Open-ended,
Life-centred,
Gospel-Focused Explorations of the Hebrew Bible Readings set for the
Eucharist in the Australian Prayer Book.
ADVENT
3, Year C...
ZEPHANIAH 3:14-20 ....For the Gospel
(LK 3:7-18) scroll above.
NOTES: 1]Always read the Hebrew Bible in the light
of our understanding of God in the New Testament.2] Zephaniah exercised his prophetic
minstry c.640-630 in the reign of King Josiah of Judah, i.e.just
before
Jeremiah. His main theme is the 'Day of the Lord', or, in broad terms,
'Judgment Day'. 3] The
Northern Kingdom of Israel
had been destroyed by the Assyrians about 90 yrs before. Z assures the
people that
Zion (Jerusalem) will be spared the same fate, at the hands of the
Babylonians this time, if they turn to
God. They do have a few years of grace before the inevitable happens. 4] Like the rest of Z, these verses
are poetry & should be read as such.. WARMING UP: Is there
anything that makes us 'jump with joy' in any sense?
TREASURES OLD & NEW:
Identify God at work in anything this week?
ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
14-15 Does joy play much of a role in
our personal faith, our corporate worship, or the way we function as
Christians? Can we identify what it is, or who it is we have cause to
be
joyful about? If we sometimes sense a kind of 'fixed' joy at one end of
the Christian spectrum, do we also sense a distinct lack of
discernible joy at the other? Where are we along that spectrum? Is that
where others see us? How does the imagery of 'daughter' for Jerusalem
sit with us? Isn't the Middle East more a macho place? What about where
we live? Is it our experience that God takes away 'judgments' of any
kind against us, turns away our enemies, our disasters?
16-18 What
role does fear, of any kind, play in our life? Is it true that the
opposite of love is not hate, but fear? Does what S.John says about
fear (1JN4:16-18) throw any light on any fears we have? Does fear ever
make 'our hands grow weak'? How? Is it a little surprising that someone
(Z) so long before the Incarnation of Jesus should talk about God
'being in your midst'? Does this offer us insight into the invaluable
heritage we have in the Hebrew Bible? On the other hand, do we still
think of God as a 'warrior' in some sense? What kind of warrior? What
kind of victory is it that God gives? Is this kind of 'warrior' imagery
at least partly behind Jesus not being recognized as Messiah in
his day? ( e.g. his riding a donkey rather than a war-horse? ) Where
does that leave 'Onward Christian Soldiers' & hymns of that ilk?
What reasons can we think of for God 'rejoicing over us...', 'renewing us in in his love', 'exulting over us...', 'removing disaster from us...'?
19-20 Who are our
oppressors today? Or, whose oppressors have we become? Are there any
senses in which we are 'lame', or 'outcast'? What shame(s) do we bear,
personally (if we can talk about it), as a Home Group, or a church?
What would it mean for us to have that / those shame(s) turned into
'praise'? Praise by other people? Praise by God? What about renown
among people? Renown 'within' God?
What might it mean for
us to 'come home'? Come home to whom? Come home to where, or to what?
Is God saying through Z that any praise or renown we achieve is
dependent upon our being brought home, being gathered by God? Even if Z
(& his hearers) take this being brought home, & being gathered
to refer to a physical Zion, do we as Christians usually think of
'being brought home' & 'being gathered' as dying? What causes us to
think like that? Is that helpful or unhelpful in our Christian journey?
What 'fortunes' do we need restored, or are waiting for God to restore?
How physical is any of this, or is it all 'spiritual'?
