the reforms. Josiah was known to be a righteous king, but this was also a traumatic time for the nation of Judah. So, the promise that God will defeat Judah’s enemies would be a welcome message. However, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer might say, beware of cheap grace. This is a word about salvation, but it involves more than praying the sinner’s prayer. So, as Mary Donovan Turner notes: “Zephaniah gives voice to God’s accusations, but the word is not devoid of hope (3:14-20). This is not a naïve hope that fails to recognize the realities of peoples living. It is a hope that can see through those realities to a better day” [Turner, “Zephaniah,” in The Preacher’s Bible Handbook, p. 201]. Hope is not the same as optimism, which can be naïve. It is rooted in God’s promise to bring salvation to the earth, but we have work to do if we’re going to experience the joy that Zephaniah and Paul speak of.