3^rd Sabbath in Advent

December 14/16, 2007

Victor H. Nixon

NEED JOY?

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Zephaniah, a prophet in Jerusalem in the 7^th century before Christ, brings a message of joy during this Holy Season to all of us who seek something more from life.

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The LEON candles are in the window. Some of you’ve been asking me about them, wondering if I’d get them out before Christmas this year. It’s a little late, I know, but they are finally there. For those of you wondering what on earth I’m talking about, the LEON candles are a tradition at our house—and something of a tradition in my Advent sermons in recent years.

It all began many years ago in Christmas gatherings in my parents’ home. My mother had a set of four ceramic candlesticks, each in the shape of a letter that spelled "Noel" when in proper order. "Noel," of course, is the French word for Christmas, but it can also mean a Christmas carol and is used as an expression of joy at Christmas, as in Noel! Noel! Noel!

The Noel candles were placed in the front window of my parents’ home every Christmas. One holiday, when the family gathered, my heathen nephew re-arranged the letters to spell "LEON" because he didn’t really know how to spell Christmas. He did it every year for several years as a joke. Fortunately, he subsequently got religion, went to Yale Divinity School where he was taught how to spell Christmas, and is now a United Methodist pastor—an indication that miracles never cease! Now he’s down in Houston trying to teach Texans how to spell Christmas, a major challenge, if I do say so myself. They probably believe that the Wise Men road into Bethlehem on longhorns!

Unfortunately, however, others in the family were led astray from the path of righteousness. NOEL kept showing up as LEON through the years, thus promoting a whole generation of folks who get Christmas backwards and who believe it’s about Santa Claus and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." The same secularism has invaded our church and its staff. I know, because every year at Christmas time blasphemers sneak into my office and change my NOELs into LEONs!

Recently, I learned that this LEON heresy has spread all the way to Nashville, Tennessee, where country music star George Strait recorded a song entitled, "Noel Leon."(1) I’m not making this up. Johnny Roberts came to the church recently and played it for me on his boom box! The song is about a guy named Leon who leaves his Christmas lights on all year long with Noel flashing off and on out in the yard. When Leon got sick and couldn’t pay his bills, his friends drove over to help out, gave him money to keep Noel lit up all year. As they drove away, the song says, they "had never seen Christmas spelled so clear" with "Leon" flashing in the rear view mirror. Then comes the chorus:

Peace on earth, good will to men

Well, it’s a country song! It ain’t "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." But, at least, it gets the meaning of Christmas halfway right. It doesn’t specifically mention Jesus’ birth, but it comes close.

The first and second chapters of Zephaniah sing a sad song. The prophet describes the day of the Lord as cosmic catastrophe brought on by Israel’s wickedness, idolatry, and compromise of faith. God says, "I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,"(1:1), only a small, faithful remnant will survive (2:7; 3:13). In these chapters, God sings the Hebrew equivalent of "I’ll Have a Blue Christmas without You."

God must often feel just that way because of our own unfaithfulness, our own tendencies to worship something or someone else, especially during the holidays. The angels may be singing peace and good will this time of year, but our world is full of greed, violence, war and killing—even in a church in Colorado Springs—results of the culture of violence we have created. Our country is still more interested in preserving our lifestyles than in preserving the creation. So, Zephaniah may ultimately be right. Most of humanity may unwittingly destroy itself. God forbid!

In the third chapter, however, the prophet changes his tune. Zephaniah exhorts Israel to sing aloud, shout, rejoice, exult in good news of great joy because the king of Israel, the Lord, is in their midst.(3:14-20) Our text today is the setting for the beautiful solo, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion," from the Christmas portion of Handel’s Messiah. The reason for the joy and rejoicing is that God promises a new day in which life will be transformed because a Savior will be born.

It was a difficult time for Israel in the days of Zephaniah, but the prophet found his voice and his faith. Rejoice! The Lord is with you! The Lord will come and renew you with love! The people heard Zephaniah and his song gave them hope that the Messiah would come to save them. The birth of Jesus confirms their hope and our own. It is critical in these days that we find our voices and sing the story of our Savior’s birth. The world needs the Good News of God’s Christmas love and hope for peace.

That’s the role of the church, isn’t it? In a world, among people, where the real meaning of Christmas has been forgotten, reduced to something less than the real thing, or replaced by trivia and consumerism, where something vital is missing from our lives and the observance of Christmas. No wonder this season can be joyless for many! Life is tough enough without adding to the problem by omitting the primary reason for celebrating Christmas!

For some, Christmas won’t be the same this year because someone is missing. A loved one is serving in the military and won’t be home to enjoy Christmas with family. Or a loved one died during the year and the holiday somehow intensifies the grief and sadness. For some Christmas day will be spent alone, maybe watching a rerun of "It’s a Wonderful Life" or "White Christmas." For others, the celebration of Christmas will have nothing at all to do with the birth of Christ. That is the saddest absence of all.

Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, God’s Messiah, who comes to bring us salvation. Our job is to remember and remind others that Christmas is about a hope that God will be born in us—today! Christmas means that even when those we love aren’t around, Christians will sing, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," to remind themselves that God is with us regardless of bleak or lonely circumstances. In a day when many believe that Christmas occurs at malls and holiday sales, people of faith will sing "Away in Manger" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Christmas means even when our country is at war and terror threatens just as it did on the first Christmas, Christians will hear angels sing, "Peace on the earth, good will to all people." Christmas means that even in the darkness of suffering, the gloom of despair, we will sing "Joy to the world, the Lord is come." Like Zephaniah in tough times, it’s important that we find our voice and sing our song, God’s song, to a world in need of hope.

Christmas is about God’s gift of Jesus, our Savior. That’s the message the church proclaims to a world and a people who need to hear it desperately so they too can celebrate Christmas and experience the joy of God’s gift to us.

The first Noel the angel did say

Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel,

That’s the real meaning and joy of Christmas! Thanks be to God! Amen.

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1. Copyright 1999 Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.