Levi Lusko - It's Going to Be Alright

All right, the Book of Joel, chapter 1, is where we’re going to be-the Old Testament Book of Joel. I’m saying that early because it’s going to take you half my sermon to find the Book of Joel. There are 12 Minor Prophets in the Old Testament, so if you find Matthew and then go left, you only have to go 11 Minor Prophets backward. You’ll hit Malachi, and the first one is Hosea, but Joel is the second of 12. That probably didn’t help you very much if you don’t know how to find Matthew.

There’s a great scene in the movie «Walk the Line.» Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny Cash. He’s, at the end of the movie, standing in the boardroom of the record executives of his record label, trying to convince them that he should be allowed to record a live album in front of the maximum security population of a prison, which he actually did a number of times throughout his career. He’s standing there in the room, and they’re just completely bewildered by the concept. In his frustration, one of the record executives goes, «What’s the deal with all the black? It’s so depressing! You look like you’re going to a funeral.» Then, Joaquin Phoenix, playing The Man in Black himself, sort of deadpans back, «Maybe I am,» which is just effortlessly cool. Johnny Cash: «Maybe I am.»

I hope with all my heart that you will never need this sermon, but I fear that maybe some of you will sooner than you think. I want to talk to you today about the art of grief- the art of grieving, the idea of not just what to wear, but what happens in your heart, what happens in your life in the days, the months, and indeed the years following the funeral of someone you love. We put this entire series of messages under the banner as we study through the Old Testament Book of Joel, and the banner is: «It’s going to be all right.» It’s going to be all right! Come on, do you receive that as a word from God today? It’s going to be all right! God has, for the past few months, just really been settling that phrase-that sentiment-in a strengthening, comforting way in my spirit.

We took some time to fast as we are moving toward Easter. If maybe you’re new to the church, we’re glad you’re here! If you are new to the church, thank you for coming; you’re welcome here. Now you made it! As we were moving toward Easter, we took some time to fast. We used to always do that at the beginning of the year, in January, but I kind of began to sense there was some diminishment of maybe the spiritual ROI on fasting at the new year because everybody seemed a little too eager, you know- a little like, «Yes! I was excited to lose that holiday weight!» Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with taking care of your body; you should! You only get one, right? And you’ll live in it forever, thank God. But while you have it, on this side of Heaven, you’re only going to get to enjoy its use and strength in so far as you’re a good steward of it.

We hear too little in the church about the stewardship of your physical body, almost like, «Oh, well, Heaven’s coming,» like, «None on-like another bucket of KFC,» you know? That’s kind of like the image here. Meanwhile, the church just wants the pastor to bash on like smoking and drinking, but don’t talk about obesity because that’s not a problem, right? Ouch! It gets real quiet; everyone’s like, «Move on, move on, move on!» But even though we should care for our bodies, the purpose of fasting isn’t to lose weight. The purpose of fasting isn’t finding another AB or two somewhere under the flab. The purpose of fasting is to hear God, to hear from Heaven, to humble yourself, to declare your need for Him.

So I felt like moving the fast toward Easter-then everybody can have their «new year, new you» anyway in the new year. Then we can let the time preparing our hearts for the resurrection be a time when we just quiet our bodies and our hearts in fasting and prayer. This year, like perhaps no time of fasting I can recall, I had a spiritual fire almost from the beginning, where every time I would quiet my heart and focus my attention, my devotion, and my concentration on Jesus, that phrase just kept sitting in my spirit. It wasn’t like it was real hard moments or crazy moments, like, «Oh no, it’s going to be all right.» Okay, gosh! It was almost like an inhaler or something. It felt as much rebar as it did feather top. I found myself resting in it. I found myself buoyant because of it. I found myself girded up under this strengthening concept that God just kept speaking to me: «It’s going to be all right.»

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it or what would become, but right around the same time, Jenny and I had been praying and just seeking God for what our preaching would look like coming out of Easter. She had been, for months, if I’m honest, dogging me about my unwillingness to listen to her tell me that we were supposed to go through the Book of Joel. My Wi-Fi wasn’t working right, okay? My spiritual antenna-because she was clear from God that was what we were supposed to be doing. I was taking a little longer, right? Only because, to be fair, I was going to be doing a bulk of the work, though I apologize for that.

It’s daunting. I mean, how many sermon series have you heard on the Book of Joel? There’s not a lot out there, right? And it’s not that I was afraid or anything; I just wanted to be sure it was what God had for us. There’s not a lot that you will find by way of preaching through the Book of Joel. Anyhow, all of this coalesced in a moment where I began to really feel like this was what we were supposed to be focusing on for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that we, as a church community, are going through the New Testament in a year and our devotional fit for the fight that a bunch of us began on January 1st. Right now, we’re in Matthew, and we’re five days a week just focusing on scriptures and guiding our hearts through the New Testament.

And so, I did begin to feel like, «Oh, we do need to have our foot in the old as well,» and kind of be going through both. Then, I had a really terrible day, a really horrible morning. It started great -with time with Jesus and a workout at the gym -but I just sort of cratered early in the morning, emotionally, leaving the gym. I turned on the radio as I was driving, and immediately the song began to play that we started our worship experience with today. It guides us in this truth: it’s going to be all right. The song creatively takes the concept from Romans 8:28 about God working all things together for the good. I immediately found myself in a light-bulb moment, like in Despicable Me, realizing, «Oh, what you were giving me when I was feeling good was for these moments.»

