Living in the Spirit
October 17, 2016

Scripture Reading: Joel 2:23-32

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. –Joel 2:23-25

Agrarian cultures have a unique relationship with the weather. At my house as a child dinner was at noon as was the mid-day news on television. I doubt that was a coincidence. While my family did keep up with current events, our purpose in having the TV on at noon was to get an update on the weather. In Oklahoma, the weather can change very quickly. While driving a tracker in a field, my paternal grandmother’s first husband was killed by a strike of lightening. The storm may have been a total surprise, or her husband may have been tenaciously trying to get his work done before it rained.

It is not a far jump from dealing with the reality of the weather to an understanding that God might be in some way working through the weather in a punishing response to human actions or lack of action. While I do believe it rains on the just and the unjust*, God does seem to let us suffer the consequences of our actions. Global warming and its devastation may be a good example of that.

Righteousness throughout the Bible has to do with the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship, and [in our scripture today] God promises to fulfill the covenant relation with the people by restoring yearly rains**. Weather is just one part of our relationship with God. War or peace, feast or famine, health or sickness, all aspects of our lives directly relate to whether we are in sync with God. If nothing else, this current election cycle in the USA should send all peoples of faith to a time of prayerful rebuilding our individual relationships with God which surely impact or collective responses to dealing with such issues.

Prayer: Forgive us, O God, as we have slipped further and further away from fulfilling our relationship with you. We recognize that you have not moved from us. We are confused about the future. As we deal with a more diverse global community, give us the strength and the courage to live our love of both you and our neighbor in new and positive ways. Amen.

*Matthew 5:45
**The New Interpreter’s Bible: a Commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume VII, page 324. Abingdon Press, 1996

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.