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The Waters of Salvation - December 12, 2021

Zephaniah 3:14-20, Isaiah 12:2-6“Thank God we can’t know the future, or we’d never get out of bed.”1

Some of us remember back to December 31, 1999. People were predicting that there would be mass chaos the next day, the Y2K prophesies of the world temporarily unable to use technology due to the 4 digit rollover from 1999 to 2000. People withdrew cash from banks in case credit cards and ATMs did not work. Backup files were created from computers in homes and offices. It seemed silly at the time, but there was enough fear to hedge a bet on.

Not much happened where I lived in Juneau Alaska. I think the most difficult task for me was figuring out how to reset the time stamp on my cordless landline phone and answering machine. I don’t own a landline and can’t reset to this day the phone lines in the office. But no

doomsday then or now.

We uneventfully plunged further into the twenty-first century. Little did we dream that twenty years later the world we thought would come to a halt in 2000 came to a halt in March 2020. Other than a few epidemiologists there was little doomsday prophesy to prepare us for the past two years.

One reason I preach quite a bit from the Old Testament stories along with the Gospel is to remind us that our heritage, from the Jewish tradition, was full of tough times, often generically foretold in the words of a prophet. Our faith heritage is one of severe political, socioeconomic, and climate-driven catastrophes through which God spoke to the people and then reached down and snatched them out of the hands of their potential demise.

The prophet Zephaniah, the Old Testament reading for today this third Sunday of Advent is a short book in the Bible — just three chapters. It begins with pretty strong doomsday language that God was considering bringing judgment on the people of Judah for the way the people had fallen away from God and into idolatry. As often happens when we humans are left to our own desires we can create some pretty awful messes in our lives, and in our families, and our communities. So just when it seems there will be a stiff price to pay, God tells the people of Judah, through the prophet, that rather than judgment will come mercy and grace and the sounds of rejoicing. A day of gloom becomes a day of gladness.

Zephaniah begins to use the phrase we associate with the Christmas story: “Do not be afraid.” “Fear not.” “The Lord has removed your judgment. . . . The Lord is in your midst; God will rejoice over you with singing.”

(1 Tracey Letts; “August: Osage County” quoted in Feasting in the Word: Year C Vol 1)

It is important to note that it is not the people who are rejoicing and singing . . . it is God who is rejoicing over the people. The prophet is shown the image of the people in fear — with God speaking TO THE PEOPLE: Fear not! All will be well! Rejoice.

God tells Judah: “It is not because of what you did, rather it is because of what I did for you.”

“Don’t worry that my JUDGEMENT will be your undoing."

“Your undoing will be when you stop looking to me for all you need, and for the direction of your lives. Don’t start trusting in yourself — Trust in me, do not be afraid and I will be your salvation."

Sometimes the creators of the Lectionary combine scriptures that make us wonder if they understand the season of the church year. Today is no exception. There is almost always a prophet and Zephaniah sets the scene pretty well for the story of Salvation that begins in the manger.

For the psalm today, the Lectionary returns to the prophet Isaiah, the beginning of the twelfth chapter, which picks up on this concept of salvation

Isaiah 12:24
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the LORD God is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.

With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted.

The first week of Advent we talked about how difficult it is, yet how important it is, that we cultivate the art of waiting for God. Don’t trust yourself to know where and when and how to go forward. Wait. Trust in God. As the psalmist says “Lean not toward your own understanding. In all your ways trust in God.” Wait. Be patient.

The second week of Advent we looked at the importance of repentance . . . changing our ways, even as a hairpin curve in the road brings us 180 degrees back in the other direction. Don’t trust your instincts, don’t decide for yourself where to go or what to do. “Lean not toward your own understanding. In all your ways trust in God.” Repent. Be willing to radically change directions should God’s grace lead you to change.

This third week of Advent we look at how God provides salvation to us, salvation from ourselves, from our ideas, our desires, our sense of importance in this world. The only one who can save us from ourselves is God.

The ability to wait for God, to receive the forgiveness of God that calls us to respond with repentance and turn from our own direction, as well as the ability to experience the joy of our salvation from ourselves is not God’s judgment, although we all will stand in judgment at times.

The gift from God that brings all of this into our lives is the abundant gift of mercy that we experience every time the worst day of our lives threatens to suffocate us. The devastation and havoc that comes crashing down from the world or someone else or even yourself cannot be so devastating that God’s mercy can’t take away the shame you feel or the burden you bear or the heartbreak you have experienced.

Mercy is understood perhaps as if you are barely surviving at the end of a long hard day or in a very difficult time of life. God’s mercy is like someone’s hand reaching into the shower and turning the tap on to start the water flowing and bring it up to the right temperature. And inviting you to step in. You feel the hurt and the pain and the weariness washing away and you begin to feel better. When you think you’ve had enough and you start to turn the water off, the hand returns to the tap and stops you from turning it. God’s grace — an excessive gift to each of us — says to us, “not yet my child. There’s plenty of time. There’s plenty of water. Stay longer if you need until the pain and the hurt, the fear, the failures are washed away. This is the water of salvation for you and for many.”

In a bit less than two weeks, we will hear once again the message from the angels, and imagine the star, and the quiet night after a baby is born. We will hopefully know in our hearts what this amazing gift of mercy and grace and salvation is when the “word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

Until then, let us trust more as we wait, believe more as we experience God’s mercy, and love more as we experience the grace that brings us together in the name of Emanuel — God with us.

Let us pray:
God holds our waiting hearts and give us the gift of patience.
Guide our feet on the path of repentance.
And send us forth to draw water from the well of your salvation.
Amen

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