God's justice
Commentary
Last week, the Gospel lesson and the Second Reading were in perfect sync, sounding a call to persistence in faith amid confusing and apparently difficult times. Today, these two lessons are in harmony once more, both addressing the theme of "righteousness." We should know that the two English words "righteousness" and "justice" are typically used to translate a single Greek word, dikaiosyne. Thus, although the concepts often seem dissimilar in English, they are identical in the real biblical text. There is no distinction, for instance, between "righteousness" as personal behavior and "justice" as social relations. The concepts are one and the same. You might get in the habit of re-reading Bible verses such that, when you see the word "righteousness" in the New Testament, you read the verse again substituting the word "justice" (and vice versa). The root meaning behind the word is "the way things ought to be" (in my life and in the cosmos). Making things (personal and social) to be the way they ought to be is the goal of every Christian, though this goal must ultimately be accomplished by God's eschatological action.
Joel 2:23-32
Most Christians know the book of Joel only for its connection to Pentecost. Peter quotes from it in his famous "Nine O'Clock in the Morning" sermon (Acts 2:14-36). Today is one of the only times that Joel turns up in the lectionary and, sure enough, this is the passage from which Peter quotes. The citation is found in verses 28-32a and the ring of familiarity may naturally draw us to those words.
The first part of the passage, however, provides a context quite different from that of the book of Acts. What's all this about an army of "hoppers and cutters"? For anyone who saw Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, this may suggest science-fiction images of giant bugs. Joel is referring to something much more mundane but no less devastating. Sometime during the Persian period of Jewish history, following the Babylonian exile, a locust plague ravaged the land of Palestine. A similar plague occurred in modern times, in 1915, and is reported in zoological studies: Locusts covered the skies for five days straight, such that one could not tell day from night. They deposited eggs everywhere which soon began to hatch and went through four stages of metamorphosis: cutters, swarmers, hoppers, and destroyers (these four are named here in v. 25 and also in 1:4). For ten weeks, they grew in size and in appetite (despite the use of pesticides) and by the time they departed, the land was utterly barren of growth.
Joel's prophecy is directed to the people who witnessed what appeared to them to be an unprecedented calamity, when starvation seemed certain. There was no food (1:16) and the joy of the people had withered like the trees that stood dry and empty in their fields (1:12). Sheep were "dazed" and cattle left to wander aimlessly, as there was no pasture (1:18). Even temple sacrifices had been suspended, since there was no grain or fruit to offer (Joel 1:13). But then the rains came, early rain that would make the land fertile again; it came more abundantly than ever, and the people realized they were going to make it (2:23-24).
Joel uses these events as metaphors for judgment. The swarming locusts become for him an omen, warning of the darkness of the day of the Lord (2:1-2). But God's judgment leads ultimately to new life, and this is where the text quoted on Pentecost comes in. "Afterward," it says, after the dark days, God will pour out the Spirit like the early rain. It will fall upon everyone, men and women, young and old, slave and free. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
We have been reading from the Pastoral Epistles for several weeks now and today we come to the end of this series. As has been indicated, most scholars do not think that Paul actually wrote these letters -- they believe they were written twenty years or so after his death by a disciple who wanted to indicate "what Paul would have said." Whatever your own opinion on such theories may be, the letters (especially this one) try to express Paul's personal qualities and not just his theology. We are invited to read passages such as the one chosen for today "as though" they were by Paul. (Literary critics would say that Paul is the "implied author" of the letter even if he is not the "real author.")
So, this passage presents Paul's final thoughts as he faces execution. He is content that he has fought the fight, finished the race, kept the faith. We would say that his life has a sense of closure to it. There is more that he could do, but nothing more that he must do. This strikes me as a good point to reach in life, and I hope I do not need to be informed of impending death in order to arrive at such a point. Since, indeed, death can come to any of us at any time, it seems good to arrive at such a point sooner rather than later. Tomorrow is not promised.
But Paul is not only ready to die. He is confident in life beyond death. This is different from the existentialist "peace of mind" that enables many moderns to face the inevitable. He views death not simply as unavoidable, but as a step up. A crown of righteousness (or justice) awaits him. This crown is not a reward for having been righteous. It is given to all who long for Christ's appearing, some of whom we may assume exhibit less righteous behavior than Paul. The point is not that God gives a final reward to those who are righteous; rather, righteousness is the end-time reward. Beyond the veil of death, God's people, all who have longed for Christ's appearing, will be granted participation in a life where all things have been put right, where things are the way they ought to be. This is called being "crowned with righteousness."
The last three verses reveal that Paul wishes no ill to those who have disappointed him (though in verse 14, omitted from the lectionary, he indicates that God will avenge certain wrongs he has suffered). He also declares that the Lord has rescued him from death before. Even if that does not now happen again, he is sure that the Lord will rescue him in a different sense, by taking him into the heavenly kingdom. As he contemplates his death, his heart turns to worship: To God be glory, forever and ever.
Luke 18:9-14
The last few weeks have brought us some apparently "difficult" parables -- the unrighteous judge, the dishonest steward, the worthless slave -- but here is an easy one. The story of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the temple is entirely straightforward. It's fun to act out, easy to render contemporary. The message is obvious.
Of all the Gospels, Luke is the hardest on "the self-
righteous," those who think that they have already become what they ought to be. Typically, as here, religious leaders serve as buffoons in his accounts of such folks. Think for a moment of the Good Samaritan parable where the two who pass by on the other side are religious leaders (a priest and a Levite). But is that story about self-righteousness? The reason Jesus tells it in the first place is that a "lawyer" (another religious leader) asks Jesus a question because he wants "to appear righteous" (10:29, the NRSV says "to justify himself").
Think also of the story in Luke 7, when Jesus has dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee. The latter does not show much love for Jesus because he thinks he is in need of only a little forgiveness. The homeless woman shows great love for him, knowing that she has received much forgiveness. That story is a near parallel to the one for today (though this one is a parable, and that one a report of an actual incident).
Self-righteousness is problematic for many reasons, but Luke focuses on one: the self-righteous are inevitably unloving. There is a cause/effect relationship between the two points mentioned in verse 9: those who consider themselves to be righteous despise everyone else. It is because they consider themselves to be righteous that they despise others. We see this in the parable itself. The Pharisee, so proud of his own godliness, thanks God that he is "not like other people" -- like, for instance, the tax collector standing off to his side. We see this point in the story in Luke 7 also, where Simon the Pharisee casts aspersions on the homeless woman (7:39). It's a rule: those who have been forgiven little, love little (7:47).
The great irony in all this is that true righteousness consists, above all else, in keeping the commandment to love God and neighbor. Those who think they are righteous end up despising their neighbors (whom they regard as their inferiors) and, thus, turn out to be the most unrighteous people of all. So the parable ends with an indication of the great reversal that the gospel brings to the world. Suddenly, the last are first, the humble are exalted, and the unrighteous justified.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Joel 2:23-32
The lectionary sometimes begins a reading in the middle of one oracle and adds to it another. That is true of the Old Testament text for this Reformation Day. Joel 2:23-27 are the second half of the poem that begins in 2:18. Joel 2:28-32 then constitute a separate oracle.
To understand this lesson, we really need to understand the whole message of Joel. In the post-exilic fourth century B.C., Judah experiences a devastating locust plague, followed by a drought (1:1-14). Joel never states explicitly the nature of Judah's sin, although he probably has Judah's apostasy in mind. But Joel's warning to his compatriots is that an even greater judgment is coming upon them for their violation of their covenant, a judgment that will affect the whole cosmos -- the judgment of the Day of the Lord, when God comes to set up his kingdom on earth (1:15--2:11).
Out of pure grace, through the message of Joel, God nevertheless holds out to his apostate people the opportunity to repent and to return in faithfulness to their covenant with their Lord (2:12-17). But no matter what Judah's response is -- and it is not recorded -- God goes on to tell his people the marvelous things he will do for them, simply out of the pity that he has in his heart for his beloved people (2:18). That telling makes up verses 23-27 of our stated text.
