Tag: Zephaniah 3:17

• 1 Kings 15: Delight – Part II

  
  

  1 Kings 15: Delight – Part II

  Wednesday, December 28, 2022

  The significance of the name Tirzah in Hebrew is “favorable” or “she is my delight”; yet we have the picture in today’s reading of something once valued being left behind for richer fields and stronger walls. If we were to name our own capital, what would it be? Would there be sacred places within the limits of this city along with places of commerce? Would these places welcome all and be a gathering place where new ideas are as important as tradition, and old wisdom as important as new growth? When later generations excavated, would they find a site with remnants of a life well lived, open in hospitality to weary strangers who harbored there awhile before moving on?

  Tirzah, a place of favor and delight, but abandoned. What happens with us that we tire so quickly of a place and her people that we move on without taking much time to think?

  Consulting a concordance, we find a great number of times that writers of the sacred text use the word delight.  God delights in Jesus. The crowds listened to Jesus with delight. We delight in God, God’s Law, and God’s holy ones. We delight in our salvation and vindication by God, God’s justice, mercy, righteousness and kindness. With St. Paul in his letters to Corinthians, we even delight in the weakness, hardships, persecutions and difficulties suffered for Christ’s sake. (2 Corinthians 12) We find delight in our family, friends and work. We may delight in the obstacles, hardships and rejections. And we must certainly delight in all gifts we receive from God.

  We can spend hours with this word and still not plumb its depths, but let us linger a bit longer over the words of the prophet Zephaniah (3:17) who tells us: The Lord your God is with you, God is mighty to save. God will take delight in you, God will quiet you with love, God will rejoice over you with singing. 

  So we may want to return to the places of Tirzah that we have abandoned. We may want to excavate the secrets that lie hidden there, the secrets that we ourselves have left behind.  And in these hidden places, we may once again realize just how much God takes delight in us.

  For a quick analysis of how the population in the USA sees God, click on the image below. As a Christmas gift to ourselves, we might want to reflect on our own view of God and the world we inhabit. 

  Tomorrow, as we end another year and prepare to celebrate newness, a prayer for a fuller understanding of God’s delight in us.

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  Adapted from a favorite written on December 22, 2009.

  Images from: http://thepreachersword.com/2013/03/20/whats-your-view-of-god/ and https://dailybible.co/p/HkbSZDfoEg/web/

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  December 28, 2022

  2 Corinthians 12, Isaiah 62:4, secrets, Tirzah, Zephaniah 3:17

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• Zephaniah 3:20: Coming Home

  
  

  Monday, December 21, 2020

  Zephaniah 3:20

  Coming Home

  At that time I will bring you home, and at that time I will gather you; for I will give you renown and praise, among all the peoples of the earth, when I bring about your restoration before your very eyes, says the Lord.

  We yearn to go back to a place and time of innocence. We miss the elders who peopled our childhood years. We look for comfort in old, familiar places. Zephaniah reminds us today that all of these dreams are already fulfilled.

  God says: Rather than see the world around you as chaos, come to me so that I might give you rest. Rather than look at what is missing in your lives, consider all that you are and have. Rather than look for consolation, turn to others who need your consolation. This is the gathering Zephaniah describes to you.  This is the restoration he proclaims. It is the healing I bring to each of you when you decide to live and think and act in me. You do not have to wait for the death of your body to experience this coming home to me . . . you are already there. Put aside your chores and your worried for a little time . . . and come to me.  I have much I wish to give you.

  Time, people and places. We feel nostalgia as we recall good memories and ward off the bad. We re-create in our mind’s eye the faces of loved ones we can no longer see or touch. We close our eyes and conjure up the scents and aromas of those places we thought we had lost but that we now somehow find in an old reminiscence. God’s time is eternal; God brings all of us together in the Mystical Body of Christ; God is in all places at all times. When we join this great coming home . . . all of time, all the faithful, and all places come together in union with this God who loves us so much that he chooses to live among us.  Zephaniah tells us that when we come home to God we are already there in those times and places we miss, we are already there with all of our beloved.

  In this last week of Advent when the day of Jesus’ birth nears, let us consider for a time the renown and praise that we are already given by God.  Let us consider the renewal this season brings to us. And let us go gladly to take part in this gathering up and this coming home.

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  For more reflections on the words of the prophet Zephaniah, enter his name into the blog search bar and explore.

  Images from: http://www.thefellowshipsite.org/zephaniah-317.html 

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  December 21, 2020

  elders, God’s time and space, healing, home, innocence, Mystical Body, restoration, Zephaniah 3:17

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