August 11, 2025 • 19 mins
Recorded on Sunday, August 10, 2025. Other scripture cited: Luke 19:41-44; Hebrews 5:7.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Doug (00:00):
One of the valid criticisms of the Christian
church in the US is that it isoften too "smiley" and happy.
What I mean by "too smiley andhappy" is that we often come
across as inauthentic,superficial, or ignorant of
(00:20):
reality.
In fairness to the church inthe US, this is a similar
critique of those in the US ingeneral, especially those who
travel abroad. We as a peopleare generally far more
gregarious, outgoing, and smileythan other cultures.
(00:42):
So Christians in the U.S.
come about some of this personafairly naturally.
Still, this persona has beenaugmented in the church by a
lot of dynamic personalitieswith bad theology.
(01:02):
There are preachers andteachers who proclaim that if
you just believe and trust inJesus, everything will go well
for you.
"You will be blessed beyondyour wildest imagination." That
theology is not at all biblical.
(01:22):
Jesus, the one whom we aresupposed to emulate, to follow,
was tortured and then executedon a cross.
But evenworse than this un-Biblical theology
is when those who grieve andmourn, those who are sad and
(01:43):
cry, are judged as "unfaithful"or as "not trusting enough." I
will admit, that some of myfrustration and anger over this
unbiblical theology is personal.
I resonate far more naturallywith sadness and depression than
(02:07):
happiness and optimism.
But I believe that even morethan my natural predilection,
biblical theology profoundlyaffirms not only the acceptance
of grief and tears as part ofour humanity, but God's blessing
(02:27):
of our grief and tears asessential to our relationship to
God's divinity.
This morning, we begin a shortseries of sermons focusing on
the writings of the prophetJoel.
Joel was not only a prophet,but also a poet, familiar with
(02:48):
grief and tears.
Through his powerful andprofound words, his God-breathed
words, Joel reveals thatgrieving is an important
response to the suffering andpain of this world and our
lives.
And from our other tworeadings, we see that Jesus
(03:13):
himself embodied this sameessential response to the pain
and suffering of this world.
The book begins with thebriefest of introductions, "The
word of the Lord that came toJoel, son of Pethuel." We never
(03:35):
receive from Joel any furtherinformation about himself or the
specifics of his situation.
No geographic information, nohistorical information, no
king's reign, nothing.
In a way, that's even betterfor us because it reminds us of
(03:59):
the foremost reason that we readthese writings at all centuries
and centuries later.
This is, as it says in theintroduction, "the word of God."
The general anonymity of theauthor, the time and the place,
allows us to focus then entirelyon this message from God.
(04:23):
What does it say and why?
Initially, we don't know whatthe problem is.
Verse 2, "Hear this you elders,listen, all you who live in the
land, has anything like thisever happened in your days or in
(04:46):
the days of your ancestors?" Wedon't know what the "this" is,
but it is clearly dramatic.
Joel questions the oldest amongthe people if they can remember
anything else like it, or evenhearing stories from their
elders about anything like it.
(05:08):
And whatever it is that hashappened, Joel believes it must
be remembered always.
"Tell it to your children andlet your children tell it to
their children and theirchildren to the next
generation" (verse 3).
This must be remembered.
And then we hear what it is,what "this" is: "What the locust
(05:34):
swarm has left, the greatlocusts have eaten.
What the great locusts haveleft, the young locusts have
eaten.
What the young locusts haveleft, other locusts have eaten."
Joel uses four different wordsto describe locusts; but the
(05:56):
words that he uses are all veryobscure Hebrew words.
So scholars have differenttheories for what Joel was after
with all this.
My personal favoriteexplanation is expressed by
Elizabeth Achtemeier.
She's a contemporary USscholar.
She writes, "These four wordsfor locusts indicate successive
(06:22):
waves of insect attack andhighlight the intensity of
destruction as the poetic chainsuggests." A 19th century German
scholar, Carl Friedrich Kiel,believes that the number four,
the four locust waves, expresses"...the spread of judgment over
(06:48):
the whole of Judah in alldirections." North, south, east,
and west, they come fromeverywhere.
Thankfully, to my knowledge,we've never experienced locust
swarms here in the Puget Soundarea.
But they can be astonishinglydestructive.
(07:09):
Elizabeth Achtemeier gives twoexamples.
One, "a report of a locustswarm in Palestine covering
2,000 square miles andcomprising an estimated 24
billion insects.
