1
Streetsville United Church
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Rev. John Tapscott
“PRAISE GOD FOR HIS WONDERFUL WORKS”
Joel 2:26
Thanksgiving Sunday is one of the high points of the church year, no matter how large or
small the congregation may be. And it’s most appropriate that we celebrate the sacrament of
Holy Communion on Thanksgiving Sunday. One of the names for Holy Communion is Eucharist,
which means “thanksgiving.” As you receive this sacrament today, give thanks to God for your
redemption through Jesus Christ. For your redemption and mine, indeed, the redemption of
the world is God’s most wonderful work.
Joel, chapter 2, verse 26, “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the Name of
the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.” Yes, God has dealt wondrously with
us. That’s what we recognize and celebrate on Thanksgiving Sunday – the wondrous works of
Almighty God. So let us praise the Lord our God who has dealt wondrously with us.
First, let us praise God for his wonderful works of providence.
The word providence comes from the verb “to provide.” So when we talk about providence
we are speaking of how God provides wondrously for our needs, our basic physical needs.
“Praise the Name of the Lord your God who has provided wondrously for you.”
A man named Henry Tanner was the first black painter in America to gain wide recognition.
He lived from 1859-1937. His most popular painting is titled The Thankful Poor. It shows a
father and his little son seated at a table to eat a meal. There is no fancy turkey with dressing,
no cranberry sauce, no mashed potatoes with gravy, no pumpkin pie. Instead, there is only one
tiny dish of food for them to share. But in spite of their limited resources, their heads are
bowed in prayer to give thanks to God for what little they have.
Keep that picture in mind today or tomorrow as you sit down for thanksgiving dinner. And
don’t forget to praise the Name of the Lord your God. For the words of Joel in chapter 2
probably apply to both you and me, “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied…” Do you ever
think how wondrously God has provided for our needs on this earth of ours? Joel’s words apply
not only to ancient Israel but even more to Canada. “For the pastures of the wilderness are
green, the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine give their full yield…he has poured down
abundant rain, the threshing floors are full of grain, the vats overflow with wine and oil.”(vv.
22-24) That is us, and how blessed we are. Yes, we plant and toil and reap, but none of it would
be possible without the good earth and the rain that God gives. When scientists explore
different planets with flights and probes and telescopes, what they always find are dead planets
that can’t support the simplest life forms. But our Creator God knew what we would need here,
2
and so he formed an earth that provides richly for our needs. In fact, we are told that the earth
is rich and fertile enough to support twice as many people as currently live on this planet.
Now there are challenges. The Israelites had just been through one. A plague of swarming
locusts had ruined their crops. People were hungry. Even animals perished from hunger. No
grain and no animals meant no sacrificial system. This particularly upset the priests. But God
had turned things around for the Israelites. “Do not fear O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord
has done great things.” God promised, “I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust
has eaten, my great army which I sent against you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied.”(vv.
25,26) After what they had suffered through, the Lord’s provision was even more glorious and
praise worthy. “Praise the Name of the Lord, who has dealt wondrously with you.”
Now even the rich parts of the earth experience crop failure, drought and locust on occasion.
This year drought affected the U.S. mid-west and even parts of Ontario. Crop yields were way
down. Yet late rains came which did provide some relief. And Western Canada had a bumper
crop, the best ever. God’s creation has a way of balancing itself out. When there is too little in
one part of God’s world, there is abundance in another. One challenge we face is how to
effectively share and transfer abundance to people in need. This is something we can figure
out, guided by God’s principles in Scripture. But this has been going on since ancient times. You
recall how Egypt under Joseph stored up grain during seven abundant years, enough to feed
Egypt and the whole known world during seven years of famine. “So praise the Name of the
LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you, in his provision for your needs.”
Secondly, let us praise the Name of the Lord our God, who has dealt with us with wondrous
acts of mercy.
Now we need to dig into Joel deeply and carefully here. You see, Joel saw the plague of
crop-eating locusts as a judgement upon Israel’s unfaithfulness. In fact, he said that God had
actually sent the locusts and was even leading them. Chapter 2, verse 11, “The LORD utters his
voice at the head of his army; how vast is his host!” But God sent the locusts in order to get
Israel’s attention, so the nation might repent, turn away from unfaithfulness and back to God
once more. Verses 12-14, “Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with
fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to
the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast
love, and relents from punishing.”
