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"TuesdayReflection"
4th March 2025
'Stephen B. Reid'
is ordained in the Church of the Brethren
"Commentary on Joel 2:12-13"
The book seems to be a patchwork of pieces sewn together into the quilt we have today.
The lectionary unit Joel 2:12-13 and 28-29 are two patches in the quilt.
The opening chapter that describes the locust plague contains a call to lamentation.
The locust and the drought set the stage for the call for repentance.
The language that opens verse 12 connects it strongly with what came before:
"Yet even now" (NRSV) and is followed by the formula "says the LORD," which appears only here in the book of Joel.
The 'mourning ritual' is taken into verse thirteen:
"Rend your hearts and not your clothing"
2:13 NRSV
The tearing of the clothes makes an outer expression of mourning in the face of death and disaster.
On the one hand, to transplant the rending of the clothes (an outward expression) with the rending of the heart (an inward expression) the public reality is privatized.
The poet/prophet repeats the imperative in a slightly different form: "Return to the LORD your God" (2:13b).
The first patch charges the hearers to return to the LORD because the time is now.
Further, the nature of God as gracious and merciful opens up the possibility that the repentance will be recognized.
Joel 2:12-19 is one of the lectionary readings for Ash Wednesday which demonstrates the church's tradition of reading this passage as a call for repentance.
Joel 2:12-13 begins with the temporal clause "Yet even now"; likewise Joel 2:28-29 begins with a temporal clause, "then afterward."
When we put these two patches together, it gives the impression that the repentance in the earlier section might give rise to the gift of the spirit in the second patch.
This patch uses the promise "I will pour out my spirit."
The spirit of God occurs elsewhere as a gift of power in the Hebrew Bible
The power of the pouring of the spirit provides access to divine information and revelation.
The pouring of the God's spirit provides open access to revelation.
The empowering of divine spirit will occur "upon all flesh."
The three verbs used (prophesy, dream, and envision) have a tradition of divine revelation.
The noun word pairs draw the reader into a more egalitarian world.
First, the noun pairs refer to the family household: the heirs, sons and daughters, old and young men;
in other words, every generation and every gender will have divine access to divine will, usually reserved only for the specialists.
The poet/prophet (and later Acts 2) extends the empowering work of God's spirit beyond the heirs of the household.
Even the slaves, both male and female, have divine access through the spirit.
The first patch demands repentance, mourning the transgression of the past.
The second patch promises an age of popular access to divine will through the empowering of the spirit of God.
When these two patches are connected, the reader moves from challenge to promise.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Loving Lord,
When we have strayed, you have called us to come home to you.
With all our hearts we return to you, and gratefully accept your gentle love,
for the sake of the one whose spirit lives in us,
Jesus Christ our loving saviour.
Amen.
Un-edited version, (MUCH MORE) available on request
Dr. Stephen B. Reid
is ordained in the Church of the Brethren.
He was interim pastor at the Fremont Church of the Brethren in Fremont, Calif., and Saint Paul Cumberland Presbyterian Church in south Austin, Texas.
He has served on the Bethany Seminary board of trustees.
He served as associate pastor at Austin Mennonite Church.
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