"A Guide to Recovery", Min. Barbara Florvil

0:00 Alfred Street, this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad. It is truly a blessing to stand before you once again, even virtually. I'd like to thank our pastor, the Reverend Dr. Howard-John Wesley, for this opportunity to be before you and for us to share in the Word of God this weekend. Let us go right into the Word. Our text comes from Joel chapter 2, and it reads, And I will restore the years the locust hath eaten. Let us pray. Lord, in your saving grace and your mercy, we say thank you for yet another day, a day we did not deserve, but a day you decided to give us anyway. Let us hear from you through your word and your servant. We thank you, God. We love you. And we praise you in the matchless name of Jesus, the Christ, we pray. Amen.

1:00 I'll be preaching from the subject, A Guide to Recovery. I grew up in the city. The sounds and the noises I heard at night going to bed were cars racing each other while blasting the latest hip-hop and R&B, Hot 97, if you know what I mean. And in the summer, firecrackers from Juneteenth through July 4th and two weeks thereafter, firecrackers in the streets and the sound of cookouts that went into the late wee hours of the night. And it wasn't until high school when I went on retreats outside of the city when I believed I could finally hear some silence at night. But when I got to the rural areas, when I could see the stars and the air was clearer, I quickly realized that the nights weren't actually quieter.

2:03 They were just different. In fact, they were noisier and longer. I would soon find out that all the noise outside of our retreat doors were nothing other than frogs, crickets, and grasshoppers. While I thought at first a couple of frogs and a few crickets and a couple of grasshoppers couldn't possibly ruin my night's sleep, I quickly realized that a couple may not, but many will. The more there were, the louder they became, and I came to figure out that night that I wasn't going to get any sleep and that the compounding effect of a lot of a little can have the same amount of effect as a few big things. Let me say it this way, the cumulative effect of a number of smaller things can have a profound impact on your life. In this text from Joel, the minor prophet Joel, the people of Judah have just found out that the noises outside of their home at night was no longer just people moving about the square. It was no longer the carpenter closing up his workshop at the night. It was no longer just the farm animals milling around at night. They began to hear a swarm of locusts, not just a few in their backyard, not just a couple flying about their crops, but there was an invasion of locusts.

3:39 The people of Judah have just found out that if you have enough of a problem, that loss is not just possible, but loss is inevitable. If you need to know anything about locusts, you need to know that locusts are large, mainly tropical grasshoppers with strong powers of flight. They are usually solitary, but from time to time, there's a population explosion. and it migrates in vast swarms that cause extensive damage to crops. Another source says it like this, locusts are usually normally innocuous, say innocuous, or in other words, normally harmless. Their numbers are low and they do not individually pose a major economic threat to agriculture. However, under suitable circumstances, altogether swarms have devoured crops, eating the leaves and the tender tissues of plants.

4:44 You might be thinking, what are the suitable circumstances in which swarms of locusts devastate the land? Well, I'm glad you asked. They are typically solitary and usually harmless. However, under certain and suitable circumstances of drought, followed by rapid vegetation, swarms are attracted to crops and devastate the land. In other words, from time to time, locusts are attracted to the good after the bad. They are distinctly attracted to growth after a drought. right when things get better after being bad, right when things start to look on the up and up, right when we start to see things a little bit more clearly, right when a new year starts.

5:36 And it seems that one thing just happens after the other to make a collective impact on our lives. And that is when locusts begin to descend on our lives. their descent has shifted the times in our land something has forced the people to stay indoors something has threatened our economy something has changed the way we understand job security and food security something as joel asked the people of god have you heard of something like this in your days or in the days of your ancestors has anything unprecedented like this ever happened before in your time or in the time of your ancestors. This unique combination of circumstances make for perfect conditions for the locusts of life to appear. Some of those locusts may be the poor moral and political leadership from the highest offices of the land, and some of those locusts might be the result of the unrepentant sin in our own hearts, and some of those locusts are the result of a pandemic.

6:48 And some of those locusts, even God sends, and some of those locusts aren't the result of anyone or anything but life just trying to be life. But no matter what kind of locusts have descended in your fields, you are about to experience loss.

