That's How the Light Gets In

Scripture: Joel 2:21-27

Parts of the book of Joel suggest that the author had good reasons to celebrate. “The Lord has done great things!” Joel tells us. There’s been plenty of rain; the pastures are green; the trees bear fruit; the fig trees and the vines are full; grain is abundant; vats overflow with wine and oil. He says: “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied…”

We might imagine Joel with a self-satisfied smile, a full stomach, a house with a two-car garage, and a tax refund on the way. It therefore does not surprise us when Joel looks at the state of things around him and says “Thanks be to God, who has dealt wondrously with us.” He’s celebrating a lot because he’s got a lot to celebrate.

Now, granted, it’s good to have the proverbial “attitude of gratitude.” But Joel’s praise may strike us as platitudinous and Pollyannaish. It may remind us of Satan’s argument to God in the book of Job: people find it easy to praise you when things go well. Joel’s gushiness in these passages may leave us a bit irritated, especially if we’re going through a time of barren trees and empty vats.

But a look at the broader context of these statements reveals that Joel’s experiences were very different and much more complicated—and so is his message. It turns out that Joel had ample reasons to despair. In the chapter preceding the one quoted above, we learn that his community has just survived a calamitous invasion of locusts.

The first chapter of Joel describes those events in alarming terms:

“What the cutting locus 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 …[A] nation has come up against my land, powerful and without number, its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines, and splintered my fig trees; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.”

On closer examination, the book of Joel is the work of a man who has lived through desperate and broken times, including no fewer than four different kinds of locusts, which seems to me like a lot.

And this is why Joel has such an important message for us. We live in desperate and broken times as well. Indeed, we may think—perhaps justifiably—that Joel’s locusts pale in comparison to our own.

For years, our country has been struggling through a period of deep and seemingly unbridgeable political division. Public rhetoric has grown unapologetically crude and mean-spirited. We have split into tribes that can barely speak to each other, let alone empathize with each other. Acts of anti-Semitism and hate crimes are on the rise. Mass shootings have become commonplace.

As I write these words, the whole world is struggling with the Coronavirus pandemic. The entire nation of Italy is on lock down. The global death count is escalating. Schools have closed, whole seasons of sporting events have cancelled, Broadway is dark, businesses have shuttered. People are worried about how they will keep a roof over their head and put food on their table. The economic consequences of all this turmoil remain to be seen, but it seems certain that we have a long and challenging recovery ahead.  

Times like these leave us looking for consolation and inspiration. I think that Joel, who was no coddled cheerleader and no stranger to crises, has some to offer.

After Joel expresses his thankfulness for what is he goes on to express his thankfulness for what yet will be. He says:

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”

These lines may sound familiar to you, even if you have never read the book of Joel. If they do, that’s probably because these are also the words Peter spoke at Pentecost.

The great Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggmann describes what this might mean for us:

“Peter, quoting Joel, imagines a community of free, bold, hope-filled men and women, boys and girls … What a stunning vocation for [us], to stand free and hope-filled in a world gone fearful … and to think, imagine, dream, vision a future that God will yet enact. What a work of visioning for [us] when society all around is paralyzed in fear, preoccupied by commodity, mesmerized by wealth, seeking endless power, and deeply, deeply frightened.”

In short, when things have gotten very bad and the world has “gone fearful,” it is our job to imagine and work toward something better. We have traditionally called that something better “the Kingdom of God.” And we can get there, provided that we remain free, bold, and filled with hope.

Leonard Cohen wrote a song that I think gets at precisely the same point. The song has always seemed to me a gospel of sorts, its own rendering of the same good news delivered by those earlier poets named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It includes this refrain: “Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack, a crack in everything … That’s how the light gets in.”

That, Joel tells us, is how we get past the current swarms of locusts. We look forward in freedom and courage and dedication. We see with clear eyes the evils that the present crisis reveals: our systemic economic inequalities, our failures of empathy, our innate selfishness, our willingness to take false comfort in lies, and the violence that we do to others in ways great and small and with which we have become unconscionably comfortable.

Hard times help us to know the truth. The truth is not pretty. But, an itinerant carpenter from Nazareth once said, it shall set us free.

So, yes, things are very broken right now. The bad news is: there is a crack in everything. The good news is: that’s how the light gets in.

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

And your old men shall dream dreams.

And your children shall see visions.

We have work to do in fulfilling those prophecies and dreams and visions. Lots of work. But the good news, indeed the best news, is that we will not do it alone.

And, lo, the Lord sent Joshua, and said unto him:

“Be strong and courageous.

“Do not be afraid.

“Do not be discouraged.

“For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Amen. And amen.