By Rev. Aidan Moon

The Great and Awesome Day of the Lord

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“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

– Joel 2:30, English Standard Version

Smoke from brush fires in northern Australia. Photo credit to my brother Cole.

Some passages of Scripture can only be qualified as “spooky.” They unsettle or even disturb us.

I’ve sometimes been accused of being “a bit dark,” but I have nothing on the prophet Joel. When God’s prophets pull back the curtain to the spiritual reality beyond what we can see, what we find there unsettles our cozy, comfortable lives. There will be a reckoning, a judgment day, with “blood and fire and columns of smoke.”

But we don’t find these unsettling images in Scripture alone. This photo was taken in northern Australia, but we in the mountain west have plenty of experience with fire and smoke. Across the world, people have experienced wonders like these that spark both awe and terror. They are a reminder to us that our cozy, comfortable lives are not all there is, and that life is, in fact, fragile. Scripture speaks this way because this is simply the reality of the world. There are unsettling images on our screens, in our minds, and even sometimes in our dreams.

It can be tempting to either despair or distract ourselves, but the prophets offer a different way to deal with the spooky and the unsettling. They are not simply gloomy and fearful – they name the reality, the stark reality of judgment and devastation, but they also point us to hope. In their own time, many were not willing to hear their unsettling words. But it is often in those darkest moments in the story of God’s people that the light of hope shines through all the clearer. Joel says:

“And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

– Joel 2:32a, English Standard Version

Our great hope is that the great “Day of the Lord” has already come. It came when the sky grew dark, thunder crashed, and Jesus died on a sinner’s cross. But in this most disturbing event, the crucifixion of the Lord of glory, the light of God’s salvation shone through. Because of that day, you and I no longer need to live in fear. It was not only the day of judgment, but of salvation.

When the floor falls out from under us, when we are unsettled by the spooky images of our world and our own minds, may the hope of the cross sustain and endure. May we not despair or simply seek distraction when things grow dark. Instead, may even the most disturbing and unsettling images of this world cause us to call upon the Lord – and be saved.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado