It is some time now since I read David Copperfield by Charles Dickens but those of you who are familiar with it will know of Mr. Micawber. 

Mr Micawber lived in perpetual debt, constantly hounded by his creditors. He was aware of the need to be financially prudent but alas his lifestyle did not reflect this. An incurable optimist, he always believed that Something would turn up to improve his state.   Mrs Micawber, being more of a realist, believed that

...things cannot be expected to turn up of themselves. We must, in a measure, assist to turn them up. 

Mr. Micawber has become associated with someone who lives in hopeful expectation though hope and optimism are not quite the same thing.

You may, for example, feel optimistic that if you buy a lottery ticket you will win a fortune but it would be unrealistic to hope for that. Statistically the odds are against you.  Hope never ignores reality – unlike the man who fell from a window of a sky-scraper and who shouted optimistically to those watching from each floor as he passed, “Alright, so far!”

Real Christian hope does not ignore the facts, indeed it is usually the facing of such facts that fuels the hope.  Zephaniah whose prophetic words we heard read to us this morning believed in facing facts.

There’s a lot of hope in what we heard but the major part of his prophecy is concerned with the dark facts of human rebellion against God. He could only proclaim the hope once he had encouraged the people to see the error of their ways. Until that point, Zephaniah is full of doom and gloom – his watchword being: Woe, Woe and thrice Woe!

If you want a depressing lunchtime, then read the first two and a half chapters..  You will there learn that Zephaniah was so fed up with the rebellious and wicked Israelites that he launched a tirade to them about God sweeping everything from the face of the earth. Unless they repented, their beloved Jerusalem would be razed to the ground. God would stretch out his hand, humanity would be cut off, people would be punished; their blood would be poured out like dust, the whole earth would be consumed, and so it goes on – doom after doom, gloom after gloom.  As some one once remarked, the first two chapters of Zephaniah are something to be avoided if you are prone to worry or depression.

But then, suddenly, it all changes and what we heard today is the final part of the book gloom gives way to joy – Sing aloud, shout, Rejoice!  It feels like Zephaniah has discovered a rainbow at the end of a thunderstorm. God is no longer upset. He has removed his judgement from the people, he has turned away their enemies, they have nothing to fear, the lame, the oppressed, everyone is gathered into the joy and salvation of God. It's as if somebody has discovered a winning lottery ticket after all!

The contrast between the passage we heard and what precedes it is so great that some biblical scholars have suggested that it wasn’t uttered by Zephaniah at all but added later to give the prophecy a happy ending.  However, the pattern of prophetic writings is that they move from condemnation to a vision of the Kingdom of God where everything is restored to the just and loving rule of God. God is always a God of hope and even when humanity slips away from Him he never gives up on us. He longs for our well-being, our salvation and our joy.   So, no matter how dark things become – and we live today in a very dark world – there is always the light of God’s hope to guide us to a better way of life.

It may not always seem to us that this is possible but there is a way in which this can be guaranteed.  The book of the Prophet Zephaniah is so constructed that it is easy to see what this way is.  It is a threefold process:  first there is the threat of judgement;  then comes an exhortation to repentance;  and finally there is the promise of God’s salvation.

The fact that Zephaniah slips from doom-laden threat to joyful proclamation is a classic prophetic way found in the Old Testament writings.  This threefold process is also present in today’s Gospel which concentrates our thoughts on the ministry of John the Baptist.  John the Baptist is often referred to as the last of the Old Testament Prophets and the first of the New. Schooled in the prophetic tradition his ministry of preparation for Jesus follows traditional lines.

John begins with the threat of judgement. Never one to mince his words, John calls his hearers a brood of vipers. Not the most encouraging of beginnings. If I were to call you that this morning, I suspect that my Christmas Card tally would be somewhat diminished!  But worse

Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come

– a clear reference to God’s judgement  as proclaimed by God’s prophets.

John then moves quickly on to call the people to repentance – to that change of heart that directs them away from sin and towards God.  Bear fruits worthy of repentance he urges and don’t try and hide behind your traditions. Repentance is about having a change of heart, adjusting our  sights so that they embrace a vision of God and not simply about obeying the rules of our religion.  What is required isn’t lip service to God but heart-service. It’s very easy to live by rules or the law – I have kept all the commandments  says the rich young ruler to Jesus elsewhere in the Gospel – what more should I do.

What Jesus wanted from him and still wants from us is to go beyond the law and live by grace.  It isn’t a case of replacing one with the other – it’s about growing from one into the other.  Human goodness can only ever be a reflection of God’s goodness towards us which is far greater. That goodness is an expression of God’s grace and it calls us to repentance – to turning our lives round so that they are facing God and moving towards Him.  The Rich young ruler was told to sell all that he had, give to the poor and then follow Christ.

When the crowd asked John the Baptist, What shall we do? He replied – share what you have with those who have nothing – clothe and feed the poor. To the tax collectors he said that they should not take more from people than they were due and to the soldiers he said that they should not  rob people by threats and false accusations and be satisfied with their pay.  To each group – including the rich young ruler – the Gospel calls for a repentance which starts from who they are, what they do, how they live their particular life. The means to repentance is different – drawn from people’s particular circumstance but the result is the same – a re-dedication of life which is totally lived in God’s grace.

And each one of us is called to examine our lives and our own situations – What shall we do. There are things in all our lives of which we can repent and turn around so that we too are facing God’s grace and acted upon by it.  It may be a simple thing of not hurting others by gossip or it may be that we are called to serve God in some particular way – using our God-given talents in his service as he tries to love the world through us. Perhaps we are called to try something new and stop cowering behind a fear of failure. It may be that we use our time to befriend a lonely person or go that extra mile in supporting someone in need. Or it may be that we face our sins and beg God to help us overcome them 

The list is actually endless but it starts always with an honest self-examination.  What is there is me that is preventing the love of God from catching alight? What am I doing that blocks God’s grace from reaching my heart and turning my life upside down. What dare I hope and what must I do that brings the Vision of God’s love from being just a dream and becoming a reality. 

The answer for each of us is different but it requires the same attitude. We all here will profess to love God. We are all trying to live by the rules which govern Christian life. We are all being attentive to our prayers, our bible reading, our wish to be close to God. 

What stops us? What stops God’s grace from bursting joyously within us?  What shall we do? We ask God and in some way the reply is take the risk of letting me love you – of letting my goodness take you over – and of letting go of sin and of the control you try to have of your own life and let me, God, take control for you.  John calls us to repentance as all the Prophets did of old and then comes the third element of prophecy – the promise of messianic salvation - which is about Jesus Christ transforming our lives by the powerful action of God’s grace – one who is more powerful than I is coming. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. With fire! 

That’s the Advent hope that God has for all of us – it isn’t blind and unrealistic optimism. It’s a real hope and he matched it by real action.  He sent us a babe to share our humanity with all its joys and sorrows; with all its pains and hurts, with all its promise and opportunities. And he gave that babe a birthday present of a Cross. That’s the depth of God’s hope for us. That’s the length He is prepared to go. We don’t have to be like Mr. Micawber and hope that something will turn up to make our life better, different, more fulfilling. It has already been given. God has turned up and when we turn up the faces of our faith towards Him we will know His salvation. 

And so a prayer – from St. Paul, from his letter to the Ephesians:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.