Mama Monday #12

God’s Song of Delight

Here is my sermon script from today! (I'm sending it now as it's already Monday in Iceland!) 

As we start this morning I’m going to give you an assignment.

Ask yourself, 

Really- I want you to pause and think for a moment about this question: “What’s the most important thing you know?

This question, “What’s the most important thing you know?” is a question that has been carefully burned into the hearts and minds of neighbors of the Hestad family in the UDistrict. My sweet friend and neighbor Jaime Hestad has asked this question over and over of her kids and of all the neighborhood kids who come to their house: “What’s the most important thing you know?” to which they will reply with the answer that the Hestads have consistently modeled to them: “that we are loved.” Amidst all the richness and chaos of life, they’ve worked to give this foundation to their family and neighbors.

And this is the very question that I was asking myself when I was pregnant 22 years ago with Anna. I was thinking about my hopes and dreams I had for this little peanut that was growing inside me, and I was thinking about what routines I wanted to put into practice to help us imprint upon her what I thought were some of the most important things I wanted her to know.  I remember being very deliberate about choosing what songs I wanted to sing to her at bedtime, and I landed on two different ones that became part of our Huff bedtime routine for many years to come. One was a lovely song that we had learned as camp counselors at Yosemite Sierra Summer Camp, and the other was a song from my parents’ church back in Nashville based on the verse from Zephaniah 3:17 because this was really one of the most important things I wanted our kids to know: “The Lord our God is with you. He is mighty to save. The Lord will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. If you could only hear his voice, you would hear the Lord rejoice- rejoicing over you with singing.”  The song from Zephaniah 3:17 was not only sung at bedtimes for years in our home but it has also followed us to Kenya and to India for some very poignant and yet hilarious and embarrassing moments.

We had the opportunity as a family to go to Kenya in 2016 to work alongside the Children of the Kingdom ministry that we’ve been a part of for many years.  And at one particular school visit, the principal asked us to speak to the Christian Union that was meeting after school. As I got up to speak, I was sharing with them about how much God loved them and I ended by asking Anna, Taylor, and Jason to join me in singing the Zephaniah 3:17 song to them spontaneously. The family indulged me, but as we debriefed later, Jason burst out laughing about my invitation to have us all sing together as we are definitely not the Von Trapp family, and we are not going to be on the show The Voice anytime soon. He nicknamed us the Huff Family Band and imagined us going on tour in overalls, cowboy hats, and banjos. That humorous image in my mind was not helpful a few days later when the Huff family band tried to sing again in front of 200 people and veered painfully off-key. As you can see in the photo, Taylor was the first to crack. And within seconds, the rest of us were red-faced and laughing our way through the rest of the song.

Thankfully, no videos exist of our caterwauling, and let’s just say that the family band tour ended after that attempt. However, despite our singing struggles, I continued to sing the song from Zephaniah 3:17 to Anna and Taylor through the years to ensure that they know they are loved.

This past December, I had the chance to be in Kenya again. At our banquet for the students that we hosted, we played a worship song called "I Know Who I Am" during the time that my friends Silale and Sabina (who were alumni from our program) gave crowns to all the kids saying to them, "You are a daughter/son of the King" with each crown they put on the children....

 I handed out gold party necklaces, and my friend Veronica gave out earrings as small gifts. As the kids all came through the line, I was struck with the stunning beauty of them all, and God gave me a glimpse of how He sees them with such deep delight. And the thought came to me that this was such a moment of clarity knowing how different it would be if only we could see one another like this ALL the time. As I was giving a sermon later during the banquet, I shared this vision of them that I’d had when they had come up to receive their gifts. I began to tell them about the Zephaniah 3:17 song I had sung over the years to our children, and I recited the verse as it fit the day so beautifully.  I made it very clear that I was not going to sing the song to them because as I’ve told you, the Huff Family Band disbanded in 2016. On top of that, I also had a cold that week, and I sounded like a frog.  But as my friend Veronica was translating for me, she leaned over to me and said, “They want you to sing it.” I resisted, but she persisted, and I found myself once again singing this song up in front of a big crowd. Somehow even God can speak through frogs because Veronica’s husband later told me that was his favorite part of the day.

So, with that painful context in place, let’s take a look at this verse more closely and try to understand a bit more about its meaning and context.

In the Hebrew Bible, there are 12 prophetic works sometimes referred to as the Minor Prophets (Hosea through Malachi), and Zephaniah is the ninth book of The Twelve.  Zephaniah lived during the final decades of the southern kingdom of Judah, when King Josiah had tried to bring real change in the land by removing idols and restoring the temple.  But by that time, Israel was already too far gone, as the worship of other gods was too entrenched in the people’s lives. Jerusalem was about to fall to Babylon.   Zephaniah had seen all this coming and had been warning the leaders of Jerusalem for years. This book is a collection of his poetry and a summary of his message.

The book of Zephaniah has a three-part design. The first part focuses on the day of the Lord’s judgment coming for Judah and Jerusalem, while the second part looks at the day of the Lord’s judgment on the other nations and Jerusalem once more. The third section explores the hope that remains for the nations and Jerusalem on the other side of judgment.

Zephaniah lived during a tumultuous time, and his words speak to our tumultuous times too.  This little book of the Bible pushes us to try to hold together two aspects of God’s character- His justice and His love—and to discover that together, they point to deep assurance and great hope. We see in this little book that the grace and goodness of God is found in the midst of despair and darkness.

Zephaniah shows us that God’s heart of justice is like a burning fire aimed to rescue, purify, and create a world where all people can flourish. Zephaniah shows us that when we turn to God, God will restore us. God has made the first move initiating a relationship built on grace.  And we are invited to be humbled by God’s mercy, to lay our burdens down, to leave fear and shame behind, and to receive and respond to this amazing love.

In Zephaniah 3:17, we are given a window into the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God as we have sung about today. In verse 16, it says, “Do not fear,” and then verse 17 gives us 5 reasons to put away fear.

First, this verse gives us assurance that the Lord is with us. This is Emmanuel- God with us. And this is the mystery that we celebrate in the incarnation. He loved us so much that He came to earth to be with us and to bring shalom to all of creation.  Remember these words from Psalm 139: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”  

This “withness” is a powerful gift that we receive through the Holy Spirit. The Lord is with us in our brokenness and in our self-doubt. The Lord is with us in our energy and in our exhaustion. The Lord is with us in our joys and in our sorrows. The Lord is with us in our celebrations and in our disappointments. The Lord our God is with us.

Think of times when you have had deep connection with another. These are glimpses of God’s goodness--- of that “withness” beyond measure that transcends our understanding and that pours into us until we are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God.

It’s easy to think that God is close to everyone else and that He is far from you. But it isn’t true. He is in your midst. Remember the passage that encourages us that when we draw near to God that He will draw near to us.

The second reason we can put away fear is that God gives us assurance in this verse that He is mighty to save.  This is the Lord who is with us, the Mighty and Powerful One. He is not a passive observer but is One who has the power to intervene. The Lord is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble.  We can cry out to God for the things in our broken hearts and in our broken world that are in need of repair.

The third reason we need not fear is that we have the assurance that God rejoices over us and delights in us.

The French translation of this verse actually says, “The Lord dances over us with joy.” Imagine! God, our Creator and Redeemer, who counts the stars and who knows them by name knows us too and dances with joy because of it.  God rejoices and His eyes light up with joy when He sees us like proud parents beholding their child. 

The word used for “rejoice” is from a root meaning “to circle around” and is used in the Old Testament for joyous human experiences such as a wedding, the satisfaction of a proud father, deliverance from enemies, or a beautiful bride.  Think of these circumstances and the emotions and exuberance that accompany such joy.  Now realize that God feels the same way about you!  You are His beautiful bride, His fabulous wedding feast, His wonderful child, His triumph over evil.  Lift up your head!  Put a smile on your face!  Sing a song!  The God of all creation is rejoicing over you.

We are so wired for performance in so many of our relationships. But our relationship with God is one of being loved by Him before we’ve done anything. It is not based on our performance at all. We are fully known and fully loved, and this is a hard truth and a ridiculous grace to take hold of as broken and beloved people.

Recently, I was standing on a street corner, and I noticed a grandmother walking with her granddaughter. There wasn’t much to the interaction- I could not understand what they were saying, but what I did notice was them holding hands and the beautiful attentiveness the grandmother gave to her granddaughter as they were talking. And something about it made me tear up seeing this grandmother delight in her granddaughter so sweetly, and this small moment brought me back to this verse and gave me a glimpse of that delight God has for us.

And the result of such delight, rejoicing, dancing, and attentiveness lavished on us: Like the Christmas song says, “he appeared, and our soul felt its worth.” 

Coming to our fourth reason we have nothing to fear, this verse tells us that He quiets us with His love, rocking us like a mother with a lullaby, making no mention of our past sins.  There is a very sweet tenderness to this picture we are given here, and we are held in this place of love. We can set fear and shame aside, and we can rest in the shelter of God’s presence.

