• Date: December 8, 2024
• Bible Readings: Joel 2:12-13, 28-29
• The Point: God patiently and lovingly calls us to repent.
• Free Resource: Getting Lost (Cross+Gen Worship, NL)
• Unit Theme (December 1—December 22): The Hope of the Messiah

Through the prophet Joel, God urges us to repent with our bodies and hearts, our whole selves, turning from our selfish ways to follow God’s path of love, forgiveness, and justice.

Our reading from Joel 2 marks the second Sunday of Advent, a season when we are awaiting Jesus, the Messiah—both remembering the waiting of the people of Israel thousands of years ago and waiting ourselves for the return of this Messiah to make all things right in this world (including us).

One of the ways that the Narrative Lectionary differs from the Revised Common Lectionary in intention is that the NL prioritizes following the narrative arc (and rough chronology) of Scripture, while the RCL prioritizes matching the readings with the season of the church year. So, while the creators of the NL were cognizant of the church year (like the Advent season, for example), they did not sacrifice the chronology to match it. This presents a bit of a complication for congregations using the NL while wanting to celebrate the church seasons. So, here’s my take on that situation.

Prophetic Context

First, I think it’s always important to look at the context of a passage. It’s not necessarily easy to do with the Prophets, but there is at least some scholarly consensus that Joel is speaking to the people of Jerusalem and Judah after their return from exile. Significantly, the people are experiencing suffering due to a locust plague (Joel 1:4) and drought (Joel 1:12). The prophet is connecting this suffering with the people’s disobedience and departure from the ways of life and faith that God has called (commanded) them to follow. They have metaphorically turned away from God, and God is calling them to turn back.

Hebrew Hearts

An important concept in the first part of the assigned reading is that of the heart. In the Western world, we associate the heart with feelings and emotions, while the mind (i.e., the brain) is the source of thought, will, and intention. Within the Hebrew context, the heart is the seat of all of this: emotion, thought, will, wisdom, understanding, and moral decision-making. The heart is the bodily location associated with our inner life and spiritual state.

Loving and Turning

The assigned passage starts with the state of the people’s hearts:

Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart…

Joel 2:12a

This reminded me of part of the Shema:

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart…

Deuteronomy 6:5a

This love is not about our feelings, though they are involved. It is a commitment requiring action; it is the devotion of thought, will, intention, and moral decision-making. And in following God, this devotion should be complete: ALL your heart.

The people to whom Joel is addressing are not loving God with their whole hearts and not just because they are flawed humans. They are willfully turning their hearts from God’s way. And God is calling them to turn back to this complete devotion: to repent.

Outward and Inward Actions

As a part of God’s call to turn back—repent—with all their hearts, several traditional practices of repentance and grief are listed: fasting, weeping, and mourning. These are outward—embodied—actions. As we practice our faith in repentance or anything else, it is important to include our bodies. We are embodied people, after all. Thoughts and feelings can become detached from reality without practices and actions.

But outward actions can also be empty, as other prophets describe (e.g., Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8, Isaiah 1:12-17). God, through Joel, takes another common action of repentance and grief—tearing clothes—and uses it as a metaphor for an internal action:

… rend [tear] your hearts and not your clothing.

Joel 2:13a

Repentance begins as an inward action of the heart (thought, will, intention, decision, and yes, feeling) that is then expressed through outward actions. We express our internal reality with our actions (fasting, weeping, and mourning), but our repentance is meaningless unless we follow it up with action.

Promises, Hope, and Advent

The work of biblical prophets is not to predict the future. It is to deliver messages from God which usually boil down to “repent” and “have hope.” The first part of this Joel reading (verses 12-13) is very obviously a “repent” message. The second (verses 28-29) is the promise that God will pour out God’s spirit (or Spirit) on all people, a promise that the apostle Peter declares has begun fulfillment at the first Christian Pentecost. This is the message of hope: God has not abandoned God’s people. In fact, God’s relationship will become even closer to us and transformative (e.g., Jeremiah 31:31-34).

The season of Advent is a time for both repentance and hope. John the Baptist is very clear that the way to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Messiah is repentance: turning back to God. The incarnation of “God with us” leads directly to “God within us” through Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the same as we await the Day of the Lord (verse 31b): turning back to God and having hope in the gift of God’s Spirit.

Advent Actions

If you do not already, you should consider including a “call to action” in your teaching, preaching, and other faith formation-ing. Challenge your participants to consider one action they can take in the coming week to repent as they wait for the advent of our Messiah, as well as another action that can express their hope in God.

Advent blessings,
Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

Free Resource

During the main Narrative Lectionary year (September 8 to June 8), we provide a free resource download from one of our products to help you in your faith formation ministry. This week, download the activity “Getting Lost” from our Living the Word: Cross+Gen Worship (NL) curriculum, though this activity can be used with other settings and age ranges!

Order Faith Formation Resources

It’s not too late to order for winter (and spring)! Advent has begun (and therefore our winter faith formation resources), but you can still purchase what you need and download it right away! Order winter and spring seasons for the Narrative Lectionary, Revised Common Lectionary, and Classic Sunday School products. If you don’t have much time for full-length children’s Christian education, then check out our Kids Mini Lessons for the NL and RCL.

Are you looking for shorter resources for family/intergenerational events or Sunday school? Check out our Learning Together series, a set of five-lesson units on a variety of topics. You can read outside reviews on both our newest Do Justice and Created to Care units! Our faith formation resources are easy to use, theologically sound, and inclusive.

At Spirit & Truth Publishing, we might have exactly what you are looking for:

• Resources for the Narrative Lectionary (2024-2025): Products for all ages (with NEW mini lessons, if you only have a short time for elementary faith formation).
• Classic Sunday School Curriculum: Key Bible stories for PK-2nd and 3rd-6th, also great for your Christian elementary school!
• Learning Together: Five-lesson, topical units for VBS, Sunday school, children, and intergenerational classes.
• Cross+Generational Confirmation
• Resources for the Revised Common Lectionary (2024-2025): Intergenerational classroom, mini lessons for children.
• Worship and Liturgy Education

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