Summary: Sometimes we behave as if no one's watching. In such times we must remember we are not alone. God walks with us. That should affect how we act! God is waiting not only for our confession and repentance, but also to grant us the gifts of hope, restoration and goodness in our lives as we go forward with God. The prophet Joel tells us, despite all we have lost, there is still time. The Day of the Lord looms - a truly dark day when it happens. But God is patient. For now. But for how much longer?
Filmmaker Peter Jackson released his lengthy documentary Get Back1 a few years ago, about the 22 days in 1969 when the Beatles allowed themselves to be filmed while recording what they hoped to release as a movie, album and concert event, but as it turned out, nothing worked according to plan. Sometimes it seemed as if they were going nowhere. They couldn't agree about what they were really doing, or even if it was worthwhile. At one point one of the Beatles even quit.
Disaster loomed!
Things improved, however, when George Harrison brought in their good friend, Billy Preston, to play keyboards. They'd befriended Preston back in their early days in Hamburg before they'd all achieved fame and fortune.
Knowing a friend they all respected and admired was in their midst watching everything helped them behave themselves and focus on their work. A looming disaster was averted. The album Let It Be, as well as the famous Rooftop Concert, were the result.
You know, we usually do behave when we remember someone is watching! And that's part of the prophet Joel's message to the people of God, who were trying to find a way out of the ecological disaster that knocked them for a loop. They'd forgotten they were not alone. God was very much present in their midst, watching, caring and acting. And by calling it to mind, the prophet hoped things might still turn out differently from the disaster they were living through.
And, even more important to our time, the greater disaster looming ahead of us!
The backstory to the Book of Joel is a natural catastrophe. A plague of locusts descended on the crops, devastating not only the yield of the field, but the hope to cope people needed for the immediate future. Hunger, even starvation, was in the offing. A response to the disaster seemed called for, and the people fell back on the tried-and-true methods of pleasing God - public displays of grief, like tearing one's clothes.2 When you consider that most people in those days had only one set of clothing, this could be seen as a desperate sign, signifying rejection of the world and denial of any future.
But any spontaneous act of great emotion can become ritualized to the point where we do what's expected rather than what we feel. Indeed, we grow suspicious if we think someone is not showing enough outward signs of grief because of a death in the family. One great example of a less-than-spontaneous grief ritual, for instance, took place when the High Priest Caiaphas tore his clothes to emphasize how blasphemous he found the words of Jesus.3
Because of this tendency, Joel turned the Day of the Lord trope upside down.4 Normally God's people looked forward to the Day of the Lord as a time when their enemies would be destroyed, God would triumph and so would God's people. But the prophet warns that yes, "...the day of the LORD is coming, it is near..." but rather than being a time of celebration it would be, "a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness."5
In other words, don't get so cocky! Maybe we're the ones about to get our comeuppance.
Joel reminded the people of the words of the Lord: "You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel ...."6 Knowing the Lord in our midst should change how we act.
Joel also told the people God had no interest in histrionics like tearing one's clothes - God is demanding repentance and change! An act of contrition is what matters, true inward grief at what effect our sins have on ourselves and on others. Outward signs don't matter - but real change should follow real grief.
Just as Joel called upon the people to truly change, so too we must surely make changes now that a climate catastrophe is becoming a reality instead of just a threat. And action, after all, should give us hope. As the prophet had proclaimed earlier in this book, "Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment."
The Hebrew word shuv, translated as "repent" and "return," implies not just words, or empty rituals like the tearing of clothing, but a total change in orientation and direction. Turning 180 degrees. Acting like you want change. The result could still be, as Joel told the people with words of celebration, restoration and renewal, "I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten ...."7 This is a real promise of God - if we repent and return.
Today is Ash Wednesday. Today we receive ashes as a sign of our repentance, individually and corporately as a people. And we will wear these ashes today as an outward sign of repentance.
But!
If this is just an outward sign and not an inward commitment to change, if our hearts are not burning with shame for our sins, but instead we are uncomfortable because of the heartburn that follows the excesses of Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, then we are like the people Joel was addressing, lamenting their misfortune but not repenting their ways.
Although the people were sharing universal misery from a natural disaster, the prophet assured them that in God's time they'd experience hope and renewal. The people would gain back everything they lost to the locusts.
But Joel assures us that God's promise of plenty will eventually produce a time of overabundance, of feasting. Harvest would again become a time of excess and celebration. That would be hard to believe when facing shortages that could lead to mass starvation, to believe they would have full stomachs and full barns, full of hope. But the people survived and eventually prospered.
On that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the streambeds of Judah
shall flow with water....8
Joel's prophecy following that devastating attack on the crops by locusts was that God would do even more than replace everything we lost. God is planning a new era in which we will recognize the presence of God everywhere. God's Spirit will be as plentifully present as the excess crops: never going spiritually hungry, celebrating in the Spirit. God's spirit will be poured out on all flesh - sons, daughters, male and female slaves, old and young - all will partake in the renewal and restoration. Out of nothing will come something greater than we can imagine.
On this Ash Wednesday we may feel we live in a time of unavoidable catastrophe - natural disasters, caused in part by human arrogance - turmoil among human beings around a world that seems to have forgotten that God is present and watching and walking with us.
Joel's prophetic words were directed at a people facing a natural disaster - and we too are facing a worldwide calamity involving climate change - one about which we've been warned. Some respond by insisting there is nothing wrong. Others respond with a clothes-rending equivalent: saying we believe the disaster is coming but then doing nothing about it Or we might fall back on the tried-and-true ritual of calling for "thoughts and prayers" without giving those prayers the legs of repentance and change.
We ought to behave better. Things are falling apart, after all.
Today, as we receive these ashes as a symbol of our personal confession and repentance, let us never lose sight that ours is a shared past, present and future with God. As a people of God, we have experienced many highs and lows. As individuals, we have experienced good times and bad times. However, if we wish to invite God to direct our lives towards a future with hope, it is essential that we are honest with ourselves and with God about our own sins, so that with confession and repentance we can also walk boldly towards forgiveness and restoration.
And by keeping God's presence in mind, we will better be able to focus our hearts and minds, not only upon the rejection of sin but also the embrace of abundant life in Christ. There is a cross ahead of us on this journey, and beyond that cross on a hill far away there is an empty tomb, a Risen Lord and the promise of new and eternal life.