What was strange was how comforting that word God gave me in a good season became when I pulled it into my heart in an active faith sort of way during a difficult moment, having no idea at the time how prophetic God giving me that strengthening truth was-not just for me, but, I believe, for our community and a larger online audience for difficult days to come. Of course, trials seldom call ahead; you have your Google calendar and I have mine. But James tells us full well, «You do not know what will happen tomorrow.» At any moment, a trapdoor can open beneath us or anyone we love, and we can be plunged into crisis, plunged into death, plunged into grief, which is what follows death and loss.

So, when I began to feel that in that moment and the song was playing, I latched onto it and realized, «Okay, God, I’m hearing what you’re saying.» Immediately, I resolved that we were going to preach through the book of Joel under the banner «It’s going to be all right.» Then, I had to settle the matter of what the heck was up with this song, because it was beautiful and haunting, and I had never heard it before. So, I thought I had a photo here; it was Ryan Ellis whose message was playing. I got to work, got to my office, pulled out my phone, opened up Instagram, and asked, «Who is this Ryan Ellis guy? What’s this guy all about?» Turns out, he was awesome.

But I couldn’t find anything anywhere on the internet about what the song was about. I Googled, «What’s the story behind the song?» trying to find a making-of video, right? Because how annoying would it be to ask him if it’s out there? Right? Asking from experience: «Let me not make you Google that for you.» So, I DM’d him and said, «Hey man, I’m not trying to sidle your DMs here, but I am a little bit, and I don’t know you. But what’s the deal with that song? There’s something so powerful that happens in my heart when I listen to it. God’s been speaking this phrase to me, and I feel like it may be a wider message for our church and perhaps the church for whatever we’re all about to go through in our lives. I just need to know what the occasion was and how you wrote this.»

I would have been disappointed if he said, «A bunch of songwriters and I in Nashville got together over overpriced coffee and thought, 'How do we write something awesome that will get onto a chart on the radio? '» I would have been devastated by that story, and that is indeed not what I got back. He began to tell me paragraphs about his family walking through waters all too familiar for me, where the horrific reality of having to bury a child was looming on the horizon. In the midst of what turned out to be his baby going to be with Jesus, God deposited in his spirit truth like an anchor for a soul in a storm: it’s going to be all right.

The Book of Joel, chapter 1, verse 1: «The word of the Lord.» We could stop right there, because that’s what we’re here for-not what I have to say, not what you have to say, not what Ryan Ellis, as good as his song is, has to say. We’re here for God’s word. It’s His word we tremble before. It’s His word that can save; it’s His word that can change; it’s His word that’s like a fire, like a hammer, like a sharp two-edged sword. One day, His word came to Joel, the son of Pethuel- whoever that guy is. We’re given a lot in a concise package. We know this is a book that contains God’s word-the word of God, who flung stars into the sky, carried the cross across the city of Jerusalem, and even right now holds your breath in the palm of His hand.

God speaks, He can be known, He has a name, and He has revealed Himself to us so that we’re not left just grasping and trying to figure it out, having to go listen to back episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast to figure out meaning in this life. He disclosed who He was, who He is, His plan, and program to deal with sin through redeeming us from the curse of the law by sending His Son to us. This God spoke to someone named Joel. So, what follows is not Joel’s words; it’s God’s words through Joel to us, from God through Joel to us. Okay, so we can’t be mad at Joel. Don’t be angry at FedEx because of what you got in the mail; it’s not FedEx’s fault-they’re just delivering the news. Joel just received from God and gave to us His word.

«I don’t know if I can trust Joel.» Well, Paul did. Read Romans 10; he quotes from Joel. «Well, I don’t know about Paul.» Peter did; he quotes from the prophet Joel on the day of Pentecost-a day of seismic, cataclysmic, spiritually charged, significant-altering circumstances-a brand new dispensation of how we can relate to God through the Holy Spirit poured out abroad in our hearts by God. So, if Joel helped Peter, and if Joel helped Paul, what do you figure? If Joel can help you too because he has God’s word from God to you through Joel. And you’re like, «Well, who is this Joel?» He’s the son of Pethuel, and that’s all we know, literally.

Now, he gets to be one of the Minor Prophets. There are 12 Minor Prophets; there are a number of Major Prophets as well. That’s probably why no one preaches through Joel-it’s like, «I don’t want to spend my time preaching through a minor prophet.» You know, it’s like I’m going to the Major Prophets because we think baseball: «Oh man, minors have to be worse; majors have to be better! I want to go to Isaiah or Daniel.» Right? It reminds me of when I was an assistant pastor-Zach, you love this story! When I was an assistant pastor at a church, I was technically an intern pastor, but I was an assistant to the assistant pastor, an intern pastor. People would come in wanting godly counsel, wanting to talk to a man of God, and they would send me-the pastors would send me down the stairs from where the pastors worked, where I had like a landing with this much desk with a typewriter on it that literally ruled the Earth. It’s where the receptionist kept the typewriter for addressing envelopes. That was my desk; I shared a desk with a typewriter-a relic from a previous civilization.

People would come to the church, and any prayer, any counsel, any encouragement-they would send me down the stairs. More times than not, these people would look at me and be like, «Oh no, this guy can’t solve my problems.» Only a few were honest enough to tell me, «Could you send a real pastor?» I was a minor pastor at the time. Well, he’s minor because he was very good at communication and could say what he needed to say succinctly. It’s actually far more difficult to be brief than it is to be long-winded, because you have to boil things down. Would you rather have a filet or a T-bone? Just saying, right? Joel’s a filet-there’s not a lot of gristle; it’s really just quality meat here. Yet, we don’t know much about him, so something had to give, and what gave in his case was a lot of his biographical data that’s just not there.