In the 1950s, a grasshopperhorde attacked California and
(07:33):
was described in the newspapersin terms reminiscent of Joel.
In one county, 200,000 acreswere covered with insects 'over
every inch and in some placesstacked on top of each other."
Joel adds, verses 6 and 7, "Anation has invaded my land,
(08:00):
powerful and without number.
It has the teeth of a lion, thefangs of a lioness.
It has laid waste my vines andruined my fig trees.
It has stripped off their barkand thrown it away, leaving
their branches white."On top of all of that
devastation, a drought followedthe locusts.
(08:24):
We hear in verse 10, "Thefields are ruined.
The ground is dried up.
The grain is destroyed.
The new wine is dried up.
The oil fails." Verse 12, "Thevine is dried up and the fig
tree is withered.
Pomegranate, palm and appletree, all the trees of the field
(08:44):
are dried up."Joel notes then one deeply
significant consequence of ofall of this destruction in
verses 9 and 10.
He writes, "Grain offerings anddrink offerings (which were
done in the temple in Jerusalem)are cut off from the House of
(09:12):
the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,those who minister before the
Lord.
[Because] the fields are driedup, the ground is dried up,
grain and new wine and oil, alldried up." David Allen Hubbard,
who was a former professor atFuller Seminary, helps us
understand the impact that allthis had on the nation.
He writes (09:34):
"Verses 9 and 10 give the reasons for the awful
anguish.
The cause is that thefellowship with God expressed in
cereal and drink offerings...
had to cease.
Grain, new wine, and olive oilare the ingredients in the
(09:54):
cereal and drink offerings.
These offerings, rather thananimal sacrifices, are mentioned
because they would be moredirectly affected by the locusts
and the drought.
And these offerings made up thedaily offerings, the daily
offerings in the temple." SoHubbard concludes, "Israel could
(10:16):
not suffer any greater calamitythan the suspension of the
daily sacrifice, for this was apractical suspension of the
covenant relationship with God."Every aspect of life for those
living in the land has beenhorribly affected by these
(10:39):
events.
People are hungry, thirsty,displaced and without hope
because they feel cut off fromGod.
Now, notice how Joel commandsthe people to respond.
(11:00):
Verse 5 "Wake up, youdrunkards, and weep (we'll come
back to that).
Wake up.
Wail, you drinkers of wine.
Wail because of the new wine,for it has been snatched from
your lips." Verse 8, "Mourn likea virgin in sackcloth, grieving
(11:23):
for the betrothed of heryouth." Verse 11, "Despair, you
farmers.
Wail, you vine growers.
Grieve for the wheat and thebarley, because the harvest of
the field is destroyed."Literally, it translates, "the
harvest of the field mourns."This is what Jesus himself did
(11:46):
many times.
In our gospel passage, we readthat, "As he approached
Jerusalem and saw the city, hewept.
He wept over it.
" This is Jesus weeping over thecity.
(12:09):
And then we hear in Hebrewsthat, "...throughout his life,
during his days on earth, heoffered up prayers and petitions
with loud cries and tears."This is what Jesus did in
(12:30):
response to these things.
And Joel closes our text withthese words of bereavement.
"Surely, The joy of humankindis withered away" (verse 12).
Joel and Jesus both reveal thatgrieving is an important, even
(12:54):
holy, response to the pain andsuffering, the catastrophes and
the horrors of our lives and ourworld.
We even have a whole categoryof psalms in the scriptures for
this purpose.
Psalms that have been used byGod's people for centuries as
(13:18):
prayer, both individually andwhen gathered together in
worship.
They're called the Psalms ofLament, and there are many.
Walter Brueggemann helps us seehow vital these expressions
are.
He writes, "This languagerepresents honest address to God
that moves the relationship tonew possibilities of
(13:41):
faithfulness that can only bereached through such risky
honesty.
In the full relationship withGod, the season of grief must be
taken as seriously as theseason of praise.
Such language accords well withthe theology of the cross.
(14:02):
It militates against everytheology of glory, against every
theology that imagines that allthings can be resolved, that
there are answers, and that wego from 'strength
to strength' (which is abiblical quote that is often
given by smiley, happy pastors).
(14:22):
It stands as a mark of realismfor biblical faith.
It is vital because there aresituations in which easy, cheap
talk of resolution must beavoided." Grieving is an
important, even holy, responseto the pain and suffering, the
(14:46):
catastrophes and horrors in ourlives and in our world.
