William Yagel
Grace Radford
October 23, 2022
Proper 25, Year C
Holy and Loving God - may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight oh Lord for you are our rock and our redeemer.
Amen.
All we ever talk of is light—
let there be light, there was light then,
good light—but what I consider
dawn is darker than all that.
So many hours between the day
receding and what we recognize
as morning, the sun cresting
like a wave that won’t break
over us—as if light were protective,
as if no hearts were flayed,
no bodies broken on a day
like today. In any film,
the sunrise tells us everything
will be all right. Danger wouldn’t
dare show up now, dragging
its shadow across the screen.
We talk so much of light, please
let me speak on behalf
of the good dark. Let us
talk more of how dark
the beginning of a day is.
Maggie Smith opens my imagination about these images of light and dark that we toss around so casually. Generally, I am all about the light. I mean, John the Evangelist really nails it in his Prologue, or the first chapter of his Gospel.
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:3b-5)
I mean that’s the stuff, really good stuff. Now, I will concede that the whole of the can get me a little wrapped around the axle, just a bit confusing if I read it straight through, but it certainly is beautiful. But even with that bit of confusion it is plain to see that the light is good and the darkness is bad. He goes on to tell of “the true light, which enlightens everyone, coming into the world.” The coming Christ whose love conquers darkness. I truth, this is the metaphor I operate in nearly all of the time. And generally speaking, I actually think that is really good.
But this morning I want to put that down, or maybe, expand a bit, because in her prose I hear Maggie Smith offering another view. I ask you to consider how we understand darkness afresh and to allow another view in. A view that confirms that there is good in the darkness of dawn. There is good in the coming of the light, for that too is a holy time. If I can just shift my perspective ever so slightly, maybe just hold these notions loosely.
I think the author of Joel might offer me the same perspective. His visions are alarming, and I think they are clearly supposed to be. His visions call the people back to God, but maybe it isn’t as simple as a fear tactic.
You might recognize the passage from Joel this morning. The full passage as we have heard it today only comes up once every three years in our lectionary. Yep, it’s a year C reading -Proper 25 for those counting. From this spot in the rotation of our reading cycle it can easily be lost to obscurity, but this passage has a lot more notoriety. We read some of these same words every year on one of our top 3 feast days??? You may not notice it as readily because when we read the second half of this passage on the Day of Pentecost it is contained within the second chapter of Acts.
When the Holy Spirit descends on the Day of Pentecost Peter looks back to this passage in Joel and calls on those assembled to see the prophetic vision of Joel’s words. With the spirit comes visions and dreams; blood, fire, and columns of smoke; the sun darkens, and the moon turns to blood. A whole array of powerful signs that sound ominous and frightening, at least to me. All of this on the day that the Lord comes. A truly apocalyptic vision.
But I invite you to hear more than a show of power.
Joel was written roughly in the first half of the 4th century BCE, circa 435. It was written at a time when the Jewish people had been allowed to return from their exile under Babylonian rule about 100 years before. The diaspora had been allowed to move as they were then under Persian rule. They had some autonomy, but very little authority. And this is really important as we consider what is happening in the passage from Joel. Not that this snippet of history tells us the entirety of the thoughts of the Jewish people at the time. And certainly, I am not saying that the book was written as a political tool to affect nationalism, unity, or anything of the sort. Rather, I am hearing how the word of God intersected with a moment in history.
So, knowing that, I want to point out 2 historic connections that we can see from the author of Joel for you. First, theologian John Strazicich points out the connection in parts of this passage, particularly those “portents on heaven and earth”, with the book of Exodus. We don’t hear it readily, but historians note this language in Joel is particularly tied to the wonders that God performed when the people of Israel, the ancient ancestors of the Jews of Joel’s time, were delivered from the bonds of the Pharaoh. A positive message of deliverance can be heard embedded in the ominous.
Second, hear in the words of the sun being turned to darkness and the moon to blood the possibility of salvation. Think of day four. In the creation account in Genesis, it was day four that God placed the greater light in the sky for day and the lesser at night. The darkened sun harkens to the creation narrative. When the sun was darkened, God’s hand was on the earth calling all things into being. Joel can be heard speaking to a new creation.
In both the connection to deliverance in Exodus and the connection to creation in Genesis, Joel’s apocalyptic vision places God as an active agent in the world. These visions that seem to be bleak and destructive can be seen another way. They can be seen as generative and beautiful where God emerges and provides for God’s people. And this prophetic vision from Joel comes at a time when the Jewish people are seeking connection and relationship with God. And the connection to the first two books of the Torah can be heard as a sign of hope.
But, our passage takes on ever greater significance when we remember its connection to Pentecost. Suddenly the Spirit being poured out onto all flesh is no longer a small group of faithful Jewish survivors, but literally all flesh. Man and woman, slave and free, young and old are all included. The profound and expansive love of God is seen bursting forth, as it was in creation. Hearing the words of Joel afresh reminds us today of that generative love that burst forth in the Trinitarian God of Christianity!
It is a powerful theological message that is also a powerful personal message. As Joel, and subsequently Peter, remind us, God is always at work in the world an in us. That love that burst forth in creation and in deliverance of the Old Testament narratives was captured in the redeeming life of Christ. We are invited, as Maggie Smith points out, to hear the possibility of the dawn. We are invited to hear and see the new creation that is emerging in God and in us. Let us bravely hear that call, and let us Wonder in All of God’s works.
Amen