So, outside of the fact that God spoke to him and he had a daddy named Pethuel- which means «vision,» by the way-maybe we do know more than we think. What more could a parent want for vision for their child’s life than for their child to hear from God and speak God’s word to their generation? You need prayers to pray while your child’s sleeping, to put your hand on their head and bless them in Jesus’s name. Pray more than they get into this college or whatever; that they would hear God’s word and speak it to this world. Joel did just that.

We do know also that his name means «Yahweh is God.» It’s basically the Old Testament equivalent of «Jesus is Lord.» The pattern we find in the New Testament is that this is enough for salvation: Yahweh is God. It’s the exact name «Eliyahu» backwards. Joel — Yahweh is God backwards-is «Elijah,» which is «God is Yahweh,» which is pretty awesome. That’s not going to be on the test; I just find that sort of trivia fascinating.

When did he write? When did Joel write? We’re not sure; the best guess would be in the Second Temple period, post-exile, around 500 to 400 BC, so roughly 400 to 500 years before Jesus comes. We can say that although you will find a range of theories, there are clues contained in his book. For example, there’s no reference to Israel, the northern tribes, and we know they fell into captivity in 722 BC. If there' s no reference to them, it’s an argument from silence, but not a terrible stretch to say perhaps that has already taken place.

Secondly, when you read the prophets, when you read Daniel or Isaiah, they almost always are addressing the king of Israel, the king who’s on the throne, the king of Judah. They address the king, while the prophecies go to the king, and the king gets referenced inside of the prophetic literature. Nowhere in Joel is any king mentioned. What does that mean? Well, it seems there isn’t one. If he’s just speaking to the people and not talking to the king, there’s probably not a king.

Here’s an interesting one: now we’re triangulating the range of dates that are possible. There’s no Israel, so it’s closer to zero than 722 BC, and we know they’re back in the land, as Judah went into captivity in 586 and was back in roughly 70 years after that. The last clue is the fact that there is a reference to the temple multiple times throughout the Book of Joel. There’s a reference to the temple; therefore, the temple has been rebuilt. When the Babylonians took them into captivity in 586 out of Judah, we know that the temple was laid waste, torn apart, and they had to rebuild it.

That’s the whole emphasis of the post-exilic period: get the temple rebuilt. Zerubbabel found this really difficult, and Zechariah had to encourage him, «Not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit,» says the Lord. The people lost heart. We studied a lot about this post-exilic period during our year-end series, «Firebrand.» We talked through Haggai, Malachi, and Zechariah, which, alongside the Book of Esther, would seem to document this period of time where the goal was to rebuild the temple. Everyone wept, because when they finally rebuilt it, what happened? It wasn’t as big as the old one.

God’s not concerned with doing some number on a chart about previous accomplishments. Bigger isn’t always better in His economy. His mindset isn’t just grand in scope, but glorious in substance. It wasn’t about the temple beating the last one; it was about a place that Jesus Christ Himself would come to. Jesus would come there and cleanse this temple that they were crying over. So, in your life and mine, it isn’t just about being as big as last year, as big as last time, whatever it needs to be. It’s about God wanting it to be glorious, not just impressive.

Then once the temple was built, they had to rebuild the walls. Who did that? Nehemiah spearheaded that charge. These are all events that are taking place, it would seem, simultaneously to the events that Joel addresses.

All right, let’s continue. Verse two. That’s a lot of information, and we’re only at verse two: «Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it; let your children tell their children and their children another generation.»

«What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten. What the crawling locust has left, the consuming locust has eaten.»

There are in the Book of Joel repeated themes, and throughout the weeks of this series, we will see these things brought to the surface again and again. There are three themes: number one, God is in control of events that take place in the world. This is what’s known as His sovereignty. He rules and reigns in the world, as exhibited by His allowing Caesar to think his decree of taxation was to accomplish his agenda, but God wanted to do what He did through it. This is Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery, but God putting Joseph into a place to save many lives.

What we’re trying to say in God’s sovereignty is that God does exactly what He wants to do, regardless of the sinfulness of man and the dastardly deeds of the devil. So, God is in control of human events, including this terrible locust invasion that we’ll talk about in just a moment. That probably threw many of you for a left-turn. It’s like, «Wait, I was with you on grief. I was with you on sadness, and now bugs are coming? We’ll call this exterminator; it’ll be fine.» No, no, no, it’s much worse than that.

Secondly, we’re going to see throughout this book that God responds to repentance. Repentance is a huge concept in the Bible, and it’s the difference between you being refreshed and not refreshed. That’s what the book of Acts says-that when we repent, times of refreshment come from the presence of the Lord. What does it mean to repent, and how do you repent if you’ve never repented before? It’s a change of mind that leads to a change of life. It’s changing your thinking that leads to a change in your living, because the battle of mind always comes before the battle of fist. Kung Fu Panda taught me that.

So, repentance takes place in your mind and leads to a change in your life and in what you do. God always responds to repentance; He’s in control of human events. Then, thirdly and finally, terror and hope are both found in the day of the Lord. That’s what Joel’s going to tell us. He’s going to use a phrase again and again, and it’s the day of the Lord. He sort of is like one — stop shopping in the Old Testament for this particular phrase being used. That’s not the most confusing thing about the day.

