Scripture reading: Isaiah 12:1-6.

Sermon text: Zephaniah 3:14-20.

Note: Two days before this sermon was delivered at New Hope, a mentally ill gunman killed 26 people and himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. That night, police broke up a fight at a local high school basketball game. Early this morning (15 December), a policeman killed an assailant at a hospital in Birmingham. As I write this on 15 December, police have released that a gunman killed another child in Heflin, Alabama.

The Church in our nation gathers today in shock and grief. No one can understand how anyone can target innocent children in an elementary school.

No one wants to hear that history records worse atrocities. No one wants to hear that sin claims the innocent as frequently as the guilty.

People want answers to the questions: Why? How? Why do these acts happen? How can a loving God allow these things to happen?

I’m quite certain that some will stand today and confidently assert that the catastrophes we’ve witnessed this weekend were “God’s will.” They’ll spout some nonsense about “sovereignty” and smugly stand and dare anyone to challenge them.

I’ve decided to throw out the challenge. Anyone who claims that these heinous acts are the will of his God worships a different God than I do. The God I worship is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God’s will calls for all to repent, but He accepts that free will means that many will reject salvation. There’s a difference between willing for something to happen and working that event into the plan. The God I serve does the latter, and I praise Him for overcoming our worst to bring us to His best, a process that will culminate in a new heaven and a new earth.

You’ll find no better example than today’s sermon text from the book of Zephaniah. Anyone wondering whether God wanted to punish the children of Israel for their sins should ask why God would send hundreds of prophets to call them to repentance.

The prophet Zephaniah prophesied during the time of Judah’s last godly king, Josiah, probably around c. 630-625 B.C. Although Josiah had led the people in a spiritual revival and restored the Temple, sin permeated the society as it had during the time of Manasseh and Amon, Josiah’s grandfather and father. Zephaniah prophesied that “the Day of the LORD” would bring judgment to “those who have turned back from following the LORD, who do not seek the LORD or inquire of him” (1:6).

Even as the nation of Judah experienced its last spiritual awakening, the political clouds gathered on the horizon. In the Ancient Near East, warfare often meant the slaughter or enslavement of entire cities. Assyria’s capital, Nineveh, would fall in 612 B.C.; the army that conquered it wiped it out to the foundations. Josiah would die in battle against Egypt in 609 B.C. The new power in the region, Babylon, would plunder Jerusalem 3 times in the next 40 years. The atrocities involved in the destruction of Nineveh in 612 B.C. and of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. would eclipse anything we've witnessed in the past decade. 

Yet, in the midst of the coming destruction, God still sent prophets to the Hebrews, calling them to repentance. Zephaniah called the people: “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility” (2:3). God did not want to punish the Hebrews; He desired their repentance and sincere worship.

We know that Israel did not repent. Some will say, “God caused the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.” God has used nations to discipline other nations before, and He will do so until the end of this world. I’d point out that Israel removed themselves from God’s protection when they broke their covenant relationship with God. God had only to remove his protection from Jerusalem, and the Assyrians and Babylonians would do what they naturally did in warfare: Destroy cities and kill people. God didn’t have to do much to spur the Assyrians and Babylonians to march south. As before, if you believe God wanted to destroy Jerusalem, consider that He spared the city for nearly 400 years after Solomon introduced idolatry into its society.

In the midst of the prophecies of coming destruction — and it didn’t take a genius to see the end of the Hebrew civilization looming over Jerusalem — Zephaniah gave a prophecy of hope, a prophecy of coming restoration. I believe Zephaniah’s prophecy can bring hope to us today as we struggle to comprehend the horrible events we’ve witnessed this weekend.

At the end of his book, Zephaniah turned to the future beyond the destruction and slaughter. While I believe everyone should read this prophecy, today’s sermon will focus on 2 verses, verses 15 and 18. Please read them with me:

The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;

you shall never again fear evil.

I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival,

so that you will no longer suffer reproach.

For everyone who asks if God cares about what has happened this weekend, I have glorious news: The King of Israel, the LORD, has come into our midst.

The Church gathers today in the Advent season. Our sanctuary holds the decorations that remind us that we celebrate the first coming of Jesus and anticipate His second coming. Advent reminds us that Jesus, the divine Son of God, the LORD, came into our midst by the Virgin Mary. In His first coming, Jesus lived among us. He heard about the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, those babies killed by King Herod the Great in his cold-blooded effort to kill the King of Israel. He saw the atrocities of Rome when Pilate sent the soldiers into Jerusalem to beat and kill protestors who opposed his use of Temple money to build an aqueduct (Luke 13:1, but both Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus record this event as well).

Advent reminds us that in His first coming, Jesus stared pride, arrogance, and cowardice in the face during His trials. He endured the sadistic torture of Roman legionnaires intent on beating a supposed king into submission before they crucified Him, the worst form of execution ever devised by man.

Advent reminds us that Jesus stared evil itself in the face as He died.

Sunday worship reminds us that Jesus won with His resurrection.

Today, the Church gathers in celebration that Jesus defeated evil. Every Sunday, regardless of the season, we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. We gather as the redeemed of Christ because God the Holy Spirit lives in our midst, in the hearts of those born again. Because of the Holy Spirit’s presence, we know that Jesus’ victory goes beyond His time and transforms ours as well.

Do you want an answer to the question, “Why?” The evil that pervaded Jerusalem in Zephaniah’s time continues its hold in many people in the world. That evil crucified Jesus in Jerusalem over 600 years after Zephaniah. Evil revealed itself again this past weekend.

Do you want an answer to the question of “What can God do?” I’ll point to a hill in Jerusalem where the Son of God died for us; then, I’ll point to an empty tomb where Christians still celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and victory. Advent reminds us that Jesus will return again, and when He does, He will judge evil and eradicate sin. We will never again endure the horror of seeing the innocents suffer.

In the meantime, we believers have work to do.

We must insure the world knows God cares about those who suffer. We must tell the world about a God who suffered for us, who knows suffering both because God the Father saw His Son die, and God the Son suffered death for us, including the fear of death (how else do we explain His prayer in Gethsemane?) and the pain of death on the cross.

We must also continue to proclaim Jesus’ resurrection, reveal His Spirit, and worship a God worthy of our worship. I believe we must fulfill these tasks through our interactions with society. We must participate in the lives of others, revealing God’s love for us to them and showing them His love for them. Every person in our lives will live eternally. We must love them in spite of their flaws and faults, even if we must risk revealing our own flaws and faults.

As we worship today, and we leave to go into the world, I’ll remind you of one of the most powerful phrases we find in the Psalms: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4). Yes, evil still exists, but it does so only in its death throes. God has already conquered evil through the death and resurrection of His Son. In the culmination of Advent, Jesus will return, bringing evil’s final end and the new creation’s glorious beginning.