The Promise of Spirit, Power and Resurrection: 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

When I first read the Old Testament reading from the prophet Joel, I was reminded of Peter’s first sermon on the first Pentecost. Strong in the Holy Spirit, Peter was inspired to recall these words from today’s reading: “In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants -- men and women alike -- and they will prophesy.”

As this week has worn on, I’ve found myself turning myself to another section of this small book in the Old Testament, but no less important in the life of our church. Every Ash Wednesday, we hear these words from Joel: “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Return to the LORD your God, for he is merciful and compassionate…Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse.”

As a parish, we are already mourning our brother, Joe Wooten, as his joyous spirit still struggles to move on to the next stage of his life’s journey. Based on his instructions, expect songs of joy and celebration at his burial. But of course, we will miss our friend until we see him again in heaven, and we rightly mourn. Laura and I are mourning the loss, by fire, of the seminary chapel that has been one of our spiritual homes.

The prophet Joel understood loss, and mourning. He also understood that while weeping may spend the night, joy comes in the morning. But it seems that in this broken world, we can have both, but not one or the other.

Indeed, one week before Halloween, Joel’s prophecy makes for good reading. He begins by describing an attack on the crops of the land by locusts: “What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.” But suddenly, the swarming locusts seem to have mutated into a foreign army; “powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.”

“Weep,” Joel writes to all the people of Judah, “weep like a bride dressed in black mourning the death of her husband.” The land of Judah has suffered natural disaster, foreign invasion, and death. Her economy and security have been devastated. It is in that context that the people of God are called to a time of mourning, and fasting. In the present, the people and the land suffer.

But then, Joel has the audacity to say: “Then the LORD became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The LORD answered and said to his people, ‘Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.’” In the present time, the people suffer. But in Joel’s prophesying, the past and the future seem to come together in that string of promises you just heard: “Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication…I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter.”

Clearly, in this time of present suffering, Joel is speaking of God’s promises for the future. But so sure are the promises of Almighty God that the prophet, and we, can speak of those promises in the past tense, as though the promises themselves have already been fulfilled because we know that what God promises, God does.

God promises us a return to prosperity and security. But through the prophet Joel, God promises something even greater those material blessings: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…Even on the male and female slaves in those days I will pour out my Spirit…And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

Now Joel, as far as he could see in the Spirit, looked forward to the vindication of Judah against her enemies. We know that the promises of God go far beyond vindication, wealth and security. All those things are fleeting. But resurrection is the end of all things. Resurrection is our purpose. And in Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead nearly 2,000 years ago, Resurrection is our future.

So, amid our mourning, amid our anxieties over money and national security, let us strive to live as people of Resurrection. Open your hearts to the Spirit, who can do powerful things through you and this parish that Joe Wooten helped to found. As God promised the people of Judah, so God promises us that this Spirit will give us visions of what we can do, and the power to accomplish them. And if, at this moment, you’re not sure if you can do that, it’s alright. God is still there, holding death and life, past, present and future together.

A priest friend of mine wrote this about the destruction of the seminary chapel yesterday on Facebook. Prophetically, she also wrote this about us: “The longer I'm alive and the longer I'm a priest the more I can't comprehend how God can hold all the pain and beauty at the same time. Thanks be to God that God can hold the destruction and not self-destruct. Thanks be to God that the one God, our creator, redeemer, and sustainer, knows how to deal with ashes and dust better than we ever could on our own.”