I’m not preaching today about the day of the Lord, but let me say this about the day of the Lord: it’s not a day. That’s why it’s confusing; it’s not a day. The day of the Lord is a period. Why? The day of the Lord is synonymous with the second coming of Jesus Christ, and that’s why it gets confusing. Even those in the Old Testament who gave us the greatest details about Jesus’s coming — they wouldn’t have understood that there were two trips. You see that? He was going to come once at Christmas, and now we’re still currently waiting for Christmas 2.0.

We’re waiting for His return, waiting for what Joel says is the day of the Lord. Just as the first coming wasn’t a single day, was it? It was 33 and a half years or so, beginning with Gabriel speaking to Elizabeth and speaking to the Baptist’s dad and speaking to Mary and Joseph. That beginning there, all the way to the Ascension when Jesus ascended to the Father- that was the first coming.

It was a bunch of different detailed events and things that took place. So, the day of the Lord, or the second coming, isn’t just a single event-Christ coming. That’s the day of the Lord? Well, no, it’s all of the events that we read about in the Book of Revelation. It’s that which Joel is pointing us toward, and Joel’s going to tell us two things: there’s hope and there’s terror in the day of the Lord. What makes the difference? Repentance.

Whether the concept of the day of the Lord and judgment and wrath, and Christ ruling and reigning-whether that fills your heart with peace and comfort and a song, «Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus,» or terror and hate and fear-it depends entirely on whether or not there has been repentance in your heart. In the Book of Joel, we find something we’ve taught before in this ministry, and it’s called prophetic foreshortening.

It’s like when you look at mountain ranges on a clear day: isn’t it beautiful when you get to see mountain peaks like miles and miles away, but then you see closer ones? Sometimes if you were painting, you might make the mistake of just thinking they’re all one mountain range, but you’re seeing stuff that’s in the foreground, stuff in the background. You can’t quite tell how far apart these things are.

Joel, as he paints, is going to both paint about present distress and future deliverance. Sometimes, like Jesus did, he’s going to blur them together, where we’re learning lessons from something that happened right now, but it’s going to apply to something far off.

Like when a big tower fell over or a natural disaster happened, and people had questions about it. Jesus used that as a lesson to talk about the last days about standing before God to be judged and about whether or not we repent, bringing us the refreshment that God wants us to have. Similarly, Joel is going to utilize this locust invasion that we’re going to get to-some of you are bugged that I haven’t talked more about that yet-and he’s going to use this present distress as a chance or opportunity to bring up future deliverance.

Where we want to come to today is how the Book of Joel can guide us through both the difficulty and the importance of grief. The difficulty and the importance of grief-a sermon in a sentence. Yes, it is in Christ going to be all right, but before it can be, we first must come to terms with the fact that it’s not right now.

Yes, it is in Christ going to be all right, but hear me especially, and I do hope and pray that if there is any grief in your heart, grief in your life right now, that you would take this to heart. This is God speaking to you just as He spoke to Joel. He wants, through His word, through His Spirit, through me, even now, to speak to you-to your pain, to your sorrow, to your suffering. Before it can be all right, we must first wrestle with and come to terms with the fact that it’s not right now.

In Hebrew culture, there were two forms of grief considered the worst ways you could grieve. One would be a woman engaged but not married who lost her man to be. To be engaged but having not consummated it yet and to lose that was considered one of the worst forms of grief you could face, right? Makes sense? The second would be a family who lost their only son before he got to have any kids, because then, in the Hebrew way of thinking, the family name, of course, is going into the grave with your only boy.

Both of those forms of grief within Joel chapter 1 are compared to what the entire nation is facing when these locusts swarm through town. In the message translation, we get some sense of how bad it was when Eugene Peterson, a Hebrew expert before going to Heaven, chose to compare what the nation was facing to the Dust Bowl. In verse 19, he says, «God, I pray, I cry out to you; the fields are burning up; the country is a dust bowl; forest and prairie fires rage unchecked.» This was happening all across the nation from locusts.

It gets pretty bad. Apparently, when locusts swarm, the biggest one in recorded history was 2,000 square miles of densely populated locusts numbering 24 billion insects in a single flying, swarming cloud so dark it blocked out the sun, stretching on for 100 miles a day. They can travel-the incarnation of hunger, they’ve been called-because each individual locust can eat its entire body weight per day. That’s impressive to me. I mean, imagine whatever you weigh eating that entire amount of food in a single day! A locust can do that, and on they go-100 miles a day!

How can they travel so far? How can they continue? Because they can travel for 17 hours at a time without resting. The only time they come down is to eat, and they hardly stop flying as they just eat their way through. Basically, if you watch a locust swarm like that come through, it’s apparently prolific in real time; in front of you, everything vanishes that was edible to the locusts-which includes, but it’s not limited to, crops, flowers, grass. Even clothes hanging on a clothesline will disintegrate in front of your eyes as the locusts pass through and consume it all.

So, undoubtedly, the Dust Bowl is a right comparison. For those of you who don’t know, there was a period from 1930 to 1938, coming right on the heels of the Great Depression, the worst financial disaster that took place in this country where so many people were unemployed and had no ability to provide for their families, where all of a sudden clouds of dust whipped up from the prairies and traveled through our country-some of them 10,000 feet tall. They called them black blizzards.

