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. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. 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 2:13-17
“With these words I invoke mercy… Possess your souls in tears, and stay His wrath by amending your way of life. Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, as blessed Joel with us charges you: gather the elders, and the babes that suck the breasts, whose tender age wins our pity, and is specially worthy of the loving-kindness of God.
I know also what he enjoins both upon me, the minister of God, and upon you, who have been thought worthy of the same honour, that we should enter His house in sackcloth and lament night and day between the porch and the altar, in piteous array, and with more piteous voices, crying aloud without ceasing on behalf of ourselves and the people, sparing nothing, either toil or word, which may propitiate God: saying, “Spare, O Lord, Your people, and give not Your heritage to reproach”…
Come then, all of you, my brethren, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker… let us raise the voice of supplication… Let us anticipate His anger by confession; let us desire to see Him appeased, after He was angry. Who knows, he says, if He will turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him? … Let us sow in tears, that we may reap in joy…”
Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) in Oration 16.13-14. Gregory is the third of the four doctors of the Eastern Church. We heard from John Chyrsostom and Basil of Caesarea. Tomorrow Athanasius of Alexandria will follow.
In today’s Scripture we see God’s servants declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly, and cry out for mercy. Think about it. Ponder this. The first step in addressing the brokenness in this world is prayer, fasting, and confession. These spiritual priorities must precede any strategic work for us.
I head to West Africa this Saturday, but before I depart, to ask God to spare His people in needy places, I am taking time for fasting, prayer, and confession. And upon arrival in Benin, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal, I will do this with Samson Adoungbe on day one of the three days in each country.
Consider your own situation. The call for a fast and a sacred assembly includes everyone down to little babies and it should stop everyone in their tracks, including those preparing for grand occasions like weddings. The point here is that we deserve judgment and want mercy instead.
Want to turn brokenness around you into blessing? Gregory would echo the prophet Joel saying, and call you to fast, collectively set aside your desires and seek God’s heart. When we do this, when we change our ways, He changes what we get in reply. He turns brokenness into blessing.
Because He does not want our sacrifices, He wants our souls. Be God’s person for your family, for your community, for your people. Worship and weep before God. Sow in tears and reap in joy. Rather than asking Him to bless your plans, ask Him to restore your people for His glory.
Pray this with me for West Africa in Jesus name.