1 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:13,160 Today's Scripture teaching Scripture comes to us from Joel 2 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:21,280 chapter 2, beginning in verse 4. What the cutting locust left the 3 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:25,920 swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, 4 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:30,680 the hopping locust has eaten, And what the hopping locust left 5 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:35,440 the destroying locust has eaten. Like blackness spread upon the 6 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:38,360 mountains a great and powerful army comes. 7 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:42,880 Their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after 8 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:47,240 them in ages to come. Fire devours in front of them, 9 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:50,840 and behind them a flame burns before them. 10 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:55,200 The land is like the Garden of Eden, but after them a desolate 11 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:57,640 wilderness, and nothing escapes them. 12 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:02,040 They have the appearance of horses, and like war horses they 13 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:03,720 charge. As with the rumbling of 14 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,240 Chariots. They leap on the tops of the 15 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:10,880 mountains like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the 16 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:14,680 stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. 17 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:18,000 Before them peoples are in anguish. 18 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:22,560 All faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge. 19 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:24,600 Like soldiers, they scale the wall. 20 00:01:25,320 --> 00:01:28,920 Each keeps to his own course. They do not swerve from their 21 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:30,920 paths. They do not jostle one another. 22 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:34,360 Each keeps to its own track. They burst through the weapons 23 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:38,000 and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they 24 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,160 run upon the walls. They climb up into the houses. 25 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:43,600 They enter through the windows like a thief. 26 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:48,400 The earthquakes before them. The heavens tremble, the sun and 27 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:51,240 the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw. 28 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:55,680 They're shining. This is, in fact, the word of 29 00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:00,720 the Lord. I was halfway through my Master 30 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:04,720 of Divinity degree when I found myself at the point where I 31 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,199 could no longer put off my Intro to Preaching class. 32 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:11,360 I had two main reasons for this avoidance. 33 00:02:11,640 --> 00:02:15,240 First, I'm just being honest. I was pretty judgy about sermons 34 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:18,600 and usually found them boring. The thought of needing to spend 35 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:21,640 a great deal of time with others learning how to do this boring 36 00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:25,320 thing with other neophytes like myself was not at all appealing 37 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:27,920 to me. And two, my school was 38 00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:31,280 wonderfully diverse in its composition and preaching. 39 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:35,400 Class had a notable mainline Christian flair, and I wasn't 40 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:39,800 sure how, as a charismatic Jesus follower, building a home within 41 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:44,040 a certain specific stripe of evangelicalism that was going to 42 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:47,040 go. But the time came when I 43 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:51,120 couldn't put it off any further. And it was a good class. 44 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:54,560 And one thing that made it good was the ways that at times it 45 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:57,160 made me wonderfully uncomfortable. 46 00:02:57,880 --> 00:02:59,120 Are you familiar with that feeling? 47 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:03,400 What it is to be wonderfully uncomfortable, what it is to be 48 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:06,560 pushed from the seat of familiarity into the thing that 49 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:09,600 feels just a little bit weird, but like not too far? 50 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:15,800 One assignment in the class, this large intro class with 51 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:20,240 something like 50 students, was the delivery of a prophetic 52 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:22,880 Oracle. Now to be clear, these oracles 53 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:25,600 weren't the kind of thing you'd associate with Harry Potter's 54 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:29,920 Professor Trelawny or the Pagan fortune telling shop in a strip 55 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:32,040 mall. Neither were they kind of 56 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,080 prophetic ministry that we often talk about in practice in 57 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,280 Vineyard churches. The kind where we sit in quiet 58 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:42,120 and pray, come Holy Spirit, and then gently share a word or an 59 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:45,480 image of encouragement that came to mind as we were praying. 60 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:50,000 The assignment was essentially to write like you were one of 61 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:54,800 the Old Testament prophets or maybe a passionate psalmist, and 62 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:59,080 to exclaim, lament, grief, wrongdoing, judgement or loss. 63 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:02,760 And we had something like 30 seconds apiece. 64 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:05,800 And unlike our practice sermons, which were given in small 65 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:09,240 groups, we were to stand one at a time from our seats and 66 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:13,080 deliver our prophetic oracles to the class's large lecture hall. 67 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:18,880 That's 50 junior preachers going back-to-back to back, one at a 68 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,440 time in rapid succession, talking like a prophet. 