Dear Foothills Family,

The Prophet Zephaniah assured his people: There is a mighty one coming! Your suffering will not be in vain. Your deliverance will be a cause for rejoicing! “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!” (See Zephaniah 3:14-20).

This sounds like religious cheerleading, and would mean nothing more than positive reinforcement if it wasn’t for the context of the prophecy. Zephaniah is speaking from the Babylonian captivity, to a people who watched their temple destroyed, their religious structures dismantled, their practices desecrated, and their people deported to a foreign country. They were a people of no future, and this was an outrageous prophecy of hope.

Outrageous hope is one of the core convictions of Advent; outrageous hope—beyond all reasonable expectations.

The outrageous joy of the Scriptures comes from facing hard reality, and yet discovering that the joy is just waiting to be received. It comes as a surprise completely unexpected, and can only be assumed by faith.

During World War 2 a Jewish girl escaped from Warsaw and hid in a cave. She died there just before the war ended. The following inscription was found on the wall: “I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining. I believe in love, even when not feeling it. I believe in God, even when he is silent.”

In Zephaniah we have a staggering poem of promise. It is God’s own self who comes. Twice he says, “The Lord is in your midst.” The message is entirely good news! The good news is that no matter what our situation, “God is in your midst.” Or as Paul says it, “The Lord is at hand…[so that] in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Advent says Christ is out ahead of us drawing us to by attraction into the future, and when we are finally at a place where we can see with Christ as our lens, we will see things clearly (Cor. 13:12).

What is our source of joy? How can we receive the hope, peace, serenity and contentment of God that allows us to accept life as it is presented to us, whether we “are abused, or abound…in plenty and hunger, abundance, and want?”

Pay attention to the Good News! Look for the coming of God in Christ. Give your attention to Christ—believe that “God is in our midst” and “The Lord is at hand.”

God will take situations of disaster, disease and displacement and transform them into a reality of liberation, health, and homecoming!