Henri J. M. Nouwen wrote just several weeks before his death in 1996 that “Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life. It is the time during which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within us. Life is a continuing process of the death of the old and the familiar, and being reborn again into a new hope, a new trust, and a new love.”
The whole of written Scriptures tells us that God deeply loves us and eagerly wants our love in return. God poured his eternal love into us when he created us, desiring above everything else that we choose to be in an intimate relationship with Him. The 40 days of Lent annually offers us an opportunity to review our relationship with God, repent of all that distracts from that relationship, and return to deepen our love relationship with God, who is LOVE.
In the book of Joel, God’s people had experienced massive devastation from swarms of locusts. As a spiritual leader, Joel knew the remedy was to call God’s people to return to Him in a sacred assembly of united repentance. When the people responded, God heard, forgave, and restored the land (Joel 1-3).
We, the people of United States, have experienced immense physical and emotional suffering, destruction, and death during this past year due to the Covid-19 virus, destructive storms, and violent political extremism fueled by deceptive Qanon lies and conspiracies. Is not this prime time to call God’s people in our churches and communities to tearful lament and repentance?
“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. … Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly;
… Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?” (Joel 2:12-17).
In her book, Preaching from the Minor Prophets, Elizabeth Achtemeier responds to these verses. “Even now, in twentieth-century America and in all the years to come; even now, in our situation, marked as we are with disdain for our neighbors’ needs and neglect of the will of our God; even now, in the midst of our fears, our sufferings, our guilts, and our ignorance, the God of all mercy holds out to us the opportunity for repentance and return, that we may stand and know salvation in the Day of the Lord.”
Joel calls us to rend our hearts because he knows that the source of sin is our evil hearts, as God stated in Genesis 6:5. “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” And Joel knew that true repentance must begin with a rending, that is, a sorrow-filled breaking of our heart.
The three-lettered word “for” in verse 13,is so important because it gives the reason why we can and should return to the Lord in repentance. It is because God “is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love,” and willing to take back his planned judgment on his people. This characterization of God’s nature is confirmed throughout the Old Testament.
Joel believed that the severe agricultural devastation was a loud trumpet call from God, giving his people an opportunity to repent and return to Him in trust and faith. And yes, I too believe such times of loss, grief, or devastation continue even today to become times of God calling us to sorrowfully repent, and acknowledging our failings and sin, to return to His love for us.
I repeat what I said earlier. God poured his eternal love into us when he created us, desiring above everything else that we choose to be in an intimate relationship with Him. May we say with the psalmist – “I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. … The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.” (Psalm 116:1,5). Amen!
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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 17, 2021
Ray M. Geigley
Healing Rays of Righteousness 
Comments on: "Called to God’s Love" (2)
This is very good. I believe we are living in the very last of the last days. We need your words for repentance for our great country.
Blessings, Lois Boyer
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Thanks for your affirmation.
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