69 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,560 And icing on the cake, the Oracle assignment was delivered 70 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:32,160 on October 31st. It was an experience, and upon 71 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,760 reflection, it makes sense. But I remember being surprised 72 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:41,200 by the intensity of that classes 50 minutes Oracle prophecy. 73 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:43,960 Boom, boom, boom. I thought of this assignment 74 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:47,600 when preparing for the sermon. Not only because our oracles 75 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:52,880 sounded a bit like modernized modern Minor Prophets, because 76 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:57,560 that year had seen an uncommon number of terrible hurricanes. 77 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,560 Harvey in Houston in the Gulf Coast, Irma in Florida and the 78 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,960 Caribbean, Maria wrecking havoc in Costa Rica. 79 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:10,280 Now, I wasn't in any of those places when the storms hit, but 80 00:05:10,280 --> 00:05:15,160 I did sit with a friend whose family was in Houston and who 81 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:19,920 fled on foot while the storm surged in an effort to get to 82 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:23,840 safety. In that move, there were hours 83 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:26,360 where her whole family was unaccounted for. 84 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:31,160 And so states away, my friend and I sat together while we 85 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:34,560 listened to the radio calls of emergency responders. 86 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:38,480 And she tracked eyewitnesses on social media in Houston, 87 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:41,000 watching for descriptions of her family. 88 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:48,040 My Oracle was about natural disasters, A lament pleading for 89 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:51,080 God's intervention on behalf of the vulnerable. 90 00:05:51,840 --> 00:05:55,320 And this is the scene that we enter into in the book of Joel. 91 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:58,800 But Joel's disaster wasn't hurricanes. 92 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:03,520 It was a plague of locusts descending during a major 93 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:07,920 drought. Joel is a short 3 chapter book 94 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:10,720 that follows a familiar prophetic movement. 95 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:14,280 We'll see it a few times in the minor prophet series that we 96 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:17,960 began last week that will take us all the way through all 12 97 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:20,040 minor prophets. Near the end of the Old 98 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:25,000 Testament there's a Oh no moment of crisis, a cry to God, a 99 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:29,160 warning about the day of the Lord, and then a turning toward 100 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:33,240 the making right of weary bodies, tired hearts, and 101 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:35,400 circumstances beyond human control. 102 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:41,320 I really liked Jared's graph from last week that thinks that 103 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,960 the way we think about stories and and bad fortune. 104 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,080 Good for I mean, I don't know, maybe I'm just a nerd, but these 105 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:50,960 are the moments in which the prophets are speaking, in which 106 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:55,680 they're offering their words to the Israelites. 107 00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:01,720 And so this is the terrain in which we are entering into Joel 108 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:07,040 takes place around 403 fifty BCE and Judah and Sumer and 109 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:09,640 Jerusalem. Sorry, wrong sermon. 110 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:14,000 The Israelites, God's chosen people, have already lived a 111 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,720 long story by this point, Called through Abraham, formed through 112 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:21,760 Moses, settled in the Promised Land, centered around the 113 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:25,360 Temple, then shattered by the destruction and exile in 114 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:28,160 Babylon. They have returned home and the 115 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:31,320 temple has been rebuilt, but there is no king and there's no 116 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:34,160 independence. This is a generation that has 117 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:38,080 never personally known exile, but also never known glory. 118 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:42,960 Not the liberation from slavery their ancestors sang about, not 119 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:46,120 the nearness of God's presence born in the ark, not even the 120 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:49,680 hope laid and urgency of those who first rebuilt the temple. 121 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:54,000 They know waiting. They know ordinary life. 122 00:07:55,200 --> 00:08:00,360 And here in the book of Joel, they are experiencing profound 123 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:05,600 ecological devastation. Joel speaks to these people, 124 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,680 calling them to lament, promising God's response, 125 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:13,160 assuring them that God will meet their most basic needs, and then 126 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:18,080 do something wholly unexpected, pour out God's own Spirit. 