Zephaniah 3:14-20 “Renowned”

Quick joke: “Why do so many surfers on the Westside go to the beach at Shark Hole on Christmas Day?”

“They want to meet Santa Jaws!”

How many of you remember Christmas 1978? We all do! Just like it was yesterday. Let me refresh your memories. 1978 was the year that Universal pictures released the Jaws 2 movie with the buyline “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.” It turned out to be the number one grossing movie of all time up to that date–but not only because of box office success. It had the largest merchandising operation of any motion picture thus far. That Fall, everything was about sharks..

In the late 1970’s the country was just coming out of a nasty recession and money was flowing again. Everybody was spending in the newly built shopping malls. So, for that Christmas a clever marketer printed and sold the t-shirt “Santa Jaws, just when you thought it was safe to go back to the mall!”

I was sixteen in 1978. I had just gotten my driver’s license. I had a business mowing lawns on the side, so I had some money myself. My friends got together to go see Jaws 2, but I told them that I did not want to waste my money on it. I did not like the first Jaws movie, so why would I go see the second one? I was really in a “bah humbug” mood leading right up to Christmas. It was as if that plastic shark in the movie had eaten the joy out of Christmas. I was reacting to all of the hype and reignited commercialization of Christmas. Honestly, I felt no joy. I have never enjoyed shopping, and the thought of having to go buy presents for my family–just because that is what you have to do–was “meh” to me.

Truly, Christmas 1978 was turning into a Dickens of a holiday for me–if you catch the pun!

What on earth, or in heaven, does this have to do with our bible reading from the Prophet Zephaniah? And, why is Zephaniah even in the Bible? He is like a segway of only three chapters between Habakkuk and Haggai!

So, here is the reason for Zephaniah’s book (in my opinion). Zephaniah offers a perspective that we have not seen up unto this point. Look specifically at verses 17-18 “God will rejoice over you, renew you, and remove disaster.” Then in verse 20: “I will make you renowned and restore you.”

If you recall, all of our sermon titles in Advent are one word titles that begin with the letter “R.” Last week, Jared preached about being “Refined by God.” The week before that was about “Righteousness.”

Now, look at all the “r’s” in Zephaniah’s writings! “Rejoice, renew, remove, renown, and restore.” There is more than a whole sermon series packed into this. This is everything that God is doing over our lives! So, I chose “renowned” as the sermon title. I will talk about that in a bit.

Zephaniah is living at the same time as Jeremiah–before the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem and the captivity in Babylon. Remember that Jeremiah is going around with a yoke on his shoulders telling everyone the end is coming. While this is going on, Zephaniah is telling the nation, “but God is rejoicing in heaven over you!” That makes Zephaniah’s message very unique and special even for us as a prophecy today.

Is it not wonderful to hear that even when it looks like life is “bah humbugging” you, God in heaven is rejoicing over your life. So, you Israelites are about to be taken into captivity and your country overrun, your place of worship destroyed, God is in heaven sending down joy over your lives. You will be renewed and restored!

At the birth of Christ, I must say that Mary and Joseph were definitely in the humbuggiest of circumstances. They were responding to a Government decree, never good, no space in the inn, bunking with the animals, nine months pregnant, and the joy of heaven came down. The world is still rejoicing today.

The songs of angels, the heavenly host, opened up in that starlit sky when Jesus was born. In Revelation 7:9 and on we see how the angels in heaven rejoice in the end time when we all stand before the Lord, too. Jesus himself told of the time of rejoicing that is at hand when the father welcomes his son back in the parable of the “Prodigal Son.” (Luke 15)

Back to Christmas 1978 for a moment: I might have felt as if Jaws was taking me down and chomping on me, but God in heaven was rejoicing over my life. Thank you Zephaniah for affirming that for me. Interesting to note, it was exactly one year later on Christmas Eve 1979 that I felt my call to ministry, to dedicate my life to sharing that joy out to others. I was restored and renewed by accepting the idea that God was rejoicing over my life.

Let us get to the sermon title as I promised. “God will make you renowned.” Miriam Webster defines this as “highly acclaimed and greatly honored.” By the way, I got my Thorndike Barnhart Junior Dictionary on Christmas 1972 and quickly proceeded to read every page of it. It is funny how we remember our Christmases by what we received under the Christmas tree.

The term שֵׁם (shem) in Hebrew really just means “name,” but is translated in this text as “renown.” The understanding is that God is renaming and giving the honor back to God’s people who were slaves in Babylon. We see throughout the Bible that God uses the practice of renaming in order to make a person more godly. Saul became Paul, for instance. Simon becomes Peter. We forget that this is also happening at Christmas! The child that is born in Bethlehem on Christmas Day was supposed to be Joseph ben Joseph (Joe the son of Joe), but Mary is told by the Angel Gabriel to call the child “Jesus,” meaning “God saves.” The child is thereafter also known as wonderful counselor, prince of peace, messiah, and so many other names stemming from heaven.

One of the names that the child is given is Christ, the anointed one. All of us today have this new name that we carry that is from God in heaven. We are the followers of Christ; hence, we are Christians. That is what we are now known as.

So it is that when Christ was born, your name changed in heaven. You are believers in the one true Son of God, your Savior, therefore you are now renowned as “Christian.” Your honor in heaven is in this name.

This comes first, doesn’t it? God renowns you, and therefore God rejoices in heaven over your life. The angels in heaven are singing because Christ has come into the world to redeem us, therefore we are given this honor; we are renowned!

I want us all to note and understand that God is rejoicing over our lives just like the angels in heaven at the time of Christ’s birth. Yet, please remember that God knew all along that Jesus would suffer and die on the Cross. I know that you have all heard it said that the “Cross is the real Christmas Tree.” Still, God had joy at the birth of Jesus.

For the last few years, we have had blue Christmas lights up at the parsonage. They were on special at Target when Target first opened. I thought in buying them that the house would look very chic at Christmas. As soon as they were up and I switched them on, I was just not happy with them. It looked like the house was in mourning. It was a blue Christmas. But, you know me, I paid for the dumb lights so I am going to use them. This last week I saw that two of the strands were weak and missing some bulbs. Yes! Finally I can take down the blue Christmas and get new colorful lights.

Even if it is a blue Christmas, we still need to have joy. Christmas does not magically erase our suffering. Not in the least. Christmas reminds us that there is always joy as long as there is Christ in our lives. My father died in November of 1984. That year our family struggled through Christmas, numbed by the mourning and loss. However, I still recall how we convinced ourselves to go to the candlelight service at Hillcrest Church because that was Dad’s favorite thing to do at Christmas. We sang happy melodies and hugged our neighbors and remembered that Jesus came to us at Christmas that we might have everlasting life. That is always cause to celebrate.