It’s like when — if you’ve seen that movie «Interstellar» with Matthew McConaughey; these big black clouds would just come with almost no warning and just rage through the breadbasket of our country. The storms were so intense that you would have dust from Montana ending up in the White House, and when you were in the path of one of these, all you could do was hide. Duck and cover and pray. Kids had to wear masks to even go outside of their houses to get to school. Static electricity would build up in everything metal. Cars had to drag chains. Imagine every car that was driving just dragging chains just to keep the static down. You would touch a doorknob and be blown off your feet; the static was so bad.

And for whatever reason, jackrabbits proliferated during this period. So, during this eight -year-long crisis where no one’s got work, no one’s got money, and jackrabbits are coming through, they would eat any available garden that you had left hidden in the backyard. They would eat the fence posts; they would eat anything. Literally, imagine 10,000 jackrabbits just coming through. Towns would get together and have jackrabbit bludgeoning days, and there are historic photos you can find of just mounds of jackrabbits that they were just bludgeoning. There’s no end to all of this. It’s like nightmares can’t even possibly begin to scratch the surface of what it would be like to endure something like this.

That’s why Joel has the nation saying, «Have you ever seen anything like this?» No; not in my lifetime and not in anyone’s lifetime that I’ve ever even heard of. Mankind, to this present day — there are still locust swarms that will pop up in places like Sub-Saharan Africa-has no cure, no remedy. If a locust invasion came today, there’s nothing we can do about it. There’s only one known cure for a locust invasion: drought. Let me assure you that is something in an instance where the cure is worse than what it solves.

In this drought that would have followed, then fires would rage. People were hungry, had no ability to grow new crops to replace the ones that the locusts had destroyed. The nation of Israel was all at once plunged into the disorienting reality of grief.

In the Bible, there was a way to show that you were grieving: you would just rip your clothes. You’d tear your jacket, tear your shirt, and walk around with ripped clothing. People would see your clothing and know, «Oh, he’s grieving.» If you wanted to go a step further, you could actually wear sackcloth-as in the Book of Esther, Mori was wearing sackcloth and ashes. Esther knew, «Oh my gosh, I need to talk to Mori; something’s gone wrong,» because you could visibly see there’s a person who’s grieving.

Believe it or not, for about 100 years during the so-called Victorian era, from 1820 to 1914, it was common in our country for people’s clothing to be dictated and determined by what stage or state of mourning they were in. This all points back to, you can guess it, the Victorian era; it was Queen Victoria, a very influential monarch, whose husband, Albert, died. She famously went and was plunged into such deep mourning that she invented some funeral fashion that she wore for years and years.

It dictated and bled down to the sensibilities of American culture for almost 100 years, with delineated stages and acceptable behavior that went along with the three stages of mourning as determined by Queen Victoria. The first was called deep mourning. Deep mourning would literally be- guess it-you’re in full, deep mourning. This flag is at half-mast and is not coming up. The veil; this is nothing shiny; none of the clothes would give off any light, so crepe was found to be the best for that.

Though, the way it would dye your skin, you had to wear a second layer under it, and it wasn’t safe -those were toxic things that were dying the garments. Black deep mourning could last between six months or a year. During deep mourning, you would not do any social engagements of any kind outside of the actual things connected to the bereavement itself.

Then you would move into what’s called full mourning. Full mourning is still pretty intense, but it’s just backed off a little bit. There might be a little bit of fur at the edge of clothes or a little tiny bit of jewelry bringing back some shine. After all, during deep mourning, you would also wear hair from the deceased in a locket, and there would be jewelry attached in some way to the lost.

Then, at the end of full mourning- which again could be six months or a year-you could decide how you moved through it. During full mourning, you would bring in a little bit of social activities, but we would only be carefully selected, so as not to be deemed frivolous, out enjoying yourself while you were still in, quote-unquote, mourning.

Then the final phase was half mourning. Half mourning, again, you’re now having more jewelry added. You could bring a little bit of color in-maybe some grays brought in as well. There’s a photo of-obviously-a child mourning the loss of a father whose portrait is there. During half mourning, it would be expected that you might say yes to some invitations. So, when someone who you saw was now in half mourning, you might ask them to start doing things, because it would be acceptable for them and deemed that they might start, you know, being out a bit more, going to do things.

It was pretty clear-cut based on what people were wearing: what stage of mourning they were in. This became impractical to continue for our country after the Johnstown Flood, the Spanish Flu, and then, of course, at the end of the Victorian era, World War I and World War II, where you had everybody losing somebody. So you couldn’t really single out, you know, «Oh, I’m in mourning.» Everybody was in mourning; it was understood just about at all times. I mean, 15 to 20 million people lost in World War I alone.

Now you have the entire nation plunged into simultaneous grief, and with that, the death of the Victorian trend of us wearing our heart, so to speak, on our sleeve. But the lingering crossover-which, of course, we know that what plunged us as a nation into World War II was something that took place in Hawaii called Pearl Harbor.

As President Roosevelt was speaking to the nation about Pearl Harbor-which was, of course, behind the scenes, him and Churchill about to launch into this whole thing called World War II together-he was in grief: his mother had just died. Sarah, he famously loved his mom, and so you saw even in the photos of him that he was wearing this black armband.

In between the Victorian era and our modern era, it was sort of like one last little holdover where you could literally wear your heart on your sleeve. You would see someone with a black armband on, and it was easy to go, «Oh, this is a man who’s lost his mother.» This is a man who’s still hurting. In some ways, maybe it made it easier to be around someone grieving when you could know right there, because they were still choosing to put this on, that they were saying to the world, «Just be patient with me.» I know I’ve got a job to do, and I’ve got to lead us, and for this man, what compassion we have leading the world through the most horrific time, but also simultaneously grieving the loss of his mom, to whom there would just be such a special connection.

