Their names are Statler and Waldorf and they appeared in every episode of The Muppets Show.  Confidentially, they have always been my favorite Muppets, but I didn’t know their names until doing research for this sermon.  Statler and Waldorf are the two old Muppets who occupied the box seats and heckled the “actors”.  They were named after two New York City hotels.  I found this quote on the internet, “Despite constantly complaining about the show and how terrible some acts were, they would always be back the following week in the best seats in the house.” That may have been the best original line I ever read on Wikipedia.  Listen to it again, “Despite constantly complaining about the show and how terrible some acts were, they would always be back the following week in the best seats in the house.”  How many of us go through life with that kind of critical attitude?

Today we conclude our summer series of sermons entitled, Buried Treasures.  As we have explored the treasures of the Old Testament we have seen that we are our brother’s keeper, that the Lord is good, and that there is a plan for our lives that circumstances cannot thwart.  Today, we come to our last treasure.  It is a treasure that glimmers throughout the New Testament as well, but sometimes gets buried in our lives through stress and fret. Today, we discover the power of rejoicing. 

Zephaniah was another one of those 7^th Century B.C. prophets who declared the demise of the tiny nation of Judah (only a fraction of the size of modern day Israel).  Like Nahum and Habakkuk, however, Zephaniah also promised a restoration greater than the former glory.  This promise was so powerful that even in the shadows of great empires; God’s people were instructed to rejoice.  This instruction is found in Zephaniah 3:14-18^a, but before we read it, please join me as we prepare our hearts for God’s Word, by singing that familiar line from Psalm 119:105.  We will sing it through twice, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  Hear now the Word of the Lord in our search for buried treasure:

¹⁴Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! ¹⁵The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. ¹⁶On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. ¹⁷The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will be silent over you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing ¹⁸as on a day of festival.

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In this passage the prophet Zephaniah instructed the Israelites to practice the power of rejoicing.  I want to talk to you about three elements of rejoicing found in this passage: The call to Rejoice, the Cause to Rejoice, and the Creator to Rejoice. 
 

The Call to Rejoice.

Zephaniah does not merely invite the Israelites to rejoice or encourage them with the assurance that at least future generations will rejoice.  He rapid fires three imperatives for them to rejoice, “Sing aloud, shout, rejoice and exult with all your heart!”  This was not an easy thing to do given the situation.  The year was 622 B.C.  Josiah was the King of Judah, the first good king since Zephaniah’s great-great-grandfather, Hezekiah.  Josiah was tearing down the altars to false gods even to the north of his country’s boundaries.  The good news was Assyria was weakening, the bad news was the Medes, Babylonians, and Egyptians were strengthening.  In about a dozen years, Josiah will go out in battle against the Egyptians and be killed, leaving Judah to the rule of three of his sons and one of his grandsons.  All of them were faithless and fumbling leaders.  The immediate future was doom and gloom.  Yet, Zephaniah insists that God’s people rejoice.  Palmer Robertson wrote about this verse, “By piling up every available expression for joy, the prophet leaps across the vale of gloom into the realm of grace-beyond-devastation.”  Zephaniah proclaims non-negotiable imperatives to rejoice now for what has yet to be fulfilled.

All incoming freshmen at Texas State University were given a book to read before starting classes next week.  The book is entitled, A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink.  It is a book that encourages students to develop the right side of the brain (the creative side) as well as the left side of the brain (the analytical side).  One of the ways to do this, Pink asserts, is to take happiness seriously.  He writes, “For most of its history academic psychology focused on everything except happiness.  It studied disease, disorder, and dysfunction, and largely ignored what made people satisfied and fulfilled.”  He then noted that Dr. Martin Seligman began to change that with his studies in the area of positive psychology.  “Positive psychology and its research has begun to unlock the secrets of what makes people happy – and to encourage the wider world to take happiness seriously.” Research in the area of positive psychology has confirmed what we already would have guessed – some people are naturally happier than others.  However, it also asserts that each one of us can improve our happiness.  Here is one of the interesting findings of the research in positive psychology – making more money, getting lots of education, and living in a pleasant climate are not all that influential in improving happiness.  The beneficial factors, according to research, are engaging in satisfying work, having a rich social network, avoiding negative events and emotions, and regularly expressing gratitude, forgiveness, and optimism.  It sounds to me that Zephaniah could have actually been psychologically sound, not a common conclusion regarding Old Testament prophets.

How are you doing in your happiness factor?  Do you find yourself excited to hear the prophet’s call, “Sing aloud, shout, rejoice and exult with all your heart!”  Or are you more inclined to join Statler and Waldorf in their box seats heckling life and all that it presents?  Discover the power of rejoicing by heeding the call to rejoice.
 