But first, we have to beawake, and to acknowledge the
truth.
Notice how much Joel tries toget the attention of the people.
Verse 2, "Hear this, youelders, listen, all you who live
(15:13):
in the land." Verse 5, "Wakeup, you drunkards and weep."
Elizabeth Achtemeier assertsthat drunkards are addressed not
because they are the worst ofthe sinners; rather, because
they will be some of the firstpeople affected by what's
(15:35):
happening.
Because, she notes, "...theirsource of happiness is dependent
on the fruit of the vine," andit's been wiped out.
Her reference to that broughtto my mind those who vote for
politicians who will take awaytheir support for life, their
(15:58):
own sources of support.
Notice as well the despair inJesus' words that people
wouldn't wake up to what theywere missing.
In that gospel passage, as heapproached Jerusalem, saw the
city, he wept over it, "If youhad only known on this day what
(16:22):
would bring you peace, but nowit is hidden from your eyes.
[These horrible things willhappen because] you did not
recognize the time of God'scoming to you." You didn't wake
(16:42):
up to what was going on, whatwas true.
We ourselves live in a time inour nation when we can
legitimately ask, as did Joel,verse 2, "has anything like this
ever happened in our days, inyour days, elders, or in the
(17:05):
days of our ancestors?" A timewhen we can see horrific pain
and suffering, catastrophe andhorrors in our lives, in our
world, already - and more on theway.
What the billionaires haveleft, those with weapons and
(17:28):
power have eaten.
What those with weapons andpower have left, the
corporations have eaten.
What the corporations haveleft, the corrupt judiciary has
eaten.
God's prophets are calling toour world, "Wake up! Look with
(17:51):
your eyes; listen with yourears! Wake up!" And for those of
us with eyes to see and ears tohear, Joel and Jesus say to us,
"weep, wail, mourn, despair,grieve." It's not only okay,
(18:18):
it's holy.
This is what God is calling usto feel and experience with what
is happening to human beingsand to creation itself.
Weep, wail, mourn, despair, andgrieve! The only caveat I will
(18:43):
add to this, for now at least,is do this within a community
focused on loving God, lovingone another, and loving our
neighbor.
It is safer, it is better toweep with others.
One of the valid criticisms of the Christian
church in the US is that it isoften too "smiley" and happy.
What I mean by "too smiley andhappy" is that we often come
across as inauthentic,superficial, or ignorant of
(00:20):
reality.
In fairness to the church inthe US, this is a similar
critique of those in the US ingeneral, especially those who
travel abroad. We as a peopleare generally far more
gregarious, outgoing, and smileythan other cultures.
(00:42):
So Christians in the U.S.
come about some of this personafairly naturally.
Still, this persona has beenaugmented in the church by a
lot of dynamic personalitieswith bad theology.
(01:02):
There are preachers andteachers who proclaim that if
you just believe and trust inJesus, everything will go well
for you.
"You will be blessed beyondyour wildest imagination." That
theology is not at all biblical.
(01:22):
Jesus, the one whom we aresupposed to emulate, to follow,
was tortured and then executedon a cross.
But evenworse than this un-Biblical theology
is when those who grieve andmourn, those who are sad and
(01:43):
cry, are judged as "unfaithful"or as "not trusting enough." I
will admit, that some of myfrustration and anger over this
unbiblical theology is personal.
I resonate far more naturallywith sadness and depression than
(02:07):
happiness and optimism.
But I believe that even morethan my natural predilection,
biblical theology profoundlyaffirms not only the acceptance
of grief and tears as part ofour humanity, but God's blessing
(02:27):
of our grief and tears asessential to our relationship to
God's divinity.
This morning, we begin a shortseries of sermons focusing on
the writings of the prophetJoel.
Joel was not only a prophet,but also a poet, familiar with
(02:48):
grief and tears.
Through his powerful andprofound words, his God-breathed
words, Joel reveals thatgrieving is an important
response to the suffering andpain of this world and our
lives.
And from our other tworeadings, we see that Jesus
(03:13):
himself embodied this sameessential response to the pain
and suffering of this world.
The book begins with thebriefest of introductions, "The
word of the Lord that came toJoel, son of Pethuel." We never
(03:35):
receive from Joel any furtherinformation about himself or the
specifics of his situation.
No geographic information, nohistorical information, no
king's reign, nothing.
In a way, that's even betterfor us because it reminds us of
(03:59):
the foremost reason that we readthese writings at all centuries
and centuries later.
This is, as it says in theintroduction, "the word of God."
The general anonymity of theauthor, the time and the place,
allows us to focus then entirelyon this message from God.
(04:23):
What does it say and why?
Initially, we don't know whatthe problem is.
Verse 2, "Hear this you elders,listen, all you who live in the
land, has anything like thisever happened in your days or in
(04:46):
the days of your ancestors?" Wedon't know what the "this" is,
but it is clearly dramatic.
Joel questions the oldest amongthe people if they can remember
anything else like it, or evenhearing stories from their
elders about anything like it.
(05:08):
And whatever it is that hashappened, Joel believes it must
be remembered always.
"Tell it to your children andlet your children tell it to
their children and theirchildren to the next
generation" (verse 3).
This must be remembered.
And then we hear what it is,what "this" is: "What the locust
(05:34):
swarm has left, the greatlocusts have eaten.
What the great locusts haveleft, the young locusts have
eaten.
What the young locusts haveleft, other locusts have eaten."
Joel uses four different wordsto describe locusts; but the
(05:56):
words that he uses are all veryobscure Hebrew words.
So scholars have differenttheories for what Joel was after
with all this.
My personal favoriteexplanation is expressed by
Elizabeth Achtemeier.
She's a contemporary USscholar.
She writes, "These four wordsfor locusts indicate successive
(06:22):
waves of insect attack andhighlight the intensity of
destruction as the poetic chainsuggests." A 19th century German
scholar, Carl Friedrich Kiel,believes that the number four,
the four locust waves, expresses"...the spread of judgment over
(06:48):
the whole of Judah in alldirections." North, south, east,
and west, they come fromeverywhere.
Thankfully, to my knowledge,we've never experienced locust
swarms here in the Puget Soundarea.
But they can be astonishinglydestructive.
(07:09):
Elizabeth Achtemeier gives twoexamples.
One, "a report of a locustswarm in Palestine covering
2,000 square miles andcomprising an estimated 24
billion insects.
In the 1950s, a grasshopperhorde attacked California and
(07:33):
was described in the newspapersin terms reminiscent of Joel.
In one county, 200,000 acreswere covered with insects 'over
every inch and in some placesstacked on top of each other."
Joel adds, verses 6 and 7, "Anation has invaded my land,
(08:00):
powerful and without number.
It has the teeth of a lion, thefangs of a lioness.
It has laid waste my vines andruined my fig trees.
It has stripped off their barkand thrown it away, leaving
their branches white."On top of all of that
devastation, a drought followedthe locusts.
(08:24):
We hear in verse 10, "Thefields are ruined.
The ground is dried up.
The grain is destroyed.
The new wine is dried up.
The oil fails." Verse 12, "Thevine is dried up and the fig
tree is withered.
Pomegranate, palm and appletree, all the trees of the field
(08:44):
are dried up."Joel notes then one deeply
significant consequence of ofall of this destruction in
verses 9 and 10.
He writes, "Grain offerings anddrink offerings (which were
done in the temple in Jerusalem)are cut off from the House of
(09:12):
the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,those who minister before the
Lord.
[Because] the fields are driedup, the ground is dried up,
grain and new wine and oil, alldried up." David Allen Hubbard,
who was a former professor atFuller Seminary, helps us
understand the impact that allthis had on the nation.
He writes (09:34):
"Verses 9 and 10 give the reasons for the awful
anguish.
The cause is that thefellowship with God expressed in
cereal and drink offerings...
had to cease.
Grain, new wine, and olive oilare the ingredients in the
(09:54):
cereal and drink offerings.
These offerings, rather thananimal sacrifices, are mentioned
because they would be moredirectly affected by the locusts
and the drought.
And these offerings made up thedaily offerings, the daily
offerings in the temple." SoHubbard concludes, "Israel could
(10:16):
not suffer any greater calamitythan the suspension of the
daily sacrifice, for this was apractical suspension of the
covenant relationship with God."Every aspect of life for those
living in the land has beenhorribly affected by these
(10:39):
events.
People are hungry, thirsty,displaced and without hope
because they feel cut off fromGod.
Now, notice how Joel commandsthe people to respond.
(11:00):
Verse 5 "Wake up, youdrunkards, and weep (we'll come
back to that).