Flash forward to our day: what do we have? The National Park Service did a study of grieving and mourning patterns, the style of lament used all across our country, and that’s where I found some of this data. They summarized it with this interesting paragraph: «Death is now a private, not a public matter. Today’s mourners sort of feel like they shouldn’t offend others by reminding the world of their sorrow. The ritual of mourning is no longer part of our modern life. Those who are grieving are treated affectionately, yet now a great burden is placed on them. There is discouragement from expressing grief, and one must define one’s own ritual, guided by their own feelings and the unimpeded of relatives and friends. There is now no symbolic way to show grief.»

My little sister, a couple of weeks ago when our dad went to be with Jesus, sort of had some extra time off and knew she needed to do something for herself. So she checked herself into a monastery and took a couple of days just being quiet in the beauty of New Mexico. I was so jealous of her when she told me she was going to a monastery, going to sit by a creek and paint. I was like, «I’ve got to fly to Orlando for four hours, and then I’ve got to preach this thing and all these meetings!» I was so angry, so I called her up, «Please tell me everything peaceful that happened to you so I can vicariously live through what you did for your soul in the monastery.»

The funniest thing was she told me it was beautiful and amazing just to be quiet and be still and have that time away. It was a little retreat for her. She said when she checked in, they asked her if she wanted this special little badge to indicate whether or not she wanted people to talk to her, because you can take vows of silence for going to a monastery, apparently. I’ve never been to one, but apparently you can say, «I’m here to be quiet,» and if you wear this little sticker on your shirt, none of the monks-none of the people there-will say a word to you.

I said, «Couldn’t you get me one? 'Cause I’m going to Costco this week, and it would be amazing!» But we don’t have anything like that in our culture-just a way to say to people in a loving way, «I’m just not ready to have small talk yet. I’m just hurting right now. I’m just confused.»

Right? We don’t have any sort of symbolic way to do that in our culture. I had a good friend call me this week, and he was telling me about how he lost a brother a number of years ago. Even still, someone randomly will just, you know, not know how to talk about it or be insensitive. «How’d your brother die?» This stranger said to him in a public place, «Was it a drug overdose, or did he take his life?» And he said, «Well, I’m about to punch you in the teeth,» except then I have to remember I’m a pastor and just, but it can be difficult!

When you go through hard things, you aren’t quite sure what’s going to be the wrong thing someone will say to you-or if there is, in fact, a right thing. The trouble with grieving now, and I found this helpful article on the National Park Service website, in an article that went through what I just synthesized to you, the history of grieving in our nation in the past hundred years or so, is they summarized it this way: «Death is now a private, not a public matter. Today’s mourners are encouraged not to offend others by reminding them of their sorrow. The ritual of mourning is no longer part of our modern life. Those who are grieving are treated affectionately, but now a great burden is placed on them. There is discouragement from prolonging expression of grief, and you have to define your own ritual guided by your own feelings and friends. There is now no symbolic way to show our grief.»

Well, with or without any helpful fashion tips for what to do in the stage of grief that you are in, you’ve got to figure your way through it. One of the things that’s most challenging about grieving is that you essentially defy the laws of the universe-and you time travel!

Now, I know we don’t get to go to 88 in the DeLorean and actually travel through time, but when you are grieving, you sure feel like you are. You are simultaneously in the past, in the present, and in the future. You’re in the past because you’re either in your mind back in a moment that’s sweet to you and blissful, trying to live there, trying to be there, trying to look at photos and go there, or you are tormented by a past that you can’t do over-what regrets you have, what mistakes you made-the past becomes a little bit of a loop in your mind if you’re not careful.

But then, you’re also simultaneously living in a future that was taken away from you when the fractal branch of the time continuum changed from what you thought you were on to the new one. In this new future, you are deprived of things you had already begun to anticipate, but now they’ve been taken from you as though they were never real — you had already begun to taste them. The walking of the daughter down the aisle, the presence of that person at that event, and on and on we could go.

If it’s not enough that you’re living in the future that was taken from you and in the past that you are either tormented by or wish you could return to, you’re simultaneously trying to accept that you’re in a present that feels like agony because of the negative space of what’s been cut out from it. You’re having to wake up again and again, remembering that what you’re living in is in fact real and not a nightmare.

So, what to avoid? How not to grieve? I thought this would be a helpful outline today. How not to grieve? We’re going to choose, from Joel’s text, to not grieve by sanitizing. Sanitizing? This is where a healthy dose of Germ-X gets applied. We swing by Hallmark for a lovely cliché and slap some platitudes mile high over the situation, and we just sort of have this chemically- smelling, you know.

The worst use of «It’s going to be all right» would be, «We’re not going to choose to grieve that way.» We’re not going to sanitize and sand down the rough edges to where it doesn’t sting anymore, because, my goodness gracious, «God needed another angel,» right? So now, I can just feel good about an awful thing. We’re not going to sanitize. Why? Because it’s not helpful. This is one of our coping mechanisms that comes out where we just kind of want a poem, we want a pretty picture, we want everything to be all right so much that we’re just going to stuff a religious platitude over it and sanitize it down to the place that we’re supposed to just be okay with it, because after all they’re in heaven, and that’s good, right? And I’m supposed to just be fine with that when inside me, something is raging and screaming that something terrible has happened.