7:09 And what is worse is that it all seems it's happening at once. problems that typically happen in a solitary fashion problems that they are on their own usually harmless and at least manageable come all at once come together and amount to a loss of years the promotion you were working for went to someone else loss the relationship you invested in is over. Loss. Your health was on the up and up and now is being threatened for a whole other reason. Loss. Wasted time and wasted energy feels terribly. But it's even worse when you realize that it all happened when there was fruit. It's not like the seed didn't take root. It's not like it didn't grow. It's not like they didn't talk about marriage. It's not like I didn't have a good relationship with my supervisor. It's not like I wasn't eating better or even exercising.

8:12 It's not like it didn't produce crops. It's not like it didn't look promising. Yet as soon as there was starting to have some growth, some promise, the locust came and invaded your life and have eaten up all the good crop that you planted so long ago. On your timeline, you were supposed to be married by now. On your timeline, you were supposed to have kids by now. On your timeline, you were supposed to have been promoted by now. You were supposed to have been healthy by now. You were supposed to be degreed by now. You were supposed to have seen your parents by now. You were supposed to have had your graduation ceremony by now. Your child was supposed to come back home by now. Your family was supposed to be happy again by now. And you were supposed to have all the things that you planted in good soil. But you look up and you look back at all the years that have gone by and you wonder, God, how can I recover from this?

9:15 The years are gone and I still haven't seen an increase. The years are gone and the dreams just start to seem stale now. The years are gone and you feel silly holding on to the hopes that seemingly expired years ago. The years have gone by and locust and loss has come and you're asking God, how can I recover? Joel is a minor prophet with a major message about recovery for the people of Judah in the time of an invasion of locusts. Joel gives a brief but powerful guide to recovery, and the first step can be found in chapter 1, verse 11. Joel says, grieve for the wheat and the barley because the harvest of the field is destroyed. Before the prophet gets to the celebration and the shouts of recovery. The prophet meets the people right where they are and say, grieve for the wheat and the barley. Grieve what you lost. The prophet probably knew something about what psychologists know today. Trauma is not ultimately about what happened to you. Trauma is not summed up in the event that occurred. Trauma is characterized by the loss of power and agency that you experienced when it happened to you.

10:49 You weren't able to protect yourself. You weren't able to protect your family. You weren't able to prevent the car accident. You weren't able to avoid the tragedy. You weren't able to stop the locust. You weren't able to because someone or something has prevented you from doing so. And God doesn't blame the people for not taking in the harvest earlier. God doesn't say you didn't swat away the locust fast enough. God doesn't say you planted in the wrong season anyway. God uses Joel to call the people to God to grieve and to grieve specifically. Grieve the wheat and the barley. Prophet Joel models for us how to grieve by taking inventory of what we've lost. Some of us wouldn't know what barley looks like if it was in our lap, but we do know we lost a little fire in the fire.

11:49 Some of us know that we lost a little coolness in the flood. Some of us know that if we're honest, before it happened, whenever it happened, there used to be a little bit more confidence in there. There used to be a little bit more creativity in there. There used to be bursts of spontaneity in there. There used to be a little bit more fun in there. There used to be some trust in there. There used to be some bravery in there. There used to be some power in there. And once you've determined to be vulnerable and authentic enough to take out your sackcloth and finally spread out the ashes to mourn the years you've lost without the one you used to be, when you're ready, you'll get back up. And you'll get back up with more energy. because what was holding you down, you have finally grieved and released. You'll get up with a little bit more resolve.

12:45 You'll get up because you finally casted your cares on God, who truly cares for you. You'll get up with a lot more determination about the realm of God because locust and loss never has the last say in your life. life only gets better on the way to recovery. In this guide to recovery, the prophet tells the people to grieve and God then responds to the heart of the people. The Bible says God was zealous for the land and had pity on his people. God has some instructions and God shares it. And it's simple that once you've grieved, rejoice. Before God gets to recovery, before God gets to restoration, before God gives an explanation for how we get to restoration, God says rejoice.

