Welcome Home

Yahweh your God is with you,

    the Mighty Warrior who saves.

Yahweh will take great delight in you;

    in love God will no longer rebuke you,

    but will rejoice over you with singing. - Zephaniah 3:17

This was the text for Affirming Sunday yesterday. God is speaking to those who have not felt affirmed. God is speaking to those who have been oppressed. God is speaking to those who have been broken by the people in power.

God promises to save - to rescue. But that’s not enough, is it?

In addition to rescue, God promises to take delight in the bruised ones, the broken ones. This is what salvation is all about, right? It’s not just waiting until the final moment of life and pitchforking our souls into heaven and leaving the body to rot. This is God coming through for us here and now, rescuing us from the garbage that’s been piled on us (and which we’ve so often fed ourselves on), and then - as an act of reckless abandon - pronouncing a blessing of pure delight on us. Like we were God’s favorite all along.

And you have been. And you are. You are God’s favorite. (this is especially for those who’ve been told they are not). Welcome home.