The Day of the LORD

I Thessalonians 5:1-11

1Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. 2For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3When they say “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! 4But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.

6So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; 7for those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. 8But singe we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. 11Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God

Zephaniah 1:7-9, 12-18

7Be silent before the LORD God! For the day of the LORD is at hand; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests.

8And on the day of the LORD’s sacrifice I will punish the officials and the king’s sons and all who dress themselves in foreign attire.

9On that day I will punish all who leap over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud.

12At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs, those who say in their hearts, “The LORD will not do good, nor will he do harm.”

13Their wealth will be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though the build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.

14The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter, the warrior cries aloud there.

15That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

16a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.

17I will bring such distress upon people that they shall walk like the blind; because they have sinned against the LORD, their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.

18Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD’s wrath; in the fire of his passion the whole earth shall be consumed; for a full and terrible end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God.

There are a lot of reasons that love this congregation. There are lots of reasons why I am proud to be y’all’s pastor. Perhaps foremost among those reasons, I am proud to be y’all’s pastor because in this family of faith, it’s okay to be “not okay.” We love and accept those who are struggling, either to get their lives in order or with their understanding of who God is.

This also means that we have the capacity to wrestle with some of the more...difficult... parts of the story of God’s relationship with his people. The woman who taught me how to preach put it this way: “God is great and God is good. God is sovereign and compassionate, powerful and faithful. The hard part-and this is a very hard part-is that God does not always behave this way.” Sometimes the God we meet in scripture does not act like the God we have come to know. One of the reasons I love this congregation is that our faith is strong enough that we can go there.

Throughout this season of Lent, beginning this past Wednesday and extending to Easter Sunday, we’re going there. Our Lenten Lunches will study the Babylonian exile, and our Sunday worship will grapple with God right alongside our spiritual ancestors who found themselves conquered and carried off, and had to make sense of a world where God did not always protect them from harm.

Putting ourselves alongside the covenant people living in captivity means that we’re going to also do some things in worship that make us uncomfortable. For example...

Transition to music stand.

For the season of Lent, I am exiled from my pulpit. Which feels SUPER weird to me, and probably bothers some of y’all a bit as well. But the exile is supposed to make us feel dislocated.

Zephaniah makes me feel dislocated. I feel at home with “Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven,” but Zephaniah says, “Be silent before the LORD GOD!” I feel at home with “amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me,” but Zephaniah says, “I will punish all who leap over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud.” I feel at home with “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine,” but Zephaniah says, “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and I will punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs,” I feel at home with “Great day! Great day for righteous marching...” but Zephaniah says “The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter.” I feel at home with “The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad!” but Zephaniah says “That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry...”

If I’m at home with a gracious, loving God, Zephaniah testifies to a holy, righteous God who can no longer tolerate our sins. This passage is not a call to repentance, or an urging to believe so you might be saved. This passage is the heartbroken cry of a prophet who knows that God is not pushover, and is coming with justice to an unjust world. Zephaniah message is that our lives of expecting grace on the cheap are offensive to the LORD GOD, “For the day of the LORD is at hand.”

Passages like this one, the “fire and brimstone” bits are also not what y’all are used to hearing from my pulpit. But as you may notice, I’m also exiled from my pulpit. These passage have been used to cudgel countless congregations throughout the centuries of Christ’s church. It’s been used to scare people into the baptismal font and to manipulate them into membership. But it’s abusive to treat the bible like a rolled up newspaper, brandishing it like a weapon. Some folks here have been in churches that have done that, and found our congregation as a respite from the abuse of their past. That’s not what we’re here to do either. We’re in this together, so I’m not handing down any judgment that is not also pointed at me.

Now if this were a different time of year, I’d tell you that “the LORD has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests” can be a comforting word when we look back from the cross of Jesus. But we’re still in Lent, and we’re still in Exile, so I’m not going to let us off the hook just yet. Easter’s coming, but it’s a long way off, and we don’t even get to hear about the restoration for a little while.

Because we are exactly the kind people to whom Zephaniah is preaching. We sit comfortably on the last leftovers and act as though we have produced so much, we assume that God is going to save us no matter what, and so we only “kind of” have to change our hearts and lives. We act as though everything is okay when earlier this week schoolchildren were running for their lives as a high school in Florida was attacked. We call it a tragedy or an act of evil, but it has become routine, and our nation seems to lack the capacity to act to prevent them.

We can disagree on what the cause of this horrific violence might be, and we can disagree about what the solution is, but we can all get on board with the truth that there is a problem, and we’re not dealing with it.

Maybe I need to feel a little dislocated so that I can come unstuck and see that the God with whom I am most comfortable is only part of who God is. Maybe I need to face the God who sent our spiritual ancestors into exile, so that I can appreciate what it will mean to come home. Maybe I need to heed to words of Zephaniah, as honestly horrific as they are, because it makes me realize that I “have sinned against the LORD,” just like the people on whom God is bringing distress in this passage.

None of us are sinless, and we know from other parts of scripture that God forgives and loves us no matter what. But that doesn’t mean our sins are not a big deal to God. In the exile, God sent the armies of Babylon to overwhelm his covenant people. You may have heard that “God won’t give you more than you can handle,” but Zephaniah promises so much more than we have the resources to deal with. “I will bring such distress on people that they shall walk like the blind…neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD’s wrath.”

There will be a judgment for our lives, and sins have consequences. No amount of excuses or wealth or power is going to be particularly impressive on the day of the LORD.

But Zephaniah is not the end of the story. The exile is not the end of the covenant. The cross is not the end of the gospel. We’ll get there. Even when we’re overwhelmed by the consequences of our sins, God is still in control, and is bringing creation back around towards the goodness God intended for it, even though that means the son of God has to go to the cross, even though that means we have to go into exile. Even though that means sometimes we are not okay. It’s not comfortable, and today, there’s not much resolution, which means that it’s not the end of the story…