Scripture: Zephaniah 3:14-20 / Delivered: Dec 15, 2024
As a child I remember me and my sister bringing things that needed to be fixed to my parents. Sometimes it was a toy. Other times it may have been a favorite pair of jeans or shirt with a hole in it or a button missing. But we trusted them to be able to make whatever it was whole. To restore it and let us to continue to enjoy the use of that item, whether it be a toy or piece of clothing. Most of the time they were able to do so.
As I thought about this idea of restoring things and bringing joy to those who needed those acts of restoration, I remembered a certain incident involving my Mom and my cousin’s daughter. My aunt, uncle, and their family were taking a vacation to the beach one summer. My cousin asked my Mom to take care of her young daughter’s goldfish while they were gone. Mom agreed to do so. So each day she would go and feed the goldfish. Unfortunately, one day when she arrived to do so she found Fred, which was the name of the goldfish, belly up in the bowl. Fred was dead. I think there was an Ethel at one time as well, but she had died earlier. Mom hated the thought of my cousin’s daughter returning to find out her goldfish had died. So, with the parent’s permission, Mom decided to go buy another goldfish to replace Fred. She picked out the one she thought most closely resembled Fred. Her goal was to restore what was lost, thus allowing my cousin’s daughter to experience joy in returning home to see her beloved pet. Everything worked out okay. Well, mostly. Because upon returning home my cousin’s daughter after a day or so said she wasn’t sure if she would let “Auntie” take care of her goldfish again because she said Auntie had overfed Fred because he had gotten fat. Apparently, Mom came close to “restoring” Fred but didn’t completely get it right.
Today, is the 3rd day of Advent. The first Sunday when we lit the candle of Hope, we focused on the words Righteousness and Justice. The second Sunday when we lit the candle of Peace we focused on the concept of Compassion. Today we lit the pink candle of Joy and today we are going to focus on the word restoration. Remember that this Advent season is a time of waiting. A time of waiting for Christ to return. A time of waiting for that day when God will restore all of the created world into his wonderful design, as he first intended it to be. We wait with the assurance that the days are surely coming, as Jeremiah the prophet prophesied.
But until those days arrive, we wait. But we also work. We work to bring about God’s righteousness and justice to those the world sometimes preys upon. We work to show compassion and share God’s love with those who often feel unloved, left behind, or discarded.
In the two scripture passages I read this morning both Isaiah and Zephaniah declared. “The Lord is in your midst.” Emmanuel with us. The angel that appeared to the shepherds proclaimed the same. “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people; to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Emmanuel with us.
Zephaniah tells the people to rejoice and exult with all their heart. But he also says that God “will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
Restoration.
Gathering.
Breathing new life into people.
Read Ezekiel 37:1-10. The Account of the Valley of Dry Bones.
God could have restored those bones by himself. It wasn’t Ezekiel who put the bones together, caused new flesh to grow. But it was God working through and with Ezekiel to make it all happen.
It is a Divine and Holy privilege to be asked or invited by God to participate in God’s work. We should definitely find Joy in that.
We need to choose Joy.
We need to create Joy.
Play Michael Card song: Joy in the Journey
There is a joy in the journey,
there’s a light we can love on the way.
There is a wonder and wildness to life,
and freedom for those who obey.
And all those who seek it shall find it.
A pardon for all who believe.
Hope for the hopeless and sight for the blind.
To all who’ve been born of the Spirit
and who share incarnation with him.
Who belong to eternity, stranded in time,
and weary of struggling with sin.
Forget not the hope
that’s before you,
And never stop counting the cost.
Remember the hopelessness when you were lost?
There is a joy in the journey,
there’s a light we can love on the way.
There is a wonder and wildness to life,
and freedom for those who obey.
And freedom for those who obey.
We need to find Joy in the Journey. Find joy in the acts of restoration that we participate in those we encounter.
We find Joy when we inspire hope in others.
We experience Joy when we strive to create pathways of peace for others.
Yes, there are things and situations that make Joy hard. At least joy in the meaning the world gives the word.
Joy does not always equal happiness, smiling faces, and jumping up and down with glee.
This morning, we read these words together:
Faced with the troubles and the suffering of the world, we choose to live in joyful presence to God and one another. We will not turn away from the pain and the hurt in our world, and we will not stop rejoicing in God, whose salvation fills us to overflowing that God’s love might flow through us and flood our troubled world with hope, peace, and joy.
I hope you will take that handout home and re-read those words this week. May we all choose to live in joyful presence to God and each other. Even in the midst of pain and hurt in the world we can, and must, continue to rejoice in God. Both for what he has done and what he continues to do for us.
Joy is found in staying focused on the task at hand with the mindsight looking forward to the completion. Joy is in knowing Who we are and Whose we Are. Knowing we are loved by God. Knowing that we belong.
In this season of Advent, we are on a journey. A journey to Bethlehem to once again greet the Christ child born in a manger. Yet, this is just a small leg of a longer journey. The journey to our full salvation and eternal presence with God our Creator. May we not only find our Joy in the journey. But may we all strive to help others to find that same joy in their journey.
Notes from a Book Nerd 