Wake up.
Wail, you drinkers of wine.
Wail because of the new wine,for it has been snatched from
your lips." Verse 8, "Mourn likea virgin in sackcloth, grieving
(11:23):
for the betrothed of heryouth." Verse 11, "Despair, you
farmers.
Wail, you vine growers.
Grieve for the wheat and thebarley, because the harvest of
the field is destroyed."Literally, it translates, "the
harvest of the field mourns."This is what Jesus himself did
(11:46):
many times.
In our gospel passage, we readthat, "As he approached
Jerusalem and saw the city, hewept.
He wept over it.
" This is Jesus weeping over thecity.
(12:09):
And then we hear in Hebrewsthat, "...throughout his life,
during his days on earth, heoffered up prayers and petitions
with loud cries and tears."This is what Jesus did in
(12:30):
response to these things.
And Joel closes our text withthese words of bereavement.
"Surely, The joy of humankindis withered away" (verse 12).
Joel and Jesus both reveal thatgrieving is an important, even
(12:54):
holy, response to the pain andsuffering, the catastrophes and
the horrors of our lives and ourworld.
We even have a whole categoryof psalms in the scriptures for
this purpose.
Psalms that have been used byGod's people for centuries as
(13:18):
prayer, both individually andwhen gathered together in
worship.
They're called the Psalms ofLament, and there are many.
Walter Brueggemann helps us seehow vital these expressions
are.
He writes, "This languagerepresents honest address to God
that moves the relationship tonew possibilities of
(13:41):
faithfulness that can only bereached through such risky
honesty.
In the full relationship withGod, the season of grief must be
taken as seriously as theseason of praise.
Such language accords well withthe theology of the cross.
(14:02):
It militates against everytheology of glory, against every
theology that imagines that allthings can be resolved, that
there are answers, and that wego from 'strength
to strength' (which is abiblical quote that is often
given by smiley, happy pastors).
(14:22):
It stands as a mark of realismfor biblical faith.
It is vital because there aresituations in which easy, cheap
talk of resolution must beavoided." Grieving is an
important, even holy, responseto the pain and suffering, the
(14:46):
catastrophes and horrors in ourlives and in our world.
But first, we have to beawake, and to acknowledge the
truth.
Notice how much Joel tries toget the attention of the people.
Verse 2, "Hear this, youelders, listen, all you who live
(15:13):
in the land." Verse 5, "Wakeup, you drunkards and weep."
Elizabeth Achtemeier assertsthat drunkards are addressed not
because they are the worst ofthe sinners; rather, because
they will be some of the firstpeople affected by what's
(15:35):
happening.
Because, she notes, "...theirsource of happiness is dependent
on the fruit of the vine," andit's been wiped out.
Her reference to that broughtto my mind those who vote for
politicians who will take awaytheir support for life, their
(15:58):
own sources of support.
Notice as well the despair inJesus' words that people
wouldn't wake up to what theywere missing.
In that gospel passage, as heapproached Jerusalem, saw the
city, he wept over it, "If youhad only known on this day what
(16:22):
would bring you peace, but nowit is hidden from your eyes.
[These horrible things willhappen because] you did not
recognize the time of God'scoming to you." You didn't wake
(16:42):
up to what was going on, whatwas true.
We ourselves live in a time inour nation when we can
legitimately ask, as did Joel,verse 2, "has anything like this
ever happened in our days, inyour days, elders, or in the
(17:05):
days of our ancestors?" A timewhen we can see horrific pain
and suffering, catastrophe andhorrors in our lives, in our
world, already - and more on theway.
What the billionaires haveleft, those with weapons and
(17:28):
power have eaten.
What those with weapons andpower have left, the
corporations have eaten.
What the corporations haveleft, the corrupt judiciary has
eaten.
God's prophets are calling toour world, "Wake up! Look with
(17:51):
your eyes; listen with yourears! Wake up!" And for those of
us with eyes to see and ears tohear, Joel and Jesus say to us,
"weep, wail, mourn, despair,grieve." It's not only okay,
(18:18):
it's holy.
This is what God is calling usto feel and experience with what
is happening to human beingsand to creation itself.
Weep, wail, mourn, despair, andgrieve! The only caveat I will
(18:43):
add to this, for now at least,is do this within a community
focused on loving God, lovingone another, and loving our
neighbor.
It is safer, it is better toweep with others.
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