127 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:22,760 And centuries later, when the Spirit falls in Jerusalem and 128 00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:25,800 wind and fire and the apostle Peter will stand on the day of 129 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:30,400 Pentecost and say, this is that. This was foretold in Joel. 130 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:35,120 When their physical environment crumbles, the Israelites are 131 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:39,320 laid bare again before God. There is no illusion of control 132 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:43,559 left to cling to, and lament becomes the invitation to the 133 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:48,560 reorientation of desire. Like lined up, like glass in a 134 00:08:48,560 --> 00:08:52,200 telescope, pointed toward what is true and what has always been 135 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:56,720 there. I don't know about you, but my 136 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:00,280 context for locusts is that of the plagues that were wrought in 137 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:03,360 Egypt while Moses was trying to convince Pharaoh to let God's 138 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:05,440 people go. And that's about it. 139 00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:09,680 The truth is that locust plagues were common in the ancient 140 00:09:09,680 --> 00:09:12,320 world, in this part of the world, and we have them in the 141 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:14,760 modern era. I believe this photo is from 142 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:21,720 2020 March 2020. Though for all of the modern 143 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:25,560 everything we have, locust swarms remain terrifying. 144 00:09:26,560 --> 00:09:30,200 According to National Geographic, desert locust swarms 145 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:37,520 can cover 460 square miles, with 40 to 80 million locusts packed 146 00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:42,640 in less than 1/2 square mile. A swarm of this size would each 147 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:47,120 would eat 423,000,000 lbs of plants a day. 148 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:53,080 With this in mind, I'm going to reread a portion of today's 149 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:57,240 passage, and I'm going to invite you to hear Joel's voice in the 150 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:02,200 context in which it was spoken, with the roar of a swarm of 151 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:05,800 locusts behind it. With the cutting locusts left, 152 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:09,760 the swarming locust has eaten. With the swarming locusts left, 153 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,080 the hopping locust has eaten. And what the hopping locusts 154 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:15,680 left with the destroying locust has eaten. 155 00:10:16,680 --> 00:10:20,680 Like blackness spread upon the mountains, a great and powerful 156 00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:26,240 army comes their like has never been from of old, nor will be 157 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:28,760 again after them in ages to come. 158 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:33,800 Fire devours in front of them, and behind them a flame burns 159 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:36,440 before them. The land is like the Garden of 160 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:41,400 Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes 161 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:43,800 them. They have the appearance of. 162 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:45,840 Horses. And like war horses, they 163 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:47,360 charge. As with. 164 00:10:47,360 --> 00:10:51,200 Rumbling of Chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains 165 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:54,520 like the crackling of a. Flame of fire devouring. 166 00:10:54,520 --> 00:10:56,800 The stubble. Like a powerful. 167 00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:00,280 Army drawn up for battle before them. 168 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:03,840 Peoples are in English. All faces grow pale. 169 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:06,920 Like warriors, they charge. Like soldiers, they. 170 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:09,920 Scale the wall. Each keeps to his own course. 171 00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:12,680 They do not swerve. From their pads. 172 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:17,160 They do not jostle one another, each keeps to its own track. 173 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:21,320 They burst through the. Weapons and are not halted they 174 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:24,040 leave upon the city they. Run upon the walls. 175 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:27,400 They climb up into the houses. They enter through the windows 176 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:29,480 like a thief. The earthquakes. 177 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:33,400 Before them the huntings tremble, the sun and the moon 178 00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:35,800 are darkened. And the stars withdraw. 179 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:41,960 They're shining. There is nothing left and as is 180 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:45,600 often the case with natural disaster, the effects are total. 181 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:49,880 The ground is ruined, the plants are gone, the vine is destroyed, 182 00:11:49,880 --> 00:11:52,840 the food and drink are gone. The work of preparing food and 183 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:55,160 drink, transporting, selling, it's gone too. 184 00:11:56,480 --> 00:11:59,440 The extra that you may have had in your home is gone. 185 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:04,200 The already fragile economy is shot through as everyone turns 186 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:07,120 towards the reality of their households basic day-to-day 187 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:09,840 needs. And all this happens within the 188 00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:12,040 destroyed place that they have known as home. 189 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:17,960 I can recall the way I felt some while back the evening after a 190 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:20,280 particularly terrible political event. 191 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:23,760 It was a day that sort of left that lump in your throat and it 192 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:26,240 felt like the world would have no way of going back. 193 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:31,240 And it was that night that I had the very rare experience of 194 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:33,640 being encouraged by something I read on social media. 195 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:37,640 I I think the spirit spoke to me through it because it's the kind 196 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:39,880 of statement that really could have landed badly. 197 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:44,640 But an old Co worker who I knew to be carrying, to also be 198 00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:47,360 carrying the great weight of the events of that day, simply said 199 00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:51,880 to her friends, 10 bucks says the sun still rises tomorrow. 