fasting and repentance

Good morning friends and welcome to the beginning of Lent,
Tonight we'll begin our Lenten season together with an Ash Wednesday service at 6:30 in the sanctuary. Lent is a time to reflect on our lives and our relationship with God. We all drift away in our discipleship sometimes and Lent is a great time to come back to God. Our worship tonight will be quiet and reflective; I hope you'll be there. Lent is a great chance to recommit to daily personal scripture reading and prayer. Please let me know what I can do to help you seek a closer walk with God in this season.

Today's reading is from the prophet Joel. Joel urges the people to fast and repent because God's judgment is coming. The themes he proclaims are like many of the other prophets; his setting is unique. The army Joel refers to in this letter isn't the army of one of Judah's neighbors; instead it is a swarm of locusts that devastated Jerusalem. The historical setting is unknown but based on the writing scholars suspect it could be from the 400-500 BC (after the exile). Joel sees the locusts as agents of God's judgment and sees Israel's repentance in the light of God's promise for restoration. Joel's call to repent, fast and "rend our hearts and not our garments" is a good call for us to hear as we turn back to God in Lent.

Blessings for a holy day and holy Lent,
Sam

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near —
2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountains their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them in ages to come.

12 Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD, your God?

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged;
gather the children, even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.

17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests,
the ministers of the LORD, weep.
Let them say, “Spare your people, O LORD,
and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”