Joel Sermon 5-20-12

The Minor Writing Prophets XII: Joel – a reporter

May 20, 2012

BMC- Joel

Introduction: Where to get news

            I want to begin this morning by asking you to consider where or from whom is it that you get your news from.  How is it that you keep up on local, national and world events?  Where do you go to find out what is going on around you?  {Responses}

            At Thursday night’s Bible Study, the group named a number of sources from the radio and TV to print media and the internet.  They also mentioned getting news by word of mouth and through digital devices.   Perhaps it’s not all that different of a question from last week, but it has a bit more particular focus.

            Some of us are more tuned in to what is going on in the world around us than others; but in one way or another even if it is by word of mouth, we get our news from somewhere.  And sometimes, we may choose unusual places to get our news from.

            Many of us like to know what the weather forecast will be for today and in the coming few days.  And many of us probably get it through the news whether it is in the newspaper, on the radio, or on the TV.  How many of us would call the library though?

            Well a friend of Beth’s and mine, Christi Michaels, who visited us a few months ago, used to work in the library.  And the library she worked in had a call in question hotline.  Typically the questions that they would get were related to homework in one way or another, but one day she received a different type of call.  Someone actually called in and asked if it was raining outside.  This was not a prank.  This was an honest call that she received.  Now to be fair, it was someone traveling from another nearby community, but it still strikes me as an odd question for a librarian.

            Well whether it is the weather or some other event, we all get our news from somewhere and it seems to me that Joel serves as a sort of newsman within his prophecy today.  Certainly not in the way that we would think of a newsman today, but he is relaying events that were happening and the impact that they were having.

The Reporter

We know virtually nothing about Joel.  Unlike some of the other prophets we read, Joel’s prophecy has no concrete date indicators.  And commentators suggest that he prophesied sometime between 800 and 350 BCE.  That’s a pretty wide range.  We are assuming a later date in the fifth or fourth century.

We make this assumption in part because of the many places in which Joel quotes other sources of scripture.  If we assume that he quoted them, rather than them quoting him; that places him much later in his writing.

Joel begins his work by recounting the locusts and their affect on crops.  He goes on to suggest the ways that this in turn affected the people’s worship.  And then Joel makes a shift as he begins to tell the priests and the people what to do.  Almost as if he is a field reporter in the midst of tragedy providing important instructions to the people of what they need to do.  And then Joel announces the transition from devastation to God’s provision and care.  Within these reports, Joel also offers lessons for us today.

Lesson 1: Grace and Mercy

            Our first lesson comes from Joel 2:12-13.  Joel writes, “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts not your clothing.  Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”

            In a world of judgments and punishments, we serve a God who is willing to forgive and offers us grace and mercy.  He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  All that we must do is return to the lord with all our hearts.  Notice that the people are not called to rend their clothes as was traditional for mourning and repentance.  The people were to go beyond show and instead go to rending their hearts before the Lord.

            As we talked about this during our Bible study on Thursday, we were reminded of the words of Jeremiah 31:33 which say, “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.  “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

            This is a passage that we often reflect upon during Lent and especially this year as we focused in on our covenant with God.  Notice here that God is writing his covenant on our hearts.  It is not just piece of paper or even stone tablets, it is on our hearts.

            We also reflected on Hebrews 8:10 which says, “This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord.  I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.” And we hear similar words in Hebrews 10:16.

            Joel reminds us of the grace and mercy that God has to offer.  But he also reminds us that this all goes much deeper than our surface appearance.  Just like the covenant that we have with God which is written upon our hearts, so too must our turning to God take place at a heart level.

            Often times our parents and important people in our lives model for us God’s work and can even shape our view of God.  When I was in preschool, perhaps 4 or so, I spent a week at my Grandpa and Grandma Maurer’s house.  I have a distinct memory of one day when I got a little too rowdy in my play.

            My grandparents had a cardboard box that held all of the toys that we could play with and for some reason, I ripped the box.  Later that day, I went out to help my grandpa in the garden, but he wouldn’t let me because of what I had done.  He was upset with me.  I went in to my grandma in tears wishing that I could help Grandpa and feeling bad for what I had done.

            She helped me to fix the box.  I realize now that it was a pretty poor excuse for a fix because we just took some string and tied it around the box.  But we had fixed it and I went out to tell my grandpa what we had done.  In the end he showed me grace and allowed me to work in the garden.  Perhaps with my grandma standing back at the house encouraging him, I don’t know.

Lesson 2: Fasting

            The next lesson that we receive from Joel has to do with fasting.  We see in 2:15-16 Joel calling people to “Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast.  Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.”