200 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:56,360 Now, in context, the statement wasn't making light of the 201 00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:59,040 circumstances. It was the kind of declaration 202 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:01,760 that there was actually something bigger than what we 203 00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:04,040 were feeling and understanding. That day. 204 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:07,000 The sun will rise and the sun will set. 205 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:10,280 Though the earth may give way and the mountains fall into the 206 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:12,360 heart of the sea, I shall not fear. 207 00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:18,920 The thing is, while the sun still rose amid a locust swarm 208 00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:22,360 of this size, the sun and the moon were darkened. 209 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:25,520 I don't think this was metaphorical. 210 00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:30,600 The locusts covered the sky like a cloud, arriving in waves that 211 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:34,000 moved like surges of the sea, but never breaking into foam. 212 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:37,480 I am particularly taken by the language. 213 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:41,840 They leap upon the city. The militaristic language is 214 00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:45,920 striking at times. In scripture, locusts are a 215 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:48,520 metaphor for a real invading army. 216 00:13:49,560 --> 00:13:53,280 Not here. Here, military language is used 217 00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:58,960 as a metaphor to explain locusts charging like war hoses, as with 218 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:02,160 the rumbling of Chariots, they leap on the tops of mountains. 219 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:05,480 The picture feels like something Tolkien or CS Lewis would have 220 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,760 crafted in their imaginative renderings of good and evil, 221 00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:12,560 loss and redemption, and what is ultimately at stake in the good 222 00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:14,800 life. And yet this isn't epic fiction. 223 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,320 It's the exclamation of a biblical prophet in a 224 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:22,800 devastating moment. In some ways, these tiny beasts 225 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,440 were more terrifying than sword and spear, which, at least for a 226 00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:30,120 time, may be kept off by walls and fortifications. 227 00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:32,960 But locusts scale a wall with no rope. 228 00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:36,840 They enter through the windows like a thief, and they are so 229 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:40,240 much smaller. If you have ever had the 230 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:44,520 experience of riding a home of an invasive pest, or if you've 231 00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:48,520 never had that experience, count yourself lucky if you have ever 232 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:52,680 come face to face with a company of bedbugs, roaches, lice, or 233 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:56,800 any other creature that would cause you to wash every fabric 234 00:14:56,800 --> 00:15:00,680 in your home. Assume a library book or a movie 235 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:02,840 theater recliner might be contaminated. 236 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,640 Or in a moment of panic, pour a line of diatomaceous earth in a 237 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:10,280 circle around your body, because then you could be sure that no 238 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:14,200 tiny exoskeleton bound bug would make its way to you. 239 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:18,640 Then you might have an imagination for what it would be 240 00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:23,400 like to batten down every hatch and find that you can't keep the 241 00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:29,720 creature out. This is the opening picture in 242 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:32,560 Joel. It does not begin with moral 243 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:36,600 instruction, a wayward peoples and then destructions. 244 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:40,560 There is no warm up unlike a Hollywood film where we first 245 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:43,760 meet the characters and learn the back story and experience a 246 00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:47,080 build up to the point where the dinosaurs are let loose or the 247 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:50,400 child tributes spar in the arena while the world watches. 248 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:53,400 We enter at the point of destruction. 249 00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:57,480 In fact, Joel's first words are to the elders. 250 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:02,000 Hear this, O elders, give ear all inhabitants of the land. 251 00:16:02,240 --> 00:16:05,400 Has such a thing happened in your days or in the days of your 252 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:08,040 ancestors? Tell your children of it. 253 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:11,120 Let your children tell their children and their children 254 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:15,400 another generation. This call marks the severity of 255 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:18,640 the situation because the elders are those in the community. 256 00:16:18,640 --> 00:16:22,600 Who would know, who would remember, who would be able to 257 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:27,320 say, this happened in my youth? If they had a comparable 258 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:30,360 disaster, they'd have said, ah, this was like the Blizzard of 259 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:32,520 78. Haven't seen the wind and snow 260 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:36,240 that bad since then. But that's not what Joel says. 261 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:38,920 Have you? Has such a thing happened in 262 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:41,440 your days or in the days of your ancestors? 