The Cause to Rejoice

Of course, the call to rejoice was not groundless.  There was sufficient cause to rejoice as you may have guessed by Robertson’s description of “grace-beyond-devastation”.  Look at verses 15 and 16.  Judgment had been taken away, enemies had been turned away, and the Lord was in their midst.  Because of that, people would refer to them as “Fearless Ones”.  The expression in verse 16 that reads, “Do not let your hands grow weak,” caught my attention.  It literally means, “Do not let your limbs fall limp.”  It is so descriptive of what happens to us when despair sets in through alarm and anxiety.  I have been with people when grief hits them like a ton of bricks and their entire body goes limp.  It has happened to me, when life gets overwhelming, my hands literally fall to my side.  Zephaniah assured his readers that this would no longer be the case in that realm of grace-beyond-devastation – “the Lord is in your midst,” he repeated in verse 17.  This in itself is cause to rejoice.   

Reading this passage I started thinking of other prophetic voices from my past, Timon and Pumba, from The Lion King.  This odd couple came in contact with Simba, who was completely limp from grief.  His father was dead, he had been exiled, and had no reason for living.  His new found friends offer him a little advice – hakuna matata.  It’s a Swahili expression meaning, “No worries.”  Now I’m not sure that Timon and Pumba had the same basis for eliminating anxieties from their lives as Zephaniah had, but the lesson would do us well to hear.  Throughout the Scriptures the message of hakuna matata is proclaimed.  Jesus said it in Matthew 6:25 in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not worry  about your life…but seek first the kingdom of God.”  Paul proclaimed it in Philippians 4:6, “Do not worry about anything…but let your requests be made known to God.”  Peter wrote in I Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” Hakuna matata.  They are saying the same thing that Zephaniah was telling his people, “The Lord is in your midst.”

Grief, anxiety, worry, fear, and alarm are all legitimate human expressions.  However, they are not to be our permanent place of residence.  The Lord is in your midst.  He cares for you and will turn enemies away as we turn to him.  Discover the power of rejoicing by recognizing the cause to rejoice and heeding the call to rejoice.
 

The Creator to Rejoice

There is even a divine example of rejoicing found in verse 17.  Palmer Robertson went so far as identifying this as the John 3:16 of the Old Testament.  It is a beautiful three line poem.  I invite you to write it down on your note page of the Daily Devotional insert:

He will rejoice over you with gladness

He will be silent over you in his love

He will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival

I know that the middle line reads a little differently than in your worship guides, but if you look at the footnote in your pew Bibles regarding verse 17, you will find that an alternate translation is, “he will be silent”.  This seems to be the most likely translation.  Keil and Delitzsch, renown Hebrew scholars, wrote, “Silence in His love is an expression used to denote love deeply felt which is absorbed in its object with thoughtfulness and admiration.”  John Calvin described it by writing, “As a man caresses his dearest wife, so will God then quietly repose in thy love.”  What all this means is that God is crazy about you.  God rejoices and sings about you, just as you are called to rejoice and sing about God.  God is silent as God watches over you, soaking in all the divine love extended to you.

I have had the chance to experience reunions with my children over the last summer.  Zac has gone to UM ARMY and on a hiking trip to Colorado with the youth group.  Chelsea has returned from a year in New York City.  The reunions always start with the same expression of joy, a silent embrace as I breathe a prayer of gratitude for the one I hold in my arms.  Where did that come from?  I like to think it comes from God who rejoices over me with gladness, who is silent over me in his love, who exults over me with loud singing as on a day of festival. 

The Creator is to rejoice in you.  Perhaps this verse is behind the expression in John 3:16 where God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that the world may be saved through him.  Can anyone doubt the depth of the Creator’s love for you?  Discover the power of rejoicing by remembering that the Creator rejoices over you, by recognizing the cause to rejoice (the Lord is in your midst), and by heeding the call to rejoice.

So in one of the Muppet shows, Waldorf (the one with facial hair) stated that he didn’t care for puppets, not finding them believable.  Statler responded with “I don’t believe you!”  Neither do I.  As entertaining as ornery, disagreeable, grumps can be, they can actually drain life from you.  This week I invite you to discover the power of rejoicing.  Heed the call to rejoice – sing aloud, shout, rejoice and exult with all you heart.  Reflect on the cause to rejoice – the Lord is in your midst. Remember the Creator who rejoices over you.  Discover the power of rejoicing.  Amen.