Have you ever received a Singing Telegram? [ASK]

What was it like? How did you feel while it was happening? [ASK]

Did anybody here ever DELIVER a singing telegram? Anybody have the voice and the guts to pull that off? [ASK; if so, what was that like?]

How about Karaoke? Anybody into that? [ASK]

What do you like better, doing it or listening to it? [ASK]

Am I wrong here? I may be wrong here, but listening to somebody else sing…well, unless they’re really awesome, isn’t it a little painful? I mean, singing telegrams, you’re put on the spot, somebody you don’t know is crooning at you…it’s just not a good picture in my mind.

And karaoke…Isn’t it pretty much like our fascination with the American Idol-flunkee guy, that William Hung? Aren’t we REALLY interested in the train wrecks, the really bad people? Am I wrong here?

Here’s the thing: I’ve been working all week with this image, this beautiful image in Zephaniah of God rejoicing over us with singing.

I’ve been working with it, and I’ve been thinking about how rare it is to have something in our lives to connect that image to.

It’s why I went through the fun of thinking of awkward singing experiences, of singing telegrams and karaoke. Those are NOT the images we ought to bring into this beautiful passage!

It’s not an unknown stranger putting you on the spot with a singing telegram. It’s not the gawking pleasure of karaoke.

It’s something much deeper, much more beautiful....something which may be hard for us to accept.

Mauri’s written a song that we’ve sung often in worship.

“I’m gonna love you, nothin’ you can do about it. I’m gonna love you, you will never have to doubt it.”

I remember countless times with each of my daughters, cradling them as babies, bouncing them, trying to get them to go to sleep. I remember singing that song to them.

Celebrating them. Rejoicing over them. Promising them that nothing they could do or say, nothing they could not do or not say, that would ever keep me from loving them.

(Zeph. 3:17): “The Lord your God is with you…he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Be honest with yourself for a moment.

How easy is it for you to put yourself in that picture with God? Can you imagine yourself, held in strong, loving arms, being looked at lovingly and intimately? Can you feel what it would be like for God to celebrate you, to rejoice over you…to sing quietly a promise to never stop loving you?

It isn’t easy for me to put myself in that picture. But this advent, as we are celebrating God’s incarnation, God’s coming near, it’s so important for us to understand the character of this God who is drawing near.

Can we wrestle together with the parts of us that won’t accept God’s love for us? Can we fight together against the voices inside us that think these verses from Zephaniah are a singing telegram addressed to someone else, and mistakenly given to us?

Can we, together, get over the fear that if God only knew, if God really knew me, he wouldn’t come to embrace, he’d come to embarrass.

Because this is not anonymous love songs God wants to sing over us.

This is not blind, distant platitudes. Regardless of what we feel about ourselves, regardless of what we feel about who God is or what kind of horrific fathers we may have experienced in our own lives…God knows us and loves us and cannot stay away from us.

Like me cradling my daughters-physically years ago, and emotionally now that they are older-our God knows us, forgives us, and will not fail to love us.

Listen again to the heart of this image from Zephaniah, this image of the God who comes close.

[READ Zeph 3:15-17]

This is the good part, the culmination, the best news Israel could have received.

It shows again, like last week in Psalm 46, that God has always wanted to draw close to us, to his people, his creation.

This is just the good part of Zephaniah, the promise. To really understand the power of these words of hope, it helps to know what’s in the rest of Zephaniah and what was going on in Israel at the time.

Zephaniah lived in a horrible time for Israel. He lived when it was divided into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. Israel was already taken captive, and Zephaniah’s home in Jerusalem and Judah was threatened. There was war everywhere; Judah was under the control of the Assyrian empire.

Even worse, the recent history had been that of a group of people who had turned their back on God. The king who is described as the worst king of Judah had just died after a long reign, one where he had done incredible injustice and sacrilege and had made a mockery of God’s laws. There were shrines and temples to other Gods, the people were hateful and oppressive, and war was at the borders.

Zephaniah comes into the picture, and for most of the book he tells it to the people straight.

They are sinning, they’ve turned their backs on God, they are wrong, and the Day of the Lord is coming. It will be a horrible, destructive time where God’s anger will end the sinning and the oppression.

The kingdom will end, people will die, and life is never going to be the same.

So before this message of hope, before the beautiful picture of God rejoicing over us in song, there was a message of doom. And the message of doom made sense to everyone. They could see they were sinning. They could see they were oppressed. They could see that life as they knew it was about over, that they had been cheated and taken advantage of and that armies were coming.

What is the answer, when the world seems to be falling apart?

What is it we need, when it seems like all we know is our pain and our failings and our wounds?

We need the presence of God. We long for the presence of our Creator in our lives.

The prophet Zephaniah speaks truth on God’s behalf. Prophets speak the truth of who God is, of the reality of the situation.

Zephaniah’s message of hope shows what Judah was truly longing for.

They were longing for forgiveness, for something to heal their wrong choices and their rejection of God. They were longing for closeness and intimacy with the one who created them. They were longing for freedom from oppression, from justice, from war that threatened their very existence.

The presence and the promise of God answered every one of those longings! Every one!

Verse 15, “The Lord has taken away your punishment.” Our longing for forgiveness is filled when God comes near.

Verse 17, “He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” Our longing for intimacy is met when God comes near.

Verse 19, “I will deal with all who oppressed you; I will rescue the lame and gather those who have been scattered.” Our longing for justice is met when God comes near.

What are the true longings of your heart in this advent season?

The truth of the bible, the truth of my experience, the truth found in the experience of Jesus followers over thousands of years is crystal clear: our true longings are met when God comes near to us.

God’s people have looked in the face of despair, and seen and felt and heard God’s song as he cradles us in his love.

God’s people have feared the coming of God in judgment, and found that as our righteous God makes things right; he takes the punishment on himself and offers us forgiveness through his son Jesus Christ.

God’s people have looked at the tiny baby in the manger and have heard God’s song of love, intimate and close, whispering in our ears.

No matter our pain, no matter our failure, no matter our fear of God’s wrath or God’s apathy…

The reality of the character of God is that he is there. He is here. He has drawn near, and he takes great delight in you and in me. He will take great delight in us, he will quiet us with his love, he will rejoice over us with singing.

God is here! And God loves you. God loves you!