Sermons from
First Congregational Church
of Southington
Minor Prophets, Major News: Rejoice and Exult
Zephaniah 3.14-20; Luke 3.7-18
December 13, 2015
The Third Sunday of Advent
The Rev. Dr. Ronald B. Brown
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Zephaniah 3.14-20
14
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O
daughter Jerusalem! 15The 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. 16On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not
let your hands grow weak. 17The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives
victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult
over you with loud singing 18as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so
that you will not bear reproach for it.19I will deal with all your oppressors at that time.
And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth. 20At 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.
Luke 3.7-18
7
John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits worthy of
repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I
tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9Even now the
ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is
cut down and thrown into the fire.” 10And the crowds asked him, “What then should we
do?” 11In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who
has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12Even tax collectors came to be
baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13He said to them,
“Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14Soldiers also asked him, “And
we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by
threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
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Year C: Advent 3
“Minor Prophets, Major News:
Rejoice and Exult”
December 13, 2015 Sermon
The Rev. Dr. Ronald B. Brown
Page 2 of 6
15
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their
hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them
by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I
am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the
wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 18So, with
many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
†††††††
I.
It happens every year, but still it surprises me. I’m cruising along through Advent. The candles
are in the windows, the Christmas decorations are up, the Christmas Eve services feel like they are
coming together, the shopping—well the shopping isn’t done—but that isn’t the meaning of the season
any way right?
Everything seems to be going along pretty smoothly, then, I notice it. There’s a fire on the
horizon. We turn the corner on the Third Sunday of Advent and who is standing there waiting for us?
It’s the one character that never appears in anyone’s nativity set, John the Baptist, and he’s hopping
mad—an ax in one hand and a pitchfork in the other and the sparks are flying. John is not exactly
Christmas card material.
He's standing knee-deep in the river and delivering a hell-fire and brimstone sermon.
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits worthy of
repentance…Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not
bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Merry Christmas!
But despite John’s appearance on the horizon, grouchiness is not the theme for this Third
Sunday of Advent; it is joy, the joy that is at the heart of the good news of Jesus Christ. In the liturgical
church it is called Gaudete Sunday, the Latin word for “joy.” An interesting part of this tradition is that
on this Sunday, we light a pink candle on the Advent wreath. The other candles are purple, the color for
penitence. But today—the Sunday for Joy—we light a pink candle. (It’s not pink because Mary was
hoping for a baby girl, as someone suggested at a clergy meeting I attended last week.)
But it can be hard to feel joyful sometimes.
II.
A few years ago I started my sermon one Sunday during Advent by telling the congregation that
I was feeling a little “Scroogish” about Christmas. It just seemed like the whole Christmas thing was
getting out of hand; the Christmas decorations in the stores had been up since Halloween; my children
were lobbying for some pretty expensive presents; if I had to resist another plate of cookies I think I
would have screamed! And to top it off I had to preach about John the Baptist and his ax that Sunday. I
was definitely in league with Ebenezer Scrooge and I said so.
Bah! Humbug!
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“Minor Prophets, Major News:
Rejoice and Exult”
December 13, 2015 Sermon
The Rev. Dr. Ronald B. Brown
Page 3 of 6
But I got such a reaction to that sermon, I’ll never do it again. One concerned parishioner even
brought a half gallon of Friendly’s peppermint stick ice cream over to my house. She said that always
cheered her up. Christmas is a time of joy.
But I was in good company you know.
I have read that when all this Christmas cheer gets out of hand there is what scholars call an
“alternate narrative” moving along beneath the surface; it’s the tradition of Christmas grouchiness. Its
most eloquent spokesperson is Ebenezer Scrooge. Charles Dickens wrote of his quintessential grouchy
character in A Christmas Carol, “Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A
squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. Hard and sharp as flint. The
cold within him froze his features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek.” “Every idiot,” Scrooge
himself says, “who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled in his own pudding
and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”
That’s grouchy.
Christmas grouchiness appears in other fine literature as well. Scrooge may be its first
spokesperson, but Dr. Seuss’ unforgettable character, the Grinch steps right up there with him.
The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now please don’t ask why. No one knows quite the reason.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small. . . .
“They’re hanging their stockings,” he snarled with a sneer.
“Tomorrow is Christmas; it’s practically here!”
Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming,
“I must find some way to stop Christmas from coming.” 1
So the Grinch steals Christmas on Christmas Eve, all of it—stockings and gifts, trees and wreaths,
the roast beast in the icebox, even the log in the fireplace—and takes it all away to throw it over a cliff.
III.
Ebenezer Scrooge, the Grinch, and even John the Baptist aside, you can make a pretty good case
that at the very core of the Bible’s message about the life of faith there is joy. Joy is a core value of the
Bible. I can quote a ton of scripture verses to support that notion.
But one of the most interesting descriptions of joy in the Bible comes from the book of the
prophet Zephaniah. Only three chapters long, it is interesting because most of Zephaniah is pretty
unpleasant. It’s one of the gloomiest, most unrelentingly dismal and depressing books in the Bible.
Things are so terrible, the people so awful, there is simply nothing good to say. The only thing that
could possibly solve this mess is for God to destroy everything and start all over again. And then, after
two and a half chapters of this, come the last seven verses, without warning:
“Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart.”
1
Theodor Seuss Geisel, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (New York: Random House, 1957).
