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Children’s sermon: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 breastplate of faith & love (keeps things from completely breaking your heart) the helmet of hope of salvation (keeps the sky from falling on you) Sermon Texts: Zephaniah – whole book Matthew 25:14-30 The last several months we’ve all heard quite a bit about Wall Street and Main Street. We’ve seen greed and corruption, we’ve seen stocks on Wall Street tumble, jobs on main street lost. And even though Wall Street is a long way away, what has happened on Wall Street has drastically affected many of you. Some of you have lost your jobs, many of you have lost investments, some of you have had to switch jobs, and some of you have even lost your homes. As I listen to many of your stories and hear the concern in your voices and see many of your tears, it is quite powerful to see how something on the news, which is usually very far away, is having such an impact on so many of you, who are so close. Wall Street and Main Street problems are affecting all of us. Well, back in Bible times, Jerusalem had a Wall Street and a Main Street also. Their Wall Street, their market district was called the Fish Gate – its where they bought and sold fish and other goods. Their Main Street was an area called the New Quarter where new construction was happening and people were living. I had never heard of this prior to about a month ago. I was doing my daily devotions at the coffee shop and I decided that I would spend a few days reading through a book of the Bible that I hadn’t read for awhile. I opened it up and turned right to Zephaniah…seemed like a good enough place to start. And as I read about the background of Zephaniah and what this prophet had to say, I had chills run down my spine. The date I read this was October 8, about a week and a half after the first big stock market tumble. And now, this lowly prophet has shown up in our assigned readings for today. After you hear this, just try to tell me that God doesn’t still speak to us through the Bible. First, let me give you some historical context about Zephaniah. Judah had just gotten done with one of its worst kings in history, King Manasseh. This guy was pure evil – setting up idols in the Temple and sacrificing human babies on the altars. Judah had endured his evil reign for nearly 40 years before he died. And now there was a new king, King Josiah. Josiah would go on to be one of the best kings Judah had ever seen because he completely reformed the Temple and got the people worshipping God, but at the time of Zephaniah, he was still very young, and had yet to institute any of his reforms. The people who Zephaniah was writing to were kind of in a holding pattern, not sure what to expect from the new king, but just glad that the old king was gone. For them, it was a time of great transition as the world seemed to be going down the tubes. Here’s what really struck me as I read it. I’m going to read it from the NIV translation, which I think is a little more clear than what we read from earlier, but here it is, starting in chapter 1, verse 10. READ THIS THROUGH VERSE 13. Wall Street collapse, crying on Main Street, punishment of the lazy, war and destruction, empty houses because of a mortgage crisis, farms failing – its all in there. Zephaniah could be writing to us here in America in 2008. Now, there is no way you can compare George Bush to King Mannaseh. Having low approval ratings is nothing compared to sacrificing babies on altars. And I don’t think you can compare Obama to King Josiah, since we have no idea what Obama’s changes will bring about. But what is similar between us and the people who Zephaniah is writing to, is that we are all living in a time of great uncertainty. It’s a very scary time, it’s a very painful time, and while much of it is of our own doing by living beyond our means and by being greedy, it is nonetheless a message of doom and gloom. And we’re right in the middle of it. And so when I was reading this last month, I was like, where is the hope in this passage? Where is the good news? So I read the entire book – there’s only 3 chapters. And it took all the way until about halfway through chapter 3 before we get any relief from the doom and gloom. Part of Zephaniah’s message is one of repentance, a turning away from the greed and materialism and idolatry that rules our world, and a longing for people to turn to God, to read the Word, to love and serve others, to tell the truth where the truth needs to be told. And it is to these people, the ones who are faithful amidst the crisis, the remnant, that Zephaniah lays out a marvelous message of hope in the midst of darkness. Zephaniah gives a glimpse into the future that God has in store for us, and just as he spoke powerfully to our current crisis, he speaks equally as powerfully to our future hope. READ VERSE 14 TO THE END The Lord will save you. He will take delight in you. He will even rejoice over you. Have you ever had someone have a crush on you, or perhaps you have had a crush on someone else? It is so nice to be loved and wanted, and you are God’s crush, and this is like his love letter to you. He wants to rescue us, gather together those who have been scattered, bring them home, and even restore your fortunes. You may be really struggling right now, but God has not forgotten you. He will see you through this to the end. This is our hope. And my friends, as Christians, we are the keepers of hope. We are the people who believe that there is something else out there – far greater and better than all this stuff that can pass away. We have been given something rare and precious and valuable, and part of our job is to be people of hope. Its okay to be scared out of your wits – and many of us are with the way things are right now. But, since we are people of faith, we know that God has the final word. And this last bit of Zephaniah is part of that final word. We are the keepers and the bringers of hope. God has given us this glimpse into the future. And so I guess that is where Jesus’ parable comes into play here. Jesus is talking about the end times and as an example, he says that a landowner was going on a journey so he called three of his servants together. To one, he gave 5 talents, to another 2 talents, and to another 1 talent. To let you know a little something about the generosity of this guy, and by extension, the generosity of our God, 1 talent was equal to about 20 years worth of pay. God has given us some incredible gifts – gifts of hope and encouragement, love and faith. And I think that the point of this parable is that the gifts that God gives us are a lot like a candle at the candlelight service on Christmas Eve. When my candle is lit, I can then light the candle of the next person. And the cool thing about lighting that candle is that when I light the next candle, it doesn’t diminish my candle at all. Mine still burns just as bright and there is actually twice as much light as there was before because I shared it. I think that is the point of the parable. When God gives us gifts of hope and grace, love and mercy, forgiveness and acceptance, it doesn’t hurt us at all to give it away. When we do, we actually double the investment. When I love someone else, there is automatically twice as much love in the room. When the guy invested the 5 talents, gave them away, they actually doubled. The guy with one talent, even though that in and of itself was a marvelous gift, he buried it and it didn’t do anybody any good. If you’re doing that with the gifts God gave you, woe to you because Jesus didn’t have good things to say about that guy. We are a remnant. We are the people of hope in the world. If we can’t be those people who are positive, who are encouraging one another, taking care of one another, if we can’t stand in the midst of destruction and say that our God will still have the final word, well, then, who will say those things? If we can’t offer the world an alternative to what the stock market & mortgages prices are doing, who will? We have something far more valuable and long lasting. We can tell people that there is light coming into the world, that this darkness and struggle won’t last forever. We have Jesus on our side and he stood in the midst of death and destruction on that Easter morning and he had the final word over death. He said that it will not have the final word. God raised Jesus up and God will raise you up as well. We are a people of hope. As Paul says in first Thessalonians, “For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” If Paul can claim that promise, if ol’ Zephaniah, an Old Testament prophet can claim that promise from God, surely we can too. In the midst of our darkness, God has destined us for salvation. It’s ours for the taking. Amen.
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