No offense or disrespect to President Obama. This is a judgement on us. We look to him to save us from our materialism and deceit and the economic despair it's handed us to. We look to him instead of to Him.
"And everyone who callson the name of the Lord will be saved...."
The book of Joel is poetry, using the immediate as a metaphor to point us to a larger truth, too large for us to see when we stand right up to it.
From an epic locust devastation, the prophet/poet Joel conjures an invading army. He tries to impress upon the people then that this economic disaster is just a symbol and forerunner to something even worse if they don't repent.
What do we think of our economic downturn? After the 911 attack, there was a great outpouring of religious fervor. I remember people gathering to pray at the downtown church. I saw my co-workers assembled there to pray. But the feeling passed, or has seemed to pass, quickly. We got over it and forgot what it had inspired. So now the economic downturn, the result of greed and corruption. It has hurt so many and in its wake there has been a reawakening of interest in business ethics. We emphasize family and simple joys because we know longer have the luxury of unlimited funds to purchase lavish entertainments. But have we used the economic downturn to retreat from materialism. But have we acknowledge and embraced God in its wake? Isn't that, at its true heart, what all of this has been about? Wandering away from God with dollar signs in our eyes. Now the dollar signs are no longer there to blind and confuse us...so where do we look? Have we looked to God? Or a president to save us?
Lord knows.
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