Now did the people turn to God again because of the plague? Did God really get their
attention? Well, for a time perhaps, but you know what we’re like – you recall how after 9/11
churches were full for a month or two, and then indifference set in again. It was probably no
different for Israel. But in response to the peoples’ meagre repentance, God poured out great
mercy. “The Lord”, says Joel in verses 18-20, “became jealous for his land, and had pity on his
people. In response to his people the Lord said, “I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you
will be satisfied…I will remove the army of locusts from you.” And in verse 25, “I will repay you
for the years that the swarming locust has eaten. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and
praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.” A little
3
repentance by the people was met with a far greater act of divine mercy. In fact, that’s what
makes it mercy – the fact that God’s wondrous act of restoration was not based on human
response, but on the gracious, merciful character of Almighty God.
Now this whole episode raises an issue. Does God actually send troubles to his people in
order to get their attention, to turn them around, and draw them to himself again. Is God the
captain of the army of locusts, or whatever troubles may come our way? On that question the
Bible gives several answers. Sometimes the Bible indicates that God sends trouble directly.
Other times that they’re sent by Satan. At other times that troubles come because we live in a
broken, fallen world. And that troubles sometimes come because we have turned away from
Almighty God and his ways. God is not mocked and though he may not send the trouble, what a
person or a nation sows, so shall they reap. Jesus did not generally see troubles as being sent
by God, but he did see them as a trumpet call to repent, and even an opportunity for God to be
glorified as God brings good out of the trouble.
Now it’s certainly not helpful in a pastoral situation to say, “Look, God sent you this illness or
misfortunate so that you might repent and turn to God again.” Far better to assure the person
that God is with them in the trouble and that he will yet bring good out of it. It’s only in long
retrospect that you may see how that trouble blessed you or brought back you to God again.
Did God send 9/11 on America? I don’t think so. Clearly he allowed it, and if it caused some
individuals to turn to God and get right with him then some good came out of it. But 9/11 didn’t
make any difference on a cultural level, which is just as anti-God as ever, if not more so. Is the
decline in the United Church and noticeable even in our own congregation, being sent directly
by God, or is it an inevitable result of our unfaithfulness, including my own, a consequence of
our actions and decisions? I don’t believe God is sending the decline, but rather allowing it to
happen, so that we might repent and turn back to God and embrace God’s Word and the
Gospel of Jesus Christ once more. If anything, God is being merciful to us, for even as we
decline he is holding back the worst of it. In his mercy God is giving us time to repent. May we
praise him and not miss the opportunity. For he may yet bless us, though the time is short.
I think of this in terms of North America. We have turned from God, rejected his ways in so
many areas of our common life. Yet, we are remarkably blessed in spite of it. And that’s
because God has dealt with us in wondrous mercy. My concern is that we are going to push so
far, that our society will finally collapse inwardly. For while God is merciful, he will allow us to
feel the effects of our mocking, to the point where we have to cry out to God again, so
desperate will our condition become. Let’s hope it doesn’t sink that low.
Consider it on a personal level. God always, always, treats us not as we deserve, not tit-fortat, but with mercy. You know the woman who went to a photographer to have her photo
taken and told him, “Do me justice.” The photographer not wisely, but truthfully said, “Madam,
you don’t need justice, you need mercy.” Don’t we all? I can’t live by God’s justice. I need divine
grace and forgiveness every day. I am lost without God’s mercy. I cannot live now and in
eternity without it. And God has shown wondrous mercy to me and to you too, far beyond
4
what we have earned or deserved. Whatever little bit of repenting I do is dwarfed by God’s
great mercy. I would not be here today if God had not showered me with wondrous mercy.
And of course, God’s most wondrous act of mercy is revealed in Jesus Christ. “While we
were yet sinners,” Paul says, “Christ died for us.” What God did for us in Christ, saving our souls
from sin and death and hell, and bringing us to new and eternal life, is God’s greatest act of
mercy. What God has done for us, what he is doing for us now, and what he has promised to us
in the future – it’s all God’s wondrous and merciful act. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor
the human heart conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” “In my Father’s
house are many rooms, I go to prepare a place for you.” We didn’t earn this and we don’t
deserve it. But it has all been given to us because the Lord our God is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. In fact, in great
mercy, God took the punishment for our sins upon himself in Christ on the Cross, in order to
save us. Your hope and your salvation, and mine, indeed, the hope and salvation of the world
and of every human soul lies in God’s wondrous act of mercy poured out in the Crucified and
Risen One. This Lord’s Table is God’s table of mercy, where there is abundant, amazing grace
for you and for me and for the whole world. So praise the name of the Lord your God, who has
dealt wondrously and mercifully with you and with me, with all of us. Thanks be to God.