Dignity - I will change their shame to praise

Key texts Zephaniah 3:14–20; Luke 3:7–18

One of the key things about God coming to be one of us at Christmas, and the promise of his return to be with us again in the future is that in choosing our life, our death and in giving us new life and a future, God gives you and me and every human being dignity. God’s presence amongst us in Christ on the first Christmas and now through the Holy Spirit and his promised return enables us to overcome fear. We have a hope for the future and a promise of peace and wholeness or Shalom. We know that we are in God’s hands and in Jesus we have the final victory and we can live with God’s life, power and courage at work in us even now. 

 

The reading from Zephaniah is set at the time the people of Israel go into exile in Babylon. The temple had been destroyed Jerusalem had been reduced to rubble and many people would have been killed in the, siege, the battle and in the aftermath. It’s the sort of thing that’s happening in parts of Gaza right now. There is nothing like a siege and destruction of a city to destroy dignity. I would argue that the Gaza conflict and the terrorist attack that prompted it is destroying the dignity of the Hamas terrorists, the Israeli Army, the hostages and the ordinary people of Gaza.  But it doesn’t have to be something as violent as war and siege. If you think back to last week’s reading Zachariah lived in a time of occupation too and he also faced personal threats to his dignity.  The story of the leper I chose to tell the children and the story of Zachariah have certain things in common. Zachariah upon hearing of Elizabeth’s pregnancy doesn’t believe it. Because of this he is struck dumb. Some Jewish people interpreted the Old Testament law to say that anyone who was disfigured could not enter the temple. Zachariah struck dumb and the leper with his disfiguring illness could have been barred from entering the temple. For Zachariah as a priest that meant he would not be able to take his turn leading worship in the temple. For the Leper it would not only have meant being unable to worship, it would have meant being excluded from his work, and his family and all community life. 

 

As I said in broader terms in the time of Zachariah & the Leper the people of Israel were living in disgrace. Israel was occupied by the Romans. The Herods & the temple authorities were in collusion with the Romans. Zachariah was part of that system. This is the world John is born into. It is little wonder he calls the world to repent, for even the temple, the house of God is in disgrace. Zephaniah our Old Testament reading picks up on this theme of shame and brings a word of hope. 

 

He speaks of people receiving dignity.  When I was a Uni student there were two intellectually disabled people in one of the congregations I worshipped in. Even though they were in their fifties they were members of a Sunday School class. They had grown up in a time when the intellectually disabled were treated in a very patronizing way - like small children. They were not allowed to make decisions for themselves, and they certainly could not become confirmed members of the church!!

 

These women were both very faithful worshippers. They loved taking part in the service. They loved singing. If they said they would pray for you, you knew they would. And the people of the church loved them, BUT they were not members, and they had never been given the opportunity to publically declare their faith in Jesus. They had never been given the opportunity to be declared truly loved, forgiven and included by God. They had never been publically declared to be part of Christ's body.

 

There is a sense in which these two women were outcasts. People left out, like the leper or Zachariah childless and struck dumb. People shunned, not just by the world, but even by the church. Well the promise of Zephaniah was for them: Through Zephaniah God says this:

 

19 ....I will save the lame

and gather the outcast,

and I will change their shame into praise

and renown in all the earth. Zephaniah 3:14-20 (NRSV)

 

At some point the congregation realized its mistake and invited these women to become part of the congregation, and to be confirmed in their faith. On the day of the service, both were overcome with emotion, the tears flowed. In the words of the service, in their personal testimony and through their tears, they powerfully confessed their faith in Jesus, and were publically assured that Jesus loved them, forgave them and included them in his body, the church.

 

Those who had been outcasts were gathered into the church. Their shame was changed to praise. Their renown, their faith, was for the first time publically acknowledged by the congregation and today the story of their faith, their renown has spread to this congregation more thaqn 500 kilometres away.

 

As Christmas approaches we come to the time of year when there are the most suicides, the most depression and the most family arguments. For many it is a time of loneliness and anxiety or even fear. And we live in a world in which many people are left out. They are left out because they are different to us, or because of the difficult circumstances of their lives.

 

When Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the Eternal Son of God became one of us 2000 years ago he dignified our life. He dignified it by reaching out, touching, healing, restoring and including the leper. He did it by being a guest in the homes of outcasts, the publicly notorious- like tax collecters and sex workers. He did it by embracing death, the most publicly shameful death imaginable, as a convicted criminal nailed probably naked to a Roman cross to die of exposure and torture in the open, for all to see. He also did it by being raised from the dead, by the Father in the Spirit, and by returning to heaven to the right hand side of God. From then on every human is not only made in the image of God, but part of the definition of God, part of who God is, is a human being like us. One who in the words of the carol “feels for all our sadness and shares in all our gladness.” Most wonderfully of all he will return and when he does all that is broken shall be renewed, and all that causes shame and takes away dignity, shall be destroyed. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. In the strange imagery of the book of Revelation Jerusalem will descend from the clouds, and there will be no more tears; Heaven and Earth shall become one. In this holy city all will have dignity “for all who would may enter and no one was denied.”

 

The promise of Zephaniah and of Jesus, is that God is with us, right now working in our lives, and that God will one day be part of us in such a tangible way that all the bad in the world and all that's broken or bad in us will be made better and good. Jesus will return and it is at that time that all will be set right.

Then we will be able to say...

17 The Lord your God is with you;

his power gives you victory.

The Lord will take delight in you,

and in his love he will give you new life.

He will sing and be joyful over you,

18 as joyful as people at a festival.”

The Lord says,

“I have ended the threat of doom

and taken away your disgrace.”

Zephaniah 3:17-18 (GNB)