In his grace, God will restore to Judah all that they have lost in the locust plague and drought. The ground will be restored (cf. 2:21 with 1:10). The wild animals will be fed (cf. 2:22 with 1:20). Joy will return to Judah's harvests and worship (cf. 2:23 with 1:16). The drought will be a thing of the past (cf. 2:23 with 1:10, 12, 18-20). The fruit trees will bear (cf. 2:22 with 1:12, 19). Threshing floors and wine vats will be full (cf. 2:24 with 1:5, 17). All are blessings in the covenant relation that God will reestablish with his people (cf. Deuteronomy 11:12-17; 28:3-5, 11-12; Leviticus 26:3-5), and all make up the blessed future into which God will lead his chosen folk
Best of all, in such promised future, Israel will know that the Lord is in her midst and that he alone is God (2:27). Her apostate past will be behind her. She will be reunited with her Lord.
We should note well, however, on this Reformation Sunday. Such a blessed future is not the reward of any action or repentance on sinful Judah's part, but simply the outpouring of the grace of the God, who above all else wishes abundant life for his own.
By joining 2:28-29 with 2:27, our text makes the point that Judah's reunion with her God will be manifested in his gift of the spirit to all flesh. Probably the words "all flesh" refer to all persons in Judah, since that is what is emphasized in the following lines. All of God's covenant people will enjoy the intimate relation with him hitherto known only to the prophets. God will be with them in their midst; they will know him; and they will worship him alone, in covenant faithfulness.
Joel 2:28-29 are those verses that are quoted by Peter in Acts 2:17-18 on the day of Pentecost, when the church is given the gift of God's Spirit, and in that event, the gift of the Spirit is indeed afforded to "all flesh" of every nation. Now all peoples everywhere can live in covenant communion with the Lord.
Nevertheless, as Joel 2:30-32 and Acts 2:19-21 record, the Day of the Lord, when he returns to judge all flesh, still comes. And once again, Joel -- and indeed Peter -- issues a warning. It is possible to be given the gift of the Spirit of God and to do nothing with him. We can let the Spirit lie dormant within our hearts. We can ignore his promptings and follow our own desires. We can even deny that God has entered our hearts at all. But, as the New Testament affirms in the parables and teachings of Jesus and in the writings of Paul, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God in the Day that comes.
God, in his mercy, will give us a signal before the day is upon us, however (cf. Malachi 4:5; Luke 21:25-28). As in the apocalyptic passages of Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21, there will be signs in heaven and on earth. Joel lists blood and fire and columns of smoke from burning cities, and the sun darkened and the moon turned to blood (Joel 2:30-31), not from an eclipse or sandstorm as some would have it, but by God.
As Joel proclaims, and as Peter (Acts 2:21) and Paul (Romans 10:13) both pronounce, however, those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered from destruction (Joel 2:31). We need to ask, therefore, what that means.
Certainly the prophet and apostles do not have in mind some last minute plea for mercy, some prayer uttered simply to save our own skins. To be sure, there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:7). But true repentance and turning to the Lord involve not the effort to save ourselves, but the humble deliverance of all we are into God's hands to do with as he will (cf. the Gospel lesson for the day).
Indeed, if we let the scripture interpret the scripture and look up other passages in which we find the phrase "to call on the name of the Lord," we find that it involves a rich and persistent life of devotion to God. It means to worship God (Genesis 12:8), to acknowledge that we belong to him alone (Isaiah 12:2-4; 44:5; Psalm 105:1; Zechariah 13:9), and to depend on him for all life and good (Proverbs 18:10). All of that involves not just one act of commitment, but the day-by-day attempt to let God rule our lives -- repeated repentance that issues in continual devotion and communion with our Lord.
Further, "to call on the name of the Lord" is, throughout the scriptures, to tell others what God has done (cf. Psalm 105:1; Isaiah 12:4) -- as Acts emphasizes, to be the Lord's witnesses to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). Thus it is that Paul quotes "everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13). But then he goes on to ask how persons can call on the Lord of whom they have never heard, and how they can hear without a preacher or a witness to tell them the good news. So Christians are summoned, as they call on God for salvation, to invite all others into that blessed life.
Finally, our text from Joel states that those who call on God for deliverance are those whom God has already called (Joel 2:32). That is always the way it is in the scriptures. God's act is always first; God's grace is always "prevenient." And the implication is that those who have been given the Spirit, as in verses 28 and 29, are those who are enabled to worship and serve and witness.
So the message from Joel is very clear. We Christians are those who have been given the Spirit of the Lord at our baptisms. In the power of that Spirit, we are enabled to "call on the name of the Lord," with all that phrase implies. Therefore, when Christ returns on the Day of the Lord "to judge the quick and the dead," we need have no fear (2:21, 22). Indeed, God holds out before us an abundant life analogous to that of which we read in Joel 2:23-27, with God in our midst (2:27) and great gladness and joy in his presence (2:23).
Joel 2:23-32
Most Christians know the book of Joel only for its connection to Pentecost. Peter quotes from it in his famous "Nine O'Clock in the Morning" sermon (Acts 2:14-36). Today is one of the only times that Joel turns up in the lectionary and, sure enough, this is the passage from which Peter quotes. The citation is found in verses 28-32a and the ring of familiarity may naturally draw us to those words.
The first part of the passage, however, provides a context quite different from that of the book of Acts. What's all this about an army of "hoppers and cutters"? For anyone who saw Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, this may suggest science-fiction images of giant bugs. Joel is referring to something much more mundane but no less devastating. Sometime during the Persian period of Jewish history, following the Babylonian exile, a locust plague ravaged the land of Palestine. A similar plague occurred in modern times, in 1915, and is reported in zoological studies: Locusts covered the skies for five days straight, such that one could not tell day from night. They deposited eggs everywhere which soon began to hatch and went through four stages of metamorphosis: cutters, swarmers, hoppers, and destroyers (these four are named here in v. 25 and also in 1:4). For ten weeks, they grew in size and in appetite (despite the use of pesticides) and by the time they departed, the land was utterly barren of growth.
Joel's prophecy is directed to the people who witnessed what appeared to them to be an unprecedented calamity, when starvation seemed certain. There was no food (1:16) and the joy of the people had withered like the trees that stood dry and empty in their fields (1:12). Sheep were "dazed" and cattle left to wander aimlessly, as there was no pasture (1:18). Even temple sacrifices had been suspended, since there was no grain or fruit to offer (Joel 1:13). But then the rains came, early rain that would make the land fertile again; it came more abundantly than ever, and the people realized they were going to make it (2:23-24).
Joel uses these events as metaphors for judgment. The swarming locusts become for him an omen, warning of the darkness of the day of the Lord (2:1-2). But God's judgment leads ultimately to new life, and this is where the text quoted on Pentecost comes in. "Afterward," it says, after the dark days, God will pour out the Spirit like the early rain. It will fall upon everyone, men and women, young and old, slave and free. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
We have been reading from the Pastoral Epistles for several weeks now and today we come to the end of this series. As has been indicated, most scholars do not think that Paul actually wrote these letters -- they believe they were written twenty years or so after his death by a disciple who wanted to indicate "what Paul would have said." Whatever your own opinion on such theories may be, the letters (especially this one) try to express Paul's personal qualities and not just his theology. We are invited to read passages such as the one chosen for today "as though" they were by Paul. (Literary critics would say that Paul is the "implied author" of the letter even if he is not the "real author.")
So, this passage presents Paul's final thoughts as he faces execution. He is content that he has fought the fight, finished the race, kept the faith. We would say that his life has a sense of closure to it. There is more that he could do, but nothing more that he must do. This strikes me as a good point to reach in life, and I hope I do not need to be informed of impending death in order to arrive at such a point. Since, indeed, death can come to any of us at any time, it seems good to arrive at such a point sooner rather than later. Tomorrow is not promised.
But Paul is not only ready to die. He is confident in life beyond death. This is different from the existentialist "peace of mind" that enables many moderns to face the inevitable. He views death not simply as unavoidable, but as a step up. A crown of righteousness (or justice) awaits him. This crown is not a reward for having been righteous. It is given to all who long for Christ's appearing, some of whom we may assume exhibit less righteous behavior than Paul. The point is not that God gives a final reward to those who are righteous; rather, righteousness is the end-time reward. Beyond the veil of death, God's people, all who have longed for Christ's appearing, will be granted participation in a life where all things have been put right, where things are the way they ought to be. This is called being "crowned with righteousness."
The last three verses reveal that Paul wishes no ill to those who have disappointed him (though in verse 14, omitted from the lectionary, he indicates that God will avenge certain wrongs he has suffered). He also declares that the Lord has rescued him from death before. Even if that does not now happen again, he is sure that the Lord will rescue him in a different sense, by taking him into the heavenly kingdom. As he contemplates his death, his heart turns to worship: To God be glory, forever and ever.
Luke 18:9-14
The last few weeks have brought us some apparently "difficult" parables -- the unrighteous judge, the dishonest steward, the worthless slave -- but here is an easy one. The story of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the temple is entirely straightforward. It's fun to act out, easy to render contemporary. The message is obvious.
Of all the Gospels, Luke is the hardest on "the self-
righteous," those who think that they have already become what they ought to be. Typically, as here, religious leaders serve as buffoons in his accounts of such folks. Think for a moment of the Good Samaritan parable where the two who pass by on the other side are religious leaders (a priest and a Levite). But is that story about self-righteousness? The reason Jesus tells it in the first place is that a "lawyer" (another religious leader) asks Jesus a question because he wants "to appear righteous" (10:29, the NRSV says "to justify himself").
Think also of the story in Luke 7, when Jesus has dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee. The latter does not show much love for Jesus because he thinks he is in need of only a little forgiveness. The homeless woman shows great love for him, knowing that she has received much forgiveness. That story is a near parallel to the one for today (though this one is a parable, and that one a report of an actual incident).
Self-righteousness is problematic for many reasons, but Luke focuses on one: the self-righteous are inevitably unloving. There is a cause/effect relationship between the two points mentioned in verse 9: those who consider themselves to be righteous despise everyone else. It is because they consider themselves to be righteous that they despise others. We see this in the parable itself. The Pharisee, so proud of his own godliness, thanks God that he is "not like other people" -- like, for instance, the tax collector standing off to his side. We see this point in the story in Luke 7 also, where Simon the Pharisee casts aspersions on the homeless woman (7:39). It's a rule: those who have been forgiven little, love little (7:47).
The great irony in all this is that true righteousness consists, above all else, in keeping the commandment to love God and neighbor. Those who think they are righteous end up despising their neighbors (whom they regard as their inferiors) and, thus, turn out to be the most unrighteous people of all. So the parable ends with an indication of the great reversal that the gospel brings to the world. Suddenly, the last are first, the humble are exalted, and the unrighteous justified.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Joel 2:23-32
The lectionary sometimes begins a reading in the middle of one oracle and adds to it another. That is true of the Old Testament text for this Reformation Day. Joel 2:23-27 are the second half of the poem that begins in 2:18. Joel 2:28-32 then constitute a separate oracle.
To understand this lesson, we really need to understand the whole message of Joel. In the post-exilic fourth century B.C., Judah experiences a devastating locust plague, followed by a drought (1:1-14). Joel never states explicitly the nature of Judah's sin, although he probably has Judah's apostasy in mind. But Joel's warning to his compatriots is that an even greater judgment is coming upon them for their violation of their covenant, a judgment that will affect the whole cosmos -- the judgment of the Day of the Lord, when God comes to set up his kingdom on earth (1:15--2:11).
Out of pure grace, through the message of Joel, God nevertheless holds out to his apostate people the opportunity to repent and to return in faithfulness to their covenant with their Lord (2:12-17). But no matter what Judah's response is -- and it is not recorded -- God goes on to tell his people the marvelous things he will do for them, simply out of the pity that he has in his heart for his beloved people (2:18). That telling makes up verses 23-27 of our stated text.
In his grace, God will restore to Judah all that they have lost in the locust plague and drought. The ground will be restored (cf. 2:21 with 1:10). The wild animals will be fed (cf. 2:22 with 1:20). Joy will return to Judah's harvests and worship (cf. 2:23 with 1:16). The drought will be a thing of the past (cf. 2:23 with 1:10, 12, 18-20). The fruit trees will bear (cf. 2:22 with 1:12, 19). Threshing floors and wine vats will be full (cf. 2:24 with 1:5, 17). All are blessings in the covenant relation that God will reestablish with his people (cf. Deuteronomy 11:12-17; 28:3-5, 11-12; Leviticus 26:3-5), and all make up the blessed future into which God will lead his chosen folk
Best of all, in such promised future, Israel will know that the Lord is in her midst and that he alone is God (2:27). Her apostate past will be behind her. She will be reunited with her Lord.