We’re not going to sanitize, nor are we going to stuff it all down. We’re not going to choose to do any stuffing. When we are confronted with grief, what is this stuffing? «Well, I’ve just got to shove it deep down enough, not face it, not talk about it, not look at it.»

Okay, we went to the funeral, we cried a few tears. Now, you know, let’s just get over it. It’s too painful. I can’t go there; I can’t talk about it; I can’t face that. «I’m going to just move forward- just turn the page, forward-new city if I need to, new home, okay, whatever, I just cannot go there.»

Sanitizing, stuffing-how not to grieve. We’re not going to grieve by rushing. There’s of course no need to return to six months to a year of this, and you know we can’t put a formula together. We can’t ask the question, «How long is this going to take?» Here’s how long it’s going to take: as long as it takes. How long will it take for you to grieve the traumatic loss, the difficult thing, the crisis? What you’ve had to face? This loss? I don’t know.

But neither can it really help me to compare my progress as a benchmark against yours. Did you know there are 24,000 different species of locusts on this Earth? There are 280 in the state of Arizona alone, and there’s one that can get up to 10. Be afraid; be very, very afraid!

There are as many or more different ways to grieve, and so some notion of, you know, what did it look like for you? I was desperate for that when our daughter went to heaven-to talk to people who had had children go to heaven just so I could have some frame of reference or expectation.

What you’ll quickly realize is that no two people are the same; no two griefs are the same. What they meant to you and the unique circumstances-so that’s what actually I’ve been really irritated about. I have not gotten any better at grieving from the last time I grieved, and I sort of expected that I would, because I’ve grieved before. But what God opened my eyes to see is that I’ve never grieved this loss before, and so even comparing to my own previous experience with grief is not really helpful.

Then lastly, we’re not going to grieve by numbing. We’re not going to grieve by numbing. Now, the following text, verses 5 through 13, offer three different ways that we could end up numbing. Three different ways we could end up numbing. We could numb verses 5 through 8 with alcohol. You’ll notice he talks about how Joel is just funny. He strikes me as funny. He’s like, «So the locusts have taken it all, so wake up, drunkards, 'cause there ain’t no more booze!»

«Why is the rum gone?» Right? From «Pirates of the Caribbean.» That’s what he says! He goes, «I know you guys are going to be sad to hear this, but there’s no more.» Why does he single out alcohol? Maybe because numbing through substances is probably one of the most common strategies to cope with significant trauma or loss.

But of course it’s not the only way to numb! We can also numb with religious activity. Verses 9 and 10 talk about just going into high mode. Malachi talks about the noxiousness of frenetic religious activity when it’s not coming from a sincere heart with God. God says, «I hate the smell of your offerings when they’re not coming from that heartfelt place.»

We can numb with «I’m going to do something for God,» right? Almost.

Then there’s also food. He says, «Hey, hey, hey, what’s up, farmers?» In verse 11 he’s like, «That’s all gone, right? There’s no food. There’s no comfort eating.» There’s no «I’m just going to dull how I feel by every time I don’t feel validated or I’m afraid, I’m just going to pull through a drive-thru and numb with food and just shove some empty calories down into the pit that is inside of me.»

Here’s the problem: numbing, I believe, in this text isn’t singled out as a problem or as a bad grief strategy because it doesn’t work, but because it does. It just has effects that are very short-lived, and when you come back up from being numb, no progress has been made in your journey.

So if it is 300 days or 700 days or whatever your grief journey is going to be, guess what? You make no progress during the time that you’re numb. So you come up, and it’s exactly where you left it, and you know the most tempting thing that’s going to be there to do is just numb some more.

The trouble is when you numb, you end up numb and dumb. Numb means you don’t feel anything, and that means you can’t feel good. You eventually feel good or bad. But also dumb? What does dumb mean? It’s the inability to speak. The only-hear me-being made in God’s image, God created the world by speaking. The only way to process our grief is orally, by talking it out. While you’re numb, you’re dumb; you can’t speak it out.

You can’t move forward in your grief; you can’t talk it through; you can’t talk it out. You can’t hug it out with God; you can’t pray it out with your people. So you are stunted in your growth; you’re stunted in your healing.

So, we’re not going to get through our grief by numbing and by shoving and stuffing. How are we going to grieve? We’re going to grieve slowly. How long is it going to take? As long as it takes. One day at a time, one step at a time, one tear at a time, one journal entry at a time, one day where you showed up and lifted up your hands-even though they were shaking-and praised at a time. One time when you opened up the Bible again even-when deep down you didn’t even know if you believed the Bible anymore.

You’re going to slowly heal-one day, one moment. Come on; one punch at a time, one round at a time, one fight at a time. That’s how we make it. This is how I fight my battles-slowly, honestly. You can be honest; you can cry out to God.

Look down, Job, chapter 1, verse 19: «O Lord, to you I cry out; fire has devoured, a flame has burned.» God can handle your raw honesty. God can handle your confusion. God has big enough shoulders to handle you screaming at how angry you are about all of this, because God knows He never intended you to experience grief. That’s why you feel like an animal.

I’ve been around a lot of grieving people, and I’ve heard a lot of noises come out of my own mouth in grief, and it’s animal-like. I think we become more like the animal world in grieving than we did before we were grieving because God didn’t create us to experience death-just life.

It was our choice to sin that brought forth death and made us like the animals we were meant to rule over. So, we’re going to be honest with our grief-even if it’s a noise that we have to make to Him. We’re going to be slow in our grief; we can’t rush healing.

