Good News in the End
Zephaniah 3:14–20
Luke 3:7–18
December 17, 2006
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
Rev. Sandy Messick

Scripture Introduction: (To Zephaniah passage)

“So with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people!” That’s good news? Just like the Grinch who stole Christmas, John the Baptist shows up here yelling and screaming and scolding and ruining our peace-filled moods. We’ve got to get better locks on this place! But this year, the lectionary pairs John’s words with those of the prophet Zephaniah, and it is there we find our word of hope.

Sermon:

• So I was at a clergy meeting this past Thursday. Over lunch as we were gathered around the table, one of the other ministers said, “So what are you preachers doing with Luke’s brood of vipers passage on Joy Sunday?” Around the table there was a chorus of answers, all tinged with a sigh of relief, “Oh, the choir’s doing a cantata so I don’t have to preach,” or “It’s the Children’s Christmas pageant,” or “We’ve been doing special themes all year.” All expressing that common sentiment of “Thank heavens I don’t have to deal with that!”
• Until a still small voice at one end of the table piped up, “Ummm, actually I’m preaching Luke’s brood of vipers.” And all eyes turned to look at me.
• I didn’t look across the table to see how my two colleagues from this church were reacting, Loren Arnett and Dick Cunningham. I can only guess they were making mental notes to be anywhere but here this Sunday.

• Because it is a bit difficult isn’t it? After all, the preacher’s job is to proclaim the Good News, and where’s the Good News in being called a Brood of Vipers and told to repent?
• We could pretend, I suppose, that John the Baptist’ was talking to someone else when he said that. We could paste innocent looks on our faces and glance around with interest to see who else he could be talking to.
• Except that he wasn’t talking to someone else. He was talking to us. All of us. The believers, the doubters, and the seekers. All of us who come seeking some good news, some reassurance, some warm fuzzy feelings before we head back out to finish our Christmas shopping.
• Only, John really wasn’t very good at giving warm fuzzies. He was more a “tell it like it is” sort of guy. “Don’t suppose that just because you’re Children of Abraham, or you’ve been in the church all your life, that you have any claim on God. Repent. Bear good fruits. Your actions matter as well as your words.”
• Apparently his words had an impact because the people started asking him, “Well, then, what should we do?” And John replied, Share with the poor, don’t steal or cheat or rip people off. Don’t be a bully. Help others.
• You see, this is a passage about judgment, and I ask you again, where’s the good news in that?

• The Good News is this: Judgment is good news when it forces us to take a hard honest look at our actions and see the ways what we do causes harm to others, and causes us to turn again to God. As Dr. Phil would say, “You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge,” Judgment is gracious when it allows us to face the consequences of our actions and so return to God. Good news in God’s eyes isn’t good news until it is good for all of God’s creation.
• And so, judgment in the form of Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, that shows us how our actions are destroying God’s world and harming God’s children is gracious judgment if it causes us to wake up and smell the pollution and change our ways. That’s good news.
• And so judgment in the form of world opinion, and rising death counts, and growing instability in Iraq is gracious judgment if it causes us to rethink not only how we’re doing this war, but how all wars harm God’s children and that perhaps we should work harder at finding another way. That’s good news.
• And so judgment in the form of a homeless person huddled up sleeping on the bench in our courtyard the morning after the worst windstorm in over a decade is gracious judgment if it causes us to examine how this church ministers to the least of these, and what impact we can make. That’s good news.
• And with words such as these, John preached Good News to the people.

• And with words such as these, the prophet Zephaniah also preached Good News to the people. In case you haven’t been reading this book lately, Zephaniah is a short book, tucked away between Habakkuk and Haggai. It has only 3 chapters and 2 ½ of them are words of judgment.
• “Ah soiled, defiled, oppressing city! It has listened to no voice; it has accepted no correction. It has not trusted in the Lord; It has not drawn near to its God. The officials within it are roaring lions; its judges are evening wolves that leave nothing until the morning. Its prophets are reckless, faithless persons; its priests have profaned what is sacred…”
• But even there, even then there is grace, and hope. “For I will leave in the midst of you a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord.”
• The verses for today are probably a later addition, as if the writers just couldn’t end the book with judgment only. And rightly so. For after the judgment comes forgiveness, and after the separation there is reconciliation. “The Lord, your God, is in your midst, he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love.”

On this Sunday, the Sunday of Joy, there is joy indeed. For judgment that leads to repentance is gracious. And grace leads to forgiveness, and forgiveness offers hope, and hope leads to joy. And that my friends is Good News for all of God’s people, the believers, the doubters, and the seekers. Amen.