Zephaniah:3:17-20; Philippians 4: 4-6

The verbs of Advent III

We are finishing up a mini-series on the “verbs of advent.”  We have looked at the verbs from our selected lectionary readings the last two weeks and we have clustered the passages into “theme” verbs.  We came up with five. The first three were “promising,” “attending” and “transforming.” A week later there were “preparing” and “straightening out.   Today we move to the minor prophet Zephaniah and the words of the Paul in his letter to the people of Philippi. The verbs we find are “remove, bear, deal, save, change, bring home, gather, restore, says, rejoice, be known.”  They are almost verbs that express a positive sentiment.  But the most important verb is “will.” God “will.”  God does not say “may” or “let me think about it or maybe.”  What these verses in Zephaniah are expressing is the verb “committing.” “This I will do,” says God.  But there is another verb here and that is “empathizing.” The verses in Zephaniah where we read what God “will do” shows empathy for the plight of the people who bear reproach, who are oppressed and feel like outcasts and feel shame.”  So these are the important verbs that sum things up for this Sunday: committing and empathizing.

Lauren Winner (The Christian Century, December 9, 2015, p. 20) reminds us how Malachi’s vision of the messenger was kind of dark and ominous.  But the message in Zephaniah is happier and more joyful. She writes:”It is something of a relief then that the readings for week three interrupt the dread with a cascade of joy.  With these reading (and with the pink candle), our imagination….is expanded to include not just judgment but also delight. No longer are we praying to escape judgment-now we are singing with gladness because, per Zephaniah, “The Lord has taken away the judgments” against us….; we are shouting and singing for joy.  No longer are we quaking about the Lord’s coming. Rather, per Paul, we are rejoicing in the Lord and practicing gentleness.”

On the Gold River bike trail near our house there are paths where you can find round rocks, shaved by millions of year, stacked neatly on top of each other.  There are usually five or so, with the biggest on the bottom and smaller ones on top.   You find them a few hundred feet apart.  Although I have seen them for several years, lately I heard that one man does that and that someone in the Community Association takes them down, supposedly to keep the path completely natural and untouched. Then early one morning about three weeks ago I caught our rock stacker in the act of stacking.  He was a large man with a little dog.  “So you are the guy,” I said.  He told me an article was about to appear in the local newspaper.  He explained that he was doing that in honor of a friend who had died and who was a naturalist.  I was touched by the commitment and by the empathy for his friend.

Friends, empathy without commitment is really just a feeling and commitment without empathy can be very cold and self-serving.  There have so many athletes who were completely committed to excellence but who showed no ability to empathize with others.  They may have been successful, but they weren’t loved.  It is the people who show empathy and commitment, with someone like Mother Teresa being the ultimate example, that really capture the imagination. We all know people around us that express those kind of ideals:  people that are committed, but also have the compassion to understand.

“Life is beautiful” is one of the greatest films of all time. It is about a Jewish man from Italy who winds up in a concentration camp with his little son and is so committed to keeping his son from emotional harm that he keeps making up stories about the war so that the boy thinks the entire war and the camp included is just a game he has to learn to play. The boy never catches on. The father’s commitment never to let on that life was cruel, always keeps it beautiful for him, because he always shows understanding for how the boy feels.  A film about the most tragic moment in the history of the twentieth century and beyond is full of humor and love. It is a very risky and courageous piece of art.  I think so often when we read stories or hear them and see them, somewhere there is an act of commitment and empathy, somebody staying with a concern for another person’s pain.  I think a church like this thrives on that and floats on that.  I know many of you love this church because you feel empathy and this makes you committed. It is commitment in combination with empathy that drives a church.  And friends, and let us be reminded that as we approach Christmas, that the life and suffering of Jesus was the ultimate act of empathy and commitment we can imagine. Thanks be to God.