And finally, we are told that He sings over us. The God of the Universe sings!! With loud singing--as one translation says. Over us!! And far better than the Huff Family Band!  Imagine God’s heart bursting with joy so much that he breaks into singing. He just can’t contain it with so much love and delight bubbling over for us. This is almost too much to take in, and it’s a wonder to behold such love… If we could only hear His voice, we would hear the Lord rejoice- rejoicing over us with singing. And if we really sat with this, I believe it would transform us.

On that note, I want to tell you about a saint from the 1300’s who caught a vision of God’s love and of God’s song over her more than just about anyone I’ve read about.  She’s known as Julian of Norwich.

She was born in 1342 just around the time that the Black Death was sweeping through England and Europe. This was a viral pandemic that killed over 50 million people (60% of the population). This meant that someone was either dying themselves or they knew someone who was dying.  People usually only lived 23 days between contact and death.

Julian herself contracted the disease when she was 31 and was on her supposed deathbed when she experienced 16 powerful visions about Jesus.  She wrote these down in a short text after her unexpected recovery and then spent many years continuing to meditate on these. She then wrote a longer text outlining these visions called Revelations of Divine Love. It is the first book in the English language known to have been written by a woman.

During a time that has been regarded as one of the greatest catastrophes in recorded history, she was given a vision of God’s love coming near. Listen to these words that she wrote during this time:

 

Even in less-than-ideal circumstances, Julian had been given the ability to see beyond the veil. She knew that God was with her, she tasted and saw God’s goodness, she experienced God’s saving grace and delight, and she heard God’s voice rejoicing over her with singing.

 

And that’s what I have wanted my kids to know through the years and that is why I chose to sing Zephaniah 3:17 over them again and again and again.  

 

And while I don’t have the voice of an angel (and I’m not even a decent band member!), Anna and Taylor did not seem to mind, and they let me sing this through their childhood and even as I sent them off to college.

 

St. Augustine once said, “he who sings prays twice,” because there is something about music that embeds itself in us in a more visceral way. This became a blessing that got more and more under my skin. Liturgy is like that. It’s a routine that you do that does something to you.

I’ve realized that singing this song has changed me. Over the years as I gave them these words, I became more rooted and grounded and assured of God’s love. As I sang over them, I began to hear God’s voice singing over me. This song bent the needle of my heart like a compass over the years reminding me that beloved is always where I need to begin. And these words are your gift for the taking as well to shift something in your life of faith today.

 

Another saint I’ve come to love is Father Gregory Boyle who seems to be cut from some of the same cloth as Julian of Norwich in his understanding of God’s tenderness and love. He is a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles which has become the largest gang intervention program in the world.  He says this,

That’s how God’s love works. He pours His love into us so that it will spill over into the lives of everyone we meet.

Father Boyle gives us a wonderful charge after hearing this verse:

So let’s be people who remind each other of His tender love and delight. 

Jason, Anna, and I recently had the opportunity to spend a week in the community of Taizé, and I spent a lot of time meditating on this verse while I was there. I asked one of the brothers what he thought was the most important thing to share with you all about Zephaniah 3:17. He said to me with a bit of a twinkle in his eye that he simply wished that everyone would know that this treasure is ours. Yes- we need to claim this treasure as our own today.

 

As a way to help you make it your own, I want to introduce you to a mini practice of Lectio Divina which is my favorite way to read Scripture. 

I will read the verse three times and ask you a different question with each reading. Normally, this practice would be spread over much more time, but today, you’ll just get a few seconds after each question to consider this passage.  Even in this short practice, I believe that everything you receive today is your gift from the Spirit.

1)     Listen for a word or phrase that pops out to you when you hear this verse:

“The Lord our God is with you. He is mighty to save. The Lord will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love and rejoice over you with singing.”

2)     Listen to the passage a second time and ask, “In what way do you hear an invitation from God through this reading?”

“The Lord our God is with you. He is mighty to save. The Lord will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love and rejoice over you with singing.”

3)     Listen the passage a third time and consider, “What is your response to God based on what you have heard?”

“The Lord our God is with you. He is mighty to save. The Lord will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love and rejoice over you with singing.”

So,

I hope that you’ll consider responding with this verse from Zephaniah 3:17:

We will get to learn this song that I sang to Anna and Taylor over the years as a new song for our congregation at the end of the service. And our worship team is much better than the Huff Family Band, so you are in for a treat. 

As my friend Byron says, please pray with me in whatever posture feels best to you when talking to the One in the universe who loves you most. 

Benediction

“The Lord our God is with you. He is mighty to save. The Lord will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love and rejoice over you with singing and BUBBLES.”