Ash Wednesday Sermon

"Even Now"
[Joel 2:1-17]
February 21, 2007 Second Reformed Church

In the days of the prophet Joel, Israel was struck with a plague of locusts. It was a plague similar to the one that God unleashed on the Egyptians in the days of Moses. Listen to what happened then:

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, so that the locusts may come upon it and eat every plant in the land...' So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought and east wind all that day and all that night; when morning came, the east wind had brought the locusts. The locusts came upon all the land of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been seen before, nor ever shall be again. They covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was black; and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees...; nothing green was left, no tree, no plant in the field, in all the land of Egypt" (Exodus 10:12-15).

In response to Israel's sin, a similar plague had come upon them in the days of Joel. Locusts, like large grasshoppers, with heads that look like horses, descended on the land like a mighty army. They swarmed over the land, and the swarms were so thick that the sun was blotted out. And they settled down and ate the crops and the other plants of the land.

It was a day of alarm -- the locusts were destroying their food and their livelihood. It was a day of darkness, both as they blotted out the sun and the sky and covered the ground, and as the people were filled with dread and sorrow and depression over the state of the land. It was a day of desolation -- everything they had and needed to live was being destroyed. It was a day of fear, not knowing how bad the devastation would be, not knowing how they would be able to survive the onslaught. It was a day when the whole cosmos seemed to be in upheaval.

And Joel was called by God to prophesy: he told the people that the dread day that they were experiencing, under the onslaught of the locusts, was symbolic -- it is just like the Day of the Lord. On that Day, too, not only Israel, but the whole world would be in alarm. The sky would turn black -- the sun and the moon would seemingly be blotted out -- the darkness would be so thick. The people would be left in fear, deserted, not knowing what was going to happen next. On the Day of the Lord, the very cosmos would be in upheaval -- heaven and earth would react to the Day of the Lord violently, terrifyingly.

John also used the image of locusts for the first woe to befall the earth: "And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit; he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given authority like the authority of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to damage the grass or the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torture was like the torture of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

"In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lion's teeth; they had scales like iron breast plates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails like scorpions, with stingers, and in their tails is their power to harm many people for five months. They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon" (Revelation 9:1-11).

And in the midst of this horrific scene, the Lord says, "Yet even now," even on February 21st, 2007, "return [to the Lord] with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and 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."

God says that if we will return to Him, if we truly, humbly, with our whole heart -- not just a show of torn clothes and drama -- if we really repent, if we really believe in Jesus, the Savior Who has now come -- even now, we will be forgiven. David wrote, "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:17).

And someone might say, "But this text says nothing about Jesus, nothing about the Savior."

Let us remember, the Name for God that Joel uses is YHWH and we have seen in the past few weeks that YHWH and Jesus are the Same One God. So, to repent, to turn, to YHWH, the LORD, is the same as repenting and turning to Jesus. Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father but through me" (John 14:6b). We can cry, we can pour ashes over ourselves, we can mouth the words, we can tear our clothes, but without belief in Jesus, we are left to the torment of the locusts, we are left in darkness, distress, and despair, and, eventually, we are thrown into the Lake of Fire with the angel from the bottomless pit, and all those who do not believe.

There are symbolic gestures of repentance and worthy practices of repentance. Fasting is good, the imposition of ashes, which we shall practice this evening, is good, even ripping our clothing at times can be good.

Yet, it is the heart-work that is necessary: it is the tearing of our hearts and truly repenting to our God, through Jesus Christ, that is received and credited as righteousness.

Joel says that they should blow the trumpet -- we rang the bell. Announce to the people a time of repentance, a time to come back to our LORD. And the people will gather; the Holy Spirit will bring the people of God together. And the people of God are all the people of God, no matter what their age is. If a child is too young to understand and truly repent, he or she can observe and learn and come to believe and repent for himself or herself. Joel says to bring the aged in to the sanctuary, bring the children, even bring the infants at the breast. The sanctuary is for all the people of God to come to repent and worship; we shall gather now in preparation for the Marriage of the Lamb.

And once the people have gathered, once they have understood the purpose of their gathering, of the God Whom they have offended, of the terrible place they now find themselves, then, the elect will come to repentance, and the minister will raise up prayers to our God, and he will weep for his sins and the sins of the people, and he will lead them in prayer, and they will be forgiven, and the people who are satisfied with the darkness will see that the Bride of Christ has believed and returned to God, and the people in darkness will be struck with the Truth, that our God is here, and He is the One God, the Only Salvation, the God of Grace and Mercy.

Let us pray:
"Spare your people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'" In Jesus' Name, Amen.