“The Year of the Locust” - November 22. 2015

Joel 2:21-27

            The practice of setting aside the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving went national in 1863, when a proclamation was issued by President Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War in which he noted,

“Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.”[1]

Thanksgiving isn’t just about looking at life and saying, “Thank you,” for how good it is.  If you can do that, sure, it’s a wonderful thing to do, and there are times in life when that is just what is called for.  Thanksgiving, though, is also about gratitude for how good things are in the face of how difficult they could be.  In our own national mythology the pilgrims embody that.  The traditional story of the first Thanksgiving includes the fact that a considerable number of people who had stepped onto the Mayflower died of disease and hunger their first winter on this side of the Atlantic.  They were joined at the feast by natives whose own villages had been decimated by smallpox that had also come from Europe.

            It is easy to hear the words of the prophet Joel [2:21-26] as simple joy at a good harvest and a call to feast in celebration.

“Do not fear, O soil;
   be glad and rejoice,
   for the Lord has done great things! 
Do not fear, you animals of the field,
   for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit,
   the fig tree and vine give their full yield. 

O children of Zion, be glad
   and rejoice in the Lord your God;
for he has given the early rain for your vindication,
   he has poured down for you abundant rain,
   the early and the later rain, as before. 
The threshing-floors shall be full of grain,
   the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 

I will repay you for the years
   that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
   my great army, which I sent against you. 

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
   and praise the name of the Lord your God …”

It’s easy to overlook that one verse [2:25] in there about “the swarming locust”.

            The earlier part of Joel is all about the land being overrun by a swarm of locusts that destroyed everything in their path.

“For a nation has invaded my land,
   powerful and innumerable;
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 have turned white.” [Joel 1:6-7]

As rain held off, and no new growth springing up, the livestock and cattle died, too.  Then among the dry grass and deadwood, wildfire broke out.

“To you, O Lord, I cry.
For fire has devoured
   the pastures of the wilderness,
and flames have burned
   all the trees of the field. 
Even the wild animals cry to you
   because the watercourses are dried up,
and fire has devoured
   the pastures of the wilderness.” [Joel 1:19-20]

We live in a time and place where it's easy to forget how dependent we are on each link in the food chain and how easily it can fall apart.  A few people here might recall distant family stories about the Irish potato famine.  Others might have met people who grew up in the Dust Bowl.  Yet even with extreme drought in the agricultural areas of California, we still have bread on the table.

Is that in itself not amazing?  Is that alone not enough – if we think of it – to make us express, if not thanks, at least relief?  Can we not share at least a little bit of the awareness Joel expresses that God tends the world in wonderful ways, and that God’s provision for us is far greater than we usually realize? 

Remember the bad old days, whenever you can.  The memory makes you appreciate the present, even if it doesn’t always come up to Norman Rockwell standards.  Remember things like how much fun it was to get chicken pox.  (Two of my friends in college had escaped that as children, then came down with them on their honeymoon.)  Remember how good things were when segregation was legal and how many lives were wasted and how many potential friendships destroyed.  Remember how safe it felt to have atomic fallout drills in school.  Remember how happy parents were when sons were eligible for the draft in wartime.  Remember how managers were so eager to hire new workers to expand their businesses seven years ago.  Remember how, in September of 2001, we all felt so certain about everything in life when we looked at the sky and saw there were no airplanes flying?

Remember the years that the locusts have eaten, in nibbles or in gulps.  But remember also the word of the Lord:

“I will repay you for the years
   that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
   my great army, which I sent against you. 

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
   and praise the name of the Lord your God.”

And after you have eaten and offered praise, go ahead and watch a good football game.

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[1] http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm