[CatherineTorpey]

Rev. Amanda is preaching on “Wombs, Wounds, and Waiting.” Her text is Zephaniah 3:14-20.

Before I say a little something about the Hebrew prophet Zephaniah, I want to say a little about the season of Advent. The word means coming or arrival (from the Latin “ad” meaning “toward” and “venire” meaning “to come”). It is the time of anticipation (“waiting,” as Rev. Amanda alludes to) for the arrival of the Christ child. We are actually, liturgically, NOT in Christmastime now, although culturally we are. Advent is intended as a time of waiting in the dark. It begins 4 Sundays before Christmas. Christmas begins (does not end, but *begins*) on December 25 and ends on January 6 (the 12 days of Christmas). I’m a bit obsessed with reminding us of the liturgical intention, because I think there is so much beauty in the idea of Advent as a time of being willing to dwell in darkness, and only after that time of darkness do we rejoice in the light once new life arrives on Christmas day, and taking 12 days to bask in that.

During worship, we’ll sing the fabulous “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Emmanuel is a sort of spiritual name for the Christ, which the gospel writer Matthew got from Isaiah 7:14, which says “therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: the maiden is with child and she will bear a son, and will call his name Immanuel.” The tune to the song is at least 600 years old, and many believe that it is more like 1,200 years old. If you think it has a plaintive tone, you are dead right (see what I did there?): back in the middle ages the tune was used in funeral services.

Now onto Zephaniah. Zephaniah is a short book, which you can read in about 10 minutes, or listen to (King James version) on this YouTube video if you like. He was one of the prophets of the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures). The basic message of Zephaniah is: “Watch out – God is piiiiiiiissed.” He preached in the late 7th century BCE in Judah, when the Northern Kingdom had been destroyed by Assyria which definitely had its sights on the Southern Kingdom (Judah). In Zephaniah, God is totally done with the leaders who have been faithless to God and to what is right. As scholar Robert Alter puts it, “The sins of Judah are associated with the arrogance and self-importance of its ruling class, which will be replaced by the simple people (the “remnant”) who preserve the true values of the nation.”

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