So crys Joel.

The time is the first half
of the 4th Century, BC

The political machinations
and international adventurism of the king
had brought on near total destruction
of Jerusalem, God's Holy City,
and many inhabitants
had been carried away to slavery
in Babylon.

The Lord had intervened
and Cyrus had freed many
and even sent some help
to begin to rebuild the city;

but, the people had lost sight
of from where their hope, their spirit,
their identity, their help does come.

They had not reclaimed
their rich relationship with God,
and they went about their business
as if he no longer mattered.

So comes to the temple wall in Jerusalem
a temple prophet named Joel.

- that's Yo-El,
or, Yahweh is Eloheim
Yahweh is God,

And Yo-El cries out
for repentance by all people;
for the Day of the Lord is coming.

Like blackness, spread upon the mountains,
a great and powerful army comes.

A part of the text
which we did not read this evening
says, it comes
cutting, swarming,
hopping, and destroying.

The army was a plague of locusts
which comes, wave after wave;

and they had stripped bare
the stalks of Judah.

The wheat and the olives,
the figs and the grapes,
the animal feed and the animals,
the goats and the sheep,
all gone.

It is more than the economy crashing;
people are starving.
There is nothing at all to eat,
except, perhaps, the dried stalks in the sun.

In their tradition,
pestilence and starvation
were signs of God's disfavor,
and, indeed, often they are
the natural consequence of bad,
self-serving decisions.

They are often the result
of following our willful ways
and not God's loving ones.

At such times,
the Temple in Jerusalem
was an especially important symbol
of God's presence
with his people.

But, the Temple was still mostly a ruin.

The ritual of animal sacrifice
was their Eucharist,
their sacrament of repentance
and unity with God.

But, the sacrifices
there on the site of the Temple
had ceased once more.

No animals,
no goats
no pigeons,
not even grain offerings
were possible.
There were none.

Joel then modulates his voice
to a roar.

The Day of the Lord is here;
the day when all wrongdoing
and all un-caring is exposed,

the day when the Lord's pain
at having been ignored by generations
will become the people's pain,
and the land will tremble.

One relatively prominent lay religious figure
in our country
was recently asked the fairly naive question,
Why would God allow our country
to be in the difficulty
in which we now find ourselves.

Her answer was,
"Why should God spend any time
looking out for us,
We turned our backs on him years ago."

The point is only that
when humans feel estranged from their God
it usually is because
they have not done much
to maintain the relationship.

And, it does seem as if
the center of moral discourse
no longer lies in a vision beyond ourselves,
but rather within our appetites and wants.

Just as Judah,
in the texts from Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Joel,
can expect to pay a price
for not maintaining their relationship
with God,
and not acting out of that relationship,
so can any people expect consequences.

For any of us
there might await
a Day of the Lord
when our sin comes home to roost
and we find ourselves estranged from God,
no longer even speaking a language
recognizable as useful
in re-establishing a dialogue with him.

How do we make our decisions?
On what vision do we manage our lives?

How do we judge the direction of our kings?

There are extraordinary parallels
in this story of Judah
and that of our current day.

In spite of our evaluation of the necessity
or not
of overthrowing governments
of other countries by force,

what will be the natural consequences?

What price will we pay in treasure
isn't so much the question as,
What plague of locusts might we unleash?
What famine will result?

What price might we pay in lives?
ours, and others?

And, will our adventures be seen
as a blessing
or as a plague
by the world?

or, the final and decisive test,
by God?

These are the questions we must ask
in any decision,
global, and in kindergarten.

And the answers cannot be found
in our own strength
or political rhetoric,
but only, says Yo-El
in prayer
and intimate communion
all together,
with our God.

It is hard, you see,
for persons to seek God's grounding,
expect God's help,
when they no longer know
the language of communion & love,
when they no longer are able
to talk with God,
when they no longer really care.

"Yet, even now," says the Lord
"Return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, weeping, and with mourning."

"Blow the trumpet in Zion"
cries Joel.
"Sanctify a fast
Gather a solemn assembly
Gather all the people
even the infant, the aged
and the bride and groom,
that all people might recognize
the sovereignty of God
in their lives,"

that they might all fall on their faces
in the knowledge
that they have no power
or wisdom
to do anything without God,

That they might all,
in faithfulness,
await God's time.

That is what we do here
this Ash Wednesday evening.

The trumpet has sounded
and some have heard.
The famine of spirit
and perhaps of the flesh
(why would we be exempt from such?)
threatens.

Here, the faithful gather
to recognize the truth
that it is God who is to lead
in our hearts
and not our spirit, distorted by the world.
It is the Lord
who is the measure of our choices
and of our days,
and not fleeting pleasure, or pride,
or anger, or retribution,
or envy, or greed.

We can make our decisions
based on those things, all right,
and many do,

but there they come,
cutting, swarming,
hopping, destroying;
the resulting famine
is predictable.

So, here we bow this night,
and open our hearts to God.

In a world of glitter and fashion
we allow a priest
to smear ashes,
the symbol of death and hopelessness,
on our heads.

Even now, says the Lord
return to me with all your heart,
not one at a time,
but everyone, starting here.

So, there they are
in the second chapter of Joel,
all covered with the ashes of Jerusalem,
prostrated before the Lord,

the rich and the poor,
the men and the women
the slave and the free,

all one before God.

And, there is an outpouring
of God's holy, life-giving Spirit
heard in the land.

God breaths into these slain
and they arise
as a mighty, truth-telling
all loving, alternative army of God.

And, from them
in Chapter 3 of Joel
we see the Nations of the world
judged and healed,

not by the coercive power of man
but by the kindly treatment
of the followers of God.

The Day of the Lord has come,
and the Lord brings deliverance and hope,

and fountains of pure water
will flow from God's Temple
and will refresh all the whole earth,

says Yo-El
Yahweh is our God.

Stay awhile this night.
Empty yourself of bitterness
and disappointment.

Throw out the need to control.
Worry not about what will happen to us,
but rejoice that God
will give us faith and love
to keep the pestilence from others,
and we will have all things.

Prepare a pattern
for a holy Lent
a holy life
and for God's Easter Victory.

"See,
now is the acceptable time
Now, is the day of salvation."