Read: Zephaniah 3:14-20.
Back in the winter someone kindly left a gift on our doorstep. It so happened that we were away for the weekend and the orchid in question spent more than 24 hours in the cold and rain. On our return the plant was rescued and put on a windowsill but shortly afterwards we went away again, for a week.
Whether it was the drenching with rain or the week in a cold house that did it, the orchid gave up in despair, lost its blooms and its leaves browned. Rarely for me I researched what to do, followed advice and gradually two new leaves emerged followed by a healthy stem. The newly opened flower has no special merit but it illustrates well the capacity of created things to recover from abuse and neglect if loved and nurtured.
The reading from Zephaniah presents God as one who restores his people and enables joy to bloom even after a period of neglect of him by them. The hymn suggested for today is StF170, Graham Kendrick’s text, ‘Darkness like a shroud covers the earth’. Evil and darkness combine to suppress light but they cannot extinguish it.
We repeatedly encounter unwelcome news. The world is at war in various theatres. Climate is changing and human activity has exacerbated the speed and severity of the change. Human greed is manifest in industrial relations and societal unrest. Whether this equates with the widespread idolatry and corruption of Zephaniah’s day deserves your thought.
Like our orchid, given over to corruption but rescued, God will again be at the heart of his people. The chorus of the hymn says:
Arise, shine, your light has come,
The glory of the Lord has risen on you!
Arise, shine, your light has come,
Jesus the Light of the world has come.
If your life feels rotten and lacks bloom, had you thought of stopping to reflect on whether God is properly in the centre of it?
A prayer
Lord, I find myself wilting and then I realise I have let things that happen to me and around me, to push you out into the cold and dark beyond my space. Give me the grace to stop it and let you back to where you ought to be. Thank you that your beauty will return with the full force of your love when I let you in again. Amen.