263 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:45,000 He's saying, do you know anything like this? 264 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:48,720 Not only have you experienced this before, but did your 265 00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:53,280 parents or your grandparents? Did you grow up with the stories 266 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:56,360 of this disaster? The way we might hear about a 267 00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:59,280 woman who grew up during the depression and never threw away 268 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:02,120 a jam jar? Or the way children and 269 00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:05,400 grandchildren of Holocaust survivors relate to violence and 270 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:09,800 anti-Semitism. In this strong, shadowed moment, 271 00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:17,560 Joel describes what is creation is laid bare and the Israelites 272 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:23,359 are called to lament. For a nation has invaded my 273 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:28,000 land, powerful and innumerable. Its teeth are lion's teeth, and 274 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:32,520 it has the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and 275 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:36,000 splintered my fig trees. It is stripped off their bark 276 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,400 and thrown it down. Their branches have turned 277 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,320 white. Something very important is 278 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:45,840 going on here. It has laid waste my vines and 279 00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:51,200 splintered my fig trees. Joel isn't claiming ownership of 280 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:54,680 the vines and trees. He's speaking on behalf of God. 281 00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:57,520 And so God is joining Israel in her grief. 282 00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:01,360 The loss is that somehow separate from God because God is 283 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:05,400 removed from all that is broken. God's holiness does not keep God 284 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:09,200 from the four lone place. No, the Creator leans towards 285 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:14,000 creation, ruined land, flattened plant, and hopeless humanity. 286 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:17,840 And so the invitation to turn toward lament isn't an 287 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:21,200 invitation that Israel enters into onto its own. 288 00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:24,040 The God who grieves is there as well. 289 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:30,360 And so, says Joel, lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for 290 00:18:30,360 --> 00:18:33,760 the husband of her youth. The grain offering and the drink 291 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:36,040 offering are cut off from the House of the Lord. 292 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:38,680 The priests mourn the ministers of the Lord. 293 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:42,040 The fields are devastated. The ground mourns, for the grain 294 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:44,960 is destroyed. The wine dries up, the oil 295 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:46,440 fails. Be dismayed. 296 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:51,560 You farmers whale. You vine dressers over the wheat 297 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:54,440 and the barley, for the crops of the field are ruined. 298 00:18:55,440 --> 00:19:00,400 Consecrate a fast, call a whole solemn assembly, gather the 299 00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:03,480 elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the House of the 300 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:06,120 Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. 301 00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:12,120 Part of what I find striking here is that regardless of a of 302 00:19:12,120 --> 00:19:15,760 Israel's ability or desire to follow Joel's instructions or 303 00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:20,480 not, grief and lament would be present in some capacity no 304 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:24,240 matter what. Sometimes loss is subtle and 305 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:27,160 deceptive. Indeed, it's not until the cats 306 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:30,160 in the cradle that you realize something important is gone. 307 00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:33,960 The pursuit of happiness can take you to college, Wall 308 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:36,640 Street, or Vegas. And we can fill our days with 309 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:40,760 ostensibly good things, activities we enjoy, people we 310 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:44,080 want to spend time with, and in pursuit of goals we find 311 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:46,600 meaningful. And yet, the production, 312 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:50,280 consumption and experience of these things can swallow up our 313 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:53,200 attention and reroute our desire. 314 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:58,160 This is to say, you can design your life without ever giving 315 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:01,560 consideration to what it is that is worth wanting in the 1st 316 00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:04,280 place. The issue is not the work that 317 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:07,640 you do, the relationships you prioritize, or the hobbies you 318 00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:10,200 spend your time and money on per SE. 319 00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:13,920 So bless you, the bread Baker with your lamb, the skier with 320 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:19,400 your poles, and the pickerball pickle baller on thy court. 321 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:24,640 But these things in the American Disney asked prioritation of 322 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:28,960 maximizing happiness often bypasses the deep and deeper 323 00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:33,440 formation of longing of what we are oriented toward and being 324 00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:36,560 shaped by. We just did a whole series on 325 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:40,600 the passions gluttony, lust, avarice, despondency, anger, 326 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:45,640 acedia, Vainglory, and pride. This isn't just a random list of 327 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:49,040 sins. They are misdirected responses 328 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:52,920 to real desire. You can hang a Da Vinci on your 329 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:56,960 wall and still never know Beauty and Joel. 330 00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:00,040 That illusion collapses. Everything that distracts is 331 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,760 stripped away, and the people's desire, their longing for life, 332 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:07,360 for meaning, for God, stands exposed before God. 333 00:21:08,120 --> 00:21:12,480 The invitation to lament is to take all that is laid bare and 334 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:16,840 turn before God rather than into and onto themselves. 