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Thinking about Joel chapter 2 in today’s post made me go back to a sermon I preached about it a few years back.  In case you might be interested…

“Make a U-Turn”
Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17
Rodger P. Sellers

There’s an old story I’ve heard my father share from time to time about a traveler who had turned too soon to reach his destination, and rather than go re-trace his route back to the interstate and start over, decided that he could “follow his nose” and still get to the meeting. After several wrong turns and more miles of country roads, he stopped at the two pump filling station / general store to ask directions: An old farmer in overalls walked out to his car, and after filling his pipe scratched his head and thought out loud: “Well, lemme see, you go about a mile down this road and turn right, the watch for the second fork in the road, and… no, no, ya can’t go that way, the bridge is out… Well, then go down here and take the first right, then hang a left and real quick-like turn back right again right by the rail-road tracks… No, that won’t do either… no way that little Japanese buggy you got there will make it across the railroad cut, then… well…” After ruminating a bit more, the farmer concluded, “Aw shoot, buddy, you can’t get there from here! You gonna have to go back the way you came until you can get there!”

How often is that story an analogy for the lives we live, in our private world where we pretend, fantasize, and engage in the sometimes difficult work of building up a satisfying self-image, often wrestling with emotional demons in the process. It involves a certain amount of denial, frequently concealing much about ourselves, not only from others but even at times from ourselves. Yet when we speak about repentance, as we often do during the Lenten season, and which is what our Old Testament reading this morning is about, it’s that inward life which is involved. Let’s look again at our Old Testament story.

We know little about the writer of the Book of Joel and there are no historical markers by which to judge the period in which it was composed. Many scholars believe that Joel lived in the Persian period of 556-331 B.C. but other than that wide frame, we don’t have much idea of who he was. We do know that he had a keen interest in the temple and can surmise that he hailed from priestly origins. The context of the book is that an invasion of locusts causes a call to repentance. The prophet see this devouring army as the arm of God’s judgement. God is trying to arrest the people’s attention. Yet, even so, in the midst of this judgement, as we read in verse 13, The Lord is merciful and kind and stands ready to bless the people when they return.

As so often happened then as now, the people had slipped away from any deep sense of commitment to their faith. Joel was disturbed by this and resorted to some rather graphic language to get the people’s attention. “Let all the inhabitants tremble,” he said. “Blackness is spread upon the mountain.” Then, “return to the Lord for he is gracious and merciful… abounding in steadfast love. In these words we get a clear foretaste of the New Testament teaching. So often in the Old Testament there is emphasis on the power and majesty of God, with love as an occasional undercurrent. Joel, though, while trying desperately to get the people’s attention, makes it clear that those who see the error of their ways and are ready to “return to the Lord” — to make the necessary U-Turn and go back — will find a forgiving and loving God waiting for them. That’s a word we all need to hear these days. Without engaging in a diatribe about the current moral condition, suffice it to say that the one hope we all have for a solution to the world’s current unhappy state as regards our myriad social problems is a change in our inward values — And I don’t necessarily mean by that all we can hear ad infinitum, even ad nauseam in the nation’s leading newspapers. Not those we just pay lip service to, but the deeply held belief systems that determine, for each of us personally, how we live our lives and conduct ourselves day by day.

Although Joel doesn’t use the word “repent”, it’s exactly the word that expresses what he was asking God’s people to do. It’s found throughout the New Testament, and quite frankly, isn’t a very popular word in mainstream theology today. Perhaps we’ve all seen too many magazine cartoons showing some disreputable character wearing a placard with a motto that starts with the word REPENT in capital letters, then leads into a comic punch line. Certainly a scolding approach to faith these days fails to work for many of us. Yet, if there isn’t some fundamental change in the moral climate on this globe we inhabit, and if it’s not somewhere in the near future, there is reason to believe tragedy lies ahead for many, if not all of us.

And isn’t that what Lent is all about? An honest inward examination with a willingness to search our hearts with unaccustomed honesty? The process of repentance begins with sorrow. In other words, like it or not, there is real discomfort in true repentance. It’s been a long time now, since the movie “Love Story” was a big hit. The film contained a line which I thought trivial then and still do today. That much quoted line was… well how many of you know where I’m going here….? Yes, it was “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” On the contrary, love means being ABLE to say “I’m sorry.” Healthy-minded people must have self-critical faculties in good working order which enable us to reflect on some things we’ve said and done (or failed to do) and experience regret. The main thing that separates the psychopath from the normal is having no conscious, in other words, never sensing the need for repentance. Maturity, on the other hand, means being able to express that sentiment appropriately. We are all, each and every one of us, occasionally guilty of saying or doing things we later wish we hadn’t. And of course, it’s possible to overdo this point. I’m not recommending that we all go on a major guilt trip each and every time we slip a little. But at the same time, I’d guess that we all know people who seem capable, perhaps even talented, if that word could fit the situation, of hurtful conduct, yet, it doesn’t seem to trouble them. The person who doesn’t occasionally say, Gosh, but that was a stupid thing I did,” or “I can’t believe I said something that hateful,” or who never goes to a friend and says, “Can you forgive me?” is likely to be someone with very few friends. “I’m sorry” can do wonders for relationships.

