When Locusts Come: Returning to God and Restoring What's Broken

Staring Down the Barrel

What an evocative, challenging, and straight-shooting pair of readings. Paul is staring down the barrel of death, and his mates have deserted him when the going got tough. He's pretty blunt with Timothy: "You take over. I'm about to die."

It's almost like he's writing his own eulogy. My life is an offering on God's altar. I've run the race. I've kept the faith right to the end. Now all that's left is God's applause. He'll do right by me—and by everyone eager for his coming.

When Doom Has Already Arrived

The Joel reading is equally blunt. God has used environmental disaster to confront the Israelites over their disobedience and waywardness.

I recall a big locust plague in my primary school years in Swan Hill, and the sky really did darken with flying insects. When you were driving, you had the windscreen wipers on, washing off squashed bugs all the time. Locusts landing in your hair—these brown bodies with dark dots on the legs and red under their wings. It wasn't as bad as the one in this story, but it was still pretty bad for the farmers, and our garden was not overly happy either.

Joel is one of the few prophets who isn't foretelling doom. Doom has already arrived. People are living through an environmental disaster. Locusts have eaten all the crops. The grain stores are empty and there is nothing to sow. The figs and vineyards aren't producing fruit, and the temples can't even function—they have nothing to offer as a sacrifice. It's pretty dire, and people are heading towards starvation.

This may also be a metaphor for an invading army, but either way, Joel's message is the same. Joel names the corporate sin that got them there. Deuteronomy 28:38–45 lists these disasters as the curses that will be fulfilled if the people of God break the covenant with the Lord. Joel is saying they didn't obey his command nor respect him as Lord, and now they are reaping the consequences.

It's Not Too Late

But that's not the end of the story. God's call is to return to relationship with God. The section before our reading, using The Message version, says: "But there's also this. It's not too late."

God's personal message: Come back to me and really mean it. Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins. Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God, your God. And here's why: God is kind and merciful. This most patient God, extravagant in love, is always ready to cancel a catastrophe. Maybe he will.

For Joel, there is nothing more important than restoring our relationship with God. So Joel tells the people to call a fast—every human included, newborn and newly wed alike. Weep and mourn and repent, and God will bless you and reverse the curse. Wine and grain will grow so they can be offered on the altar.

Ecological and Relational Restoration

All of that precedes the reading we heard, where God promises ecological restoration in tandem with relational restoration—in a mirroring of Aboriginal understandings of the interconnectedness of humanity with country and with creation.

Israel can rejoice, for the land is also healed. Restore relations with God the Creator, and restore the land. Rain will come, grass will grow, animals will have feed. There will be grain for bread and grapes for wine. You'll eat plenty and know that I am your God.

But Joel—and God—doesn't stop there. Not only will God's people never again be put to shame, but God will pour out God's spirit on all people. No one will miss out. Not women, not children, not servants, not slaves.

This foretaste of Pentecost was prophesied centuries before it happened. There are also the unsettling references to a black sun and a red moon, fire and smoke before the great and terrible day of the Lord. But all who call on the Lord shall be saved. This half of the prophecy is yet to be fulfilled, by God's grace.

Where Humans Fail, God Is There

It's like the Timothy reading. Paul's day is less "great and terrible" and more "I call on the Lord and have never been let down." Paul exists in a time where the Spirit has already been given. Paul has been let down by his companions, deserted in his time of need.

I've had two conversations recently with people writing their children or grandchildren out of their wills because they didn't behave as desired or expected. Paul, on the other hand, isn't bitter at being let down. He doesn't pretend it didn't happen—he calls it out. But he keeps his eye on what is most important and primary: that where humans fail us, God is there.

The Spirit is the one who doesn't desert, who gives us words for defense and words for proclamation. We too are blessed by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Living in the Spirit's Power

Are we present to and depending on this power in our daily lives? Are we, like Paul, asking the Spirit for the words that give life—the words that testify to God's faithfulness to us and to those we speak with, so that they may know God's great love for them too?

Let's embody the Spirit's love, forgiveness, and even straight talking, that we might restore relationships.

Like Paul, we may also feel like we've been running the race for a long time and would like to pass on the baton—but grateful that God keeps powering us in the meantime. In a mission planning conversation we had last week, I asked people where they wanted to see our church in five to ten years. One person, a bit like Paul, responded, "Well, I've got my funeral paid for." And I'm sure she will receive God's applause for a faithful life well lived. However, it missed the vision of a Timothy—someone to continue to grow and expand God's church in her absence.

What Are Our Corporate Sins?

We, the church, are the body of Christ. We have each and every one of us had the Holy Spirit poured out on us. And I wonder: what are the corporate sins today that we may be called to repent of? Sins that bring environmental disaster, relational distance, empty souls.

Let us step out in faith, taking risks, sharing—as Paul did, as Joel did—the good news with everyone around us. And let us also take up our sackcloth and ashes and fast:

• Give up our anger over unmet expectations.
• Give up our self-righteousness that we might be better or more right than others.
• Take action to fulfill the church's covenant with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress.
• Tune our eyes to see the Spirit at work everywhere we go.

Be really open to the discomfort and unpredictable, out-of-control way of living that happens when the Spirit has full power and reign in our lives. That absolutely takes courage. I like being in control—but God being in control is even better.

God Never Abandons Us

Our friends may desert us. It may feel like the locusts are eating away at your faith. But God never abandons us, never says we are beyond use or value or love. The Spirit is always ready to empower us, bring healing, and give us words to witness to the glory of God.

God of our covenant, God who loves, who sends fire, locusts, reign, and abundance—fill us anew with your Spirit. Convict us of the actions to take, the words to say, in calling for repentance, fasting, lamentation, and in sharing your holy word with those around us. Your word is love. Soften our hearts to restore relationships. Give us courage to speak against injustices. Give us fire in our hearts for you and your creation. Send down your fire, Lord, on us and on all people, we pray. Amen.