335 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:22,680 The Israelites no longer have any illusion of control, at 336 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:27,640 least not anymore. In their lament, Joel implores 337 00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:30,720 his listeners to heed the day of the Lord. 338 00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:36,680 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain. 339 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,120 Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the 340 00:21:40,120 --> 00:21:45,280 Lord is coming. It is near a day of darkness and 341 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:49,480 gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness like blackness spread 342 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:52,600 upon the mountains. A great and powerful army comes 343 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:57,440 their like has never been from of old, nor will ever be again 344 00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:03,280 in the ages to come. At first glance, Joel Chapter 2 345 00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:04,840 sounds a lot like Joel chapter 1. 346 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:09,000 Darkness and gloom, A great and powerful force spread across the 347 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:11,480 mountains. Language insisting that the 348 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:15,000 devastation is unparalleled. But there's a crucial shift. 349 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:19,160 In chapter 2, Joel says the Day of the Lord is coming. 350 00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:22,840 It is near. He does not say this is the day 351 00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:25,960 of the Lord. Instead, Joel uses the language 352 00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:29,000 of their present literal environment to gesture towards 353 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,440 something more, something that presses beyond the immediate 354 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:35,440 disaster. For that reason, the invasion 355 00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:40,240 described in Joel 2 is likely not a second literal army, nor a 356 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,760 new locust plague. Rather, Joel One and Joel 2 are 357 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:47,800 parallel chapters describing the same ecological catastrophe. 358 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,600 Joel One names it, grieves it, and calls the people to lament. 359 00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:55,480 And Joel 2 does all of that. But it also turns up the alarm, 360 00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:58,880 interpreting the plague as a sign that something deeper is at 361 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:01,480 stake. As Bible scholar Terence 362 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,800 Fretheim observes, Joel 2 reflects a more immediate, 363 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:07,840 imminent threat. The disaster was already 364 00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:11,400 unfolding, and it has now reached a new level of danger 365 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:15,280 for Israel's future. What began as devastation is now 366 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:18,280 disclosed as warning, and the people are being asked not only 367 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:21,600 to grieve what is happening, but to reckon with where it is 368 00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:25,040 leading. And verse 212 picks up. 369 00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:29,720 Yet even now says the Lord, return to me with all your 370 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,600 heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. 371 00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:36,080 Ren your hearts and not your clothing. 372 00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:40,000 Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, 373 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:46,200 slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting 374 00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:50,360 from punishment. Return to me with all your 375 00:23:50,360 --> 00:23:53,120 heart. Ren your hearts and not your 376 00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:56,600 clothing. This call is communal and it 377 00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:00,840 reckons deeply with desire. The tearing of garments was a 378 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:03,920 visible sign of mourning, and God is not forbidding that 379 00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:06,480 expression. Rather, God is saying, I care 380 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:10,160 about what is beneath it. Not your performance, not your 381 00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:12,960 display, not your ability to do this correctly. 382 00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:18,360 But you return to me with all your heart, because it is God's 383 00:24:18,360 --> 00:24:23,080 desire to meet you there. God's character is then named 384 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:27,360 with remarkable clarity, as direct as it could possibly be. 385 00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:31,720 Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, 386 00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:37,080 slow to anger, abounding and steadfast love, and relenting 387 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:40,720 from punishment. The locust pet plague is not 388 00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:43,680 framed as God's judgement for a particular sin. 389 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:47,160 God has already joined Israel in grief. 390 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:53,040 Speaking of my vines and my fig trees, This devastation happens 391 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,480 because devastation happens because the world is fragile and 392 00:24:56,480 --> 00:25:01,480 creation groans. And yet even here, especially 393 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:07,240 here, there's a call to return. Not because Israel has failed 394 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:12,240 some moral test this time, but because in this moment they are 395 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:16,320 laid bare, with desire exposed and illusion stripped away. 396 00:25:17,120 --> 00:25:22,680 They are invited to Orient themselves fully toward God, to 397 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,920 cry out not in self repair, but in trust, and to call upon who 398 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:33,120 God is and to ask God to act. My favorite part is here at the 399 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:37,400 end. Then the Lord became jealous for 400 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,600 His land and had pity on his people. 