            We don’t tend to put much emphasis on fasting these days and yet this is clearly a pretty big thing for Joel.  It is so important in fact that he called for the gathering even of children that were nursing and bridegroom and bride.  This is for all ages and even interrupts events in life which normally interrupt typical routines.

            I would imagine that when many of us think of fasting, we think of Matthew 6:16-17 which says, “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.  But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face.”  These are important principles of fasting.  It should not be something that is showy, but did you also catch something very subtle within the wording here?
            Jesus says twice, “when you fast.”  He doesn’t say, “if you fast” but “when you fast.”  This implies that fasting will be a regular part of our spiritual disciplines.  Yet how many of us practice this discipline on a regular basis?  Truth be told, I don’t do so as much as I should and yet there is the implication here that we will do so.
    Now some of us have dietary reasons why a more traditional fast is not a good idea for us.  If that is the case for you, there are other types of fasts to consider like media or a hobby.  You can use that time instead to turn your attention toward God.
            I should confess that I have not always been the best faster myself.  The first time I remember fasting was for a 30 hour famine that I attended at my church in middle school.  I brought a school friend along with me and we knew that we were going to be fasting during this over night.  We were Jr. High boys and couldn’t imagine going that long without eating so we hid food in our sleeping bags and snuck some during the night when we got hungry.
            By my freshman year of college, I had gotten a little better.  A friend and I fasted and I actually didn’t eat any solid foods for the 24 hours that we were fasting.  But I remember very clearly meeting at the local Denny’s at 12:01 the morning that the fast ended and ordering an appetizer sampler of cheese sticks and fried mushrooms to eat.  Obviously I was living a bit more by the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law at the time.

Lesson 3: Pouring Out the Spirit

            The third lesson that we see in Joel is that of the pouring out of the Spirit.  We read in Joel 2:28-29, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”

            Now it is likely that these words sound familiar to you, but it is also likely that Joel is not where you typically hear these words.  These words are also found in Acts 2:17-18 along with the events of Pentecost which we will celebrate next Sunday.

            This seems especially significant to me in wrapping up our series on the Minor Prophets with Joel.  As I mentioned last week, the Old Testament concludes with Malachi; but if we go chronologically, Joel may have come last.  We don’t know for sure; but if he did come last, these words seem especially appropriate to me.

            For whatever reason, prophecy like that which we have in the Minor Prophets came to an end.  We don’t have any other prophet’s writings after Malachi and Joel.  But that does not mean that prophecy ended, it just means that it changed forms and I believe these words of Joel are an indicator of this.

            Up until this point throughout the Old Testament, prophecy came to a particular man or woman at a particular time.  The Holy Spirit anointed that one person and dwelled with them to bring about the word of the Lord.  Yet with the ascension of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the spirit was poured out on all people who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior.  And so prophecy still comes, but now it may come through anyone of us who are a part of the body of Christ.

            Joel’s words that are echoed in Acts are an indicator of this new way of doing things.  And we see this played out in the pages of the book of Acts as people are baptized with water and then baptized with the Holy Spirit and as people are baptized with the Holy Spirit and then are baptized with water.

            The summer after my eighth grade year, I experienced what I can only describe as a baptism of the Holy Spirit.  I was attending church camp at Pilgrim Hills that summer, one of the UCC camps in Ohio.  And we had the opportunity to do some more focused study on some areas of faith that interested us.  3-4 other people and I choose a workshop on the Holy Spirit.  We learned about some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and then had the opportunity to pray with one of our counselors for God to anoint us with a gift of the Holy Spirit.

            It was a profound moment in my faith development as I felt God’s spirit wash over me and fill me in new and different ways.  I had been infant baptized.  I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior; but no one had prayed for my baptism of the Holy Spirit until that point.  Which is part of the reason that I include this in our adult baptism ritual in the river each year.  It will be a part of my prayer for Michael next week.

Conclusion

            Joel served as a reporter to the people of what was happening, how it was affecting them and what they needed to do to get back on track.  In the midst of this, he teaches us about God’s mercy and grace, about fasting, and about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

            Throughout this series on the Minor Writing Prophets, I hope that you have become more familiar with these men, their writings, and their messages from God.  I hope that you have a better sense of the circumstances that they were speaking into.  But most of all, I hope that you have become more aware of how much these ancient words still have to say to us today.  We tend to skip over them and to write them off as irrelevant; yet these are words of scripture and they too still speak to us today.  May God bless and lead us as we continue to seek the ways to best apply them to our modern lives.

Amen