Then, we’re going to thirdly have a grieving community-twofold. One, of course, your immediate community- your immediate family. The text opened up with, «Has anything like this ever happened?» and the answer, of course, is no-there’s like giant bugs everywhere eating all of our stuff! Okay, great, just making sure everyone else is on the same page that this is wild.

Do you realize how healing that is right there? Oh, this is weird for you, too! Hey, and guess what? If you’re grieving, your kids are confused, because you’re different! This is wild! You know, it really is helpful sitting around and going, «Hey, I don’t know what’s going on; this is hard for me,» and you’re like, «I have to hold it together for my kids.»

Oh, really? Are you preparing them for a future without you where they’re going to be completely confused? They think, «Well, my mom and dad always had it all together!» Then they’re going to be so confused when, all of a sudden, they realize the secret of adulthood is none of us feel ready for this!

You did nothing to prepare them for that terrifying transition when you could have said, «Hey, has anyone ever seen anything like this? Dude, hella hard.» Okay? But Heaven is real still; it’s hella hard! Because hurting with hope still hurts.

So, processing with our children and letting the lessons that God brings to the surface in the grief be there for your children’s children’s children-come on! And then with your church community, because in the bottom text, verses 13 to 20 of chapter 1, he talks about coming to the house of God-coming to the house of God, coming with a pure heart to the house of the Lord.

Coming to the assembly, gathering together with all the people-come on! Let’s bring our hurts to God! Come on! Let’s come together! Come on! We’re grieving in community! You’re not alone if you’re hurting today; you’re not alone if you feel like your heart’s on fire today. You’re not alone if it’s scary to get up today. You’re not weird if it’s hard to think of a future that involves dancing. You’re not alone!

But we can grieve this through together in community, and we can do so theologically when you’re ready for it. Let’s process our pain through a theological grid. Okay?

Now again, is this day one stuff? Probably not, right? You don’t want to be Jeremiah 29:11 people in shock with the newness of trauma. But God’s got a plan. You’re shoving your Bible at them: «No, just shut up and sit and listen.»

Let them spout! Let them say things that are crazy! Let them say things that are off the rail! Listen, listen, listen. But the time’s going to come when they’re ready, and then you can have the theological grid to help people process their pain through, and we need that. We need to not sorrow as those who have no hope!

1 Thessalonians 4:13–we need what Corinthians says: «Godly sorrow that leads to repentance and not worldly sorrow that only leads to death.» There’s a difference!

We need to be able to process these things through God’s truth, and this is the place to do it! This is the place to do it where we can come together as God’s imperfect, broken people who are loved by God, filled with His Spirit.

The impetus is never going to be on us religiously coming up with something awesome that God looks down on and goes, «Yay for them!» But rather, the broken, battered, bloody body of Jesus Christ hung for us on the cross, raised triumphantly. This is our hope. His Spirit inside of us gives strength to us when we feel weak.

Because God proves He’s in control of the events of this world, the ones that feel cruel, the ones that feel unfair-all of them. We just get to trust Him in the midst of it all, even when we feel angry with Him.

Most importantly, number five: how are we going to grieve with Jesus? There we go. You’re not alone! Joel’s name backwards is Elijah-Yahweh is God. God is Yahweh. One of Elijah’s most poignant moments in Scripture is when he’s listening to God speak, and God’s not in the tornado, He’s not in the earthquake, He’s not in the fire, right? What is He in? What is He in? What is He in?

The whisper. You can only talk to someone with a whisper when you’re close. God could whisper to Elijah because He was right there.

When you’re ready, I want to tell you-you’re not alone. Jesus is right there with you! We have a high priest who can relate; He suffered just like we suffer. I don’t want to just try and tell you some rosy thing about what God’s doing; I just want to tell you, «I know it hurts, and He’s with you.»

So, we trust You, God. We rest in You, and we thank You, and we sit in Your comfort because You are our comfort. If you today would say, «I needed this message. I needed it for what I’m going through right now. I needed it for what this brings up that I’ve not dealt with from years past. I need it; I know I need it for what’s to come,» but I receive what the Holy Spirit of God is speaking to me through Joel, the son of Pethuel, via Levi, the son of Chip.

Today, if that’s you and you would say, «I hear you, God. I receive what You’re speaking to me,» just raise up a hand. Raise up a hand. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You for the hurting hearts. Thank You for Your healing; thank You for the healing even of this moment.

It’s not all of our healing; we’re not fully healed. It’s going to be a process. But we trust You for that, and I pray right now Your strength inside of these weary hearts. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord.

Help us to see Your anointing our heads with oil, and the refreshment is coming, God, through repentance-through us changing how we think about things. You can put your hands down.

I want to now invite those who have not trusted Jesus to receive Him as Lord and Savior-to be able to say, «Jesus Christ is my Lord.» Because the reality of death and the return of Jesus is either terror or it’s hope. There’s no middle category. You’re for Him or you’re against Him.

Today, you can open up your heart to Him, turn your heart towards God’s Son Jesus in faith, and you will receive the promise of hope and forgiveness and salvation and eternal life. If that’s you I’m describing, I’m going to pray; I want you to pray with me. Church family, pray with us.

Dear God, I know that I’m a sinner and I can’t fix myself, but I believe You can. Please come into my heart and make it new; make it Your home. Help me to believe You are with me. In Jesus’s name, Amen.