13:43 You might be asking, how could God tell us to grieve through the prophet and then in the next moment tell us to rejoice? I am so glad you asked. God says a number of times in Joel 2 verse 21 to be glad and rejoice. I think there's a clue in why God tells us to be glad, in how God tells us to be glad. The text lays it out like this. God first speaks to the soil and says, fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things. And then God speaks to the animals. God says, do not fear, you animals of the fear, for the pastures of the field are green and the trees shall bear its fruit. And then God speaks to the children of Zion. Be glad and rejoice for the threshing floors shall be full of wheat and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

14:45 God hasn't said anything about how just yet. God hasn't said anything about how we'll go from devastated crops and years of loss to threshing floors full of wheat that we didn't plant or grow and vats full of overflowing wine and oil that we didn't press. God just wants us to rejoice at the promise. And God hasn't told us how we get to the promise, but listen again to how he tells us about the promise. God speaks first to the land saying, be glad and rejoice. And then to the animals, be glad and rejoice. And then to the people, Be glad and rejoice. God is speaking directly to everyone and everything affected by this time of disaster. And it sounds so familiar because God gives a command to rejoice to each creation in the order in which it was created. You missed your shout. God gives the command to rejoice to each creation in the order in which it was created.

15:52 God starts to speak to the creation in the order in which it was created. It was as if God needed to remind the creation of its creator. Do not fear, O soil, be glad and rejoice for the Lord has already done great things. And I translate it like this. Don't you remember day three? I commanded the dry ground to separate from the water. I declared that you would produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants, and it was so. And then God turns his attention to the animals. Don't you be afraid, animals of the field. The tree bears its fruit. My translation is, don't you remember? I told you the day I created you on day six that to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air, I have given you green plant as food. And finally, God goes to his final creation and says, children of Zion, be glad and rejoice for your floors shall be full of wheat. And I think this is what God is saying.

16:55 Don't you remember? I have already done great things for you from the dust of the ground. I created you on the sixth day and I breathed my life into you. Breath that should have alone killed you. And I created you to have life and life more abundantly. And God is taking us back to Genesis to have us rejoice in the reminder that God is yet still God. God is taking us back to the book of Joel and then to Genesis 1 to remind us that God is still the Alpha and the Omega. Rejoice because God is still the beginning and the end of your life. Rejoice because although I know it was hard in between, you lost some things, but God is still the author and the finisher of your faith.

17:50 Be glad and rejoice for God is still in the miracle working business that he who has begun a good work in you shall see it to completion. And on this road to recovery, God sends a word through the prophet to first grieve and then rejoice. And the last step is all God's own. Be restored. In this step, restoration doesn't require much but to take a note of a few things. The first thing is that we have already taken inventory of what we lost when we grieved. But now on our way to restoration, we should take the time to take inventory of what we still have.

18:47 You might be saying to the screen, well, what do you mean, preacher? Well, we've talked about all the crops that were chewed up, and I thought about the harvest that didn't make it home. But let me encourage you, joy will give you new eyes to see what you missed before. I'd like to remind you that locusts damage the leaves of crops and eat the tender tissues of the plants. That must mean but one thing, that locusts only have access to what is above the ground, meaning that locusts can only come for what is not hidden in the soil. I am not an agriculturalist, nor do I underestimate or undermine the havoc locusts can wreak on the agricultural economy. But if I just use a little bit of my theological imagination about what a sovereign God can do when she is about the work of restoration, I'm only left to deduce that restoration means working with what is left.

19:56 As deadly as the locusts were to the leaves of the crops, they couldn't get to the root. As much damage as the locusts had done to the crop, they couldn't destroy its roots. Children of God, as long as you remain grounded, it doesn't matter how much damage the locus of life may do. No matter how hard it gets or how difficult it may become, it doesn't matter how impossible it may feel. Grounded people can always germinate new possibilities. Rooted people always recover their destiny. Planted people will always produce their purpose. And because God is still working, there is a foundation. While God is still working, there's a chance for renewal. While God is still working, there's still an option for repair. And while God is still working, God can restore the roots.

20:52 People of God, as long as you remain rooted in God, you will be like a tree planted by the river. As long as your faith has been grounded in the strong foundation of Jesus Christ, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. The enemy will be required to give back the years it stole. Just stay rooted. No army can stand before the armies of the living God. Just stay grounded. No weapon formed against you or your life or your family or your future shall prosper. for God will restore. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands.