ZEPHANIAH’S SONG
A number of years ago, I was at an event in Washington, D.C. called “The Festival of Homiletics.” Those of us gathered there got to hear sermons from some of the finest preachers in the land. There was also a very talented musician there who provided musical interludes between many of the sermons. I was so impressed with his abilities that I actually tried to invite him to Meadville for one of our renewal weekends. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a bit expensive for our humble tastes. He wanted more than $4000.00 for a single weekend.
Prior to one of the songs that he wrote himself, he talked about how frustrated ministers can become – so frustrated that they consider leaving the ministry altogether. Then he sang his song about one such minister who contemplated leaving the ministry. I don’t remember the song in its entirety, but I do remember one particular line. The minister who considered leaving the ministry thought to himself, “I’d wind up flipping burgers…‘cause it’s the only thing I’m qualified to do!” We minister-types roared when we heard that song because deep, deep down, we knew he was right. A Master of Divinity degree – even a Doctor of Ministry degree – don’t qualify one to do much, other than serve a church or flip some burgers.
I came to that stark realization here about six years ago. The Presbyterian Women were holding an auction as a fund-raiser for one of their mission projects. I was asked to make a contribution of some kind that could be auctioned off as well. I couldn’t think of anything, so I offered to do a wedding. When auctioneer Paul Huber came to my offer, I said, trying to make it seem to be of some intrinsic value, “You know, I often get anywhere between 250 and 500 dollars to do a wedding.” Then Frank Smith asked, “How much does it cost to get married in the Methodist Church?” Very funny.
Now sitting in the audience that night were Marty Malone and his at-that-time unmarried daughter, Julie. I don’t remember where Paul started the bidding, but there were no takers at $100.00. There were no takers at 75 or 50 dollars either. When the number dropped to $25.00, Marty Malone raised his hand and bought the wedding. Yet as he did so, his single daughter, Julie, slunk in her chair and cried out, “Dad!” But hey, a few years later we did that wedding, and I was honored to do so…for free!
Apart from leading a church, what is a minister really qualified to do? Diogenes Allen, a philosophy professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary, writes about a similar thing in his book, Spiritual Theology. It seems his wife was a member of a silent auction committee for a school fair. Various services were offered to the highest bidder, with the proceeds going to the school. One person volunteered to examine investment portfolios. One person donated an hour of legal advice, and one couple offered to act as waiter and waitress for a party.
The time came for Diogenes Allen’s wife to offer up something as well. There was a noticeable pause, since everyone knew her husband was a clergyman. Then, in a very matter-of-fact way, Mrs. Allen said, “My husband will give the highest bidder an assessment of his or her spiritual condition.” Her well-meaning offer was greeted with an onslaught of laughter. Diogenes Allen had this to say in the aftermath of what his wife endured. He wrote:
Somehow it seems absurd to mention in a normal setting that people do have a spiritual
condition, let alone that it is possible to assess it as one would an investment. Yet we do care about how we are progressing in life, although we usually assess our progress in terms of the ascent – or descent – of our careers. We give far less attention to an assessment of the kind of person we are, the kind of person we can become, and the kind of person we ought to be…according to God.
Do we, in fact, have a spiritual “condition?” And if we do, what is our spiritual condition? I have a sneaking suspicion that all too often we’re inclined to tie our spiritual condition to the present state of our emotions. In other words, if life is going well and we feel reasonably happy, then perhaps we feel our spiritual condition is good. On the other hand, if life is not going well and we don’t feel the least bit happy, perhaps then we are likely to feel that our spiritual condition is bad. Yet emotions are fickle. Emotions come and go and rise and fall like the tide. Perhaps our spiritual condition should move a bit beyond the state of our emotions. Because the fact of the matter is, there is a monumental difference between happiness and joy. Again, there is a monumental difference between happiness and joy.
Yet before we get to dissecting that statement, let’s take a look at the passage we read from the book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah was one of what we call the Minor Prophets in Old Testament times. Note that the only difference between a Minor Prophet and a Major Prophet is the length of his book, not the substance of his prophecy. The book of Zephaniah itself identifies the time of his prophecy as coming in the days of King Josiah, which would have been between the years 639 and 608 B.C. It was a tenuous time to be a prophet, and it was a tenuous time to be a Hebrew.
The nation of Israel and its capital city of Samaria had fallen to the Assyrians some one hundred years before. Now the nation of Judah and its capital city of Jerusalem were under threat as well. Assyrian power was waning, and Judah found itself a vassal state to Egypt. Babylon was on the rise, however, and would soon drive the Egyptians back into Egypt and overthrow the nation of Judah entirely.
Can you even begin to imagine the overall sentiment of the Hebrew people in times such as those? Should a nation like Babylon invade Judah – which it later did, of course – people would lose their homes. Children would be subject to slavery, women could be subject to something much, much worse, and men would likely be put to death. Families would be separated, livelihoods would be lost, and assets would be scattered. I’m not sure we can even begin to imagine what life might be like under those conditions. It would have been a very difficult time in which to live, to say the least.
Zephaniah, however, was most concerned with the spiritual condition of the Hebrew people. It was a time of idol worship, and many of their priests had become idolatrous as well. The people had begun to practice temple prostitution and were sacrificing their children to the so-called gods of the land. Economic and racial injustices were rampant. People had lost their faith in God and were practicing what Professor A.B. Rhodes calls practical atheism.
Zephaniah chastises these practical atheists in verse 12 of chapter 1. Speaking on behalf of God regarding the coming Day of the Lord, Zephaniah cries, “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who rest complacently on their holdings, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.’”
To the chosen people of God, God had become innocuous. They said in their hearts, “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.” So you see, to the practical atheist the question was not whether God, in fact, existed. They believed that God was there, but in their minds, he did not impact life…one way or the other. That, my friends, is what we call practical atheism.
Practical atheism is the belief that the Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm. God may be there, but he does not impact life one way or the other. Practical atheism was rampant in the days of Zephaniah. The question is, is practical atheism rampant in our world today as well?
I think of a recent presidential candidate. He was running as a Democrat, but the man himself was a Roman Catholic. Let’s just say that the Democratic Party and the Roman Catholic Church have somewhat different views on the subject of abortion. The candidate was asked about that. He stated quite clearly that he would not allow his personal faith to influence his public life. That, my friends, is practical atheism. When our faith in God has no impact on the way we live our lives, God is rendered innocuous. I suppose could go on all day about practical atheism, but I think you get the picture. Practical atheism seems to exist in our world today as well.
Zephaniah chastised the practical atheists of his day. He chastised everything that was wrong about his world from a faith perspective. Speaking of a great Day of the Lord, he told the people that they would in time be judged by God. You would think that Zephaniah would use scare tactics to get the people to repent and to live more Godly lives, and he did. But in the passage we read from Zephaniah a few minutes ago, he made a promise on God’s behalf to those who repented of their evil ways – a promise to those who found a way in their hearts to be faithful. We call it Zephaniah’s song.
The prophet Zephaniah cries, “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 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.” He concludes by saying, “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.”
What do you suppose the emotional state of the Hebrew people was in Zephaniah’s day? They were facing conquest by the Babylonians. They would lose their property, they would lose their homeland, and they would be dispersed to other lands. Do you think they were happy? My guess is that they were not. But then Zephaniah speaks of God’s final conquest and their ultimate delivery. That’s where their faith would have brought them joy.
Which brings us back to the question of our own spiritual condition. We talked about how we’re inclined to tie our spiritual condition to the present state of our emotions. If life is going well and we feel reasonably happy, then we think our spiritual condition is good. If life is not going well and we don’t feel happy, then we think our spiritual condition is bad. Our spiritual condition must move beyond the state of our emotions. Because the fact of the matter is, there is a monumental difference between happiness and joy.
Listen to this. Many years ago, the only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon in search of a ship, but every day he saw nothing but water. Eventually he managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to shelter him from the elements and to store his few possessions.
Then one day after scavenging for food, he went back to his hut, only to find it in flames. The worst had happened. Everything was lost. The man was stunned with grief and anger. He looked to the sky and cried out, “God! How could you do this to me? You’ve taken away absolutely everything!”
Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. The weary but grateful man asked, “How did you know I was here?” The captain of the ship replied, “Why, we saw your smoke signal in the sky.”
Sometimes our lack of present happiness can lead to our ultimate joy. A couple of weeks ago I said in a benediction that after all my years of preaching and teaching, I can make two distinct statements about the Bible. Number one, God is trying to get us to think of someone besides ourselves. And number two, God wins in the end. God always wins in the end. Our personal happiness may be fleeting. It can rise and fall with the state of our emotions. Joy is different. For beneath true joy lies a confidence that God has everything well in hand. God does have everything well in hand. I mean, if you think about it, that’s what the Christmas story is really all about. Amen.
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