401 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,080 In response to his people, the Lord said, I am sending you 402 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:49,360 grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied, and I will no 403 00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:52,000 more make you a mockery among the nations. 404 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,680 I will remove the northern army from you and drive it into 405 00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:59,680 parched and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea and 406 00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:03,960 its rear into the western sea. Its stench and foul small will 407 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:06,960 rise up. Surely He has done great things, 408 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:13,000 so do not fear you animals of the field, for the pastures of 409 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,760 the wilderness are green. The tree bears its fruit. 410 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,440 The fig tree and the vine give their full yield. 411 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:24,240 O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God, 412 00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,520 for He has given the early rain for your vindication. 413 00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,720 He has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the 414 00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:37,680 later rain as before. Then afterward I will pour out 415 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:41,120 my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters 416 00:26:41,120 --> 00:26:45,000 shall prophecy, Your old men shall dream dreams, and your 417 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,040 young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female 418 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,000 slaves in those days I will pour out my spirit. 419 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:57,960 This is a sudden and dramatic move from lament to promise, 420 00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:01,560 including the reversal of the damage done to the crops and to 421 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:05,360 the land by the locusts. This change is cause for 422 00:27:05,360 --> 00:27:08,320 celebration. And then, then we find what is 423 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:11,200 certainly the most famous passage in the book of Joel. 424 00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:14,720 I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. 425 00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:19,360 It's the most famous passage because Peter quotes it in his 426 00:27:19,360 --> 00:27:22,960 address to the crowd gathered on the Day of Pentecost, the day 427 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:24,920 the Spirit of God was poured out. 428 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,920 And Peter quotes Joel at Pentecost because he needed an 429 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,880 interpretive theological framework to explain what was 430 00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:36,160 happening. Acts 2 states that when the day 431 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:39,480 of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and 432 00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,920 suddenly from heaven there came a sound like a rush of a violent 433 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:46,040 wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 434 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,000 Divided tongues as of fire appeared among them, and a 435 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,320 tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the 436 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:56,520 Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit 437 00:27:56,520 --> 00:28:00,440 gave them ability. That's really cool, and it kind 438 00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:04,200 of freaked people out. The crowd was amazed, astonished 439 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:06,960 and confused. They began hypothesizing about 440 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:10,080 what was going on, supposing that the people around them must 441 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:14,120 be drunk because there was no box to process what they were 442 00:28:14,120 --> 00:28:17,920 observing and experiencing. And so supposing drunkenness was 443 00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:20,960 the most logical explanation that they could come up with. 444 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:25,640 And to that reasoning, Peter quotes Joel. 445 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:29,960 He quotes Joel because the prophet gave an interpretation 446 00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:34,840 for Pentecost centuries prior. He quotes Joel because there's 447 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:37,920 comfort and realizing that this really weird thing you are 448 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:41,960 experiencing was foretold in the Scriptures that have oriented 449 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,560 one's community to God and God's faithfulness to creation for 450 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:48,840 generations. Faced with something 451 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:53,080 overwhelming and bewildering, Peter reaches back to Joel and 452 00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:55,560 says, in effect, this is not chaos. 453 00:28:56,440 --> 00:29:01,240 This is a promise fulfilled. What God once spoke in the 454 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,960 middle of catastrophe has now come to pass. 455 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:13,640 Friends, the same Spirit of God who was present in creation, who 456 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:17,160 was promised through Joel in the midst of devastation and full 457 00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:23,280 bodied lament, and who was poured out at Pentecost, is 458 00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:28,920 still at work today. Circumstances we cannot fix. 459 00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:37,480 Ecological devastation, grief, loss in situation that we have 460 00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:44,520 no imagination for exiting. They strip away our illusions of 461 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:49,200 control. And in that exposed place, 462 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:56,080 lament is an invitation. It's an opening to stand before 463 00:29:56,080 --> 00:30:01,200 God where God is already waiting and saying return to me that I 464 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:07,320 am here for you and I love you. God meets us with God's Spirit. 465 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:13,160 Jared, if you want to come on up, we're going to transition 466 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,920 into ministry time if the the worship team wants to come on up 467 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:21,760 and begin to get situated if the folks are going to be praying.