God's Preposterous Promise: Joel 2:21-27 - Second Sunday in Advent

 About two weeks ago, a gnat or some other small insect has taken up residence inside my office. 

Day after day, that wretched bug parks itself on the rim of my coffee cup or buzzes around my face whenever I’m eating lunch. Unfortunately, my flyswatter and I have not been able to evict it from my workspace. 

Unfortunately, insects are a force of nature that no flyswatter in the world can defeat. When conditions are just right, they can wreak the kind of destruction that can only be described as apocalyptic. 

Consider the desert locust.  

When there is an abundance of rain and crops are flourishing, eggs that have been dormant in the soil for up to 20 years begin to hatch, feed, and reproduce; and within a matter of weeks, you can have massive swarms called plagues which can be up to forty miles across and contain more insects than there are people on the planet. The plague devours all plant life, resulting in widespread famine, economic collapse, and civil unrest. And it will take years if not decades for the land to recover, if there are no droughts or other natural disasters. 

A locust plague had just devastated the Holy Land when the prophet Joel began his ministry. The timing could not have been worse. Joel and his fellow Jews had just returned from exile in Babylon. Everything had to rebuilt: their homes, their city, and their way of life.

But things were looking up. Rainfall had been abundant, and their crops were flourishing. All signs were pointing to a spectacular harvest. Then, the locusts came along and devoured everything.  Suddenly, their high hopes were dashed to pieces.

This is what makes hope such a complicated thing: you want to believe that things are going to get better, and often, they do; but then, disaster strikes, and you’re now worse off than you’ve ever been. You feel foolish, and perhaps, even ashamed of yourself for believing that things could get better. Not wanting to be fooled again, you lower your expectations. You harden your heart against all future disappointments. 

Hope becomes something you need to protect yourself against, whereas hopelessness is safe. 

But what happens to your soul when you adopt such a mindset? What happens to the Church? What happens to society?

It always makes me sad whenever I hear how pessimistic people are about the future. Most people believe that the best days are the old days, and the only way to a brighter future is by bringing the old days back. In no institution does this mindset permeate more than in mainline Protestant churches like ours. And it’s not hard to see why. Rooms and pews that once were full of people now sit empty and unused. The building is old, the furnishings and fixtures are falling apart. You fix one thing, and two more things break.

The way I see it, these times are the ultimate test of faith. For if you resign yourself to a bleak and hopeless future, you lose all motivation to do good works. This is why despair is a sin. Despair suffocates the life of Christ within you.

I know some would say that hope is a scam. But I believe that despair is a scam, because you’re either ignoring God’s gifts or throwing them away. 

The mere fact that you are alive is a reason for hope. If you are a believer in God, then there’s no reason to despair the future, no matter how bad things may get, and no matter how badly you may fail. 

It is in the ruins, in the ashes, in the broken pieces of life that God shows up and does a new thing. In no way is this clearer than at the manger, where Jesus is born in the messiness and stink of life. 

Hope isn’t something that depends on circumstance. Hope is what happens when God shows up, and you see God’s acts through faith. 

The prophet Joel sees the signs that give the people reason to be hopeful: the pastures that once were stripped bare are becoming green again, rain is falling in abundance, and new life is rising ruins. Is God any less mighty in our small, old churches? We’re feeding and clothing our neighbors, our young people are eager to learn and volunteer, we have new generations of leaders. The bells are ringing again. 

What time, change, and tragedy break down, Jesus makes new again, and better than before. Hopeful people greet each new day in the promise that God is going to do a new thing. Hopeful people have their eyes, ears, hearts, and minds open for God’s call to participate in that new thing; to be the hands, feet, and voice of the new creation. 

You should never see setbacks and disappointments as reasons to give up hope. They are part of the process. Dying to the old and rising to the new is the Christian life. The struggle is the way. 

When you despair, you see no blessings. There’s nothing you can do to make a difference. When you despair, you’re living as though God is dead. 

God is not dead, and neither are we. Neither are you. “Two thousand Years of Christian experience and witness declare that God’s preposterous promise is true.” The Kingdom of God is nearer today than it was yesterday. God’s plan of salvation is underway. Salvation is not the absence of struggle, it is God’s triumph in struggle. So, “people, look east, and sing today, Love, the Lord, is on the way.”