We should note well, however, on this Reformation Sunday. Such a blessed future is not the reward of any action or repentance on sinful Judah's part, but simply the outpouring of the grace of the God, who above all else wishes abundant life for his own.
By joining 2:28-29 with 2:27, our text makes the point that Judah's reunion with her God will be manifested in his gift of the spirit to all flesh. Probably the words "all flesh" refer to all persons in Judah, since that is what is emphasized in the following lines. All of God's covenant people will enjoy the intimate relation with him hitherto known only to the prophets. God will be with them in their midst; they will know him; and they will worship him alone, in covenant faithfulness.
Joel 2:28-29 are those verses that are quoted by Peter in Acts 2:17-18 on the day of Pentecost, when the church is given the gift of God's Spirit, and in that event, the gift of the Spirit is indeed afforded to "all flesh" of every nation. Now all peoples everywhere can live in covenant communion with the Lord.
Nevertheless, as Joel 2:30-32 and Acts 2:19-21 record, the Day of the Lord, when he returns to judge all flesh, still comes. And once again, Joel -- and indeed Peter -- issues a warning. It is possible to be given the gift of the Spirit of God and to do nothing with him. We can let the Spirit lie dormant within our hearts. We can ignore his promptings and follow our own desires. We can even deny that God has entered our hearts at all. But, as the New Testament affirms in the parables and teachings of Jesus and in the writings of Paul, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God in the Day that comes.
God, in his mercy, will give us a signal before the day is upon us, however (cf. Malachi 4:5; Luke 21:25-28). As in the apocalyptic passages of Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21, there will be signs in heaven and on earth. Joel lists blood and fire and columns of smoke from burning cities, and the sun darkened and the moon turned to blood (Joel 2:30-31), not from an eclipse or sandstorm as some would have it, but by God.
As Joel proclaims, and as Peter (Acts 2:21) and Paul (Romans 10:13) both pronounce, however, those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered from destruction (Joel 2:31). We need to ask, therefore, what that means.
Certainly the prophet and apostles do not have in mind some last minute plea for mercy, some prayer uttered simply to save our own skins. To be sure, there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:7). But true repentance and turning to the Lord involve not the effort to save ourselves, but the humble deliverance of all we are into God's hands to do with as he will (cf. the Gospel lesson for the day).
Indeed, if we let the scripture interpret the scripture and look up other passages in which we find the phrase "to call on the name of the Lord," we find that it involves a rich and persistent life of devotion to God. It means to worship God (Genesis 12:8), to acknowledge that we belong to him alone (Isaiah 12:2-4; 44:5; Psalm 105:1; Zechariah 13:9), and to depend on him for all life and good (Proverbs 18:10). All of that involves not just one act of commitment, but the day-by-day attempt to let God rule our lives -- repeated repentance that issues in continual devotion and communion with our Lord.
Further, "to call on the name of the Lord" is, throughout the scriptures, to tell others what God has done (cf. Psalm 105:1; Isaiah 12:4) -- as Acts emphasizes, to be the Lord's witnesses to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). Thus it is that Paul quotes "everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13). But then he goes on to ask how persons can call on the Lord of whom they have never heard, and how they can hear without a preacher or a witness to tell them the good news. So Christians are summoned, as they call on God for salvation, to invite all others into that blessed life.
Finally, our text from Joel states that those who call on God for deliverance are those whom God has already called (Joel 2:32). That is always the way it is in the scriptures. God's act is always first; God's grace is always "prevenient." And the implication is that those who have been given the Spirit, as in verses 28 and 29, are those who are enabled to worship and serve and witness.
So the message from Joel is very clear. We Christians are those who have been given the Spirit of the Lord at our baptisms. In the power of that Spirit, we are enabled to "call on the name of the Lord," with all that phrase implies. Therefore, when Christ returns on the Day of the Lord "to judge the quick and the dead," we need have no fear (2:21, 22). Indeed, God holds out before us an abundant life analogous to that of which we read in Joel 2:23-27, with God in our midst (2:27) and great gladness and joy in his presence (2:23).