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“Minor Prophets, Major News:
Rejoice and Exult”
December 13, 2015 Sermon
The Rev. Dr. Ronald B. Brown
Page 4 of 6
Apparently there’s something going on in the world that is more important than evil and
injustice and despair; something more profound, more real, than all the dismal gloom that John the
Baptist sees in the world; apparently there is a light shining in the darkness.
John himself would soon speak to it, would tell his disciples that a light shines in the darkness
and the darkness cannot overcome it.
But where do we find that joy? How does it grow and become manifest I our lives, especially
when we are grouchy?
IV.
Years ago I heard about that deep joy in a story for a holiday our Jewish friends are celebrating
now, Hanukkah, the festival of lights.
Once there was a king who would disguise himself and walk among his people to discover what
they thought and how they lived. He went to visit a woman people called “Hannah the Joyful,” for
wherever she went she brought joy to others. The king had heard that she was poor, and had no family.
He wrapped himself in a beggar’s cloak and went to the Jewish section of the city. There were menorah
lamps shining from windows and families gathered together, singing and laughing. It was the first night
of Hanukkah.
At the edge of town, he knocked on the door of a small house and was greeted by Hannah. She
invited him to sit down with her as she lit the first candle on the menorah, and to share what little she
had to eat. He could see the happiness in her face and hear the joy in her voice as she sang the
Hanukkah songs.
“How do you earn your daily bread?” he asked. Hannah told him that she gathered salt from
the waters of the sea, and sold it each day in the marketplace.
“How can you sing with such joy when you may not know what you will eat tomorrow?”
“Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah,” she said, “when we celebrate the miracle of light that
was performed for our ancestors, the Maccabees, long ago. Even though I am alone, and an orphan, the
Holy One has sustained me till now. For me, every day is a miracle. That is why I rejoice!”
When the king returned to his palace, he thought about Hannah’s impressive faith in God. But
he wondered: Would she trust God no matter what happened? He decided to test her. The next day,
he sent a royal command throughout the marketplace: “It is forbidden to sell salt gathered from the sea,
on pain of death!”
That evening, in his beggar’s clothes, the king visited Hannah. She greeted him warmly, with joy
in her face.
“Hannah, I was worried about you when I heard of the king’s command,” he said. “How did you
find enough to buy a meal today?” Hannah told him that when she was in the marketplace, she found
an empty clay jar and heard a man say that he needed someone to bring water to his house. She had
filled the jar at the well and brought it to his house, and he had given her a few coins.
The next day the king made carrying water in clay jars for pay a crime. Four more days passed.
Each day the king threw another obstacle in her way, and each time Hannah found a new means to
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“Minor Prophets, Major News:
Rejoice and Exult”
December 13, 2015 Sermon
The Rev. Dr. Ronald B. Brown
Page 5 of 6
obtain food for the day. Each night the king found her at home, lighting the menorah and singing the
songs with joy.
Now in this kingdom every citizen was required to serve in the royal guard for one week each
year. No salary was paid. Guards carried a steel sword. The king put Hannah on the list for the week.
With no way to earn a day’s wage, surely she will fall into despair, he thought. But that night, when he
appeared at her door, she welcomed him to share her meal. He asked how she had gotten food. She
swore him to secrecy and said that she had sold the steel sword to a woodcarver and had him carve a
replica out of wood. Since the sword was kept in its sheath all day, no one would know until she could
find a way to earn enough money to replace it.
“Aha! I have trapped her at last,” the king thought. The next day, Hannah was ordered to
execute a prisoner found guilty of robbery. She tried to protest, but she was led to the palace courtyard,
where a crowd had gathered around the poor prisoner kneeling before the execution block. Hannah
thought quickly.
“I am a humble woman who obeys the Torah,” she said to the crowd. “I have never killed or hurt
anyone in my life. I am asking God for a miracle. If this prisoner is guilty of a crime, I will behead him as
the law requires. But if he is innocent, let this sword of steel turn to wood!”
Hannah drew her sword. The crowd gasped. “The sword has turned to wood! A miracle has
happened!” Only the king knew the truth. And he realized now that Hannah would never lose her faith.
That night, as she lit the last candle of her menorah, the king visited Hannah again. But this time he
appeared at her door in his royal robes, revealing his true identity. “You have taught me the true
meaning of joy,” he proclaimed.
From that day on, Hannah and the king remained great friends. She advised him in many affairs
of state, so that happiness soon spread far and wide, and all wars ceased. The people of the kingdom
loved her, calling her “Hannah the Joyful” till the end of her days.2
V.
Yes, there can be joy even when you’re grouchy because a child is about to be born in
Bethlehem. And the child’s birth will be good news of great joy to all the people—all the people—no
matter where they are, who they are, or what grouchiness or deep pain hides in them right now.
Because that child would grow into a man who embodies love and kindness—because those
who follow him may find in him hope in times of suffering and tragedy and courage; there is good news
of great joy.
There is reason for great rejoicing, because wherever you find yourself on life’s journey, God is
coming to you, to love you, to give you life in all its abundance.
Not even Ebenezer Scrooge or the Grinch who stole Christmas could resist it in the end.
2
Nina Jaffe, “Hannah, the Joyful,” The Uninvited Guest and Other Jewish Holiday Tales (New York: Scholastic Inc.,
1993), 34-40.
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“Minor Prophets, Major News:
Rejoice and Exult”
December 13, 2015 Sermon
The Rev. Dr. Ronald B. Brown
Page 6 of 6
So in the blare of the holiday music and glare of the Christmas lights, listen for a quiet voice, the
voice of an angel:
“Behold! I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.”
Great joy for all the people.
All the people.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Amen.
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