The Third Sunday of Advent Year C

The Third Sunday of Advent

Zephaniah 3.14–20
Philippians 4.4–7
Luke 3.7–18

The book of Zephaniah is not, on the whole, cheerful reading, and almost everything about it is disputed by the various commentaries on it. No one is absolutely sure when it was written, despite its firm placing of itself in 1.1 in the days of King Josiah, and no one is quite sure how much it has been edited and patched together from different sources. The lovely verses set for today’s readings are so uncharacteristic of the rest of it that they are generally thought to have been a later editor’s attempt to give a happy ending to an otherwise totally gloomy book. Certainly, it moves from a condemnation of Jerusalem, through dire warnings to most of the neighbouring states, to this sudden passage that could have come straight out of Isaiah. But even if it has been added on, it has a certain logic to it. In verses 12–13, the only people left are ‘a people humble and lowly’, and to them God comes. At last, God chooses to come and live in Jerusalem and his presence makes it home. There is a sudden change in verse 18 from the third person to the first; this is no longer reporting what God will do, but God himself promising to bring his people back...