I truly love a story that Bruce Larson shared many times in his writing and preaching; about a time when some friends were visiting, and as they were preparing to leave, had trouble getting everything in their car.  So Bruce offered to give them, not just let them borrow, but give them a car luggage rack he had in his garage. The friends were expressing their gratitude and Rev. Larson admits he was magnanimously accepting their appreciation when his wife walked out of the house and said, “Bruce, you’re not giving them that old rack, are you? You know that thing has never worked right and will spill their bags all over the highway!” He was, of course, quite embarrassed and apologetic. Yet he’s to be admired for his willingness to share that story with others. That’s honesty. And that’s where repentance begins, with the inward look which leads us to genuinely catch ourselves in the things we say or do which are petty or selfish or hurtful.

But that’s not all involved here. Of course, repentance must go beyond sorrow. Do we also not know people who hurt us and apologize with seeming sincerity, yet repeat their conduct before long? Their sorrow, while real, hasn’t really changed them. Repentance requires an inner determination to be different. Jesus said, “turn away from your sins” echoing Joel’s words of “Return to the Lord.” In other words, we are to become different people. To put this another way: to repent, as Joel is calling the people to do, means bringing our conduct under the scrutiny of our faith in such a way that we can honestly see ourselves for what we are, and when that conduct has hurt someone or in any way taken something away from the character God calls us to have, we dislike what we see to the point that it makes us want to be different.

And there’s one additional stage to true repentance: inward change. Joel said, “Rend your hearts, not your garments.” He was calling for a genuine inward confrontation with one’s own lesser self. Only when we have done more than simply feel remorse for wrongdoing, a feeling which tends to lessen with time…Only when we’ve made more than a determination to be better which so easily falls short under the pressures of later moments… Only when we have undergone a genuine inner transformation can the process really be complete. This explains why, with all the impressive urging of the prophets throughout the Old Testament, Jesus and his suffering was necessary.

There is a remarkable story found in one of Leslie Weatherhead’s books that makes this point, and I think this would be the capstone. He tells of a little boy who was a terrible misconduct problem for his parents. The child seemed to lack a normal sense of accountability for any of his waywardness. The parents tried everything. Going from one counselor to another, they tried strictness, permissiveness, various forms of rewards and punishments. Nothing had worked. It appeared this child was well along the road to becoming an adult sociopath, so bad were his behavioral problems. But one day this little boy was in his backyard trying to teach some tricks to a puppy his parents had bought for him, hoping that would help. Of course, the puppy, though trying to cooperate, had no read idea what was wanted of him, and the boy soon became so frustrated and angry

that he kicked his dog with all his might. The dog cried out, and fell to the ground injured. As the boy stood there, for once with an uncertain look on his face, the little dog struggled to its feet, a trace of blood on its mouth, and crept over to the boy. When he reached out to the dog, the puppy licked the boy’s hand as a sign of continuing love and affection. This was too much. The little boy began to cry, dashed into the house, threw his arms around his mother and sobbed out his shame. What discipline and scolding had failed to do, his own realization of a hurt inflicted on one who had continued to love him had managed. According to the article which reported this true story in a psychology book, the healing of this little boy’s personality had at last begun.

In that story lies the dynamic which makes Christianity a life-changing power. If a little dog’s suffering love could produce such a change, how much more so when Jesus, who, for all we know, could have brought to bear the power of God to punish, chose instead to put himself at our mercy in an effort to break through to us in the deepest part of our being. That is the power of Easter, and it is the meaning of Lent.

When our faith becomes more than an intellectual acceptance of a set of religious teachings, more than the embracing of a set of moral principles which makes so much sense to be sure — all of which are important — and becomes an inner realization of the unfailing and undying love of a God who never gives up on us, when that happens, when we make the decision to make a U-Turn and go back, then transformation takes place. When You, and I, realize that Jesus died, not just for the “world” or “all humanity” but for you, for me, personally, when we understand that there’s a sense in which his spirit lives in the people around me so that hurts we inflict on others also, in a sense, compound his suffering, then we can realize that we don’t want to be that way. Change can take place, not because we are told we should, but because we know that we can never go back to being what we were.

That’s repentance. To look inward with the kind of courageous honesty that enables us to see ourselves for what we are, to deal with the sorrow, accept the need for a new way to live, and to discover that we do this, not because we should, but because we wouldn’t have it any other way. When we realize that we are lost and there truly is no way to “get there from here” without Making a U-Turn, returning to the Lord, rending our hearts and repenting, then, and perhaps only then, do we fully understand why Lent, Holy Week, and Easter had to happen. When this happens, we always find that life is heathier, and happier… and our world is better.

Amen.